Mrs. Santa's Workshop

 Here it is, the long promised post of everything I've been doing instead of sewing this month! I wasn't able to photograph every single gift I made, but here are most of them.

This was for my grandfather. I took a wooden cross, painted it, sanded it down, put a wash over it, embossed the letters on, and sealed it.

A tiny treasure box I made for my nephew. Same technique as cross.

Okay, I went a little overboard with embossing. This is a book I made for my writing partner.

Glitter. Everywhere. Technically this was a birthday present, not a Christmas gift, but it was made in the same batch so I'm sharing it anyhow.

As a companion piece to the box above, I used my embroidery machine to embellish a tote bag. I then jazzed it up with beadwork.

My sewing room is still a mess.

I think this is the gift I'm most excited about. Well, it's maybe tied with two others. But seriously, I had a lot of fun making this under the sea treasure box for my sister-in-law! I took a plain photo box from JoAnn's and used water colors to give it the shade and texture I wanted.

I used metallic scrapbooking embossing powder to create the shimmer in the crevices.

Many of the pieces on the box were from the fairy globes my friends made me for my wedding.

I was so excited that I still had some little shells and moss to add to the mix!

And then I lined the interior.

I used stamps and more embossing powder to decorate the sides.

...or maybe I'm more excited about these mittens?

I took this free children's mitten pattern from Ravelry.com and adapted it to fit my sister's hands and aesthetics.

Needless to say, my sister, a huge Spiderman fan, was ecstatic.

Lastly I made up this rag bowl as a gift for my healthcare provider, who has given me so much this year, starting with getting me stable enough to walk down the aisle at my wedding!