gift

Hi friends! My dear friends over at Honey Bee Stamps very kindly sent me some of their exquisite new holiday products from the Cozy Christmas release with which to play, and I went a little nutty creating some felt home decor and ornaments. Working with anything sewing-related has always been incredibly intimidating to me, but I recently discovered that you can use felt and felt glue in almost exactly the same way that you can use paper and regular glue! It seriously has opened up a whole new world (and new shopping opportunities) for me! I learned a few (very simple) stitches to add some bead and sequins adornments, and dug out my hot glue gun and ribbons to create some lovely gifts to accompany our annual cookie boxes for friends and family. I wanted to share them here to hopefully inspire you to try something new, even if it is a bit intimidating! Let’s get started with the details on this first round of projects (because, like I said earlier, I went a bit nutty!).

*I have gathered links to all of the products used at the bottom of the post for your convenience, using affiliate links. Thank you for shopping with my links! I truly appreciate your support for my work!*

The absolutely darling Alice’s Gingerbread Lane dies were up first; I couldn’t resist creating some adorable embroidery hoop ornaments and home decor pieces with these exquisitely detailed dies! The die set contains a ton of different pieces for each house, but with the handy color guide included with each die set and the debossed details on the die cuts themselves, each of these houses are super simple to assemble. I have been acquiring felt in lots of different shades lately, but thought that it would be best to be as traditional as possible with these little houses, sticking to that cinnamon brown for the gingerbread itself with lots of white, red, and green, with a few touches of baby pink!

After I had loaded up my 4″ embroidery hoop with some textured linen material in a natural white color, I used felt glue to adhere the felt die cuts to their appropriate spot. For the super delicate pieces, I did find it easier to place a blob of glue on a piece of scrap paper and use the super fine tip on the die release tool to “paint” the glue on to these super thin pieces, like the windows. I added some stitched details to the door and the roof of the gingerbread house, then used seed beads to add some extra little details and lovely texture to the house and tree, as well as some clear glass snowflakes to the background. I used some gorgeous red ribbon from Vivant to add a loop to create my ornament as well as a bright red bow, which I adhered with my trusty hot glue gun. I am absolutely in love with how this one turned out!

My second house is on a larger 6″ hoop to accommodate the height on the gingerbread house from the Alice’s Gingerbread Lane dies. I again die cut each of the layers from different colors of felt, this time adding in some metallic bronze felt for the eaves and base of the house and some metallic red felt for the garland on the tree. I adhered all of the pieces together with the same felt glue and added the finished pieces to my embroidery hoop with felt glue. To add the beads and stitched stars/snowflakes, I used some gorgeous metallic red embroidery thread. While most of my felt pieces were made to be given away for Christmas gifts, I definitely decided to keep this one for myself to put on my own mantle! It’s so cute!

My next projects featured some ornaments a bit simpler in design using some new and one older die sets. I always make a huge variety of cookies to give out to friends and family in tins, and this year I wanted to include a little something handmade. These dies were perfect for creating a little handmade gift to decorate the top of the tins and, hopefully, our loved ones’ Christmas trees!!

After placing some adorable polka dotted fabric in my 3″ embroidery hoop, I used felt in traditional taupe and cream to create the horse from the adorable Lovely Layers: Old Fashioned Rocking Horse, adding some light blue and red accents for a bit of color. I used some embroidery floss and a satin stitch over the top of the reins, bridle, and saddle to make them a bit neater and secure them down more permanently. I have found that the teeny felt die cuts fray a bit more easily, but you can make them a bit more sturdy with some glue or by adding stitching over the top.

For my next project, I used the tree from the Lovely Layers: Christmas Cookies die set with some green felt and lots of seed beads and sequins to create this festive and sparkling Christmas tree. So much sparkle and detail on this one!

Finally, I created another 4″ ornament with the accents from Lovely Layers: Candy Cane, an older die set that features not only a beautifully detailed layered candy cane image, but also some gorgeous foliage, berries, and a fluffy bow. I cut the foliage from two different shades of green, adhering them with dabs of felt glue; I again used the tip of my die release tool to “paint” the delicate pine sprigs with glue to securely adhere them to my textured linen fabric. I added the fluffy bow to my foliage arrangement, cut from some more metallic red felt, finally adding some stitched details to the holly leaves and some sequins and beads. I finished this one off with another loop of ribbon for the hanger and a fluffy bow at the top!

Well, that’s all for my projects today. I have a few more blog posts planned using these marvelous new dies, so stay tuned! A whole new stitching world has been opened to me, along with a new artistic medium to learn in my spare time. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!