Merry, Merry!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas. . .

The house has been decorated, the gifts have been wrapped and the cookies have been baked! Here are a few scenes from around my house.

As you can see from this cupboard, I love Santa figurines! Here is some of my collection.

I love this big Santa in a traditional red coat. He was handmade (not by me!) and dressed in a beautiful red wool hooded coat with fur trim made from recycled clothing. His arms are loaded with toys and gifts.

This Father Christmas style Santa was made by the same person. He is wearing a real fur cloak made from an old fur coat. He has an arm load of toys, a wreath and even a tiny tree.


And there are more Santas on the Christmas tree.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Have a safe and Happy Holiday!

Handmade Holidays Part 3, Gift Wrap

Add a personal touch to your gift wrapping this year! Here are a couple of my favorite simple and low cost wrapping ideas. You'll probably find a lot of these materials around the house.

Get out those scrapbooking stamps and stickers to decorate plain color paper.

You can use yarn, rickrack and ribbon from the craft closet to tie up your packages.

Use buttons to stamp designs on paper, or glue them to handmade gift tags.

And get the kids involved by having them draw and color designs on plain paper. You'll have original artworks to wrap your gifts!

I often use recycled Christmas cards to make my own gift tags and package decorations. I love this idea from MarthaStewart.com, using recycled holiday greeting cards to make your own gift boxes.