Fun with felt

In our quest to have the simplified (and frugal!) Christmas that I have written about lately, my goal is to stay out of the stores as much as possible. So, when faced with the realization that the gifts I was wrapping were lacking that extra little something, I decided that instead of hitting the mall, it was a good opportunity to look around at what I already had near at hand and make use of it, rather than immediately buying something pre-made. Time to look in the craft drawers for something to inspire. :)

Lo and behold, I found a forgotten, full to the brim bag of felt squares that had given to me awhile back. Emma liked how soft it was in her hands and loved the bright array of colors. She had the brilliant idea of making ornaments out of this felt! It sounded great to me, so I dug around some more and pulled out ribbon, trims, odd buttons, sequins, and glue. Isaac heard about our crafting plans and wanted to
get in on the excitement, too.

Got everyone set up at the table and let them go for it! Nothing like lots of sparkly embellishments and pretty colors to get those creative juices flowing....

I cut out miniature stockings, trees, stars, and round ball shapes to decorate. I was impressed with their imaginative designs.

They are already planning on who the lucky recipients of these ornaments will be! It's so cute how excited they are to give them away. Of course, a few of these somehow made it onto our own tree.....

I worked along side of the kids, and ultimately ended up with 15 ornaments to use in my own gift giving this year. I have more cut out and ready to assemble, but haven't completed them as of yet.

This is as far as I have gotten:

So, this is a sampling of what we have been working on this week. Simple, cute, easy, affordable. These will be perfect as package toppers or tucked inside of an "edible gifts" basket!