My boys and I made a few handmade Christmas gifts this year.
First, my gift to my parents was a set of place cards. My mom likes to set out name cards for meals whenever she has lots of us visiting. I designed them on Photoshop, printed them out and laminated them.
Each of my siblings' families has a different design. Six of us, plus a different design for my parents. I also made two blank ones that can be written on in dry erase marker if they have any visitors. I wasn't sure how the laminated paper would work to fold, but I just scored one side lightly with my scissors and then folded them over and they worked great!
My 11 year old son has been wanting to learn how to embroider. I taught him as we made these pillow cases for his grandmas. I thought he did a really good job.
Besides a basic stem stitch, he also learned a french knot for the eyes of the penguin and the berries around the wreath, and a detached single chain for the leaves.
He was going to do the sewing too, but we ran out of time. So, I sewed up the pillow and made the pillow case an envelope back.
My 8 year old son made these ornaments for his grandmas. He did most of the sewing by hand by himself.
A Christmas tree for my mom:
A Mickey Mouse gingerbread man went to my mother-in-law who only has Disney ornaments on her tree - he wanted to make sure it would fit in!
My 5 year old also wanted to sew something for his grandmas. He's just learning, so I just taught him how to sew on buttons - to make a penguin and a snowman. I did the rest of the sewing.
