Sarah's Elf Boot

Oh my gosh!  Look at this fantastic project that my niece Sarah created for her mom for Christmas!  It's an Elf Boot with a tall mini-album inside chock full of photos and other goodies, made using Kathy Orta's (Paper Phenomenon) Hocus Pocus tutorial!

This was a very involved project, with a 3-D boot complete with curved seams and a multi-paged album with lots of interactive elements.  Sarah worked on it for a couple of months with a big push at the end to finish in time for Christmas.

Sarah also made a brave decision to make a video of her work and enter the project in Paper Phenomenon's Kit Club Contest.  Please consider visiting the contest web page and voting for her entry - scroll down to the bottom of the page - it's number 41.  Just click on "Vote" under the photo of the Elf Boot.  And please note, I was just Sarah's helper on this project - all design decisions and construction choices were hers.  I cut and colored at her direction and did the craft knife cutting, but this was her project. You can see the video on the contest page or at the end of this post.

And now for some more photos and details on the project...

Heaven and Nature Sing

A little break from paper crafting to finish up a Christmas quilt.  This is one of McKenna Ryan's patterns - "Heaven and Nature Sing".  The quilt is about 60 inches square.

I have made quite a few of her quilts over the years and love them all.They are done with a fusible applique method.  It's like a puzzle - you cut out a zillion pieces out of different colored batik fabrics that have a fusible web backing.  Then you put the pieces all together following each block's pattern.  After the top is all put together it is layered with batting and a backing.

The quilting goes around every single one of those zillion pieces, following all the branches in the trees, the dips in the snow and the spots on the fawns.

Countdown to Christmas

I've had a lot of fun doing construction projects this year and I thought I would finish up by designing a countdown to Christmas calendar for my niece and her family.

It's the North Pole, complete with buildings and snow and reindeer and of course, Santa.  There are places for treats and a hanging sign to display the number of days until Christmas.