Christmas Projects

So I did some major crafting (I just typed "mammory" instead of major. Freudian slip much?) this week. So much that I might be able to add some stuff to my "to make" list for Christmas. See, we're going on vacation in a month and that makes me nervous that I'll lose my momentum. We're also getting ready to put our house on the market and I'm thinking a move is really going to make me lose my momentum. So I dug in and really worked on projects this past week and now I'm bored because I don't have anything left to right now. Here are a couple of the projects I worked on. Both are for M and I love them a lot.

The first is a crocheted purse that turns into a baby cradle (cute, right?!). I got the pattern here:

http://www.geocities.com/crotiques/origcradle.htm

Then I changed it up because she doesn't have a doll the size of an ant. So I made it a little bigger and a little uglier, but I still like it so shut it.



With the baby I got for $1 at Wal-Mart. It fits perfectly! SCORE!



If you're a beginning crocheter, don't be intimidated by this pattern. It is actually very easy. It is mostly single and double crochet rounds and I was able to finish it really quickly. I made it from yarn scraps that I had so total cost =$1 for the doll.

My second craft was a little more complex, but again, don't be intimidated by it because it is easy to do, just time consuming. M has this problem with her crayons. She hates for them to be in a box. When we color we have to take 20 minutes to lay them all out side by side on the table so she can see them all and none of them are touching (thanks, Hubs, for passing your anal retentive tendencies on). So I thought she might like something that keeps her crayons in that layout all the time. A long time ago I made a needle roll for my crochet hooks. It's just a flat piece of fabric with pockets sewn in to hold your needles. So I thought, "Why not do that with crayons?" The result was this:




The crayons roll up into a neat little bundle that fits in her craft drawer. They're always organized, always laying side by side, and never touching. She will be in heaven. You can use actual fabric to make your crayon roll like I did, or you can use felt. Here is a link to a tutorial that gives you the basic instructions to making a crayon roll. The roll I made holds 96 crayons, but you can make it hold as many as you please. Once you get the hang of it, this craft is really simple. If you can sew a semi-straight line, you can make a crayon roll. :)

http://www.skiptomylou.org/2008/08/06/felt-crayon-roll/

Remember those cheap boxes of crayons I bought? I used half of them to fill her crayon roll. I used discount fabric to make the roll, and ribbon I already had on hand. Project cost = $3.25.

The first of these posts are going to center around actual gifts, as it's a little too early to start on my decorations (I like to use real greenery), but I'll soon get into things that look more Christmas-y. Today and tomorrow I'll be working on a gift for the grandparents and the elusive melty crayons that Kelly asked about. ;) I'll post as soon as I'm done with them.

Oh, and I set up a gmail account if anyone has any questions about the things I'm making. It's allkindsofcreative AT gmail.com. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions and I'll do my darndest to answer them. Happy crafting!