Christmas - Guest Post - journal

Real Christmas Trees vs Artificial Trees

The Christmas tree is a German tradition spanning about 400 years and involves taking a live tree in to the home and decorating it, to keep it there for the duration of the Christmas holidays. In the nineteenth century the Germans invented the first artificial Christmas tree which was made of wood however […]

journal - wips

Origami Ornament Day

The weekend was ripe with potential. And then I got laid out flat with some kind of cold/sinus/fall muck. So I decided to spend Saturday and Sunday playing around with paper and trying to figure out which origami ornament would be the one I make for all my friends and […]

round up

Spices to Make and Give!

I know we are a good two and a half months away from Christmas, but I really want to avoid the last minute crazy of the idyllic *handmade* christmas. I’m going to make gift baskets again for our friends and family. In each one I want to have mix of handmade crafts […]

howto - patterns & tutorials - zines

Leftover Christmas Zine: Issue 2!

The newest issue of the Leftover Christmas MiniZine is in the shop! In this month’s issue we make ornaments together. I talk a bit about silhouettes, felt, and cut paper. The zine contains instructions for making your own ornaments in bulk from silhouettes and includes an my own original design […]

book review - thrift kitchen

Holiday Baking Making Plans

Okay family and friends out there reading this post, avert your eyes. This is a complete spoiler alert, so go away, skip to a different post. Starting last year I opted to make gift baskets up for my family and friends instead of trying to puzzle out individual gifts for […]

round up

Holiday Crafting Round Up: Loving me some felt!

There is so much holiday cheer and happy crafting going on right now I can hardly stand it. I do love it all so much. Here are a few of my favorites that I’m hoping to make in the next 10 days: Dollhouse Sized Aluminum Christmas Tree on Zakka Life […]

howto - patterns & tutorials

How to: Paw Print Ornament


With the new addition to our home (kitten Gregory) I got a bug in my bonnet to commemorate our little citizens with their very own ornaments, but how?

Then a memory from long since past hit me: handprints! But in this case: paw prints!

Each little critter gets their own disk. And then I decided that Jason and I get one too. To load up on the cheese, it’s Jason and I’s first Christmas in our house and it seems like something to make note of too.

round up

Making a Happy Holiday Home

Jason and I are spending our first holiday season in our first house. It’s not terribly different from the apartment but there’s just something different. Maybe I’m a little different. Maybe it’s being able to have a real Christmas tree for the first time that’s actually REAL and over 4 […]

nosew - patterns & tutorials

How To: Pomanders!

Though I’ve always thought pomanders were a great idea, it wasn’t until yesterday that I actually made my own! It was one of the activities at the Winter Art Camp at the Octagon Center for the Arts. I was invited to stay after my activitiy was over and join in […]

journal

Yule Logs @ the Octagon Art Camp

{Beth is the in the middle here and is the art education director at the Octagon. She’s a super talented resourceful artist and it has been a pleasure getting to know her. She is an Ames C.art member too :) } I love helping with art camps at the Octagon! […]

journal - nosew

A few of my favorite things: Ornaments!

I love making handmade ornaments and this week, the internet craftdom has been ripe with great ornament patterns! Aren’t these just beautiful? The way the fabric is cut up and pinned makes them wonderful for using up scraps. You can get the tutorial on Knitty Gritty Thoughts. This one is […]

howto - nosew

Past Perfect: Fixing Broken Ornaments

Now that Thanksgiving is over, I am happily jumping straight into Christmas mode, and part of that is getting a tree up and decorated. A little Christmas cheer to start the season out right. So what happens if you open up your box of homemade ornaments, or hand-me-down extra special […]

journal

Grand Opening Sale!

Hooray it’s here! It’s today! The Winter issue of Craft Leftovers Monthly is on sale. Subscriptions are on sale! Box sets of Volume 1 are available! And everything in the new shop is 15% off today and tomorrow (calculated at checkout automatically, no code required). And when you place your […]

journal

New Shop, Winter issue of CLM, and new Kits!

Grand Opening Celebration for CraftLeftovers.com/Shop is this Sunday and Monday, November 15th and 16th! Every month over the last year I have been continually wowed by the amount of subscriptions sold and the amount of orders placed. I realized that Craft Leftovers had out grown etsy and artfire. So I […]