christmas crafty

i've been meaning to post about the couple new advent/christmas decorations i made this year.  i know it's a bit belated, but here are a few pictures.

i couldn't get this carol out of my head all during advent, so i was inspired to make this banner.  i enjoyed doing a little bit of embroidery again, which i hadn't done for a long time.  i used regular stamp ink on white fabric for the letters, and it worked pretty well.
 

the kids and i had a go with salt dough ornaments, which i'd been reading about all over the blogosphere.  it was fairly easy and fun for everyone.  i enjoyed the stamping on them, but maybe next year we'll try painting, sticking beads in them or something else.  it was fun to do words and names with the tiny letter stamps, but i think it looks cool with really big stamps too, which we didn't really have.

i found this awesome (to me!) nativity matryoshka fabric at joann's, and i knew it would be perfect for a tree skirt.  aren't the little people so cute??!?!  but it was definitely a bit of a challenge working in a circle, and with so much fabric.  i was so proud of myself that i figured out how to do the slit with ribbon ties... until everything was right-side-in and i realized the slit was right in the front of the tree instead of the back.  and since the people are oriented one way, it's pretty noticeable.  oh well!

lastly, here is a not-great photo of the star atop our christmas tree.  it's a star-shaped piece of foam onto which i needle-felted some blue and white wool.  very easy--and pretty!