xmas – Cecelia's Spot

25 Ideas for Advent Calendars (&Crafts)

Today there are many advent calendars that can be bought, ranging from simple chocolates to complex lego advent calendars. There are wine, book, superhero, and just about anything advent calendars that can be bought for a price. I remember having certain Christmas traditions in my home as a child and want my children to experience similar fond memories when they are older. So I purchased a German Christmas pyramid second hand (as they can be very expensive and knowing children, it most likely will break).

I also decided to buy an advent calendar for my children. I decided one sturdy wooden advent calendar would do the trick! I saw many beautiful lit ones for higher prices; however, I felt they could easily be broken. I finally decided on one I purchased at Lowes.

Now, the big question is, what should I fill each day with? So many options, but such a SMALL space. So, only very small items fit, such as two Hershey kisses or two small mini candy bars and the door wont completely shut. I didn’t want to start off with something too grand in the first door. My kids were excited about chocolate, so that’s what I did, two very small pieces of chocolate.

For the other doors, I will have some small chocolates in a couple, but I have many other cute and fun items for the kiddos. I’ll leave a very small piece of paper in the day that will have a clue to where their item is located. I was going to go into scavenger hunts, but lets be real, I would rather relax for a couple minutes after bed (or do this post), instead of trying to come up with an elaborate hunt they will be done with in 5 mins! Since my children can’t completely read yet, I decided using pictures might be best. So in day 2 I will put a picture of a christmas tree. They will run to the tree and see a pack of fruit flavored candy canes under the tree to hang up on the tree.

Here are some other ideas of items you can leave notes for:

Candy
Christmas books
Plato
wooden /ceramic projects
Felt snowman fun
any kind of christmas project including photo ornaments, easy glitter ornaments, and many other ones on this website
ornaments for the tree
Christmas clothing
Christmas lights
coloring books
Christmas cookies
Baking recipe to make cookies
Sprinkles for cookies
Hot cocoa packet/marshmallows..or homemade hot cocoa
Christmas movie
Christmas mask (2020)
Christmas headband, clips, socks
Small stuffed Christmas santa, elf etc.
Sock Snowman (either made or have supplies to make)
Felt Christmas tree (can make one, or if child is old enough they can make it!) or just an ornament to add to their current felt C
Christmas tree!
Tree Prints!
Salt dough wreath, ornament, or garland!
+Pomander Ball supplies
Felt Snowman Fun!
Singing holiday card/toy/Christmas solar bobble head

ENJOY AND HAVE FUN!!

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Homemade Paint!

Looking for an easy homemade nontoxic paint for your little one to be creative? Well, look no further! We experimented with several types of homemade paint and below are our favorite recipes!

Kids of all ages love painting! You can have your little one finger paint, use brushes, sponges, or even potatoes!

So we started off making completely edible finger paint with only a couple ingredients!

Here is what you will need: (this makes enough for about 4-5 different colors depending on how much you want for each)…

1 cup water
1/2 cup of flour
extra water to thin out
food coloring, watercolors, or natural colors such as beet, carrot, tumeric

Instructions:

Place pot over medium heat and pour flour and water into pot and continuously stir the ingredients until it becomes a thick paste.
Take the pot away from the heat when it no longer sticks to the sides
Add cold water to the blob until it reaches the consistency you like and place the amount you desire into separate bowls to color.
Add food coloring, watercolors, natural colorants such as beet or carrot juice, turmeric spice
These can be enjoyed right away or stored in the fridge!!

This paint works well for fingerpainting or sponge painting. You can also use brushes but as you see in the photo, the colors come out thinner and lighter than traditional paint. The color dries on without fading. We used the paint several days in a row.

And who doesn’t love watercolors? The problem with watercolors is that the colors can mix and you only get very small amounts of each color. However, this can all change with homemade watercolor paints!

tbsp. baking soda
2 tsp. white vinegar
1/2 tsp. light corn syrup
2 tsp. corn starch
food colors*
containers for storing paints*
something to stir with (toothpicks)

You can use a muffin pain, disposable cups, egg cartons, or any other container that you aren’t going to use for a couple days.

Instructions:

1)Mix baking soda & vinegar in a cup with a spout. I used my Pyrex measuring glass. Let the kids watch as it fizzes

2) Add in light corn syrup and stir.

3) Stir in the corn starch until well combined. (If it gets too thick, add a little more vinegar.)

4)Pour into your paint containers- not too full, you need room for the food colors.

5)Add the food colors and stir until you reached your desired color!

6) Now if you want them to harden into hockey pucks you have to let them sit almost two days! If you plan on using it right away that’s fine too!

Sponges and potatoes!!

You can cut out designs in potatoes or out of sponges and dip into paint and press just like a stamp! I remember doing this as a child!

You can also use cookie cutters and paint the potato. This picture was taken from Fun stuff.
Dollar store sponges are great to cut out designs for painting!

Enjoy!

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Easy Sock Snowmen!

What’s an easy gift that can be personalized and made in 15mins? A sock snowman of course!

A what? A Sock Snowman? What is that????

Well, let me tell you. A sock snowman is a snowman made with rubber bands, rice, men’s socks, a hot glue gun, and personalized items. It is easy, fast, and I love that you can personalize it any way you want for any time of the year! I made 10 of them for Christmas gifts. You can see the harry potter and eagles one above. I also made a hunter, patriots, and princess snowman. Then I made the usual Christmas snowman for decorations as well. I even got most of my supplies at the dollar store!

As usual, there is a youtube video tutorial and the written instructions below. These make great gifts for any occasion and are quick and easy! Enjoy!

What you need:

-Hot glue gun
-Crew socks or longer
-Any type of rice
-Rubber bands
-Decorations such as eyes, stick ons, felt, buttons, bows, pins

Take your crew sock and cut below the ribbed area (the bigger the snowman the lower you want to cut (the bottom part will be the hat of the snowman).
Turn the top ribbed part inside out and place a rubber band tightly on one end
Turn it right side out and pack with rice. Make sure you continuously pack it down with your hands to give the snowman a fuller shape. Leave a small area on the top and then close it with another rubber band.
Put a rubber band on the top then 1/3 of the way down place another rubber band as tight as you can and adjust the rice to form the body and head of the snowman.
Now time for the fun part- decorating!
The scarf can be made out of felt, scrap fabric, or even a crocheted or knitted scarf! I did this with camo yarn for a hunter snowman.
I used the hot glue gun to make sure everything stayed in place including the scarf and hat!
Take the bottom part of the sock and fold top of it and place on top of the snowman’s head for the hat! Feel free to decorate the hat as well.
I made my sister a harry potter snowman. I also made a hunter camo snowman, princess snowman, patriots snowman, soccer player, and Christmas themed
snowmen.
Congrats you are done! Good job! Post your pics!

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DIY Felt Christmas Tree!

Cece bear loves to pull toys out of baskets and put them back in. She also likes to build blocks and figure out other puzzles. So I thought to myself, what can I make for Christmas that she can play with? And a mini Christmas tree came to mind. Eventually, I figured out a felt Christmas tree with all sorts of sensory stimulation and Velcro ornaments would work! So I decided to get to work.

I decided to make three trees, one for each of Cece’s friends. It also made a great birthday gift for her friend Kyle’s first birthday! This is a great activity to do with older children as well. They can make their own ornaments and decorate the tree! There are a variety of ways to put the tree, ribbons, buttons, and ornaments together. The two I used were sewing and hot glue gun, but you can do one or the other as well. Just make sure if you have a baby, infant, or toddler, to make sure everything is very secure so they can’t pull it off!

As always, there is a youtube video and written steps and pictures. Feel free to add your own creativity and pizzazz!!!

If you have an older child, instead of using velcro to stick the ornaments on, you can use string or twine looped on the ornament and they can put them around buttons on the tree!

What you need:
*Green felt fabric (I used 1.5
yards for three trees)
*velcro
*Brown felt fabric (stump)
*Felt fabrics of various colors for
ornaments of your choice and design
*optional: buttons, ribbons,
and other accessories

1) Fold your green felt and make a tree outline on the fold (so half of it traced on). Then cut your tree out!

2) Next, if you want a stump, use brown fabric to cut one out! Once again you can trace it out. You can either sew it on the bottom or hot glue gun.

3) I wanted to make something to hold the ornaments besides just having them stick to the tree. So I decided a present with the child’s name on it would be perfect! So next I chose a color of felt I had and cut about 11x 7 inches.

4) Next, for one of the presents I made I wanted the bow long ways down so I sewed a piece of ribbon straight down the piece. (the other two I made have it across the box which you can sew on now or later)

5) The next step would be to turn it right sides facing inwards and sew to the length you want so you have the top of the present flap long enough. Check out the picture to see what I mean. Then turn right side out.

6) As you can see, I decided to iron on letters for the name of the child. These two presents are different sizes. Also, if you want to put a piece of iron on or sew on or glue gun on Velcro to the top of the present to have it stick now is the time.

7) Then decorate the present at will. I added some adhesive Rudolph stickers. I did hot glue them so they would be more secure.

8) Follow that, I sewed the present onto the tree. This is optional, you can have it separate or not have a present at all. I opened the top flap and sewed right along the fold to the tree. You can also hot glue gun it.

8) Now, back to the tree. Now is the time to get even more creative! Use ribbons, garland, buttons, or whatever you want on the tree! You can sew or hot glue gun them on. If you have an older child and want to have hanging ornaments on buttons then align your buttons!

9) Next, it is time to make ornaments. If your child is older they can help decorate and make ornaments. I chose actually Christmas items and one ornament and one light bulb. I used whatever felt scraps I had to make them. I also made a star at the end. Remember to Velcro your ornaments on the back using the hard side of the Velcro. You want to iron them on before you decorate the front! Otherwise you might melt or damage your decorations.

To hang the tree, I used 3m adhesive strips, but I have heard that the blue paint tape works well on walls. You can also use suction cups if its on the window or door. Ok enjoy! Feel free to post your tree below!

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Sew An Easy Baby Sleeper!

Ever love that oh so cute baby sleepers with the elastic on the bottom? I sure do, in fact I miss them now that my little one is getting older! However, I have many showers to go to and it is a great gift! The slip on sleeper with the elastic on the bottom is great for babies because you can easily change the babies diaper without fussing with all the buttons, snaps, or zippers. It also keeps the baby warm and comfortable; not to mention how cute he or she will look!

First off, you need the pattern. For this one, I used a neighboring sewing blog’s pattern since there are so many out there:

Stitched Together Pattern

So print your pattern making sure you unclick the fit to page (you want it letter size).

What you need:
*Fabric of chose
*Thread
*Elastic 1/4inch or
1/8inch
*Optional: bias tape (can
also make or just hem)

Below is the link to the Youtube video tutorial. Below that is written instructions with pictures…enjoy!

Print your pattern. Cut your fabric as instructed on pattern

You should now have one front and one
back piece, and two sleeves.

2. Next, you use your bias tape. If you don’t have bias tape you can hem the ends instead or you can make your own bias tape. Here is directions to make your own bias tape

3. Fold your bias tape on the ends of the sleeves, pin on
and sew straight on both sleeves. Do this also to the neckline of the front and back piece.

4. Next, You want to overlap your front and back gown pieces by either looking at the mark you made from the pattern or you can measure 4 inches of overlap from the top down. So you want to pin and sew the overlapping sides (the 4 inches)

5. Find the middle of the overlap and the middle of the sleeves. This can be done by measuring 2 inches in for the overlap or folding. The sleeve can be folded as well if you didn’t mark it. Line up the middle of the sleeve and middle of the overlap place pattern on pattern and pin and sew.

You have to bunch it and pin it for it to stay.

6. Turn your sleeper inside out and pin from the bias tape bottom all the way down to the bottom of the sleep. Then sew!

Almost there!

7. Turn inside out and make elastic casing by folding up the bottom 1/4 inch for 1/8elastic or 1/2inch for 1/4elastic. Iron or pin the area to make it easier to
sew. Don’t forget to leave a 1-2 inch opening to put the elastic through!
Remember to back stitch!

8. To get your elastic through use a safety pin on the end and put in the opening
and pull through by bunching the fabric and then pulling the safety pin.

9. Choose the tightness you need for your little one on the bottom and then sew your two pieces of elastic together. Then sew the opening closed!

That’s it! Congrats you have finished! Great job. Any suggestions questions please let me know. Look for the next post to be the matching slippers!

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Creating A Photo Pillow

Looking for that perfect gift for someone? Maybe for a holiday or special occasion? Possibly a housewarming gift? Or maybe just an I’m thinking of you gift, the photo pillow is a perfect easy sewing project! The pillow below always gives my little one a smile when she picks it up on the couch! I know my husband enjoys it too because sometimes I find drool on it :op

Follow the You-tube tutorial here:

You can also follow along here:

For this tutorial you will need:

Freezer paper the size of a piece of printer paper (8.5×11″)
Computer and printer (choose your photos or photos)
Fabric (sizes vary on size of the pillow you would like)
Sewing machine and accessories
Poly-fill
Iron

1. Start by cutting a piece of freezer paper to the size of a piece of a paper (8.5×11′). Also cut the piece of fabric you are going to print the photo on to that size. Remember you most likely want to print on a light thin colored fabric so the picture stands out.2. Next, take your fabric you want the photo printed on and put it on your ironing surface with the side you want the photo printed on down. Then put your freezer paper shiny side down against the fabric. Have your iron on medium high and iron on top of the freezer paper. You can also turn it over and iron the fabric with the freezer paper on the bottom. Do not leave it on one spot too long or the fabric will develop a burn mark. Make sure the corners are well ironed and the sheet should stick to the fabric.

3. Take the fabric and freezer paper that are now one to your printer. Place it in the paper tray and print your photo. Make sure there aren’t any loose strings hanging on the side of your fabric, this could catch in your printer. Also make sure you put your paper in the way your printer will print on the fabric and not the freezer paper. If you are unsure, take a piece of regular printer paper and mark one side. Put it in the tray and check and see which side it prints on.

4. Once you have your photo printed, you can easily peel off the freezer paper. You can save the freezer paper to use one or two more times; quite economical if I should say so myself! Then, if you are planning on putting the photo fabric on a larger piece of fabric to have a bigger pillow, you want to fold a hem around the edges of your fabric and pin and sew it onto the larger piece of fabric. Below is an example.

However, if you would like to make a small decorative pillow (the size of a piece of paper), you would skip this step.

5. Next take your photo fabric or front of the pillow and place it facing side up. Take the back fabric for your pillow and place it on top facing in. So now the fabric pieces you want to be on the outside of the pillow are now facing the inside. Pin them together. Then you want to stitch all the way around the outside except for a three inch opening. So make sure you back-stitch when you start and end. I suggest you do not do this on the corner because it will be harder to hand sew at the end. This opening will be used to turn the pillow right side out and then stuff with poly-fill.

6. After sewing, turn it right side out. Stuff it with poly-fill to your desired fullness.

7. Now you will have to decide what stitch you want to use to close it. You can close it on the machine however it will be noticeable. You can do the regular loop stitch which is easiest. Another option which is used in my video is the blind stitch. The blind stitch is used for hems and closures that you want “blind.

8. And Viola! You are finished, congrats and enjoy!

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