Country Christmas Table Decor

Hello there,

There’s quite a bit to unpack in this post. I loved my primitive digital stamps and decided to make some felt ginger prims out of some of them. Dried orange slices have always appealed to me, and then I found these primitive candy canes. Plus, you know I’ve made soap and salves in the past - - so now I am trying to make my own toxic-free cleaner. 

Believe it or not, out of all that came my table top Christmas decor. 

If you’d like the link to my Ginger Prims above, they were made from my digital stamps here. Just click on the image, and print from the new page. The Primitive Star Snowman is here. 

The orange slices were super easy to do. I don’t have any photos of the process because it’s so simple. Cut the ends off an orange, cut a bunch of quarter inch to half inch slices and put them on a cookie tray. I used foil under them, I believe. Turn your oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit and turn them over every 45 min or so. I think they were in there for at least 3 hours. I just kept checking on them.

Just note that if you do leave them in the oven too long, or cut some too thin, as the slice in the back, they will turn a bit brown on you. 

I’m happy with these though. 

The candy cane idea was a Pinterest find. I picked up some plastic candy canes from the dollar store, took a bunch of leftover quilt batting and twisted it around the cane starting at the crook, hot glueing it here and there as I went along. The start and end are a bit tricky, but doable. Then I took a strip of fabric and twisted it around my fat little cane in much the same way. There are YouTube videos of the process here, and the chunky ones here. 

You may be wondering about the cleaner, as I mentioned above. We have a large spruce tree out back, so my husband cut some branches off for me. However, I was convinced I needed pine branches, so off he went into the woods to find pine trees and he came back with a bag of branches for me. Sweet, right? 

In the end, the spruce branches had a better scent, imo, but I decided to do both. In addition I added orange peels to another mason jar as well. Once the jars were stuffed full of branches and orange peels, I added white vinegar. Also from the dollar store, since it’s just for a cleaner. Will it end up being too vinegary? Perhaps, but vinegar is a good cleaner and dissipates once dry. Plus I can add pine or orange essential oils if I decide the vinegar is overpowering. You do need to be aware of what you don’t want to use this cleaner for - - - like wood for instance, but it’ll make a great kitchen and bathroom cleaner. 

Then came the fun part. Sprucing up the jars with different elements. The rusty bells and rusty stars I got off Temu. The strings were in my stash. Oh, and the little berry wreath on top of the large mason jar was a dollar store purchase. As was the berry wreath on the table.  Notice I added some fabric strips and some cinnamon sticks as well.  

I may still add something on top of the lids, or I may leave them. I haven’t decided. 

I love my little Ginger prim man and woman. 

And of course my primitive star snowman. 

Here it is in all its primitive country glory. I guess it’s fair to say I’ve been keeping busy. I love this little set up. It’s different and welcoming. All I need now are some primitive looking place settings. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Carmen

Primitive Ginger Bowl Fillers

Hello there, 😃

Do you remember these from my digital stamp days? 

I thought I would turn them into ornaments, or bowl fillers. 

The first time I make most things, I always seem to do something wrong, but that’s part of the process. After sizing and printing these off, the second stage is cutting them out for a pattern and then (3) cutting them out of felt. The fourth stage is adding all the eyes and the yummy little extras. I decided not to use buttons on these because I didn’t have any small enough and these are my test patterns anyway (Maybe sometime in the future). Finally comes the stitching and lastly the stuffing. 

These are intentionally lightly stuffed. I may keep future ones without the stuffing, I don’t know yet.  They’d be great as a garland with felt balls or round felt cookies in between them. 

I showed these two to my husband, who said “their heads are a little small aren’t they?” Remember these are primitive gingers, not your typical gingerbread men. 

Well, that was fun. Hope you enjoyed them.

Have a great day,

Blessings,

Little Projects for Kids

Hello friends,

September is here and I’m starting to feel like sewing again. I know I’ve been quilting all year in the midst of card making, but I love me some small projects. Especially cute little things for kids. I love making these super cute felt dolls.

What I find so adorable about these little dolls is the removeable hats. 

Absolutely darling!

You can find these at Gingermelon on Etsy.

Another project I made was this little tiger pouch. 

This is another project I love too. I’ve made this one before, then altered it to make 

a unicorn pouch and a lamb pouch. I haven’t made the lamb pouch yet. Maybe soon. 

This one is from Stubbornly Crafty on Etsy. 

Next on my list is a Smart Sofa Station. It is made to drape over the arm of a couch. Everything you may need is handy, depending on what craft you’re doing. They have needle covers, pouches for patterns, scissors, thread or anything else you may want to keep with you. If you’re a crocheter, they can be made to hold crochet hooks. There’s also a magnetic pin holder and a little thread basket, if you want one. It’s an extremely versatile pattern from ArabesqueScissors on Etsy. 

But, you never know what I’ll do next. I’m eyeing up a few ideas. 

Hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Blessings,

Carmen

Among Us Tooth Fairy Softies

Hi there!

It’s been a while since I sent a package to my grands in Fort Mac. One day I was looking at some adorable tooth fairy pillows and thought “hey! This might be something!” I was looking at little unicorn pillows and other cutesy ones. So I called their mom and she told me they’re into ‘Among Us.’ Now, I’ve heard of them, but that’s about it. So I went looking about the internet only to realize there’s no ‘Among Us’ tooth fairy pillows. 

I looked at some softies and thought it looked easy enough, so I made up my pattern pieces and out came a crewman! 

First I’ll show you what I was aiming for, in case you’re new to these too. Apparently they’re all the rage. Weird. 

Here is the pattern drawn up and transferred onto felt, then cut for sewing. 

I hand sewed a lot of this, but I did some machine sewing on the main body part. The backpack had to be hand sewn, as did the bottoms of the feet and the eye area. I always struggle with lighting, so here’s a few...

This one shows the side- - the red one is unfinished at this point.

And there’s the little pocket for the tooth. I am including little ziplocks so the pocket stays clean. 

Anyway. I started thinking — and that’s not always a good thing. I decided that this tooth fairy is a clumsy little thing who often forgets things or leaves things behind. Not to worry though, she can gift them, or pick them up when the next tooth falls out. I’m sure she will leave a little note behind when this happens.

What’s a fairy without a magic wand? Two, one for boy teeth and one for girl teeth. Sorry about the shadows!

Unfortunately, this fairy is so forgetful, she needs back up wands. You might find one of those laying around.

And I’m pretty sure every fairy has fairy dust on her at all times!

Now I’m not so sure about vials of silver and gold, but hey, why not?

Everyone loses a key once in a while. Why would fairies be any different?

Almost done, but we needed letterhead for the tooth fairy, a tooth chart and a way for the kids to write a letter to her. I found these at Handmade Charlotte. Adorable, right? 

Well, now I have to wrap them up and send them off along with some yummies. Oh, some of these things will be wrapped separately for mom and dad to use for the tooth fairy when a tooth comes out. I’ll have to mark that one TOP SECRET FOR MOM AND DAD ONLY! 

Just the crew mates and the letters to the tooth fairy are for the kids to unwrap. 

Some suggestions for what to write on those cards from the tooth fairy:

Thank you so much for the lovely tooth! It’s spectacular! I seem to have misplaced my magic wand, but I have to run! Please hang onto it for me if you find it! 

Love, The tooth fairy! ❤️

Oh no! My fairy dust has disappeared! If you find it you can keep it! Consider it a gift for all those lovely teeth you’ve left me! 

Love, the tooth fairy❤️

Oh dear! I seem to have misplaced my butterfly key! I’ll have to get a new one made so I can visit the butterfly gardens. Goodness! I’ll have to be more careful! PS: such a lovely tooth! Please keep taking good care of them! 

Love, the tooth fairy❤️

I was taking my gold/silver to the fairy bank when my wings got tired from the weight. So I’m just going to leave it here. Please take good care of it for me. You have the most beautiful tooth here! 

Love, the tooth fairy!❤️🧚🏼‍♀️

Thank you so much for this shiny tooth! Keep brushing and flossing!

Love, the tooth fairy❤️

Well, that was fun! I hope they enjoy these! If they’re not into it, they still have the softies! Win-win. 

Well, thanks for stopping by and have a good weekend everyone!

Blessings!

Mouse in a House

Hello,

Christmas is two weeks away and boy December is flying by quickly. I've been making a few different things. I decided to show you my little Mouse in a House. The House is an empty Altoid tin that I've washed and embellished with scrapbook designer cardstock, a little clock, a kitty and a bow. 

First though, here's the finished project. 

This is the top of the Altoid tin. I just glued this designer cardstock on the tin and later mod podged it.

Here is the inside of the tin. As you can see I've lined it all with designer cardstock.

The little mouse is a pattern I bought from Gingermelon on Etsy. I love this seller. She sells patterns and the wool felt for them, plus her service is quick, friendly and actual shipping charges. I highly recommend you check out her shop. I've made the peek a boo pals, and there are so many other patterns to choose from. Her wool felt is gorgeous as well. Anyway--the mouse pattern comes with several little additions like a top hat, skirt, heart, etc., but I've used the cloud.

I made a little pillow for the mouse's head, but you have to be careful not to stuff it too much, or you don't have to stuff it at all really. I realized when I closed the tin that the little guys nose got pushed to one side. Mouse troubles. Poor mouse.

Note the little mattress as well. Its' just one thickness of felt with stitches throughout. 

That's actually a little mirror the cat is sitting near. It's just the inside of the Altoid tin, but close enough. That little clock I found in my stash. I have a few of them that I bought when I was looking into mixed media. 

Well, that's it for today. This will go to a little granddaughter along with some peek a boo dolls. 

Are you done all your shopping? I just finished the bulk of mine. Maybe a couple of small things to do yet, but it's mostly birthdays. I have a lot of birthdays around Christmas time.

Oh, and I just about forgot. I am adding more free digital stamps to my freebies page when I get a chance. I'm closing my Etsy shop and moving onto other things, so I will slowly start posting them on the blog when I have time. Check my Freebies page every now and then at the top of the blog.

Have a good weekend! 

Blessings,

Carmen

Early Christmas Makings

Autumn is an active season for me. With the change from summer to Fall, my focus changes too. This time of year is my favorite. The weather is better, although it's been unusually windy here lately. No matter. There has been a bit of a shift this year though. For one thing almost all my Christmas shopping and making is done. That's extremely unusual. Everything is almost all packed too. It's weird. Not that I'm complaining. Now I can focus on making shortbread, butter tarts, gingerbread, my amazing antipasto, and for the first time ever, bacon jam. Yes, you read that right. It's for on top of crackers and boursin cheese. I can't wait to make it, and I'll let you know if it was a winner or a bust.

So, it's been almost 2 months since I last posted. That's some kind of record for me. I actually thought about shutting the blog down because I was so tardy. I thought better of it because there's still some good ideas on here for people, especially the Christmas Sleigh Ride posts, which are still popularly frequented every year. Plus, I share things I've made and also include the location of the free patterns that I've used. Yes, I'll just keep this little blog up and running for a while longer.

Let me show you what I've been making lately. If you're on my Facebook page, you've probably seen some of these, but please bear with me if you have. 

Most of these hats were donated.

I've also been making peek a boo pals from Gingermelon again this year. I have a 2 year old granddaughter that I think needs them. Plus once my other granddaughters realized I was making more (they each got 3 last year), they put in their orders for 2 or 3 more.  

Here they all are - - I have another lamb to make, and if I have time, I'll make the monkey (not shown) for my sister in law, who still sleeps with her monkeys everywhere she goes. No word of a lie. One of the many reasons I love her so !

They are too adorable, aren't they? Toys that will create memories, I hope.

I also had some custom hats to make, two of which I am still working on so won't show you just yet.

This one I made for an elderly lady using wool she picked out. It was that awful kinky wool. You couldn't tell where the stitches were in it. Terrible stuff, but she was happy with it. 

It originally came from this pattern, which is a free pattern but is no longer available as she's removed her blog, unfortunately. I do have the pattern on my harddrive still, thankfully.

Next, I made these, but I'm not sure who they're for yet. 

These two hats are a bit slouchy and the red one isn't finished yet. I'm thinking of putting one of these white fur pom poms on the top.  I still have to put a leather tag on the red one too. 

One more thing. I like to print off my own tags for Christmas. This year I was looking for something more plain. White or black. I find the other tags interfere with the wrapping paper. Anyway, here's what I found. They're "honest gift tags" from Bunny Peculiar (check her out) and can also be found on my Pinterest Christmas board along with some other tags and ideas too. 

Well, I think that's it, but really, that's enough anyway.

You all have a nice weekend, maybe I'll do a Bacon Jam Post soon - - 

Blessings,

Carmen