Handmade Sunday

With all this holiday activity in the studio, I have started thinking ahead to my own Christmas gift-giving. We are not big Christmas spenders. In fact, my girls would never give me a list of must-have toys or electronic gadgets. We just don't roll that way. My girls love handmade gifts and we all agree gifts that are made with love are the best. (How did I get so lucky!) We also don't do the Santa thing, just a personal choice. We like Santa, but he is a character in movies and books only.

Did you take the handmade pledge last year?

This year I pledge again to shop handmade for the holidays.

I do have a few exceptions:

1. Art supplies - the gift of creativity is highly valued in our home.


2. Books - you can't give kids enough books, ever.


3. Christmas pajamas - the girls always get holiday pjs on Christmas Eve. (Although this year I'm going to try my hand at making them. I sewed doll pajamas two years ago, so I'm ready to tackle the full size versions.)


Each Sunday from now until Christmas I'll share tutorials that I find, projects that I am working on and my chronicles as Christmas elf while I prepare for the holidays.


First up is this incredibly cute chipmunk who started life as a glove. You can find the pattern here on Etsy. It's from the book, Happy Gloves: Charming Softy Friends Made from Colorful Gloves. Add a little dress, an acorn pendant and skip the stitching on the tail and this is the perfect little gift for a certain squirrel collector on my list.