Christmas Mice Ornaments or Present Toppers: A Tutorial

Looking for an ornament or present topper? Christmas mice with candy cane tails make cute ornaments for the tree.   They are also great little present toppers.  This is a great craft for all ages.  I have a faux candy cane tucked inside my little mouse below, but you'll probably want to use a real candy cane if you attach these to a Christmas present.  The faux candy canes work great when making these to use as ornaments.

Here's how Mr. Mouse looks with a real candy cane tail.

Tutorial for Candy Cane Mice:


Supplies you'll need:
Red felt
Gray felt
Black thread for whiskers
Googly eyes or black dots/beads
Craft glue
Candy canes (real or decorative)

Here's a template you can use to make your mice.  It shows the measurements for cutting your red and gray felt.  Save the template below to your computer, then just print it out.  Or, free hand the shape onto a piece of card board to create your template, using the measurements below.

Once you've finished cutting the mouse's body from the gray felt and the ears from the red felt, cut two small slits about 3/4 inch from the back, just big enough for a candy cane to fit through. You'll also need to cut two slits near the front for the ears to pass through.  (See picture for placement.)

Thread a needle with black thread, then just pass it through the felt nose a couple of times.  Snip off the ends of the thread to create the whiskers.  Glue on your eyes with any craft glue...only takes a tiny, tiny bit of glue.

Poke your ears through the little ear slits.  Tuck your candy candy through the slits at the back and up under the ears.  Here's how your mouse should look in back with the candy cane in place:

In the past when I've used these as ornaments for the Christmas tree, I used real candy canes.  If you do that, don't forget to remove the candy canes before storing them away for the next year.  I eventually found plastic candy canes and now I use those each year for the tree ornaments.  It's fun to use real candy canes when making these to go atop a gift.

'Tis the season, so I swapped out the "general" gift wrap in the organizer for Christmas paper and got busy wrapping Christmas presents today.  (Wrapping station came from Pottery Barn about 6-8 months ago...added during an office renovation HERE.)

When placing your little mouse on a gift, just tape the candy cane onto the present underneath the felt where it won't show.  This Christmas mouse reminds me of some other Christmas mice.  You can read about those mischievous mice, HERE.

Make a Pincushion Tutorial: Welcome to the 146th Metamorphosis Monday!

Greetings! How has your weekend been? I hope you've had a fabulous one! I spent Saturday down in Macon, Georgia with my sister and niece at the Christmas Made in the South Fair.  Mark Ballard was there and it was so good to stop by and chat with him a bit.  Did anyone else go to Christmas Made in the South?  It was packed with folks as you can see in this pic below.

Make a Pincushion!
A few weeks ago, I attended an amazing crafting event.  During this fabulous crafting soiree, one of the crafts we made was an adorable pin cushion.  I was thinking today about what a cute Christmas gift it would make, especially if it were tucked down inside a little sewing box.

Today I created another one and took pics along the way in case you would like to make one for yourself or a friend.  To make your pin cushion, you'll need:

Poly fill
Jar lid (medium size lid works well and you can spray-paint your lid if you like)
Embroidery thread or narrow yarn
Embroidery needle
Scrap fabric
A button that looks pretty with your fabric

Do you recognize my scrap fabric?

It's some of the fabric that was left over from when pillows were made for the dormer window seats...

...located in the upstairs family room.  It's also the same fabric that's on the chairs in this room.

To make your pincushion, you'll want to find a glass or some round object that's a little bigger than your jar lid. I used a La Rochere bee glass.  I placed the glass over the lid to see if it was a little bigger than the zinc lid.  Max inspected and declared it to be the right size.

 Next, using a pencil, draw around the glass onto the "back" side of your fabric, twice.  Cut out both pieces/circles of fabric.

Here's how my fabric circles looked in comparison to the size of my lid.  My lids were 3 inches across at their widest, and the fabric circles measured around 4 inches.

Sew the pieces together with the "right" sides of the fabric together.  Cut a little slit in one side, being careful to NOT cut through to the other piece of fabric.  Turn your cushion inside out where the "right" side of the fabric is now facing outward.  Stuff it with a generous amount of the poly fill.

Here's how it looked stuffed.  I didn't do the greatest job of making it perfectly circular, but don't worry, it will all work out fine in the end.  Perfection is not a requirement for this craft. :)

Thread your embroidery needle, knotting it on just one end.  I used the full thickness of the embroidery thread, which was all six threads.

Stitch up the little slit.

All sewn up.  My pin cushion looks more square than circular here, doesn't it?  lol

Okay, getting to the good part.  Next take your needle and insert it through the dead center of the back of your stuffed cushion.

Bring it out the center of the top and loop it over one side.

Stick it back through the center of the back and pull it through the top center again

...looping it over the section of your cushion that is directly opposite from the loop you made the first time.  Pull the thread tight enough to make your cushion a little poofy.

Do the same thing again, but on opposite sides of the cushion.

This divides your cushion into four equal parts.  Again, pull your thread taunt enough to make your cushion poof up a little, as shown below.

I chose to divide my cushion into 8 equal parts.  You could do just six, if you like.

Here's how it looked on the back when finished.

And, here's the front.  You can adjust the little pieces of thread to make your poofy sections more equal in size.  I kept stopping midstream to take pics so I didn't do the greatest job of pulling my thread taunt each time.  Yours will look more consistent if you're not stopping a lot.

Here's how it looked inside the lid.

I dumped out the buttons from my button jar and tried different buttons on top.

I ultimately went with this cute little kitty cat button.  Predictable, right?  lol  Once you have sewn your button onto the center of your pincushion, you can hot glue your cushion into the lid.  My cushions fit snugly enough that I didn't have to glue them in.  They stayed in just fine on their own.

You'll find the old Ball zinc lids on eBay, without the jars.  Just search for "Ball Mason Jar Lids." I love these two lids.  They still have the old writing on them.  One says, "Plum 1934" and the other one says, "Apple Butter -75." :)

This little pin cushion is super easy to make and very forgiving if you make a boo boo along the way.  You saw my cushion didn't look that circular, but in the end, it looked just fine once it was inside the lid.

Imagine tucking it inside a little sewing box or kit as a holiday or shower gift for a budding seamstress...or even a seasoned seamstress. :)   Happy sewing!

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A Blue and White Pumpkin for the Guest Room

There were so many wonderful tablescapes posted for yesterday's Tablescape Thursday!  I got a kick out of all the Halloween table settings--so whimsical and fun!

French Bleu Vintage Giveaway:
The Shopping Spree giveaway from French Bleu Vintage is still underway.  Click HERE to leave your comment to be entered.

A couple of weeks ago I posted about these wonderful découpaged pumpkins I found in the October issue of Country Living.

That post (HERE) also contained a little tutorial showing how you could découpage a "craft" pumpkin.

You may remember the pattern I chose for my pumpkin was the floral fabric on this cute pillow.

Here's how it looked when finished.  I had so much fun with this one, I really wanted to découpage at least one more pumpkin before Halloween was all gone for another year.

I chose a fabric pattern from the guest room this time.

Can you guess which one?

 I am slightly obsessed with blue and white.  It's just such a crisp, sharp combination.  I love the book, A Passion for Blue and White by Carolyne Roehm.   Do you love blue and white decor, too?  It seems to be a color combination that never goes out of style--a classic color scheme.

For my pumpkin this time, I decided on this Ralph Lauren fabric pattern called, Porcelain.  It's the fabric found in the pillow shams on the guest bed.

I drove back over to the same Office Depot and ran off some copies of one of the shams.  Again, I only used around 6-8 sheets.

Next, I painted the orange craft pumpkin, white.  I didn't want to take any chances on that bright orange showing through the white sections of the paper.  It took two coats of white acrylic paint to cover it fairly well.  I used the same white paint I previously used when I made/painted a patriotic flag for the porch, HERE.

The lighting in the guest room is always a bit tough for photographs since it's on the north side of the house.

So, I took Mrs. Pumpkin out on the porch for a few natural-light photos.  You can really see the true colors out here on the porch.

I really love how it turned out.  The central design that appears several times on the shams is visible in this photo.  It depicts two exotic-looking birdies up in a tree.  I put that pattern on the front and back side of my pumpkin.

Then I just filled in the rest of the pumpkin with the other parts of the design.  This pumpkin definitely took longer than the one I posted about before.  It was tricky matching up this intricate pattern--kind of like putting together one of those puzzles where all the pieces look the same.

You'll find the previous post showing how to découpage a craft pumpkin, HERE.  It's really easy.  Just don't rush--take your time.

I'd still love to découpage something with the graphics from the Pictorial Webster we saw in the Country Living magazine.  I don't think I want it to be a pumpkin, though.  Ummm, I'll think of something.

Have you découpaged any pumpkins this year?  If so, please share a pic on the BNOTP Facebook page HERE.  I'd love to see them!

Links referenced in this post:
Guest Room
Découpaged Pumpkin Tutorial
BNOTP Facebook Page
Patriotic Porch with Flag
French Bleu Giveaway