Christmas crafting

This year for Christmas I decided to make a lot of the gifts that I was planning to give and some things that I wanted to have around our house.  There are still some friends whose kids haven't gotten their gift so I won't post a picture of that project quite yet.  Here are three of my favorite craft projects from this season that were all big hits.  And, of course, my new best friend was there every step of the way.

My glue gun was permanently camped out on my kitchen counter for about a month.

1. Harper's bedroom wreath: I wanted to make a wreath for each of the kids' bedroom doors.  They already had a small tree in their rooms with ornaments and lights they picked out themselves but I wanted their doors to scream "IT'S CHRISTMAS!" when you walked down our hallway.  Not wanting to go overboard but not having much for ideas I hit Pinterest.  Being someone who loves to bake and craft, I have to limit my time on Pinterest to only those special occasions when I have something specific in mind and need some ideas.  After about 45 minutes of scouring pictures of wreaths, I came across one fluffy one covered in faux fur.  From that picture, this is what I created for Harper:

The fur wasn't as fluffy as the one on Pinterest but it works well with the big letter (and wasn't quite as messy).  By wrapping small sections of fur around the foam wreath and gluing the strips as I went I was left with a few small sections that needed to be filled in.  Little triangle shaped pieces fit nicely and fluffing the fur a little make the seams less noticeable.  The letter is just a simple wooden letter modge podged with Christmas fabric.

2. Not wanting Cayden and Harper to have the same kind of wreath on their door, I found another idea on Pinterest and then let Cayden have some of the creative design control.  Here is what he chose:

 

The wreath itself is wool yarn wrapped around a foam circle.  Cayden chose the red yarn after he decided that we wanted the peppermint candies on his special decoration.  He LOVES peppermint Hershey kisses, M&Ms and candy canes so his choice in decor was actually very appropriate.  I glued the ends of the yarn on the wreath when I started and then when I was done wrapping it around.  The candy decorations came in groups from Hobby Lobby and the wires stuck into the foam easily.  I did glue some of them in place and used the tight yarn to hold others in place.

 

3. Peppermint Bath Salts: Between secret Santa drawings at work, Cayden's teachers, the kids' daycare and some friends I wanted to give gifts to, this idea was the easiest and got the very best reception. 

 

 

The salts themselves were incredibly easy to make (1 cup Epsom salt, 1/2 cup coarse sea salt; divided in half with red food coloring added to one half and a few drops of peppermint or mint extract added to the other half).  I put each mixture into a Ziploc baggie and cut a small hole in the bottom.  Alternating the two mixtures so that there were different layers I filled a simple canning jar.  Adding a candy cane, a small coffee scoop and a hand written note the finished product turned out rather cool.