Play mat

One of the other gifts I made this Christmas was a dinosaur play mat. I saw the idea on Pinterest and couldn't wait to try it out. Luckily, Russell had Tanner in the cousin gift exchange, so I had the chance to make it (Russell still doesn't care much for toys like that.)

 

We sent along a package of dinosaurs so Tanner can have fun playing dinosaurs on his little mat. 

It was a pretty easy project. I just used her pattern. I accidentally got the iron on stuff that also required you to sew it as well, so I added some nice hand stitched details to keep all the little pieces on. I had tons of fun making it and kept showing Ben how cute it was as I was making it.

Christmas Gifts and Post-Christmas Projects

I made several Christmas gifts this year, and I'm happy with how they turned out. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the finished projects.

For Brian's mom I made this family picture tree. This picture was just to help me remember how I had the photos set up so I could hang them on the branch appropriately. I used brown crochet thread to hang the pictures, and I hot glued the top of each loop to the branch so the thread wouldn't slide down the branches. If I were to make another one, I would try to find some way to secure the pictures better. They still swung around quite a bit and had to be rearranged.

I made a set of these blocks (the girl one) for our niece, Alana. I don't know how she likes them, but I certainly had fun playing with them before I gave them away.

And I also made a geoboard for her. I got the idea from this site, but I didn't really use the tutorial. I left the board I used plain wood, but after I finished it, I wished I would have painted it. I also used Mod Podge and acrylic sealer on the board to try and keep little fingers from being able to pull the pushpins out.

Camille got some toys with pieces for Christmas, so I whipped up (ha!) these toy bags for them. I've made a bag like this before. The tutorial is from Make It-Love It. I made one with Christmas fabric for her Little People Nativity and one with girly fabric for her Little People princesses. I had some sewing machine issues and some seamstress issues, but they both got finished somehow.