Thursday, December 22, 2016

Christmas Creations 2016

This year's Christmas card idea came together fairly well thanks to the talents of some good folks.
I wanted to do American Gothic.
Andy found an image for the background and did the photoshopping and my good brother James took the pictures...he's always a good sport about that.

And it's always quite a chore to get everyone to cooperate at the same time :)



Poor Ben was so zonked...it played to our advantage in the long run as long as we were able to get his eyes open for a few seconds.



They turned out great :)!

I always love dropping them all in the mailbox!

A friend gave me the idea of doing gift cards to Swig for all of Ben's many aides and teachers...


Perfect idea!

I found these cute skillet cookies/brownies/cinnamon roll mixes at Wal Mart and stuck bows and cards on those for the rest of the kids' teachers/bus drivers.

For my ornament this year I knew I wanted to do something with felt...
After looking at a bunch of things on Pinterest I decided on a nordic/Scandanavian look.

I made about 75 of these puppies.
I started in October so I wouldn't be scrambling.
They were pleasant to work on while I watched many a Christmas movie :)



They are all a little unique...
Sometimes I did one and really liked the pattern so I tried to copy it a few times, but mostly I would just start one and see where it led.



I downloaded a free scrapbook paper and made a tag in photoshop.
I wish I hadn't decreased the opacity because it makes the red look orange...but I was afraid otherwise you wouldn't be able to read the text.


I'm already starting to think of ideas for next year's ornament :)
I love creating these things each year to give to friends and neighbors.
I know some would rather get treats and some probably just throw them away, but I know there are those that actually appreciate them.  They tell me each year how they look forward to my ornament.  One family tells me they have a special section of their tree for just my ornaments and another family that stores them in the original packaging year after year when they take them off their tree.

I did one quilting project for a Christmas gift this year.
I always struggle knowing what to give my best friend growing up.  We live in the same community but rarely see each other since our lives don't have a lot in common any more...but she's still a dear friend and we always exchange gifts.
I can't believe I hadn't thought to do something like this for her before.
Just a simple table topper...
I had her sister in law help me remember the colors of her home and I dug through my repro fabrics trying to come up with a good combo.

I'm always so lazy and squaring up blocks is one of my least favorite parts of quilting so I sort of skipped that step on my four patches.  I realized the result after I put them each on point in their squares.  So I called my quilting expert mom and she helped me come up with some ideas on how to help it not look so bad.
My points didn't quite match up but I was able to rescue them from being cut off which was my biggest worry.
I struggled knowing how to quilt it.
I haven't done much with overall designs and so I thought it was time I gave that a shot.
My problem with meandering patterns is that I work myself into a corner and have a hard time getting out gracefully.  This was a small enough quilt though that I figured I should be able to keep track of my progress fairly well and plan out my next steps.


Love it!

And I have plenty more little four patches (which I will square up) with which I plan to make another similar one for myself.

I'm actually excited to give my friend her gift this year...
I hope she likes it!

2 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh...I LOVE your Christmas picture and note - so creative! And all of those various treats for so many people - I don't know how in the world you do it all. Your ornaments are so cute, I'm sure everyone is thrilled to get them from you each year. Hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas!

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  2. You set the bar really high on your Christmas card this year, Aimee!
    So many clever gift ideas--but I can't believe you did 75 of those ornaments!! Wow!
    Your table topper turned out so very cute. Who wouldn't love it?

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