On Reindeer Bells

I'm a little late in starting in on my Christmas crafting this year. This past week I got to work on remedying this and to justify last year's on sale purchase of a pack of 72 bells, made reindeer. 

In case you are wondering, the one is yellow because I was out of brown pipe cleaners and was eager to see if my idea of using bells for the body would work. 

While I was intending for them to be ornaments, I may just be happy with letting them stand about on their own.♥ 

On Christmas Trees, Cats, Candy Canes, and Knit-Wit Decorations (Part 2)

And now to wrap up this year's Christmas crafting...

At this point of the month, my crafting veered away from Knit-Wit-ing things and I went for my 1960s Fun With Craft Sticks book that I made angels from last year because I knew there was a tree craft in there. It was a large three layered tree craft. 

 

I went small again and reduced it to six popsicle sticks, four beads (rather than 114!!!), and a few short pieces of floral wire, with the addition of green metallic paint, red seed beads and a star eyelet. They ended up a bit lopsided because I wasn't putting much effort into cutting the popsicle stick for the trunk evenly.

After that I decided to go back to my aforementioned felt craft: holly leaves. I had purchased a pack of small metal treat bucket from the dollar store not too long ago with the intention of  making little Christmas floral decorations. I only ended up making one, so chances are you will be seeing more buckets in the future. 

Each leave has a pipe cleaner sewn to it and then I wrapped fake berries around them (here is where I learned when wire is involved safety scissors are not always safe). Then to get them to "stay", a word to be used loosely because they like rearranging themselves, in place I filled the base of the bucket with fiber-fill and tucked them in. Some sort of styrofoam base inside would have probably been better, I just really don't really like using it.

After making the snowman, it was suggested that I could make a tree, similar to a macrame tree my grandma made in the 1960's or 70's. For this one, I added beads to the center.

It was a bit of a nightmare getting the three rows connected into a tree shape. I didn't do it while it was on the Knit-Wit since the connecting rosettes were going to be on the diagonal and after knotting it on the wrong petal loop, I accidentally cut one of the edging stitches in attempt to get the two disconnected, but I managed to get it to work out and ended up with a very cute little tree! The star was created by making a rosette with fewer petals and for some sparkle, gold thread.

My final Christmas craft, completed Christmas Eve, ended up being a bit silly and Carrollian. I sewed Candy Cane bugs! They live on hot cocoa and eggnog, in case you were wondering. 

And with that, the below image concludes this year's Christmas crafts!

 ♥ ♥ ♥

On Christmas Trees, Cats, Candy Canes, and Knit-Wit Decorations (Part 1)

I was intending to spread out my Christmas crafting in multiple posts throughout the month, since I started promptly after Thanksgiving, but clearly time got away from me and so this year I'll be splitting my crafting into two post of what pretty much amounts to another year of mostly 1960s crafts.

The first craft of the season was a Holly Berry cat! This pattern is part of the 1960's Woman's Day cat pattern set that I used to make my Cheshire Cat and I have to say they really did not go out of their way to make it easy to do the legs on these patterns (which is probably why there is an option with a body that looks more like a bowling pin without distinct legs). Turned out awfully cute, though!

Following that I became interested in doing some felt crafting, but then dropped that project and didn't finish for a few weeks, so that will be for post 2.  

However, having moved on from that, I became very enthusiastic about using my Knit-Wit (previously mentioned here), which I think I finally have the hang of when it comes to making circles (I have yet to try making a pom pom)! 

When I first bought it, I had come across a few ideas of what to make with it online, including, as mentioned previously, an old magazine page with a Santa ornament. I couldn't find where I had saved the image when I set out to make these, so I did my own thing and managed to leave off the mustache, but still think it turned out cute. Then I made wreaths as pictured in one of the Knit-Wit books (see the linked post for the image, from what I think was from the "Yarn Sculptured Fantasies" book) and designed the reindeer myself. Definitely have a lot of ideas of what other circular items I could make now!

One of the Knit-Wit books also had a pattern for a standup tree made of rosettes stacked up on a folded over pipe cleaner, which looked appealing to me. 

Mine is quite a bit smaller than the book one, which involves making nine rosettes and then trimming the loops. I think I ended up with five rosettes in mine and I used a loose piece of yarn looped in and out at the top to make it more tree shaped. I also used an empty ribbon spool for a more supportive base.

After the simple ornaments and the tree, I then moved on to learning how to connect the rosettes and made a slightly lopsided snowman. I am still working on the skill of connecting them as you'll see in the next post.

To be continued...

♥ ♥ ♥

On a Very Merry Christmas to You!

 A very merry Christmas from me and Santa Claws!

(Grumpy look truly has nothing to do with the hat-it's the delay in getting dinner.)

 ♥ ♥ ♥

On Some Christmas Elves!

Last year I went on a reindeer making spree using the pattern from the November 1961 issue of Woman's Day; this year I managed to get a hold of an actual copy of the magazine (someone else had shared the reindeer pattern) and had plans for making the elf on the cover along with Santa. Santa didn't materialize this year, unfortunately, but I did make the elf...sort of. 

While I started following the pattern (shrinking it down to match with the size of Silverbell, the reindeer), somehow I ended up making two girl elves and pretty much ignoring the accessories and clothes. In part, I feel like the beard was a deciding factor for this, and, if I'm to be honest, not making Santa, as I was not going back out to the craft store to find fake fur or something along those lines to make it, I didn't think the white yarn I had looked right, and I had several shades of brown yarn handy.  

Meet Candy!

Cookie and Silverbells are great friends!

The shirt from the original pattern did remain. I just turned it round and have them wearing it as a jacket instead and to break up the stripes I gave them little aprons. The tiny shoes, also from the original pattern, were hand sewn out of felt!

There is supposed to be a third youthful boy elf to go with them, which I was intending to make the vest for, but I never quite decided on what fabric I wanted for the body and clothes, so he's still a little pile of pieces. He might get finished within the week, but we shall see about that dependent on how I'm feeling. Meanwhile, I have these two sweet elves to help me wish you the merriest of Christmas!

 

♥ ♥ ♥

On Gunter Meets Pudding: A Photo Post

 Gunter--Pudding; Pudding--Gunter. Remove the Pudding!

A random and spur of the moment project that ended up being perfect for my tired, unfocused brain as aside from size (pieces were cut free hand) and color of the holly leaves, there are very few choices to make when it comes to how a classic pudding looks. Gunter approves of the pudding! ♥

On Making Angels 1960's Style

A couple of months ago I was digging through the garage for something and found a handful of  craft magazines mixed in with some old kid's magazines. The oldest of the bunch was "Fun with Craft Sticks" from 1966.

It has a few different Christmas crafts in it, the one that appealed to me though, were the popsicle stick angels that appear on the cover (as opposed to the one ladened with decoupage daisies and marbles). As usual, I made adjustments and used balsa wood for the head rather than a bead and felt for the hair instead of plastic wood. Hard to see in the picture, I bent gold paper clips to make the halos.

Jokingly, I've been referring to them as The Supremes!

Ultimately, I think I'd like to get them on strips of green and pink ribbon to hang in rows on the wall for an extra 60's touch! 

Moving on, I also pulled out my 1964 Christmas Magic by Margaret Perry, this time to make angels. The pattern in the book, as with last year's donkey, is actually to make an aluminum candle holder, but I used heavier weight metallic paper and decided to hang them from the ceiling. I also copied and sized down the pattern to make slightly smaller ones. Sorry for the not so great picture, the heater makes them move!

 And thus you have the beginning of my Christmas crafting. Stay tuned for the next round!♥

On The Remainder of My Christmas Crafting

Aside from the reindeer and a few Christmas cards, I didn't do all that much in terms of Christmas crafting due to some health issues, but I did want to share what I did get done!

I had pulled out my 1964 copy of Christmas Magic by Margaret Perry at the beginning of the month with the intention of making a few of the projects in it. Many of the projects involve aluminum and copper sheets as the primary material because they are meant to serve as candle holders. However, not actually wanting to make candle holders, I decided to give a few of the projects a go using heavy weight metallic paper instead. While I set out to make a few angels and a couple different animals, I ended up just making a donkey with adjustments made to the saddle piece and was quite pleased to find that the metallic paper worked perfectly. 

As for the next round of crafting...While I was looking for Christmas Magic, I also happened upon a few pages torn out of the October 1990 edition of the magazine Crafts 'n Things, specifically saved for the cute little balsa wood house ornaments and the patterns to make them! 

These were supposed to be really simple with an open back and a piece cut out of the base to slip a tiny twinkle light in to get glowing windows. I (as usual) had some different ideas and ended up using the patterns as a starting point. 

The first one I made as a gingerbread house. This one I shortened all the walls and gave a back piece. For the icing and peppermint I added extra hot glue and painted it. The gumdrops are cut out of glitter paper. 

For the others, I decided to go for a dollhouse look and make them as ornaments! For the bigger house I added a strip in the middle to be a second floor and after much eyeballing of measurements, careful cutting (or rather attempts at it), and having glued myself to tiny furniture and tree pieces multiple times, had a house and cabin ready for some tiny inhabitants to celebrate Christmas in them! 

♥ ♥ ♥

On Inky's Christmas Reading Recommendations

A little late in getting this up as eye strain has kept me mostly off the computer the past few days, but it's not Christmas yet, so there's still a little time yet! 

Way back in 2014, I complied a list of Summer Reading Recommendations and rather than do a book review this month, I thought it would be fun to make a list of Christmas books and stories.

Story Collections, Novellas, & Novels

 A Vintage Christmas, A Classic Christmas, & A Timeless Christmas 

Three books in this set so far! Looking for a collection of Christmas stories that weren't the traditional ones included in every collection and by literary authors in 2018, I serendipitously happened upon the collection A Vintage Christmas and have been delighted that a new collection seems to be eminent each year! 

Each collection includes a section of stories and poems by classic authors including Louisa May Alcott, Harriett Beecher Stowe, L. M. Montgomery, Mark Twain, and Christina Rossetti among others. Longer works are included in the two later books with A Classic Christmas including Dickens' A Christmas Carol and A Timeless Christmas including, a new read for me, L. Frank Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. These are perfect for reading through a little at a time or having the intention to do so and getting completely sucked in. As a warning, many of the stories and poems are somewhat maudlin in nature given that most were written in the 1800's or early 1900's, so not always the happiest, but still lovely none-the-less.

I also have to mention how beautifully bound these are! 

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

Moving on to something more contemporary, we have one of my all time favorite time travel books. This isn't exactly a warm and cozy Christmas read, since it involves Medieval Europe and the plague, but it takes place at Christmas and seems particularly appropriate this year. You can read my full review here.

Told After Supper by Jerome K. Jerome  

Okay, so this is kind of a stretch to be considered a Christmas story, but it's Jerome poking fun at the British tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve, so I'm including it because, in all fairness, it does take place on Christmas Eve ("There is too much 'Christmas Eve' about this book. I can see that myself. It is beginning to get monotonous even to me.")! Anyway, this story recounts the narrator's evening at his uncle's house taking some of the "more traditional" Christmas and ghost story elements to a level of light-hearted silliness in a way that only Jerome can.

This one is available to read for free on Project Gutenberg (here), since it's in public domain and as it's short (my copy with a larger print is only 50 pages), it's nice to read when you only have a short break.  

Children's Books

The Story of Holly & Ivy by Rumer Godden

One of my most favorite holiday stories from the 1950's! I started watching the cartoon of this every Christmas at a young age and was thrilled when I found the book when I was in elementary school. This story can also be found in Godden's book Four Dolls, which comes with the added bonus of one of her other Christmas stories, "The Fairy Doll".  You can read my full review here.

Miracle on 34th Street by Valentine Davies 

Based off the movie (yes, that's the right order of those words), the classic story of a little girl, her mother, and Santa Claus. Read my full review here.

The Coat-Hanger Christmas Tree by Eleanor Estes 

Marianna and Kenny have never had a Christmas tree, their mother won't allow it because they don't need to be like everyone else. They know if they bring one home, though, she'll just have to say yes and the two of them go to work trying to find a way to change her mind. A sweet Christmas story that has an unexpected twist. (Thank you Phyl for the recommendation a few years ago!)

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever! by Barbara Robinson

Originally published as a story in McCall's magazine in the 70's, I read this a few times when I was younger and was very happy upon revisiting it this year to find out it still holds up to my childhood memory of it. When the horrible Herdman children show up at church (the one place everyone normally gets a break from them) and volunteer for the annual Christmas pageant without any knowledge of the Christmas story, things become hilariously disordered.  

Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry

What do you do when your Christmas tree is too tall? You cut the top off! And then you give that top to someone else or throw it out the door for someone else to find and then they too can repeat the process! The illustrations in this are delightful and only add to the fun of this story first published in 1963!

This is another book that my love for stems from a tv special, in this case courtesy the Muppets, which, unfortunately, has never been released on vhs or dvd, so I continue to watch my fuzzy taped off tv version each year.

Tiny Stocking-Stuffer Books 

I wasn't quite sure what to refer to these as, but as they are all small and slim enough to fit in a stocking, tiny stocking-stuffers are what I'm referring to them as.

A Century of Christmas Memories: 1900-1999

A lovely glossy page book that chronicles seasonal happenings, fads, and favorite holiday traditions over a century. This one is fun to flip through at random just to see what you learn!    

The Night Before Christmas: A Classic Illustrated Edition
(chronicle books)

This fun tiny edition of the classic poem uses illustrations from antique books from late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Christmas: A Season of Traditions

A 39 page book that touches ever so briefly on the history of some beloved Christmas traditions in the US and accompanied by quotations both fictional and historical!

♥
Merry Christmas Readings! 

♥🎄♥

On Reindeer Sewing!

With the arrival of December comes Christmas crafting! A few weeks ago while I was searching for some vintage paper reindeer cutouts, I accidentally stumbled across the DIY Vintage Reindeer Toy Plush post on the blog My So Called Crafty Life, which included a pattern from the November 1961 Woman's Day magazine. 

Being a huge fan of Woman's Day patterns and all things reindeer, I dropped all my weekend crafting plans to make one...which then predictably resulted in the making of a total of five over a period of two weeks. 

I adjusted the pattern for two different sizes with the intention of both machine and hand stitched versions. 

For the larger machine stitched one, I added a small seam allowance and used some very soft and silky suede like fabric scraps a friend had given me, which were just perfect for a reindeer and for fun used a white on white polk-a-dot fabric for the belly. For the antlers I used felt. 

The antlers were supposed to be stuffed, which, having very dry skin that catches on everything at the moment, I was having a nightmare of a time with. Taking inspiration from my actual 60's reindeer decorations that have wired antlers, I slipped in a pipe cleaner to fill them with the added bonus that they are adjustable! To finish it off I added some silver ric-rac, a few bells, and a cord bow and reindeer number 1, named Silverbells, was done!

Having completed Silverbells, I started thinking that if I made the pattern small enough it could easily be made into an ornament. So I shrunk the pattern down, used the recommended felt (and here I thought I wasn't making any more tiny felt animals this year), and hand-stitched the 3 1/2 Poppet.

Poppet was such a cute size, I decided having the right color redish-orange fabric that I should make a Rudolph too and that really I should make some does as well. This resulted in a tiny Rudolph, Marigold (Poppet's match), and because I wanted one with pink, Cranberry. 

If my hand wasn't so dry from all the sanitizer and alcohol wipes there is a good chance there would have been more. For now, though, I think my little herd is just perfect!

♥ 🎄 ♥