Kids Christmas Craft and Our Christmas Tree

It's Christmas Eve and I'm popping in to share a little craft I made with my boys as well as our Christmas tree since I didn't yet have it up for the Christmas home tour.  The craft I made with the boys was super simple.  We made banners exactly the same way as last year (find the tutorial here) and added some wood stickers from the craft store to them in a pattern.  I had the boys paint the wood stickers and then we just stuck them onto the banners using a ruler as a guide to keep them relatively straight.  I love how they turned out and my oldest wanted to use red in his wall hanging and once it came time to put the trees on.  He added a green one for good measure.  Little brother was not as picky and mostly enjoyed painting using his favourite colour green.

Here's a shot of the living room with our tree.  The boys decorated it all by themselves.  They pulled over the kitchen stools in order to reach the higher branches.  I personally love how it turned out including the ornaments that touch the floor.

I'm off to roast our Turkey for tonight's birthday party for Jesus as my boys have been calling our Christmas celebration.  I hope that your Christmas is filled with the hope that came on this very Holy night.

DIY Scandinavian Christmas Tree Skirt

Today, I am so happy to be sharing a super simple DIY Scandinavian Christmas tree skirt featuring some beautiful Marimekko fabric from FinnStyle.  Making a tree skirt was on the top of my Christmas DIY to do list.  I love the Scandinavian style of tree skirt where the skirt is more like a little carpet that sits under the tree stand/basket. 

When browsing Finnstyle's selection of Marimekko fabrics I instantly knew that the Kanteleen Kutsu fabric would be perfect for my boys' wooden dowel Christmas tree.  I think all the forest animals in this fabric are perfect for children, but it is still sophisticated enough to be used in an adult space as well.  I also chose this fabric since it is an upholstery weight which made this sewing project a snap since the fabric didn't require any additional reinforcement (e.g., inter-facing).  I used some mint green bias tape to finish the edges of my Christmas tree skirt to tie in with all the soft colours I've been using in my Christmas decor this year.  I really love how the tree skirt turned out and am trying to think of a way to keep it out all year long in our home.  

A little further down in this post you'll find the how to.  I made the skirt for this tree to be a little smaller in proportion with the tree, but I do also provide tips on how to make a larger tree skirt.

DIY SCANDINAVIAN CHRISTMAS TREE SKIRT:

Materials:   

A)  100 cm to 150 cm of heavy weight fabric or lighter weight fabric plus an equal amount of interfacing.  The skirt pictured here is just under 90 cm, but you can make your skirt as wide as your fabric allows (i.e., if your fabric is 145 cm wide then you will be able to make a skirt that is 145 cm in diameter).

B)  double fold bias tape - use the diameter x pi calculation to determine how much bias tape you will need

C) coordinating thread

How To:

1)  Cut out a circle from your fabric to the size you have selected.  I used our living room coffee table to trace a circle on the back of the fabric to cut out my tree skirt. :) However, you can make your own compass by attaching a pencil to a string that is the length of the radius of the tree skirt(circle).   Just place the string in the centre of the fabric and pull it taut and pivot around creating a circle.

2)  Zig zag or serge around the edge of your circle to prevent fraying

3)  Attach the double fold bias tape by opening up one of the folds and with right sides of the fabric and bias tape together stitch the tape into place following the crease from the fold in the bias tape.

4)  Turn the rest of the bias tape over to the back of the fabric enclosing the raw edge of the tree skirt. Once the tape is turned over and secured in place stitch close to the inner edge of the bias tape on the right side of the fabric catching the back side of the tape that you folded over.

That's my super simple DIY Christmas tree skirt.  It's no secret that I am a fan of Marimekko and I am so thankful to Finnstyle for providing this beautiful fabric for this project.  I know that we will continue to us this Scandinavian Christmas Tree Skirt for years to come!

Finnstyle also has some really fabulous offers going on over the next couple of weeks if you are still looking for a gift to give someone this Christmas.  I know I would love just about anything from their online store!

December 14-16:  For every $100 spent at FinnStyle.com, you will receive a set of two Iittala Ultima Thule salad plates
December 19:  Marimekko End of Season Sale begins.

DIY Wooden Bead Star

This Christmas season seems to be just flying by!  I feel like my to do list is a mile long, but I'm also trying to enjoy the little moments with my family.  Today, I'm crossing off the tutorial for the wooden bead stars off my blogging to do list.   

You may remember these beaded stars from my Christmas home tour.  I'm really pleased with how they turned out.  They are fairly quick to make too.  The smaller size would make a lovely ornament.

My Christmas mantel also features a couple of other wooden stars that I made.  The large one is a star cut out of plywood which I painted and the small one by the picture frame is simply a string of beads on a wire that was bent into the shape of a star.  Below you'll find the tutorial for the more intircate stars that are on the right side of the mantel.

DIY WOODEN BEAD STARS

1.  Gather your materials:  a) Wire with a gauge that corresponds to the size of your beads (you want the wire to be strong/stiff enough to support the weight of the beads)
b)  48 wooden beads

2.  Take your wire and string on 5 beads leave a small length of wire on one end and the majority of the wire on the other end.

3.  Take the first bead that you strung and make the first point of the star by twisting the two lengths of wire together to hold the bead in place.

4.  Thread the short length of wire through the second bead as shown in the photo below.

5.  String another two beads onto the short length of wire and push beads three and four from step 2 close to the other beads.

6.  Thread the short length of wire through the fifth bead from step 2 in the same way as you did in step three.  Twist the short and long lengths of wire together to create your first star point. (from this point on you will be working with the long length of wire)

*the how to continues after the photo below

7.  To make your next tip, string on 6 beads to the long length of wire.  Secure the top bead as you did in step 2 by twisting the wire at the base of the bead.

8.  Insert the end of the wire back through the second bead.

9.  String on two more beads to the wire.

10. & 11.  Thread the wire end through the fifth bead that you strung on initially skipping over two beads.

12. Repeat steps 7-11 four more times.  When you have made all six points of your star twist the short length of wire and whatever wire you have left from the long length of wire together a few times to close the star.  Then cut the excess wire off.  You can use a string/twine inserted through one of the tip beads to create a hanger.

There are a lot of steps to this how to and I hope the pictures will help.  Let me know if you have any questions.

One last look at our mantel.  I'm hoping that later this week we'll have a chance to go cut down our Christmas tree and really make our living room feel cozy for Christmas.

Christmas Home Tour

Today is my turn to share our Christmas home tour as a part of the Canadian Bloggers Christmas Home Tours.  Make sure you check out the links at the bottom of this post to see all of the other bloggers sharing their gorgeous homes.

For our Scandinavian Christmas home I've decided to go with a little more colour.  My boys are always asking for more colour and this year I ended up DIYing some colourful decorations.  I chose to go with the  pastels that I seem to be bringing into our home a lot lately.  In today's tour you'll see what we have up so far.  I'm sure that I'll be decorating and DIYing throughout December which means things will likely change a little before Christmas Eve.  You also won't see our Christmas tree in these photos.  I couldn't bring myself to break our Finnish tradition of waiting until much closer to Christmas to go and cut down our tree (traditionally Finns in the past waited until Christmas Eve to get their trees).  I'm also a little petrified of the tree completely drying out before Christmas if I was to put it up in November.  I do have lots of greenery and other decor that I'd love to show you so I hope you don't mind touring my home without the Christmas tree.  

For the tour today I'm going to take you in a bit of a loop through the main living spaces of our 60s ranch home starting in the living room.  Below is the  view you would have if you were to stand in our entry looking into the living room.  

The fireplace is the focal point of our long and narrow living room.  I decided to decorate the fireplace with a variety of wooden stars that I made (I'll be sharing the DIY for these soon) and a garland I made from pine branches.

On the coffee table I've displayed my DIY elf family and my Kahler Christmas tree candle holders.  I still need to find some small candles to put in these trees.  Nalle (our dog) is also missing from the elf family.  I blame the boys since he was there the night before I took these pictures.

I did dig up a small pine tree and put it in a planter that I had on the deck in the summer.  I'm hoping I'll be able to replant it in the spring.  The tree is perfectly Charlie Brown.  I also think it's a nice way to display a few ornaments while we wait to get our real Christmas tree.  You'll see that I like to hang our ornaments throughout the house in early December so that we can enjoy them throughout the month.

The opposite corner of our living room is very simply decorated.  My grandmother's teak sewing table is the perfect spot for our nativity.  I also like that our house tissue holder goes with the Scandinavian Christmas feel (usually I would have to hide the tissue box when taking photos of the house).

This is another corner of our living room.  It's opposite of the sofa in the previous picture.  This year I went to the antique mall and got that vintage ceramic Christmas tree.  My grandmother had one and admiring all the little lights was one of my favourite memories of my childhood.  I couldn't forget my black Christmas tree garland from two years ago.  I ended up cutting the trees a little smaller this year so that I could fit a few more on the garland.

Now we're passing our entry on our way to my workspace which is opposite of the living room.  If you're coming into our house the living room is on your right and my workspace is on the left.  The entry has some very simple decorations: a couple of paper stars and more pine branches in vases.

In the workspace I've kept things simple with a few bottle brush trees and the boys' wooden dowel advent tree.  We had the tree in their room originally, but it was getting a little abused so I moved it in here.  I love the glow of the star lights in the evening when I'm working in here.

We're now back in the entry about to enter the kitchen.  I hung some globe lights in front of the mirror to greet guests.

You probably got a peek at the chalkboard in the kitchen from the entry too.  I very roughly and randomly drew some trees on it.  I used a picture I found on Pinterest as a guide.

This is our floating shelf in our kitchen.  I hung a few of the DIY ornaments I have made over the years on a dowel and hung it around a deer hook I found at Target in the fall.  The Maribowl holds some of the origami Christmas trees I made last year and the little Christmas tree is actually sitting in a  coffee mug.

You can find the tutorials for the ornaments here:

Beaded Ornaments

Himmeli Ornaments

Origami Tree Ornaments

Paper Star Ornaments

As you walk through our kitchen you end up in the dining room.  You may notice some new chairs in there.  I didn't really intend on buying new chairs, but the night before I took these photos I went to HomeSense to try and track down some affordable fairy lights and came home with a couple of pink Eames-style chairs.  I think they're kind of fun and actually super comfortable and sturdy for knockoffs.  I'm a tad worried that I may become tired of the pink, but since they were so reasonably priced I may give them a go.  I think they would work well in my office if they don't stay in this room.

My himmeli hanging planter and my advent candle holder are still my favourite DIYs.  I love lighting the candles now for advent.

I'm so happy with the centrepiece I put together for the dining table.  I used the wood veneer paper chain I made a couple of years ago, some pine branches, some of the paper star ornaments I made this year and a few Iittala votive candle holders.  I love how simple it is.  You can also see from the above picture that we've now made it back to the living room.

One last look back at the dining room and those pink chairs!

I really hope that you enjoyed touring our early Christmas home.


Now it's time to take a tour of my Canadian blogging friends' gorgeous homes. Come back each day to see a new set of home tours from Monday to Thursday this week.

Monday: 

AKA Design 

Northern Style Exposure 

The DIY Mommy 

Tuesday: 

The Creek Line House 

Restoration House 

Wednesday:

Suburble 

The Happy Housie 

Nalle's House 

Thursday: 

Clean and Scentsible 

Fynes Designs

Rambling Renovators 

A Pop of Pretty

December Calendar

Happy December!  I'm popping in to share the final calendar for this year.  On the weekend we lit the first advent candle and today we start our advent calendars.   The boys have their homemade ones and I have a devotional I'm following.  I'm really hoping that the boys will learn to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas and be in awe of the greatest gift given.  The other day, my oldest saw our little Playmobil nativity set in the basement and exclaimed that it was for his advent calendar.  In past years, I have put a piece from the set in the advent calendar each day and it has been a great way to talk about the Christmas story with my boys.

I really hope that you have a wonderful Christmas season and that you enjoy the final calendar for 2015!

To download the calendar, click on the image below.  *the calendar is for personal use only*

Have a great first of December and don't forget to come back tomorrow for my Christmas home tour!