Five for Five: Christmas Crafts. Bonus: Cookie recipes!

Today, five Christmas-y crafty thingies made in five minutes! Oooh-k, I may be stretching the five minutes thing a hair on one project but not by much.

Decorating the house for Christmas, or any holiday for that matter, is not my thing. It's just us two, it's more stuff that gets dusty, it's cluttery to me, plus then I have to pack everything back up after about a month anyway. So eh, just eh. Not my thang. *shrug*

I'll put out maybe one or two things, more (heh, like three) if I know guests are coming. But nope, otherwise Holiday Grinch over here.

Although..... Not gonna lie. If I had a giant pile of mirror balls like this, I would yes, do that. Hell, I'd leave it up all year long.

Ready? All righty, clap clap, here we go!

Got some leftover ornaments hangin' (ah ha, pun, hanging...so bad) around doing nothing? We did.

So I took a piece of green florist stem wire,* curled the ends into hooks, filled up the wire with ornaments. Originally I was going to hang it outside, out front, but then thought eh the sun will fade them, weather will beat them up, someone would steal it.

These colors would be awesome on a little white retro tree, right? What is with me and white lately? I am totally scaring myself. Yeesch.

Once upstairs I thought hey, I bet this'll fit around a candle! And lo and behold it did! So there ya go, an ornament candle wrap! Make a bunch! I bet they'd make a snazzy centerpiece.

Mini marabou wreath anyone?

Walking in the park there are these three trees, I don't know what they are, but there are only these three in this one spot. And they drop these little nubbies that look like mini pine cones. One day I pocketed a handful.

Again with the florist stem wire, I made a circle, curled the ends into hooks. With white thread I tied a remnant of floofy soft white marabou* to the circle.

Fuuuuuuzzzzzyyy. Mmm. White. Heh.

Next, I grabbed clumps of the pine cone looking nubbies, tied those on and added a few itty bitty red ornaments that we already had.

Up top, a loop of jute string to hang it all by. And for a final touch, a green ribbon bow though I think it's better without it, personally. Awww!

Please don't tell me those tree droppings are poisonous.

Cute, yeah? Not your typical wreath. Then again, not your typical gal.

How about a cutie lil' felt stocking?

Years ago I made stockings out of felt for Mike, Hailey, and I. Just cute little ones, not really meant to be stuffed. Last year I intended to make one for Finn but ran out of time. And felt terrible for it. But I was feeling terrible anyway.

My baby girl's stocking. Yes, I still put it out for her. I miss her terribly.

But this year, finally, got Finn's done. All I did was take a piece of red felt, fold it in half, cut the stocking shape. With a bit of the trim off, I cut a strip for the loop.

Just a decorative straight stitch on the sides of the loop, no biggie.

Stitch the loop to one half of the stocking at the top.

I loooove my sewing machine. Love.

Stitch the two stocking halves together...

Cut a piece of white felt (or something furry) however wide you'd like, stitch the ends together, slide it over the top of the red stocking, hot glue it on. Bam, stocking done!

Finn's name is in red pipe cleaners and that got hot glued on. Ouchie, burnt fingers, yes. With pom poms, I made a paw print, again hot gluing those on. His paw is larger because, well, he's gigantic.

Yeah, they're hanging on the record cabinet's door pulls. We have nowhere really to hang them.

Hows about a felt Santa tree topper?

A week ago, Menards ran a flyer with these sweet felt tree toppers on sale. As Mike decided he now dislikes the LED blinky color change-y plastic angel he bought last year which I never really liked, I thought hey, the Santa one would be a good sub until we find something we truly like. Or, maybe Santa will be a keeper, who knows?

Of course not a single store had any of the three. Again, their stock count proves itself to be 99.99999% wrong. Ugh. Sometimes man, sometimes, as much as I love them, Menards irks me.

Option B? Make one myself. I already had everything anyway, why the heck not!?

I made it up as I went along, by the way, fyi, as I never saw one in person but used the image as a guide.

Start with a toilet paper roll. Cut two donuts out of cardboard to support the felt body. Tack with hot glue.

Wrap a piece of red felt around the roll, trim as necessary then dribble some hot glue on the donut edges and wrap the tube in the felt, making it a smidge cone shaped toward the top.

Next I hot glued two popsicle sticks inside the tube to support the height and the head, tacked the felt to the tops of the popsicle sticks with hot glue.

There's one popsicle stick. I added another opposite it after this.

Ok all right, I used hot glue for most every step, let's get that out of the way.

Fold another piece of red felt in half, trim a triangle to make the hat.

This I stitched together but you could just as well use hot glue or whatever. Stuck a white pom pom* on the end, dropped a 5/16" nut in there to keep the hat bent heh, then attached it to the top of the Santa body.

He looks like some freaky creepy red ghost in a sleeping bag here, right?

Cut a half round shape for his face, attach that.

With pom poms, I made his nose and eyes.* With a strip of fluffy white fabric I ringed his hat and with a larger piece of the same downy white I freehanded his beard.

Black satin ribbon* is his belt (I tried to mask the lower donut bump) and I had some weird wired mini tinsel-y gold stuff so that became his buckle.

Ah ha, take that Menards!

Hey, he ain't perfect but I think he came out relatively close enough-ish, yeah? Anyway, he's super cute up there on the top of the tree. Crazily, Mike even liked him! I thought I was going to get pointed and laughed at.

S'up Santa baby? Lookin' handsome atop the tree there!

Lastly? Christmas cards!

So for the Christmas cards this year, I opted to work through my stash of leftover blanks rather than purchase yet more as the blanks are piling up. Last year was Christmas trees so this year I went with reindeers which I've seen smattered all over the interwebs.

These supplies included:

Super easy to do, these cards. Since the felt came with a sticky back, all I did was cut circles for Mike and I, triangles for Finn, peeled the paper backing and stuck them on the cards.

With a felt tip pen, I drew the lil' antlers all randomly. Poured out a puddle of glue and with a pair of handy dandy tweezers, dipped the pom poms and googlie eyes, then placed them on the felt cutouts.

Mike has the red nose because he's a ginger. Snicker. Giggle. I wonder if someone makes rainbow or whack-a-doodly-do pom poms; that shoulda been my nose, right?

Aren't they adorable?! Heh. I'm such a nerd. Anyway, so there ya go, five for five!

And yes, to answer your expectant question, I do have a felt fixation. What can I say? I love felt.

By golly, what cookies are you baking this year, you're now wondering? I have to make the go-to Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip as it's a Mike Requirement. I'm making my brother's favorite, my mom's butter cookies with preserves. This is the closest I could find to her recipe. To round out, I'm going to try Chocolate Crinkle Cookies which I've never made before and this recipe for Molasses Gingerdoodles which sounded like a funky twist.

Happy holidays y'all!

*The green florist stem wire, marabou feather boa, white pom pom, black ribbon, Presto Felt, and Tacky Glue are Joann Fabrics affiliate links. The 7 & 3 mm pom poms, googlie eyes are Amazon affiliate links. Mwah, thanks! Please see the "boring stuff" tab at the top for more info. Yeah, that was affiliate link heavy, sorry, but I wanted you to be able to find what I used.