Now that Christmas is over and now that our sweet granddaughter has opened her present (as much as a 7 month old baby can open Christmas gifts . . .), I can show you the fun blanket that I made for her. It is made out of the softest material called Minky.  I wish that I could have a blanket that soft to wrap up in on bitter cold days like today . . .

This fabric was rather challenging to sew because it was heavy and bulky.  And the mitered corners were tricky.  (I think I need to practice on scraps of material to perfect my corner making skills!)  But I think it turned out rather cute if I do say so myself.

Here are the blanket directions in case you are interested in making one for your grandchildren.  You’ll notice in the directions that it says to sew rick rack along the edge.  I didn’t do that with this blanket because I thought that adding rick rack would make it really thick to sew through. The fabric store had sample blankets made out of flannel and they had rick rack on them.  Cute, cute, cute.

It you decide to make a blanket like this one, please send me a picture and show me how it turned out for you.

Happy sewing!

Do you still need an idea for a quick to make treat for your family this holiday season?  Here are a couple of ideas that you could whip up.

Family Fun has Crunchy Snowmen out of pretzels, fruit leather, gum drops, and white chocolate.  I love how these pencil thin snowmen look!  Family Fun also has Holiday Pretzel Treats.  They are similar to the Rolo Pretzel Treats (that are similar to Turtle candy) that I previously wrote about.

Remember the Easy to Make Toffee that I posted a while back? I really like the ‘easy’ part of this recipe . . .

Try a variation of Rice Krispie Treats by adding crushed candy canes, M&Ms, or other colorful candies when you add the cereal to your melted marshmallows.

Or, try the following — if you like Rice Chex.

Chocolate Chex
9 cups Rice Chex
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Put the cereal in a large bowl.  In a saucepan, melt the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter.  Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.  Pour this mixture over the Chex cereal.  Then, put the powdered sugar in a large Ziplock bag. Add the Chex mix.  Close the bag and shake well to coat the chocolate Chex.  Spread out on wax paper and allow to cool.  (I think grandchildren would really enjoy shaking the bag to coat the Chex mixture with the powdered sugar!)

Sweet Chex
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons white Karo syrup
6 cups Rice Chex
1 cup pecans
1/2 c peanuts

Combine the first three ingredients.  Bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes.  Put the Chex and nuts in a bowl.  Pour the mixture over the Chex and nuts.  Stir so that everything is well coated.  Spread out on a cookie sheet to cool.  You can also add other ingredients (M&Ms, gum drops, gummy bears).

Here’s to a sugar high munchy Merry Christmas!

The other day I saw an idea for making a 3-D Christmas ornament out of two pictures.  I thought, “Huh! I can simplify it a wee bit and it would be an activity that would be fun to do with grandchildren.”

So I set about making a simplified version.  When I stopped (please note I didn’t say I had finished the project . . . I just stopped . . .), it reinforced just how un-crafty I am. Sigh.

Here’s the simplified idea:

1. Get photos of your grandchildren.
2. Cut them into star shapes. (Or circles, boxes, triangles, amoeba shapes — what ever shape floats your boat.) Here’s a pattern for star shape ornaments for 3 x 5 inch and 4 x 6 inch pictures.
3. Cut a short piece of curling ribbon.
4. Loop ribbon and glue to the back of one picture.
5. Glue the backsides of the pictures together.
6. Voila!  You have a star-shaped ornament from photos of your grandchild.

Here’s what I learned from the process.

1. Before printing up pictures, determine which cut-out shape you will use.  You will want to make sure that you can fit the desired area of your picture into the cut-out shape.
2. Place shape template on the front of the picture to get it centered how you want it.  This helps to keep the picture centered appropriately so you don’t accidentally cut the chin off your granddaughter.  Ahem . . .
3. Cut one shape out first.  Use it as a pattern to cut out the second picture. That way, they will be the same size and you won’t have to trim the shapes when they are glued together.
4. Hot glue burns when you get it on your fingers.  It hurts.  Bad.  As evidenced by the 2nd degree burn on my thumb.  (It almost matches the 2nd degree burn on the index finger on my other hand that I got when I made caramels at Thanksgiving time. Are we seeing a pattern here???)
5. Elmer’s Glue doesn’t burn fingers.  It just makes a gooey mess on my fingers and on the pictures and is slow to dry.
6. The lighting in my kitchen/dining room isn’t good for picture taking.
7. My picture taking skills are heinous.

When doing this with your grandchildren, I think that they will love making an ornament from their picture.  If you keep in mind that the purpose of the activity is to do something fun with your grandchildren (with fingers relatively unscathed — and not be worried about making perfect ornaments that will win a beauty contest), this can be great fun.

I have an idea for a Christmas ornament you could make with your grandchildren.  I think it will be a delightful activity to do.  I want to make some samples and then take pictures of the process.  That just isn’t happening in my life right now.  I am allowing other things to take precedence (e.g. performing with a singing group at holiday functions and making Christmas presents).

So, I thought that I would take a moment to re-post some previous Christmas ideas. Maybe  you can find something here that would be fun to do with your grandchildren.

• Making Gift Tags with Grandchildren
• More Christmas Ideas
• Decoupage Candle Holders
• An I Spy book for Grandchildren