December 9, Tenth Day of Advent
Christmas Card Day / Homemade Gift Day
Christmas Card Day
A form of Christmas card began in England first when young boys practiced their
writing skills by creating Christmas greetings for their parents, but it is Sir Henry Cole who is
credited with creating the first real Christmas card. The first director of London's Victoria and
Albert Museum, Sir Henry found himself too busy in the Christmas season of 1843 to compose
individual Christmas greetings for his friends.
He commissioned artist John Calcott Horsley for the illustration.
The card featured three panels, with the center panel depicting a family enjoying Christmas
festivities and the card was inscribed with the message
"A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You."
The wonderful Christmas Cards below were designed by the children at the
Masonic Eastern Star Home for Children
in Fremont, Nebraska. For more information on ordering cards for this year, click on the link.
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Homemade Gift Day
Mouse Candy Cane Holder
Have fun making this Felt mouse candy cane holder.
This is an excellent Christmas craft that's fast, easy and makes a great ornament for anyone's tree.
What you'll need:
- * 6 inch candy canes
- * Red and/or Green felt, Pink felt
- * small Wiggle eyes
- * White yarn
- (with silver laced through, optional, nice touch)
- * Sewing needle with large eye for threading yarn
- * Hot glue gun or white craft glue
- * Scissors
- * Plastic pink jupe or pipe cleaners for whiskers
- (Jupe, or lanyard, is the flat plastic craft string that the children
use to make friendship bracelets.)
- * Polyester stuffing
How to make it:
- Cut two 3 inch pear shaptes from red/green felt. This is the mouse's body.
- Cut two small circles
- Cut two slightly smaller pink circles for ears
- Place ovals together for sewing or gluing.
- Using white yarn, sew a blanket stick around the ovals leaving a one inch
opening at one end of the oval. (You can also glue together)
- Stuff the oval pillow with polyester stuffing.
- Stack small circle, pink on top, and glue approx 1/3 from other end
- Glue two eyes at the other end of the oval.
- Thread through two 3 inch pieces of pink jupe under the eyes, these are the whiskers.
- At the open end, carefully place in the candy cane, this is the tail.
Tips:
Makes a great little gift for folks who just drop by during the holidays unexpected.
Also great gift for groups of children i.e.: classmates, Scouts, etc.
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Dog Paw Stockings:
Materials:
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- Scissors
- Pieces of light tan faux fur, each 24 by 13 inches
- 2 pieces of dark tan faux fur, each 24 by 13 inches
- Sheet of dark brown felt 9 by 12 inches
- Long sewing pins, Large-eye sewing needle
- Dark brown embroidery floss
- Clear tape
- 9 inches of tan twist cord.
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Instructions
Cut 1 paw shape from each piece of the light tan fur and 1 from each piece of
the dark tan fur. Cut paw pads from the brown felt. Pin the paw pads to the furry
side of a dark tan paw and use the floss to whipstitch the pads in place.
Pin together the 4 paws with the dark tan paws on the outside, furry sides out,
and the light tan paws on the inside, furry sides in. Using the floss,
whipstitch around the edges, sewing the paws together. Leave the top edges unsewn.
At the top, sew together the front 2 edges, then the back 2. Fold down the top to make a cuff.
Tape the ends of the cord to keep them from fraying, then sew the
cord to the stocking for hanging.
Mice Ornaments
Remove the tags from two Hershey's Kisses. Cut out mouse ears from pink felt,
about 3/8-inch high. Using double-sided carpet tape, affix the bottoms of the
ears to the flat side of one of the Kisses. Tape an 8-inch loop of fishing line behind
the ears to form a hanger. With more double-sided carpet tape, join together the two
flat sides of the Hershey's Kisses, with the mouse ears and fishing line loop pointing up.
Add a pair of self-adhesive googly eyes. Slip a tail -- a 4-inch piece of curling ribbon --
under the foil. Now, see how they run (or disappear) from your tree!
Chocolate melting Spoons
Dip colored plastic spoons in melted dark, milk or white chocolate
Decorate spoon top with glitter, sparkle, or sprinkles sugar.
Wrap in clear or colored cellophane, tied with ribbon.
Add a homemade computer printed gift tag.
Elkhorn-Waterloo Home Page
Christmas 2008 Advent Calendar
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luna169oes@(REMOVE)msn.com
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The song you are hearing is "The Twelve Days of Christmas"
Created November 29, 2008
Last Updated February 14, 2008 - 20
waterloo - x
applestraw - x
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