Wire ribbon gift bags tutorial

For Teacher gifts this year, I made little gift bags out of wired ribbon, then stuffed them with pocket size anitbacterial hand sanitizer, Ghiradelli chocolate, and kisses and mint bells.

 This is what I used: Hershey's peppermint bark bells and kisses, Ghiradelli chocolates,  Bath & Body Works pocket bacs, gold wired ribbon, at least 2 inches wide, and tulle on a spool.

Here's how to make it: Cut 28" of wired ribbon. Fold in half. 

From fold, sew a straight basting stitch to the end. Repeat on the other side, making sure to start from the fold, so the bag won't have a pucker toward the bottom/fold. Trim strings.

There's the bag. I slipped the pocketbac in the bottom, and two Ghiradelli chocolate squares. They fit exactly. 

Then topped with kisses and bells and tied of with about 12 inches of tulle ribbon. 

Here they are. Easy and cheap and flexible. Fill with whatever you want.

Happy Christmas! 

-Summer

Iced Pine Cones

I wanted a new Christmas decoration...but money is tight!. Here is an idea that I found in an old Country Living magazine. Paint pine cones.

The magazine said to spray paint the cones, but I tried that. What a flop. The paint was SUCKED into the wood and never seen again!

So, I decided I needed to clean out some old paint anyway AND I had one that reminded me of toothpaste. Since I was Not going to use it in my house, the toothpaste paint became the new icy blue color choice for my winter decoration. It looks icy fresh and winter-y!

So ....here's the scoop.

Tie a string to the top of the pine cone. Wind the string around a clothes line, or something hung up OUTSIDE over a tarp or cardboard. Dip the pine cone in the paint and let it drip dry.




When dry, tie a skinny ribbon around the first row of cone-stick-y-outie-parts. Then gather all the ribbons together at the top (tie a bow, knot, something!) and hang it.


Ta-dah! I love the way this "wreath" turned out.





--TARA

Doll for baby

Want an easy homemade doll idea? I made this little one for Christmas this year. In fact I made two of them. One for each of our littlest ones.

This is how the sock doll looks before it's dressed and without hair.

This is a picture I found online of the very pattern I used. It's vintage and my sister Judi gave it to me. Thank you Judi! Of course I changed it a bit.

Sewing up this little dollie was fun!

This image kind of explains part of the process.

Here's our little Natelle with her's. (Huggy, huggy)

Here we have a beautiful, happy little girl.

"Yup, this is my baby..."

And Lucy flashes her "Miss America" smile.

And she laughs!

Having a "heart to heart!"

To see more pictures go here.

Joanna