Christmas crafting

Here are just a few of the many things now adorning our home......!

Our children made these beautiful snowflakes at preschool. They were laminated and given pretty Christmas ribbons, and then given to us at the preschool party last weekend to take home.

Our advent calender with a difference ~ instead of taking gifts out of pockets, the idea is to add a gift to the tree each day. All the decorations are numbered up to 24, and a little piece of velcro makes it easy for little ones to attach them. I really liked the idea of giving to the tree, rather than getting a cheap chocolate or plastic toy. They are happy to takes turns each day too, and good at keeping track of whose day it is!

I bought the panel from ebay, added padding, bit of quiliting with spare fabric on the back, and then the kids and I got to work adding lots of glitter to 'highlight' toys and candles etc. Actually by the end, almost everything has glitter on it! The joys of being 4 :-)

I made this cushion from a panel I bought on ebay too. The photo doesn't show it well but I padded the front and quilted a little around the borders. I backed it with red corduroy and a matching strip across the back.

And these ones for the grown-ups.... I bought a huge panel with 2 cushion fronts and 3 stockings on it from.... yep, you guessed it -ebay! The whole panel only cost me $2 and I think the cushions have come out great! I backed them with some lovely upholstery fabric from my stash, one gold and one cream. I have never done anything padded like this before, so it was a great experiment. I kept it simple and just sewed around the borders and star lines to make it appear quilted. There are beautiful gold angels and words to carols around the centre, I love them. 

Our home is becoming so colouful and Christmassy with kids decorations on the tree and on the walls and doors. Less than 2 weeks to go which is just as well, we are running out of room!