Antique Piano Repurposing Part 3- Angel Ornaments

I have a few more projects to share with you and this piano.  Here is another one I was hoping to get it up last month but the month just away from me.

I used some of the hammers from the piano to make these beautiful ornaments. I made tons of them, I also gave one to each of my piano students as their Christmas gift.  Check them out :)

Magic Christmas Blanket

I am so excited to share this with you.  I made it last year but between kids being sick for two months straight and some unexpected health issues with me I wasn't ever able to post this. So I'm making sure that I do it early this year.  

Growing up my Aunt made us a Christmas blanket, it has since then been nicknamed the magic Christmas blanket because you get under it and you fall asleep its so comfy and cozy.  We would fight over it every year as to who gets to have the first nap under it.  I have wanted one of my own for years, and finally after getting enough pictures of one of my parents sending us pictures of them being the first one getting the nap since no one lives at home anymore.  I decided I was going to make my own.  I asked Mom for the measurements of hers and went to the fabric store.

This is what I picked up, 1/4 yard of seven different Christmas fabric and then a yard of white Christmas fabric that was going to be my borders.  Now the big thing about this blanket is that it isn't very wide but it is heavy.  So when buy batting get the thick fluffy kind.

After cutting the blocks and strips of fabric I then sewed everything together.  I had some gingerbread fabric that I have had for years laying around that I used for my backing.  Here is the top of the blanket before I sewed/quilted it together.  I sewed trees down each of the vertical stripes to hold everything together and sewed on a binding. 

 Here is the back of the blanket.

The final product!!! My kids are loving snuggling under it and its just as warm and heavy as the one that my Aunt made for us many years ago.

Matching Sister Aprons

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  Now really starts the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season. I wanted to start off with sharing a quick and easy gift for anyone but that its still a lot of fun for the recipient.

I made these matching aprons, for my nieces for Christmas.  I also embroidered their names onto them.  It's is always fun to have a cute apron to bake in and even better when it matches your sister!! To complete the gift I also added some cookie and cake mixes.  Quick and easy but a lot of fun to make memories with.

Sled display

I wanted to show you guys what I have done with my sled that my wonderful husband surprised me with restoring right here.  The Let it Snow sign I made last year using this tutorial.

Yearly Family Ornaments

We have a tradition that every year we take a family picture in front of our Christmas tree.  I decided that I needed to do something special with those pictures and have something that I can add to eat year.  After brainstorming with my mom this is what I came up with.  I bought the plastic clear ornaments and printed off our picture for each year, added a red bow and cut out green vinyl with the year.

Here is where I hung them up.  I wanted some place a bit different then the tree to display them.  Now whoever comes and visits they can see them right when they walk in the house.

Believe Sign

I saw a sign here and I loved it so I thought I would try making it myself.  I haven't had too much success making stencils and wood signs but I did this one differently and it turned out great!

After painting my board with chalk paint and letting it dry.  I cut out my letters using vinyl, (after doing this and some more investigating I read that contact paper works great as well) then using the paint that I used as my base I painted the edges of the letters and let that dry to prevent the new color of paint from bleeding under the stencil.  I then painted my stencil.

Here it is after I removed the stencil. I decided it was a bit too white, so I watered down some brown paint and rubbed it onto my board.  I know there are many ways to make your board look older this is just what I did because it was what I had conveniently located.

2015 Christmas Ties

I'm sorry the quality isn't the best, I took it from my phone quickly but I wanted to show you guys this year's Christmas ties.  I was so excited when I found this fabric this year and my husband and my boys are loving them.

This year's Christmas Ties

I love love LOVE making my boys matching ties.  Its really easy for me and I can make both of them with a yard of fabric so it isn't that expensive either.  They were finally able to wear them this week to church.

Candy Cane Cookies

These are so much fun and didn't last long at my house.  Its really simple to do first make a batch of your favorite sugar cookie recipe I used this one here.  

When you get to the step where you put the dough in the fridge and chill it divide the dough in half.  I colored one of the batches red (I used gel food coloring).

I used a loaf pan and lined the pan with saran wrap.  Then broke off a chunk of dough flattened it then squished/flattened it against the side of the pan.  Then continued alternating colors until I was out of dough.

 I would pull up the saran wrap and use that to help flatten the dough and squish it together.  When I was done with that I chilled it in the fridge for the time the recipe called for.

 When the dough was ready I cut off a slice of the dough block and then cut out my candy cane.

 There was room in the leftovers of the slice to make candy sticks as well.

 Bake as directed.

Christmas Decor

 I thought I would share with you guys my two favorite places in the house.  The first one is the top of my music cabinet.  Last year the display was similar but this year I added the vinyl on the wall and I think that it completed the look for me.  

My second place is the top of my piano.  This and the top of the music cabinet are the only places that are mostly safe from little hands rearranging things for me.  I love that my lanterns also have special meaning that I have gotten them from trips that we have gone on since moving here.

Christmas Hair bows

I'm sorry for the bad quality of picture.  I thought that I had gotten a better one of the bows but I can't seem to find it.  I made these bows for my girls to go with their Christmas shirts.  I made them the same way that I did here.

Merry Christmas shirts

So I have been looking through my files and have found stuff that I did last year for Christmas and I never posted them!!!  Now you get to see them.  These are the Christmas shirts I did last year for the kids.  I did them in the same way that I have done a lot of my shirts on here with the freezer paper. Here are some other shots of the shirts.

The two older kids' shirts.

Here is what I did for the baby's shirt.  I made a tulle skirt to go along with it.

Christmas Ornaments

My mom and I made these last year.  They were really simple, we bought the ornaments from Hobby Lobby.  Mom then cut out different names that Christ is known by onto vinyl and then we put them on the ornaments.  You can get your supplies all gathered up and turn on your favorite holiday movie then you are set to go!!

Felt Nativity (can be no sewing)

Last year I saw cool felt nativity scene from here at My Crazy Blessed Life, I even went out and bought the stuff to do it but never did it.   This year in Primary we wanted a nativity that we could put up parts of each week.  This was finally the motivation for me to get it done.  Here is what mine turned out looking like.  You can felt glue all the pieces together but my kids tend to pull things apart really easily so I sewed everything together because I knew in the long run for my kids it would take a lot more to destroy it.

 Everything

 Mary, Joseph and Baby

 Wise Men

 Angels and star

 Animals

 Shepherds and sheep

 My kids have had a blast playing with it.

Christmas Wreath

So I'm sure that you guys have all seen those wreaths with the ornaments and the wire hanger?  Yeah so I saw them a few years ago and thought they were so cool.  I got the stuff to do them and it was the ultimate disaster, they all popped off and I glued them back on and they still fell off.  So then the next year I bought green wreath and glued some ornaments on it and some pine-cones.   It was okay but I wasn't excited about it.  The last couple of years I have really fallen in love the white/red/silver look in Christmas decor.  I found rolls of tulle for less then $4 at Walmart and the bells for less then $4 and the green foam wreath was less then $4 as well.  I came home and this is what I ended up with and I LOVE IT!!!!!  Let me warn you I wasn't thinking through completely and sparkly tulle is made sparkly by glitter!!  My dining room floor now looks like Christmas.   I just cut out many lengths of each roll and just tied it on all the way around, after I went through and hot glued it to the wreath so it couldn't untie itself.  I only used about have of each roll, so now I can use the leftovers on another project. 

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Shirts that is...

These are this year's Christmas shirts.  This is the first time that I have ever used iron on vinyl.  It was relatively easy to use.  I cut the images out with my Cricut machine and then placed it on the shirts and ironed them on.  The instructions said to have the iron on the highest setting and leave it on for 2-3 seconds.  I used the highest setting and left it on for more like 20-30 seconds.  I have had to go back a couple of times and iron it back down again and two of the shirts.  So I probably should have left the iron on it for just a little longer.  But I love how they turned out and the kids won't stop wearing them.