Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!




We're doing double-duty at our house tonight, celebrating both Christmas and Hanukkah. We've had a lovely holiday season, and I'm happy to say that Santa both gave and received some darling handmade gifts this year. I'll be sure to snap some pics and share them here soon. Happy Holidays!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Happy Hanukkah!



A little cross-stitch button for the festival of lights! Happy Hanukkah!

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Jasmine tree ornament


I had so much fun stitching up this jasmine flower Christmas tree ornament earlier this week!

I really enjoyed making this because it was a multi-step project. First, I shot the photo of the jasmine flower, over a year ago when we were on vacation in Spain. Here's that original photo:


Then I cropped the photo to make it round:


I wanted the ornament to actually have the scent of jasmine, so I mixed up some jasmine essential oil...


...with some cellulose fiber fixative, which absorbs the scent of the essential oil, making the scent last longer in a project. 


I printed my cropped photo on some photo fabric that can be put right through the computer printer:


And then I stitched my photo fabric onto the felt, which I embellished with embroidery. Once the embroidery was done, I sewed the front and back pieces together with a little blanket stitch, and stuffed the inside with my jasmine-scented fixative and some fiber fill. Here are some more photos I took before wrapping it up and giving it away today:




I've got several more ornaments underway at the moment, and will reveal them here sometime soon. Happy holidays!