I made toys.

Okay, here it is, the final post covering all the stuff I made to give away for Christmas.  I have never made so much for Christmas before in my life.  I typically spread my crafting efforts out over the whole year pretty evenly.  I'm not sure what prompted this big effort.  For one thing, I just kept finding ideas I liked, especially in Family Fun magazine.   It was an impulse buy at the grocery store, but I'd say I got my money's worth.  Lots of cute projects in there.  I might need to subscribe.

I made this little set of bowling girls for my nieces to share.  Very simple, just embellished the wooden pieces, which can be purchased at any craft store.  I ended up using a different ball with the set, because this marble wasn't heavy enough to knock the ladies over.  Some of these gals are happy to be part of this bowling set, a few are nervous, and a couple are making defiant faces.  They plan to kick the ball back.

Bowling girls!

Packaged them up in a ziplock bag with a label on top.  When S saw this, I swear he said, "Congratulations on this packaging, mom!  It looks great!" The child is easily impressed by my creations and I love him for it.

Next up: Not sure what to call these.  Magnetic habitat toys?   Yet another idea from Family Fun.  I already had the acrylic box picture frames, collecting dust in the basement, so this was a perfect way to put them to use.  I made a reptile habitat for my boys, and an ocean box for my nieces to share.  I modified the original idea by attaching two magnets to the bottom instead of one, so two kids could play together.  Also instead of using real sand as per their suggestion (hello, mess!), I cut out pictures from National Geographic and glued them to the bottom side of the box with decoupage glue.  I made a little video to show you how they work, too.  Anything for you guys.

Boys' reptile habitat. 

Here you can see the spools that prop up the box, and the little spool with the magnet attached that moves on the underside of the box.

My nieces' ocean box.

Another gift for my nieces: Clothespin doll kits.  This project consisted of me gathering supplies for clothespin dolls, and packaging them in an appealing way.  The girls really liked these, especially my oldest niece.  She said it was her favorite gift!  I tried hard not to make everyone else feel bad about their lame gifts.  (Just kidding.  But I was very flattered).

A box for each girl.

Personalized labels.

What's inside?

All the supplies: clothespins, glue, pen, sample doll, fabric scraps, ribbons and notions, embroidery floss for hair.

Sample dolls.

Finally, for the kids on my side of the family I made these jumping jack paper dolls.  The kids and adults all had a good laugh when they were opened.  When our nephew on Nate's side gets a little older I will definitely make one for him too.  They are charming.  Before assembling the parts, I covered them all in a couple coats of decoupage glue, hoping to make them a little more durable.

The whole crew.

Pull the string to make them jump.

 I also made a video describing these.  I had to balance the camera on my shoulder in order to tape one in action.  Precarious!

If you made it through all these very long Christmas crafting posts, I thank you.  Hope you all had a great holiday and maybe I'll see a few of you on New Year's Eve!