Scandinavian Christmas, Day 2

Welcome everyone to the 2nd day of Scandinavian Christmas!

Today's inspiration comes from Pam over at Gingerbread Snowflakes. Check out this adorable little Nisse ornament she made! Pam has all sorts of neat holiday crafts over at her blog, including a complete tutorial for this little fellow and even a cute Dala horse ornament, go have a look!

Pam inspired me to recreate one of the many little Swedish Tomte figures my parents have around our house this time of year. I'm not quite sure if there's any real difference between the Danish/Norwegian/Swedish Tomte or Nisse, does anyone out there know? According to what I've read about them, Tomtes were mythical little farm helpers. The old tale is that back in the day they would either bring your farm prosperity, or ruin if you didn't treat them well.

I made a quick tutorial for how to make your own little (or big, if you prefer) Tomte! Enjoy!

You will need:

• Red or white felt
• Stuffing
• White or gray wool roving (or yarn if you prefer, for the beard)
• Flesh colored roving or felt (for the nose)
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun, or other quick-drying glue
• Floral wire
• Styrofoam balls, I used 2 sizes: 50mm and 80mm (a golf ball could also work)

You can vary the color and sizes to what you prefer.

1. First, determine what size triangle you need to cut for your Tomte. Measure around the midsection of the ball and add 1 inch. For example, my small styrofoam ball was 6" around + 1" = 7" total. I made my hats the same height. For my smaller Tomtes my triangle was 7" at the bottom and 7" high.

2. Cut out your triangle and measure it around the ball. Pinch together and pin. Sew across along the entire hat.

3. Trim any excess felt off and round the top corner. Turn right-side out.

4. Cut off a section of your styrofoam ball so it will sit flat. Next, glue a circle piece of white felt to the bottom.

5. Take your floral wire and cover the end with hot glue. Insert to the top of the Tomte hat and squeeze the tip so it sticks. This is so your hat will stay hunched over later.

6. Stuff the hat around the wire. Leave about 1" - 1.5" space for the ball.

7. Cut a circular piece of red felt with a hole in the center and glue it inside the hat.

8. Prepare your beard by pulling small sections of the wool roving off.

9. Working in 2" segments and starting near the bottom of the ball, add hot glue to your ball and start to stick your sections of wool roving on.

10. Work all the way around before starting with the top layer.

11. Do the same for the top layer. Add as much wool as you need so you cannot see the ball. You can lay longer pieces across the top and secure with hot glue. Trim the floral wire down and hot glue the hat on top of the completed ball. Curve the hat to one side, the wire will make it stay in place.

12. Make a ball with the flesh colored wool roving. If you don't have wool roving, you could paint a small wooden ball or cut a small circle from felt. Glue the ball near the edge of the hat so it looks like his nose is peaking out.

Try out different colors like this white and gray-bearded Tomte!

You can make an entire Tomte family!

And they make great gifts! I'll be giving these away to my grandma and brother-in-law's mom, both big Tomte fans.

St. Lucia Day

St. Lucia Day is quickly approaching, get ready! Clean out your coffee urn and start gathering ingredients for lussekatter, December 13th is almost here!

In anticipation of the big day, I decided to finish the needle-felted St. Lucia doll I started back in October. Remember this little girl? :

I think she looks a little lifeless without the candles in her wreath and without a face. So I spent an hour or two putting the finishing details on her face. I was hesitant about adding the eyes and mouth at first. I was worried I would make her look crazy or disfigured. So I added very little blue color for her eyes at first. You can barely tell in the picture below.

Then I got a little braver and added some more. Too much? I can't decide yet. I might take a little out or cover it up a bit, what do you think?

The wreath was my favorite part to work on. I used a combination of wet felting and needle felting for the green part. Then cut and painted the ends of toothpicks for the candles. I really think it pulls the whole doll/figurine (I don't really know what to call her yet) together.

Look how happy she is, she just can't wait for December 13th!

Happy St. Lucia Day!

Glad St. Lucia Dagen!

Oh, Pippi.

I love Pippi. I grew up watching the movies (both Swedish and American versions) and reading the books. I even dressed up as her for Halloween one year (4th grade maybe?).

She's so spirited and quirky. And I just love her spunk.

I want to make something Pippi-esque for my niece for Christmas. I'm thinking I might attempt this fantastic doll that Larissa made over at Mmmcrafts. I love the wry smile she gave Pippi, it's absolutely perfect.

photo from Mmmcrafts

In my quest for finding Pippi inspiration I stumbled across these Etsy finds:

Pippi earings

And this Pippi kid's skirt/apron is pretty cute, I really like the fabric.

I wish I had some to make a little tote bag with.

I think I'll stick to the doll for now and see how that goes first.

If you haven't read the books yet, I highly recommend them. It's a classic Swedish children's book loved by all (or, at least, by most). Pippi was actually featured at the World Expo in Shanghai this year at the Sweden pavilion. The first two photos were taken at the Expo this year, a great experience!

"Now you'd better go home," said Pippi, "so that you can come back tomorrow. Because if you don't go home, then you won't be able to come back tomorrow."

Needle felted St. Lucia

Well, I finally did it. I attempted to needle-felt my first object/person: St. Lucia. For you Scandos out there you're already familiar with St. Lucia. For those non-Scandinavian folk allow me to explain.

St. Lucia Day is celebrated each year on December 13. There's coffee, pastries and a girl who dresses up in a white dress, red sash and a wreath of candles on her head. I'll do a post later with all the nitty gritty details closer to the actually holiday. But for now I just want to share my first needle-felted doll.

Here is St. Lucia at the start, basically a white mass with a red sash.

Next came the wreath:

After that came some leather thimbles to prevent myself from getting stabbed with the felting needle again. I was afraid I would eventually stab myself so hard that blood would get on St. Lucia's white dress (gross, I know).

Then came coloring her face and hands.

And the last step I reached was adding the blond braids on either side. I'm debating how to do her face, if at all. Sometimes adding a face makes it look kinda creepy (at least when I do it...). Maybe I'll do just eyes? What do you think?

I also need to figure out how to do the candles for her wreath.
Felt is a difficult medium to work with for small items, like candles. I'm trying to decide if painted toothpicks (cut down) would look ok? Any suggestions?

I'll be giving this to my mom when it's finished for Christmas. She's an avid collector of St. Lucia dolls. I'm trying to get all my Christmas gifts made while I still have ample time on my hands. We'll see how far I get. :)

Dolls for Haiti complete!

Well, they're complete! I finally finished the faces and now I just have to ship them over to Sarah at Dolly Donations.

I ended up adding a little felt flower to the girl doll for a little extra cuteness.

The two boy dolls are pretty much the same except for the color of their pants. They're practically besties.

I'm hoping to ship them off before I leave for summer vacation this week. There's still time to sew your own doll, check out the Dolly Donations site for all the details!

And then there were 3

I'm just about finished with my dolls for Haiti! The last step is embroidering the faces on and then I'll ship them off to Sarah over at Dolly Donations.

If you sew, knit, or crochet, there's still time to start your own dolls! These are so quick to sew, you could sew up a few in just an hour to two. The pattern and tutorial are super easy and on the Dolly Donations website - check it out!

In other news, today is Ocean Day in Japan and I have the day off. Naturally, I'm going to go to the ocean and spend some time on the beach (wearing plenty of SPF 50, of course) relaxing and swimming. And also wearing my new wide-brimmed straw hat. I love a good straw hat, don't you? Hope you had a great weekend! :)

First doll - in progress

I've started working on my dolls for the Haiti donations and here is my first girl doll - cut out and partially sewed:

(sorry for the low quality photos here!)

I'm planning on making 1 girl doll and 2 boy dolls. Dolly Donations is looking for more boy dolls to send over this time around. Once I finish up the dolls for Haiti, I think I might try my hand at making my own doll pattern and whip one up for my neice.

That's all for now, hope you're having a great week! :)