Merry Christmas!

12 DIYs of Christmas: Homemade Holiday Lollipops

Now that the tree is decorated and the gifts are wrapped, make a sweet treat for yourself, or a last-minute gift for your Christmas dinner hostess. You can find the recipe from Just a Taste here.

That's it for this year's 12 DIYs of Christmas! I hope you've found some fun holiday ideas and projects. I'll be taking a break and will be back the first week of January, so have a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year! Thank you for all your support in 2012!

12 DIYs of Christmas: Dough Tags

Look at these awesome little tags, made with a simple salt dough and embellished with rubber stamps! Roll, cut, stamp, bake, and adorn. You can find the complete instructions from Ampersand Design Studio here.

12 DIYs of Christmas: Glittering Initial Ornaments

I love the vintage-y look of these initials made by Aunt Peaches, using basically just felt or cardboard letters, Mod Podge, and pretty much anything small and shiny! You could use these as ornaments or gift tags. Lovely!

Snowflakes: A Chapter from the Book of Nature (1863)

In keeping with this week's Spoonflower "Snowflakes" contest theme, I thought you would enjoy this. The following are pages from an 1863 book, which features facts about snowflakes, beautiful illustrations of crystal snowflake structures, and poetry. Even the drop caps on the chapter openers are amazing. You can view all 146 pages of the book here.

12 DIYs of Christmas: Perler Bead Snowflake Garland

Today we return to The Red Thread for a fun way to make garland, for your tree or for your home, using Hama (or perler) beads. This one is fun for kids, too!

Snowflakes: Laser-cut or Lace?

Brrrrr! This week's Spoonflower contest theme is "Snowflakes". Did you know that, because of the nature of crystallization, all snowflakes have six points and sides? That lead me to thinking about hexagons, and then how the snowflakes could almost "link" together like when you cut out a string of paper dolls and they're attached at the hands. That, in turn, led me to thinking about laser-cut paper, and voila...a pattern of snowflakes that looks a bit like cut paper, or perhaps even lace. You can view the pattern in yardage here. If you like my design, you can vote for it, and all your favorite wintery snowflake designs, here. Thank you!



Here is some interesting information on how the different snowflake shapes are formed:

Generally, six-sided hexagonal crystals are shaped in high clouds; needles or flat six-sided crystals are shaped in middle height clouds; and a wide variety of six-sided shapes are formed in low clouds. Colder temperatures produce snowflakes with sharper tips on the sides of the crystals and may lead to branching of the snowflake arms (dendrites). Snowflakes that grow under warmer conditions grow more slowly, resulting in smoother, less intricate shapes. [Source]

12 DIYs of Christmas: Pom Pom Ornaments

Pom poms used to be so '70s, but they've made a comeback because they're the perfect DIY project: all you need is yarn, a circle of cardboard, and scissors. I found some photos on Pinterest of pom pom ornaments you can buy, and an incredible rainbow pom pom ornament, with instructions that required an actual plastic pom pom maker (hello, Ronco?), but the tutorial from A Lovely Lark was the easiest. You don't even need the cardboard donut, just wrap the yarn around your hand before tying and snipping! Love this!

12 DIYs of Christmas: Pretty Paper Baubles

For Day 7: make these pretty paper ornaments from Torie Jayne to add to your tree! Can you believe Christmas is only six days away?

12 DIYs of Christmas: Snow Globes!

Who doesn't love snow globes? I bought my three-year-old son his first one at the drugstore last week. It has The Charlie Brown Christmas theme and only cost $1.99, and it's his favorite thing right now. So why not make your own, and personalize your scene? The folks at The Sweetest Occasion have posted some simple steps with great photos, and you only need a few items.



Also, if you haven't seen this: Yesterday Emma Jeffery of Hello Beautiful posted a tutorial on the Spoonflower blog on how to make a festive serving tray, and she used wall decals featuring my Christmas Forest and Christmas Ornaments prints on decals! What a great idea for using the decals! I'm so flattered!

12 DIYs of Christmas: LEGO Ornaments

LEGOs are such the rage right now. I mean, they've always been popular, but lately it seems that more and more people are making things with them, and all sorts of things. Here are some fab holiday ornaments made by Canadian illustrator and photographer Chris McVeigh. Check them all out (including non-holiday kits like "Let Them Build Cake" and "Burger 'n Fries") on his Flickr photostream, get complete parts lists, or order complete kits online here. Genius.

12 DIYs of Christmas: A Trio of Felt Ornaments

A lovely set of felt ornaments to make from The Purl Bee. I can't decide which I like best, so I guess I'll have to make all three... Enjoy!

12 DIYs of Christmas: Tin Can Luminarias

Instead of recycling used tin cans, why not upcycle them into holiday luminarias? You can find instructions from various sources. I love how beautifully they glow.

From celebrations.com


From ediTORIal


From Home & Garden Ideas

And the winner is...

Breaking the tie for this giveaway/contest was tough! And all of the entries were great! After thinking long and hard about it, I would like to introduce you to, drum roll please...



That's right! Trusty Old Twisty now has an identity, thanks to the winner: Heather Dutton! [applause] Heather, please email or message me with your contact info, and your tea towel choice!

Thank you again to ALL who participated! Your suggestions were very thoughtful and perfect!

12 DIYs of Christmas: Handmade Rubber Stamps

"On the third DIY of Christmas...": Here's one way of making homemade rubber stamps (with handles)--to give as gifts or use for gift wrap, cards, linens, you name it--from Liz Stanley's Say Yes to Hoboken blog.

12 DIYs of Christmas: Paint Chip Geometric Christmas Tree

For Day 2, here's a fun, modern Christmas décor idea (and a space-saver!) from The Red Thread's Lisa Tilse: a geometric Christmas tree made from paint chips (free!) that you display on your wall. Very cool! And the paper ornaments hung with Washi tape are a nice touch!

Pattern of Holiday Sweets...Sweet!

This week's Spoonflower contest theme is "Sweets", and the only 'rule' is that the design be a scatter print. The pattern I am entering in the contest appears below. You can view the pattern in yardage here. If you like my design, you can vote for it, and all your favorite sweets, here. Thank you!

12 DIYs of Christmas: Sequin Pinecone Ornament

For the next 12 days I'll be posting some holiday DIY projects as part of a "12 DIYs of Christmas" series. Here's the project for Day 1: a pinecone ornament made with only four things: styrofoam eggs, sewing pins, large sequins, and yarn. You can find the complete instructions on Katie's Skunkboy blog here.

Christmas Decorations & Ornaments from Vintage Catalogs

While down-and-out last week with the heebie jeebies, I had a little bit of time to scroll through some of the pins I've made on my Pinterest boards. I have lots of Christmas catalog pins on my Showcase board, so I thought I would do a holiday-themed post of vintage Christmas décor from old catalogs. I just can't believe the intricate details in the illustrations done for the very early trade catalogs. The decorations from the 1940s, '50s, and '60s are more my style, but I am so drawn to the earlier items, too. So beautiful! Here are some of my finds... Enjoy!


1934 French catalog


1936 German trade catalog; beautiful package illustrations! (see more here)


1936 German trade catalog; organized so neatly! (see more here)


1936 German trade catalog; look at the composition--it's mesmerizing! (see more here)


1940 Sears Christmas Book


1947 Sears Christmas Book


1947 Sears Christmas Book; love the illustration of the Bubble Lite!


1952 Sears Christmas Book; neato little graphic in the center


1956 Sears Christmas Book; the smoky shiny effect is so pretty...and look at that garland of glass beads!


1956 Sears Christmas Book


1958 Sears Christmas Book cover


1958 Sears Christmas Book; look at that Candy Tree, and the Candy Church looks like it's covered in Meltaway mints...mmmmm...


1958 Sears Christmas Book; cool bottle brush tree (only $3.97!), but things are starting to get plastic...


1958 Sears Christmas Book


1958 Sears Christmas Book; note the fluffy, pink, flocked trees


1958 Sears Christmas Book


1966 Penneys Christmas Catalog


1968 Montgomery Ward Christmas Catalog; at first I thought $2.88 was kind of expensive for those plastic snow globes, but looking closer I see that's the price for a set of six!


1968 Montgomery Ward Christmas Catalog; those "Italian Petal" lights were popular into the '80s


1969 Sears Christmas Book; not very fond of the faux stained glass decal, but hurray for the blow molds!

For more Christmas catalog images, check out Wishbook on Flickr.

Holiday Gift Tags

So sorry for the week of no blog entries. I was down and out for three days with a 24-hour bug that has turned into an annoying congested cold. All of those coffee-fueled late nights finally caught up with me!

Here's my entry in this week's Spoonflower contest for Holiday Gift Tags. Using fabric or decals, you can make six individual tags, or three double-sided tags that are folded in the center and then sewn or stuck together. If you like them, you can vote for them, and all your favorites, here. Thank you!

Quick reminder: If you haven't yet participated in my current giveaway, check out all the info here. Contest ends in just a few days!