Tree Topper

I had been unable to find any tree toppers that I liked so I decided to make a big felt star to go on top of our tree.  I cut out two big yellow stars.

I made a pipe cleaner frame to keep it upright and to attach it to the tree.

I stuffed and sewed around the edge so that the star would be plush.

And put it on top of the tree.

Ornament Making

I am a big fan of handmade, obviously.  I love making things and I love being surrounded by handmade things. In addition to my 2012 Nutcracker ornament we have been making some felt ornaments to decorate our tree.  We have a bunch of origami ornaments from previous years and two years ago I made a bunch of narwhal ornaments that I gave out at Christmas time.

Felt ornaments are pretty easy to put together.  In our usually overachieving craft style Ben and I made some intricate designs with a lot of hand stitching but you could just as easily keep it simple with an easy pattern and some glue.

This Ursa Major (Big Bear) design originally started as a jewelry idea which I never made.  I like how it came out as an ornament.

I like adding to the handmade ornaments every year and having a tree covered in things from all our years together.  

 

Mr. Norrell wanted to help too.

I think the dala horse may be my favorite.

Last Night

Some homemade wrapping paper was made last night.  I carved a rubber stamp, rolled out some paint and got to stamping.  

Last Night

Waxed canvas wallet made last night at Etsy in DUMBO with Tielor McBride from TM1985.

Now I am using it to hold business cards.

Doodling Some Honey Comb Necklace Ideas

Making a book to contain my computer which is full of books

Ben made this amazing cover out of a book for his Kindle and I asked him to do a guest post to share how he made it. 

My wonderful wife got me a Kindle for Christmas a year and a bit ago, and I love it. I use it every day and it is full of books. I wanted to make a case for it and saw some cool projects online, so I took a bit from here and a bit from there, added some ideas of my own, and ended up with this.

First, materials. I found a book for $1 on the outside racks at the Strand. I loved it. An old ex-library, hardcover YA sci-fi adventure from the 1950s with a beautiful cover, and just the right size. (I have since researched the book and discovered it was written under a pseudonym by Isaac Asimov, an unexpected bonus bit of cool context.) For the inside I looked around a bit and eventually found some great fabric at Purl. It has trees and turtles and hedgehogs and squirrels. I like these things.

Next, I eviscerated the book. That was hard to make myself do, and took a lot of psyching up, but once I began it took all of 15 seconds.

I then cut some cardboard to fit just inside the front and back covers as well as the spine. I cut the fabric to cover the cardboard in two pieces, one containing the front cover and spine, the other for the back cover. For the front cover, I wanted to include a pocket to hold a small notebook, so I cut a square of fabric and sewed that to the fabric for the front piece. I then sewed the front and back pieces of fabric to their respective pieces of cardboard.

I used hot glue to attach the front piece to the inside of the book. I cut four segments of elastic fabric to use to hold the book in place, and glued them around the corners of the back piece of fabric-covered cardboard. Finally I glued this piece onto the back cover of the book, overlapping the fabric from the front.

I was very happy with the finished product, except that the elastic was not quite tight enough to hold the kindle firmly in place. This turned out fine, however, as I need a place for a pen. I found a pen at Muji that fit perfectly in this space and provided the necessary snugness to keep the kindle from escaping without my consent. The end!