Crafty Christmas

I took a page from Design Mom Gabrielle Blair's book and decided to have my kids make presents for each other this year. Cindy Lou, being only two, was exempt (next year!), but each boy made (or rather, helped make) a present for the other and one for their sister. I loved how they turned out.

The Wizard helped me make a no-sew tutu for Cindy Lou, following the instructions here. I think it needs a bit of a trim, so it's not bigger than the wee girl herself, and so you can see the accent pieces of sparkly dark purple tulle a little better. Next time I do it I'll cut shorter pieces to start out with, and also use a higher contrast between the two non-highlight colors of tulle (bet you didn't guess there were two shades of lavender here, did you?)


Newton made a stenciled t-shirt for the Wizard, using the method I describe here. I suppose if I'd known beforehand what design we would be using, I might have selected a different color of shirt and/or paint. I guess next year we'll plan these things a little further ahead of time.


I was at a bit of a loss as to what the Wizard could make for Newton, and in the absence of a better idea picked up a letter and acrylic paint in Newton's favorite color. Impossible to screw up, and a nice addition to Newton's bedroom decor.


Newton helped me make a bunch of ribbon rosettes for Cindy Lou, mostly attached to barrettes. I followed Design Mom's lead, and think they turned out fabulous. I didn't have a glue gun handy, so I hand-stitched mine, both to keep the flower shape and to attach them to the barrettes. After an earlier attempt with a felt-covered barrette, I had my best luck with Scunci no-slip snap clips that have a plastic gripper around the bottom part of the barrette, and attaching the barrette directly to the back of the flower without any intervening fabric. The extra-large gold rosette (6" diam) we didn't put on a barrette, but left to be pinned on a waistband. One thing Gabrielle didn't note in her post on the rosettes, though it's evident in her pictures, was that she achieved some of her fuller-looking flowers by using 2 one-yard pieces of coordinating ribbon, gathered and then wound together. That is also the case with Cindy Lou's iridescent blue-green rosette at center right (and with the extra-large gold rosette).