Christmas Place Mats for Kids - digital, printable

For those of you with kids, and a lot of holiday dinner plans with friends and family, here's an idea... printable colouring place mats for the kiddos (or easily bored adults ;)  I have two kids, and I know how fast they eat, and then how quickly they lose interest in being at the dinner table.  Why not have printable place mats (like they do at restaurants!). Have a cup of wax crayons at the table for the kids to share. 

I have created a few options for you, an 11 x 17 option (that you can get printed at any print shop), or a 8.5 x 11 option (if you are stuck and need a quick print at home!).   
Links to the PDF files are below each image! Enjoy and happy holidays.  

 

 

11" x 17" Elf in colour
11" x 17" Elf line only
8.5" x 11" Elf in colour
8.5" x 11" Elf line only

 

11" x 17" Woodland in colour
11" x 17" Woodland line only
8.5" x 11" Woodland in colour
8.5" x 11" Woodland line only

Spoonflower Winter Animals - fabric

I got my winter animal series done as throw pillows... and have the fabric available for sale on my spoonflower site, for those of you who sew :)

I envision these as the fronts with some fun geometric patterned back fabric, or maybe faux fur (in fun colours, maybe light blue for the polar bear?) I still have to sew mine (this one is just pinned to another pillow for the photo).  For those of you who know me, I am trying very hard to learn to sew, but it's a work in progress, eventually these will be my throw pillows!

They would also work well as shoulder bags as reusable shopping bags. They measure 16" x 16" (I chose this size because it's easy to find pillow inserts to fit this size (Walmart and Ikea both have them). 

Here are some close ups of a couple of the fabrics, I got these printed on Linen-Cotton Canvas. The print job and detail are terrific, I also love the texture of this fabric, something very natural feeling about these.

 Here's the spoonflower link again if you are interested! Feel free to send me pics of your sewing jobs too, I always love to see what you guys do with my fabrics!

Celeste

Advent Calendar - craft time

Happy December! Elliott and I made an advent calendar last week, to help us countdown to Christmas.  I made the cards out of card stock I had in the house, and Elliott decorated them with glitter, stickers and buttons (again, whatever we had kicking around the house!).

 

Elliott was very proud of his work, and couldn't wait until his big sister got home from school so she could see and share in the fun.  If you are not crafty there are lots of places you can get some really beautiful pattern or ready made calendars (check out Etsy, or if you are good at sewing there are lovely patterns at Spoonflower!)

In the pockets I like to to do something a little different. Sometimes there are treats for the kids (chocolate, or stickers or a small toy...like a lego man), and sometimes it's an activity we will do that day (bake a Christmas cake!). But because Christmas is not only about getting things (something I work really hard to teach the kiddos), at least 3 times a week the message in the calendar is something they do for someone else, for example...

- Bake cookies for a neighbour

- Complement 3 people today

- Write and mail a letter to a friend to tell them how special they are

- Make a small bag of donations for the shelter

- Hug everyone in your family

etc... you get the idea ;)

 

We love Christmas here, and try to make the most of out it for the entire month.  This is just one way we like to have fun with it.  Hope you all have a happy December, and take time to enjoy it throughout all the busy time that comes with it! 

Celeste