Holiday crafting, part 7 - Wrap it up

Ugh, puns. I'm so ashamed.

But gift wrap did seem like a fitting conclusion to my holiday crafting ideas. Hopefully you are about done with your holiday crafting (as we are about out of holiday season). Should you be a procrastinator like me, here's the recap:

Part 1: Knitted Coffee Cozies for the caffeine addicts. A good, quick option for making a Starbucks card a bit more fun.

Part 2: Okay, part 2 was about pirates. Maybe it's better to recap the ornament ideas.

Part 3: Pretty paper wraps for votive candles. You can do these assembly line style if you need gifts for a crowd.

Part 4: Fleece blankets. A no-sewing-required option for my dog or any Linus-wannabes on your list.

Part 5: The major craft. You can't do it for everyone (at this point, you may not have time to do it for anyone). But some people are worth a bigger project.

Part 6: Truffles. Each one is about as fussy to make as an individual Christmas cookie. But you can wrap up 2 dozen cookies for your neighbor or 8 truffles. Overall, you'll save time.


Which brings us to the end. So many lovely projects - store bought wrapping paper would be a let down after all this craftiness. Plus, they want like $5 a roll for that stuff.

Enter, the recycled sweater. One red cashmere sweater with moth holes + six cycles in the hot cycle of the washing machine = a whole bunch of soft and pretty felt. Cut out a couple of foot shapes, add a bit of blanket stitching around the edges and you've got a stocking. Perfect for wrapping up small presents. A bit of i-cord and you can hang it on the tree. (I always wondered how they did that "presents on the tree" stuff)

Cashmere wrapping paper - it seems so fancy. But I've gotten 2 big stockings, a bunch of medium stockings and all the ornament-sized mini-socks I can stand to stitch together from one crew neck sweater that would otherwise have been garbage.

(This one is Emily's present. I point that out only to see if I can drive her nuts with curiosity between now and Christmas)

Okay. That's it for me. This will wrap up my holiday blogging (ugh, enough with the puns already) because I'm off to visit family. Whether the final night of Hanukkah, the winter solstice, Christmas, New Year's or whatever you choose to celebrate, I hope it's merry.