Classic Christmas Wreath

For the third consecutive year I am participating in Craftaholics Anonymous' handmade gift exchange. My partner this year is a girl from Oklahoma. She doesn't blog so I cannot take a sneak peak in her life and get a feel for her tastes. That's okay, I like giving creativity free rein and see where it takes me.

This year it took me to a wreath. Which is funny because while I love wreaths, I never have the patience to actually make one. Until now. It is a moss covered wreath with felt holly leaves and berries, and a few snowflakes here and there. With my current obsession for natural colors, I started out with all white but it didn't feel right. Classic Christmas colors it is, then.

I hope you love your present, M. Merry Christmas!

Winter Garland

I have fallen in love with Scandinavian Christmas and winter décor. At present I read about five or six blogs from Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. The language barrier is not a problem, I let the pictures speak for themselves. If the need arises, there’s always Google Translate.

The elements of nature, the warm winter white, the use of galvanized materials; I plan to incorporate it all into my Christmas decorations this year. Perhaps I’ll add a touch of red here and there. Except for the tree, that is and always will be a very colorful collection of memories.

I am linking my winter garland up with:

Friday’s Nature Table at The Magic Onions
Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia

Leaves For Thanksgiving

I finished my very first custom order last night. A set of oak leaf place cards and a leaf garland to match. It's a hostess gift for a Thanksgiving dinner party. My friend S. asked me to make them after she saw my booth at our Fall Festival a month ago. She came over to my house and we picked out the fabric together but the design was left up to me.

The leaf place cards were cut by hand and sewn together two by two with a simple straight stitch. The little paper name tags will be taped to the leaf after the names have been written on them. Since S. is a big lover of acorns, I decided to add acorns to the tags. After three failed attempts to carve an acorn stamp myself, I broke down and ordered one on Etsy. It's perfect for this project.

She also asked me to make a garland to go with the place cards. Those leaves were cut with a die cutting machine. I hope S. likes the end result. I certainly do. So if she doesn't, no problem. I'll keep them for myself.

I am linking my leaves up with:
Friday's Nature Table at The Magic Onions
Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia

Gourds On A Hook

I love gourds. They make such colorful fall decorations. But rather than displaying them in a bowl, I wanted to do something different. What do you get when you cross Martha Stewart’s gourd garland with Better Homes and Gardens' jingle bells on a shepherd’s hook?

Gourds on a hook!

Simply drill a hole in the top of various small gourds and string some heavy gauge wire through it. Twist the ends and hang the gourds from black Dollar Tree shepherd's hooks.

They cheerfully line the path from the garage to the house.

I am linking my gourds up at Friday's Nature Table at The Magic Onions and Natural Suburbia's Creative Friday.