December 2010

We began December with our ward Christmas party. Dinner was served and afterwards the Primary children did a short nativity program.








The following week I held the Second Annual Gingerbread House Party with all of Ashley and Madison's friends and their mothers. We ended up having tons of kids there which made it so much fun! The first year I provided all of the candy, frosting, and graham crackers. This year, after I realized how many kids would be coming, I asked each mom to contribute a bag of candy, frosting, or graham crackers. I have the most amazing friends. They ended up bringing almost everything which made the party easier for everyone! I hope to keep this up every year until my kids tell me they are too old.







I also baked a few pumpkin rolls again this year for neighbors and friends. I couldn't do it without my helper Ashley!





I spent the next week or so getting ready for our trip to Arizona and California. I'll save that for the next post.

December Card Club

For the December Card Club, we were to make three different Christmas tags. Here are the ones I made. I just got back from the club last night, and everyone there made the cutest tags! Can't wait to use them!

Fun Little Purses

My friend Mariana showed me how to make these fun little bags. I made a bunch of them for Christmas gifts for my nieces. Mariana already had cut out the material, and wasn't going to make as many as she had cut out, so I took them home to make them!

I couldn't pass up free fabric!

I included the instructions and I hope I explain it through a blog as well as Mariana showed me! The bag I made below is taller than the ones in the pictures above. The pieces for the above bags are 2 1/2" x 6 1/2", 3 1/2" x 6 1/2", and 5 1/2" x 6 1/2". The bag below is approximately 2 1/4" x 6 1/2", 4 3/4" x 6 1/2", and 6 1/2 x 6 1/2". I had to do some trimming since I made the bag a different size and was experimenting.

This picture shows the three different sizes. You need two of each of these pieces (6 total).

Take the smaller two pieces and put right sides together.
Sew down the side that's 6 1/2". Do it for both sets.

When you open them up they will look like this.

Turn them both on the back side and iron down the middle of the seam.

Flip back over to the front side and pin on the ribbon of your choice. I cut my ribbon to 6 inches.

I pin my ribbon inside the 5 inch mark and 2 inch mark. This helps me center it. It's not perfect, but it's the fastest way to do it!

Take the largest piece you haven't used yet, and put right sides together.

Sew across the top where you pinned the ribbon.

When you open them up, they should now look like this. All three pieces should be sewn together.

Turn them over and iron the other seam flat.

Now pin right sides together at the seams.

Sew all the way around starting at the bottom, but leave an opening at the bottom so you can pull the bag through later.

Iron down the outside seam.

I don't know the term for what we are doing next! I won't be able to explain it very well, so hopefully the pictures will help. While the bag is still inside out, pull the sides apart and flatten the corners.

Sew across each corner.

All four corners will look like this.

Here's another picture of sewing across the corners.

Pull the bag through the open hole at the bottom. Your bag will look like this.

Use your machine to sew across the bottom. This is the only seam that will show, but it will be tucked inside your bag. If you want to hand sew to make the seam look more clean, you can. I just didn't want to take the time.

Push top half of the bag into the other half, and voila! You've got a cute little bag!