Merry Christmas!

Barney, Cosmo, Cecily and I wish you and your loved ones

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays.

Whatever you celebrate, we hope your holiday is filled with cheerfulness, lots of happy moments, and yummy food.

Thank you for all the lovely comments you left on my blog during the year. I appreciate your visits and kind words very much. Have a wonderful New Year!

xo Julia


The kitties will show up at this cat party:
Sunday Selfies at The Cat on My Head

Gift Wrapping Paper Made from Brown Paper Scraps

Are you amazed that this is already my second blog post in two weeks? Me too. It must be some kind of a Christmas miracle.

I haven't bought gift wrapping paper in a long time. Instead, I predominantly buy brown paper by the roll and add some embellishments, pretty ribbons and/or tags. I like the look of this paper and it works great in combination with all kinds of colors. Besides, it's a bit sturdier than most gift wrapping papers.

Last week I was wrapping some gifts and thought I had enough brown paper. You know where this is going. I had three more packages to wrap when I ran out of paper. I didn't have the time to get a new roll because the package had to be taken to the post office the next morning. What does a girl do when she runs out of gift wrapping paper? Exactly! She sews some leftover scraps together to create some sheets.

When I had reached the necessary paper sizes, I sewed on small scraps with stamped trees. My next idea didn't work out so well. I wanted to use my sewing machine to add some silver stars but even though I used a special needle for metallic threads, the thread broke.

I ended up stitching the holes by machine without thread and then running the thread through by hand. That was a bit more labor-intensive than I had planned but I didn't want to give up on the idea. I like how the paper turned out.

Imagine how much wrapping paper could be made out of all the scraps that we normally throw into the garbage! Even paper scraps in different colors and with different patterns could become pretty, patchwork-style, one of a kind gift wrapping paper.

Have you wrapped your gifts already?

My upcycled gift wrapping paper will join these parties:

Sweet Inspiration at A Crafty Mix

Saturday Sparks at Pieced Pastimes

Sonntagsblatt at Raumseele

A New Life at Rostrose

DIY Salvaged Junk Projects at Funky Junk Interiors

Talk of The Town at Knick of Time

Handmade Christmas Ornaments

Two of my favorite people to make gifts for are my SIL and hubby's niece. They both like things that are made with love and they're always excited to open my packages. It makes me happy to make them happy. For a couple of years now, my SIL has a vase with some branches in her kitchen that she decorates according to the season. I gladly granted her requests for little fabric fish, Easter eggs, and Christmas ornaments. Each year, I try to come up with some new pieces to add to the collection. For last year's Christmas I had made glass glitter stars, fabric baubles and 3-d book page trees.

This year I sewed, respectively knitted tiny leather mittens and scarves. Just when I had finished those wintry accessories, my friend Michelle over at A Crafty Mix posted a DIY for the cutest little washboard ornaments. I commented that it would be great for the washboards to have some tiny clothes to keep them company. While I wasn't able to make some of the adorable washboards because I can't print anything at the moment, the thought of tiny clothes kept floating around in my head. I decided to sew a set of sweaters.

I recycled a part of an old T-Shirt that I had recently sorted out. I added embroidery lining and double sided fusible interfacing between the fronts and the backs. The sweaters are 2" (5 cm) high. In the pictures the color is not accurately displayed. The sweaters are more teal colored in real life, matching my SIL's kitchen décor.

The mittens are about the same size as the sweaters. They're made out of leather scraps I received from a tailor may years ago. I thought it would be easy to stitch the mittens by machine but it wasn't because I didn't have a leather needle in my stash. I made several attempts but my machine kept skipping stitches and the thread broke numerous times. I solved the problem by removing the spool and the bobbin and just piercing the leather by machine. Hand stitching through the holes took a bit of time but was easy to do then.

It's a long time ago that I knitted something but it was quite fun to make five of these little scarves. It certainly helped that all five of them were finished so much faster than one in a regular size.

Have you made any ornaments this year for yourself or to give away?

The ornaments will join these parties:

Sweet Inspiration at A Crafty Mix

Saturday Sparks at Pieced Pastimes

DIY Salvaged Junk Projects at Funky Junk Interiors

The Creative Gallery at Making It in The Mountains

Show & Share at Coastal Charm

Talk of The Town at Knick of Time

A New Life at Rostrose