Christmas Cards

Kind of a last minute project I did was to make my family some Christmas cards with the help of my little girl. We had fun!!

Following an idea I got off of Pinterest, we made Christmas trees from Madelyn's feet.



We dipped her finger in red paint to add the decorations. I also used a foam paint brush to add some branches to it. Madelyn got a kick out of having her feet all green, we'll have to do more painting projects in the future.

Baked Goodies

My goal this Christmas was to handmake/bake every gift I gave. I succeeded!! I made crocheted items for my mom, sister, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law. But since I figured my brother-in-law and dad probably wouldn't appreciate a crocheted scarf, I decided on the baking option :)

I made 3 different items, two of which I sampled (since they didn't have dairy).

1.  Ghiradelli brownies (which are dairy free !!!! but do have egg).
2. Peanut butter cookies (which use shortening instead of butter, but again have egg).
3. Fudge (packed with dairy, got the recipe here).

Got it all packaged nice and wrapped a big bow around it.

Told my brother-in-law and dad to hide them from my mom and sister, not sure if they did or not :)

Purple scarf that turned into a cowl

This project was my Christmas gift to my mom. It was supposed to be a scarf, as in this picture.



I got the pattern from this website. It was my first "intermediate" crochet pattern, and although it did take some deciphering at the beginning, I was able to figure it out without too much trouble. The pattern was really neat, it created "strawberries" up the length of the scarf in the stitches.

I was intending to make it scarf length, but this project was unfinished when my hand started hurting, so I decided to cheat and shorten it into a cowl. I liked how it turned out cowl style actually, it was starting to get too thick for a full-length scarf.

This picture you can kind of see the "strawberries."

This was a fun pattern to make, it was neat to be able to make something with more complicated stitches.

Heart shaped hot pad

 (I'm writing this post now--in mid-November--but can't actually post it since it's a Christmas gift for my mom. Actually have a few projects I'm working on that I can't post about 'til after Christmas.)

I made this heart hot pad using this pattern that I found off of ravelry.com. The pattern was very clearly written and easy to follow, and I love how it turned out. Might be too cute to actually use, but that's up to my mom. I used red and white cotton yarn, so it can be used for its intended purpose. 

Note-When making crochet items that are used in the kitchen, you need to use 100% cotton yarns so they won't melt if hot things are put on them. You also need to be able to wash them at high temperatures, and acrylic yarns don't hold up well to that.

Such a cute and quick project! I love how the stitching turned out. The center was made alternating sc with dc to create the clustered look. There's probably a name for that type of stitch, but not sure what it's called.

Mary Jane Slippers

I made these slippers using this pattern as a Christmas gift for my sister. Had some problems with the pattern, mainly with crocheting too tightly around the top edging, but they ended up turning out pretty well.

I'm really not very happy with the yarn I used, I tried out Lion Brand's Wool-Ease Yarn, but I think I should have stuck with good ol' Vanna's Choice. The slippers look a little small on my feet, as they should--my sister wears a size or two smaller than me in shoe size. I tried to gauge how they would fit her by going by how they fit me, hopefully they end up fitting her okay.

Magnets

I made these based on a project sheet from Craft Warehouse. They involve gluing pictures or scrapbook paper to the backs of flat glass marbles, then adding a magnet to the back. They look really cool, they magnify whatever image you use.

I discovered a flaw in the process, however. If the paper you use for the image is not very sturdy, or is very porous, when you glue the magnet to the back using E600 glue, the glue bleeds through the paper. That's what happened with these two dragonflies.

The red ones didn't have that problem as much, a little bit, but not as noticeable from far away.

This cute little doggy was made from a card, so no problems there.

Made these ones for my sister (there wouldn't be any U of O stuff at our house, in this house it's only WSU alumni stuff). I coated the back of the paper with the glue used to initially glue the paper to the marbles, it helped to create a waterproof seal that the E600 wouldn't bleed through. One of the ones I made still bled through, but these four turned out good.



Okay, I take that back, looks like they still had some issues, but I think that was more from the other glue bleeding through, instead of the E600. Might have to try using Modge Podge on the back, that should work.

Simple scarf

Another gift (this one I got done right before my hand gave out). I used this pattern, which was a very simple design, but I loved how it turned out.



I used a skein of some Red Heart Soft Yarn that I found in a closet that was left over from a project a few years ago. I'm giving this scarf as a gift to my mother-in-law, but was really tempted to keep it. The yarn is ssoooo soft, and I love the color and mesh look to the scarf.