For several years now I have hosted a blog carnival on my blog called "A Handmade Christmas". I usually run it every week throughout the couple of months before Christmas.I debated doing it this year just because life is very busy and I wasn't sure I wanted to commit to getting this post done every week and also because last year not that many joined in to participate and that may be because there are so many other carnivals of various types out there and I didn't work all that hard to get people to participate. However there were reasons I did think it would be fun to do it again as well and in the end hosting it won out.
One of the reasons I did decide to do it is because I have made several things already that I haven't yet blogged about that I think are neat handmade gift ideas and then there are a bunch of other things that I hope and plan to make and I don't mind having something to encourage me to get busy at them. I considered not having it a carnival but I do truly love seeing any ideas that you have so even if not a lot of people link up I will be happy to see whatever ideas are linked up!
I do think it is truly fun to have a Christmas Celebration that is filled with handmade things -from gifts, to decorations, to food. Now I know sometimes we can go overboard with making things ourselves and in the process just stress ourselves out, I will try not to do that but as much as possible I am going to have a Handmade Christmas.
Here are our house we do strive to keep things as simple as we can. We exchange gifts only between those of us that live in this house (no extended family). We do enjoy giving some other gifts (like packing shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child) but don't do any other exchanges. This takes a lot of stress off. We can give what we want but don't feel obligated or under pressure. Also with the gifts in our family we have a rule- everything has to fit in our Christmas Stocking. Those are some of the things that help us keep life simpler.
We are planning on having a link-up starting next Tuesday and then going every Tuesday (Lord willing) until Christmas. I would be delighted if you would post about the things that you are making and would link up! I would very much appreciate it if you would grab my little logo picture and if you would link back to here.
Meanwhile, I thought it would be fun to share with you some of the things I have made in the past. One of the ways I like to organize things online is by using Pinterest. It makes it so I can have everything filed according to subject and I can quickly look at the file and see a picture and a description of each link. I decided a practical way to share some of the tutorials and ideas that I have done in the past would be to pin them on my pinterest file along with all the others ideas I have pinned there from other sources and then just share the link to the different files with you. Even if you don't have pinterest you can still look at what I have on there. Each photo that you see has a link so that you can go to the source of that idea where most of the time there will be instructions on how to make it.
Here are the links to some of my different Pinterest Files:
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| Chocolate Nut Clusters |
Gifts to make for Men
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| Fabric Flowers |
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| A costume that I made for Aaron one year. |
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| Fairy Crown |
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| Poncho and Slippers |
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| An evergreen swag |
I hope you will come back next week to join me for A Handmade Christmas!
I would love to hear your handmade gift ideas either in the comments or link some up in the weeks to come!
4 comments:
I love this idea of the gifts fitting in the stocking! Hubby just read it and asked if I was making bigger stockings this year...LOL. I am looking forward to seeing what you are doing for this years holidays!
I always love all your ideas.
The past few years there has always been something that prevents me from doing all I would like and this year its moving. However I will see what we can do anyways. I would like to see if my oldest can make her sister a pom pom cat. Have you ever seen those? Its made from yarn pom poms you make yourself. My 3 year old loves cats so she would love that as a gift. Maybe if I make it with my oldest. We'll see. The turtle I helped her sew by hand last year was a huge success.
Leslie,
I hope you can make a big enough stocking for him! :-)
Nola,
I am not familiar with the pom-pom cat. It is always fun when you can find a simple idea for the kids to make that will then be enjoyed by the recipient.
i'm thrilled you are doing this..i love homemade xmas items and am always on the hunt for ideas and refer to your old posts often..i think i found your blog this way years back
thanks
Celina
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