Tis the Season for Cute & Adorable

I don’t know why I can’t seem to get this blog started today… I have writtenthe first line and erased the first line more often than I can count. And it really shouldn’t be that difficult – I just want to talk about toys. And Christmas.

Toys and Christmas. How hard can it be?

Well, apparently, today it can be very hard (Maybe it is a Monday-after-a-long-weekend-thing). But I digress…

I was at the library some time ago when I came across this really nifty how-to book for knitting teddy bears. (I really can’t remember the name of the book, and it doesn’t really even matter now – but I mention the book because before I saw it, I never even thought of knitting my own teddy bear.) It was an a-ha moment for sure. Knitting a home-made teddy bear? Never had I given thought to such a thing before! But… wow! What a neat thought!!!

So… I grabbed my knitting needles to make one of my very own. The whole project was a bit of a challenge since I was just learning to knit at the time, but I stumbled through and ended up with a really cute little bear. I named him Samuel.

I suppose I could have stopped there, but I didn’t. It turns out that knitting teddy bears can be quite addictive. Now, at the date of this writing,  I have 6 adorable bears – and I am sure that this is only the beginning. (I also have 1 bunny because in one of my more creative moments, I decided that my white bear-to-be would be better off as a bunny. I named her Sabella. She has the cutest pink nose!)

And, because all of us here at Daylilies are encouraging you to give handmade and homemade for Christmas this year (from your hearts and hands), the knitted teddy bear is Creative Christmas Gift Idea #25. Like the other knitted projects I have included so far, this knitting project is good for beginners and advanced knitters alike. Taking approximately 50g of med weight yarn, and roughly 6-8 hours of knitting time (and remember – I am a very slow knitter), the knitted teddy bear is a great idea for your gift giving this year. This is giving from the ‘heart and hands’ at its very finest.

The pattern I designed for my bears is available for you through the Daylilies patterns page. But, if that teddy bear (or bunny) doesn’t inspire you, check out some other really neat patterns available out on the web – I found this really cute knitted  ‘Mr. Bean style‘ bear or try the Brenda bear by Lincraft. And, if you would rather crochet, take a peek at the adorable better bear pattern offered at By Hook, By Hand.

Happy Knitting (oh… and don’t be surprised when you find yourself knitting little bear clothing too. Did I say knitting bears can be addictive?)

Cookies.

Creative Christmas Gift Idea # 24 is fairly simple.

Cookies.

There are lots and lots of different ways to give cookies – almost as many ways as there are cookies – and we have come to learn that everyone likes a homemade Christmas cookie (even better if they are fresh from the oven). Our choice is to gather our friends and family together for an afternoon or evening of togetherness and cookie eating when we host our annual Christmas Cookie Party. But we also like to share our cookies and a Christmas greeting again throughout the Christmas season. Whatever way you choose to give them, cookies make awesome gifts.

It doesn’t matter how you wrap them. It doesn’t even matter what kind of cookies you make. Cookies are creatively made from your hands for someone else. What could be better? (Especially because Christmas cookies always taste good.)

So – you want to make some cookies this year, but don’t know where to start? The old family favourites are the best, so if you can dig out your great grandmother’s old gumdrop cookie recipe (these are my absolute favourite) or your aunt’s rum ball recipes (these are good too) or whatever else your family loves to eat, then go for it. If, however, these family recipes are lost, or you just want a change this Christmas, I recommend the recipes found for Christmas cookies on the Taste of Home site. This is where I got alot of my recipes this holiday season, and I can say that the ones I have tried have worked well (taste test approved!).

Cookies also make great tree ornaments, so if your baking skills need some improvement, bake to decorate the tree instead! Gingerbread ornaments are awesome and make the house smell festive, but then again cookie shaped playdough ornaments are fun too (here is a recipe for gingerbread playdough too). And don’t forget about the applesauce cinnamon ornaments – these are also wonderful on a Christmas tree (or a wreath, or hanging off a mantel…).

So – whether for ornaments, or for eating, put your cookies in a gift tin, a gift bag, a gingerbread tray, or make yourself a gift box or bag… consider cookies for your Christmas gift list this year.

And… happy baking! I will be back here on Monday with more great gift ideas. But for now, I am going to back to my baking…

 

The Cookie is the Plate???

Christmas just isn’t Christmas without gingerbread.  The smell of all that cinnamon and ginger and nutmeg…. mmmm…! (All this talk of gingerbread would make my mouth water if I hadn’t already eaten my fill during the big baking session earlier today.)

As I mentioned yesterday, the studio has been overrun by cookies as we get ready for our annual Christmas Cookie Party. Today’s creativity has been all about gingerbread (and chocolate chip cookies, but that is something for another day) and this year, we ‘kicked’ our gingerbread ‘up a notch’.

There will be no gingerbread men and women gracing our cookie tables this year. No, instead, we put the gingerbread to good use as our platters and trays. Yup. That’s right – the cookie is the plate. (Strange, but true…)

So – while you may not be hosting your own cookie party this year ( it’s a lot of fun) you may just need the perfect last minute hostess gift – and this, is our Creative Christmas Gift Idea # 23: The Gingerbread Cookie Tray filled with your favourite cookies.

Start with your favourite crispy gingerbread recipe (soft gingerbread may be a real joy to eat, but will be too soft to form a good solid basket). Mix and roll out according to your recipe’s directions, but instead of forming this dough in to little men and women, grab a well shaped oven proof baking dish. Oil it well. Cut your gingerbread in strips and lay the strips inside the baking dish (you can also try using the outside of the dish – it should work too, but I haven’t tried this personally) in a woven pattern. Bake according to your recipe’s directions, making sure that the cookie is firm to the touch. Let cool. No, I mean let it sit really good and long until it is cool. Gently remove from your baking dish. Fill with cookies. Wrap in cellophane and give to your neighbour, extended family, or whomever was nice enough to invite you to their party.

Here is a picture of my tray – all ready and waiting to cool so I can put some chocolate chip cookies in it. (I also may pipe some icing around the outside edge to make this really festive for the our party, but I think that this will be a last minute decision.)

If making gingerbread trays is not for you, I did a little internet search on gingerbread for other great ideas:

• Celebrating-Christmas.com has some really neat ideas for an all-gingerbread Christmas Party
• Give the gift of gingerbread with this recipe for Gingerbread-in-a-Jar from Allrecipes
• Get the kids to help you make some fun gingerbread men and women – with clothes too! (it looks like the clothes are shortbread… mmmm…)
• And for some more great ideas (lots) and tons of neat gingerbread history and facts, visit Squidoo.

Happy Gingerbread! (or should I say Merry Gingerbread?)

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Oh… Starry Wreath! (A Letting the Paint Dry Saga)

Can you believe that it is only one month to Christmas? I know I can’t. Life is busy around here as we prepare for our annual cookie party (it is what it sounds like – we make a lot of cookies and invite all of our friends, families, and co-workers over to eat them. It is tasty. It is fun. And… it is Christmas creativity at its finest.

But before the cookies go out, we need to decorate. This year, we thought that it would be fantastic to build our very own wooden star wreath. We started out with nothing more than basic carpentry skills, a trip to home depot and a vague vision of what this finished wreath should look like. What we ended up with is Creative Christmas Gift Idea #21. (Granted, our wreath turned out to be 48″ across – big enough to fit the space we had for it – so if you want to give this as a gift, you might want to think smaller.)

The premise here is simple: stars. Lots and lots of them.

Underneath it all, 5 -1×5″ boards are bolted together in a pentagon shape. Stars of many different sizes are cut out of thin wood and thick wood and cardboard…and whatever else we could find. Some were painted gold, some red and some a nifty shimmering white.

And then they were all nailed and glued on top of each other in a glorious haphazard way onto the pentagon frame.

Sound simple? Yes, well I guess it was. My only cautionary tale here is that paint doesn’t dry well on a damp and foggy Novemeber day.  (And when I say this, I am not joking. It took all afternoon for the last few stars to dry before I could even think of getting this wreath all put together).  But regardless of the paint-dry-delay, this whole project took the 2 of us (one as bandsaw and scroll saw operator and the other as painter) a fairly long and solid day of working on this project.

So…there is still plenty of time for you to get this project started (and finished!) before the Christmas season really gets going (and if you are making it smaller, it will take even less time). But – my warning still stands – if you are aiming to ‘make it today and give it tomorrow’, you might just want to ensure that you have enough time to let the paint dry if the weather is wet.

If you want to know how we did this starry wreath in more detail, download the pattern from our patterns page now.

(Oh… and just another thought… who says it has to be stars? This would be a really neat wreath out of red and green and silver circles or lots of Christmas trees or ivy and berry shapes…  And another oh… I apologize that this post has  such a dark picture… it was late when I finally got to snapping the camera… did I mention that the paint wouldn’t dry?)

The Book is the Thing…

Today has been a really busy day here in the studio! It was our first ever Handmade Christmas Gift Workshop… and we had fabulous time.

And… since we spent all day making book cover/cases for young readers, that is exactly what gift idea#20 (of our Great Homemade Christmas Ideas list) is all about. Fun to make, and perfect encouragement for all those young readers on your list!! (after all, who wants to walk around with an ugly book in hand when they can be ‘styling’?)

We started off with purple felt because the lucky recipients of these book cases love the colour purple. Then, because we love recycling where we can, we took some really neat appliques off old clothing and mixed them up with some new fabrics to make these cases personal for each girl receiving them. Finish that off with some seriously bright pink ribbon, and the project was done. (The inside of the case features a pen pocket and pouches to hold the cover of the book – just to keep it securely in the case.)

We actually ended up making 3 today (they make up fairly quickly when made out of felt – the real time spent here is making sure the case is decorated the way you want). One of them was for a 6 year old, another was for an 8 year old and then, just because we couldn’t believe they went so fast, we decided to do another one too – for a 10 year old (I think that was their ages, but don’t quote me on it…. I am sorry if I got the ages wrong.)

So, between the purple felt and all the pink ribbon, flowers,  and appliques, there was a lot of fun and girly creative inspiration in every corner of the studio. But best of all, the book covers turned out to be really cool – a good way for the young reader on your Christmas list to take their books with them everywhere. (But if I were doing this for boys, I would not use pink and purple or flowers – I am thinking blue and animals and trains.)

As I said earlier, the trickiest (and most fun) part of this whole project is embellishing and decorating the cases.  (The scrapbook-er I worked with on this also said the same thing.) So, if you want to give this a try, and want the pattern, download it now from the Daylilies patterns page.

(And… if you want to make a book cover, but would rather crochet one, check out this pattern for a bible cover at CrochetnMore.com.)

Quick & Creative – a gift for all ages and by all ages

I am a hugely avid reader. If you see someone trudging out of the library buried under piles of books, that is probably me – by choice. I love books. I guess we all shouldn’t be surprised then, when I offer up creative Christmas gift idea #20 – the bookmark.

Given with or without a book, this little gizmo is the perfect way to bring a touch of creativity to your loved ones Christmas stockings this year.

5 minutes or 5 hours – this is the kind of project that works with the time you have to give it. And – if you include your kids, it is a really fun bit of together-time this hectic holiday season.

Okay – here are my suggestions – but please, please, make your bookmark your way! (After all, that is the absolute best part of being creative.)

Fun Foam!!! Fun for all ages and only scissors and glue required. Cut out any shape you want, and colour you want and get gluing. Add a tassel and this is a funky one-of-a-kind fabulous bookmark. This is 5 minute creativity at its finest (and fun too, but then again, they do call it fun foam…)

If Fun Foam is not your forte, why not try beads? This unique little bookmark is all wire and beads and one lonely little Christmas button that didn’t have a home this holiday season. Just match your wire thickness to your bead size and string on some beads. This is 10 minute creativity, and still very easy to do if you are handy with a pair of needle-nose pliers (and if you aren’t clumsy like me -how many beads can you spill during one little project?)

If, however, your gift recipient is a little more serious about their book reading, and fun foam or beads just won’t do, bring out the cardboard loom and weave a very beautiful wool bookmark. I like my woven bookmarks to be nice and wide, so this one is almost double a normal bookmark width. And, once woven, if you use felt, this bookmark can be felted too! Also great for all ages, this one did take me a little longer – it is more of a Sunday afternoon project, a relaxing thing to do with friends, good conversation and great hot chocolate.

But then again, don’t just take my word on the whole creative-bookmark-ideas-thing. Lots of great creative people are making some really awesome bookmarks:

Check out Craftbits.com for their crocheted star flower bookmark
Better Homes and Gardens has a funky bookmark with shrink art, beads and pipe cleaners
National Geographic has a cool online tool for kids to help build their own bookmark
or… find out how to make a more grown up patchwork bookmark here

Knit it, stamp it, paint it, glue it, quilt it, or stitch it… be creative and make a bookmark your gift this season. Which one would you like to get (or give) this year?

Stylish Bottles – the personal touch!

Earlier this week, I spent some time making felt gift bags. It wasn’t until much later this week that it dawned on me. What if the gift was a bottle? Yes, a felt bag would work too, but there had to be something more – something that would frame that beautiful bottle of Dom or that really funky berry balsamic vinegar.

But what could that be?

Well, I puzzled and pondered. And just when I was trying my hand at some paper sculpture, a little ‘happy accident’ answered my musings.

You see, I was supposed to be creating this really neat holiday paper sculpture for my dining room sideboard. Unfortunately, things really didn’t go as I had planned. The resulting shape was not at all what I had hoped for… until someone suggested that I put a bottle in it (which was fortuitous because I had already been pondering the bottle wrapping problem).

So, I did. And this little ‘happy accident’ has turned out to be a really great bottle-gift-display-wrap. Add the bottle (of whatever) a little cellophane and a ribbon, and this is a beautiful and personal gift (especially if the colours you choose to make the paper bottle wrap are your recipients faves and you give them a bottle of something they love – like chocolate syrup!!!). (Sorry the picture doesn’t include cellophane wrapping – leave it to me to run out just when I need it.)

Wanna know how to do this yourself? Really, truly all you need to do is rip paper and brush on glue… wanna try???

Okay – so you start by picking your shape and size – you need a bowl, bottle, or something that size and shape to work on. I picked something the same shape but just a little larger than a bottle of wine (so the bottle would come in and out of it easily), but anything goes so make the size and shape of your bottle wrap match your gift bottle. You need 2 colours of paper (it is nice if one is a lighter paper like a rice paper and the other is heavier like a watercolour paper, but this is entirely up to you). One colour will be the outside and the second colour is the inside.

1. Using plastic wrap and tape, wrap the bowl, bottle, etc. (whatever shape you have chosen), making sure that all areas you are working on are covered.
2. Rip the paper you selected for the inside of the vessel into smaller pieces. Lightly soak them in water until they are soft.
3. Lay the pieces one at a time over your shape – making sure that the right side of your paper is facing in – overlapping each piece a bit and lightly brushing glue (white glue) on where the pieces of paper overlap. Continue until the whole shape is covered as you desire.
4. Overbrush the paper form with glue.
5. Let dry.
6. Repeat from step #2 with the paper for the outside of your shape, making sure that the right side of the paper is facing out.
7. As soon as both the layers are dry, trim up the edges with scissors. At this point, you can embellish as you wish with ribbon or trim the edge with specially shaped scissors – the choice is yours.
8. To finish, add 3 coats of high gloss indoor varnish.

Done and Christmas gift idea # 18 will leave your gifts-of-bottles looking fabulously styled and festive this holiday season.

Merry & Soft: It’s a Very Meowy Christmas!

I can’t honestly say why it is that I felt compelled to make a calico cat this Christmas season. It could be that every time the words Merry Christmas are uttered around my house this time of year, my cat practically grins from ear to ear. (Which is a very big grin – don’t laugh at me – my cat enjoys Christmas immensely – she has since she was a very small kitten.) Or it could be that I had a huge amount of different Christmas fabric scraps lying around my studio beckoning to be used.

I don’t know. I can’t even say if I started this project with a picture in my head. And now that it is done, I am not sure at all about this little stuffed Christmas cat. I guess you could say that the jury is still out on whether I would make it again. But then again, it wasn’t that difficult to make, and if you have a cat lover on your list, this might just be the perfect Christmas gift idea (idea #17).

After I finished this project, I did a quick internet search to see what other christmas calico cat patterns were out there (a sort of closing-the barn-door-after-the-horse-got-out kind of thing) and was really surprised to find very few. If you are looking for more, and find some, please share – but until then, I found patterns for a cute calico cat card at Free Kid’s Crafts,  a stuffed calico cat toy at Craftown.ca and another at Craftbits.com.  (I didn’t find much that was both Christmas and calico cat, but The Mountain Laurel had the cutest cat Christmas tree ornaments).

And, if you think you want to make the calico cat I made, download the free pattern from the Daylilies patterns page.

Let me know if you have any other calico cat craft links – and if you give this one a try, I would love to see how your Christmas-y cat turned out.

Beauty & Warmth – Love this Scarf!!!

Last Tuesday, I shared my love of scarves.

Today, just one week later, I am going to talk scarves again. (Did I say before that I really think that  a handknit scarf is a great gift? That, and I LOVE scarves?)

This scarf, however, is not your typical scarf.

As the weather got a little colder, and winter winds threatened, I started thinking about why it is I like scarves (definitely because they are warm and cosy in the cold) and why it is I don’t like scarves (because they really can just get in the way). And really, although I love a great scarf, I hate it when they slip off, or the ends get caught in car doors, or they just get too bulky under that nice coat.

So, I took out my knitting needles and, at the risk of sounding less-than-humble, I think that I have  solved the problem!

I think of this as more of a ‘professional’ scarf – it would be great with a trench coat or dress coat, and depending on the wool you use, it could be great for the  girl or guy on your list.  The buttons hold the scarf together and in place close against the neck, and since the scarf has no tails or long ends, there is little bulk under the coat and will never get caught up in a car door.

I must say that I think that this has to be my most favourite Christmas gift ideas so far! (This is gift idea #16.) It took 1.5 balls of heavy weight wool, and although it is an advanced basic knit pattern, it is easy to master and the pattern is repetitive. It didn’t even take that long to knit. (Now I want one in every colour imaginable!!!)

I don’t think that I have any more to say about this gift idea. If you had a chance to see the scarf in person, you would know that it speaks volumes for itself  – so I think that on that note, I will stop writing here and go pick up my knitting needles (after all, if I want one in every colour, I had best get knitting…). If you want this pattern, download it now from the Daylilies patterns page.

Happy Knitting!!