We completed our traditional whirlwind tour of south GA and South Carolina, and the Boy’s been sent to Disney World with Grandma. OK, I miss him already, but we do get to have an adult night out tonight!

So, hope everyone enjoyed the guest post projects from the last few days.. Some great tutorials! If you missed them, check ‘em out:

Adorable Needle Felted Gnome – as a commenter pointed out, these would be a lovely nativity scene. Or what a cute Santa!
Cute, inexpensive, and easy project! Fabulous Felt Cookies!
Great kids project – keep ‘em busy and on a sugar high while…

To those celebrating today, I wish you a very merry holiday!

We have several talented guest posters contributing this week, so don’t miss the guest posts! Chica and Jo’s yummy marshmallow pops would be a fun project to do with the kids home this week… and stay tuned… Hint: the next two are felt related tutorials, but very different!

If you missed any holiday posts, you can check out the Dabbled holiday roundup here.
And see all holiday 08 posts here.

And don’t throw away that turkey carcass! Remember to Make your own stock and freeze it!!!

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My friend Holly and I had a little crafting party the other night while our husbands were out getting into trouble. We decided to make some cute little picture frame ornaments, using felted sweater scraps, scrap plastic, and pictures (small school pics work well for these)! These would make great little gifts for teachers, grandparents, aunts, or whoever loves your little one. Older kids can make these themselves too!

We documented the process, so here it is. You’ll see both of the prototype ornaments we made in the steps. Tutorial below pictures.

(PS: We have some great guest blogger how-to’s coming over…

Preview: Coming in January, the Return of the Black Heart Anti-Valentines Day Contest… Start your planning now!

The votes are in, and although I loved all our entrants, here are our top two vote getters in the Dabbled Upcycled Holiday Challenge.
1 – From She’s Crafty (shop here)
This cozy sweater bag… it even has pockets! What a great gift!
2 – From Chica & Jo: Make your Own Snowglobes! Such a fun little project with tons of possibilities! And a tutorial to make them yourself!
Since you can only win with one entry, third goes to Laurienrick’s adorable Corduroy Trees.

Congrats to the winners… !

Check out all…

The very talented Colleen of Some Art Fabric Talk has done an adorable version of a sweater snake inspired by mine (posted previously here).
Oh, and check out her blog, she has great stuff all the time. (I love these ornaments!)

Related: All Recycled Sweater projects

In other news:
If you missed it, Friday’s Holiday Inspiration Links

.. and
A few quick fun & silly Xmas links for you today:
-Chrismukkah Decoration Set at Superpunch
-Most unusual Christmas Trees at Neatorama
-Light up the Christmas Tree Puzzle
-Santa Don’t Miss or Else Game

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A fun gift idea I like to do is put together a set of items that can be used together by the recipient. I especially like to do this with recipes. Just to take a favorite recipe, and include the recipe, any interesting gear to make it, and maybe a key ingredient or two. Wrap up in a pretty way, and you have a fun gift that is also a project for your giftee!

For example, let’s say you wanted to do this with the Lemon Pie recipe I posted the other day. Print out a copy of the recipe (here it…

Creative Kismet’s White Fluffy Wreath

Found Item Robots via Superpunch

Gorgeous papercraft via Neatorama

Free gift tag download from the fabulous Honor Bowden at GalaHouse and Place Cards too!

Totally awesome nerdcake!

Neat recycled Star of Wonder at Some Art Fabric Talk

Lovely idea, if you live where it’s cold: Lace and Ice from Resurrection Fern

Santa Gourd from Diana at Back to the Drawing Board

Candied Citrus Peels via Craft

Hello Naomi has some really gorgeous Christmas Snowglobe cookies

Glittery pretty ideas from Hostess with the Mostess

A new blog to check out: Daily Artstop from the talented Diana Evans. Great stuff Examples: Apple Fritters! Eggnog Cupcakes! and lots more than food..

How to…

The holiday card art challenge vote is over and the winners are in! (Hey, the holiday craft challenge voting is still open – go vote now!)

People’s Choice Vote Results:
1st I Don’t Do Jingles from Mocando
2nd Hip for the Holidays from Peter Breese
3rd Keep Me Warm in the Snow from Carolineickle

My blog, so I get to pick a winner too, and Dot’s Choice Award goes to:
Santa and the Yeti from Bella Sinclair. That is the cutest Yeti ever

The first place winner in the People’s Choice Vote and Dot’s Choice Winner receive the following little nifty prize, a set of 4 art postcards. Please email me at…

Some of the cool holiday stuff and link post we’ve posted thus far… in case ya missed it!

1. How to Make your own Shrinky Santa Ornament – Download the Santa, too! HERE PS I added a colored santa you can print and shrink too..
2. Lemon Chess Pie – Make it and Decorate with a winter snowflake theme HERE
3. Voting Still Open in the Dabbled Upcycled Craft Contest… Vote here, or just check out the cool stuff!
4. How to Make Homemade Eggnog. Try it! HERE
5. Make a Freeze Homemade Chicken (or turkey) Stock (something to do after you eat that roasted turkey!)-…

For my IF this week, Santa (who was flying a few weeks ago) is now hanging out on an suncatcher ornament. What a rambunctious little scamp (ok, stretching the theme again, I admit it!) This is done as a faux ’shrinky-dink’, using the plastic lid from a to-go box (#6 plastic) and sharpie markers. See below for the ‘how-to’. This would be great to do with kids, for personalize ornaments for the grandparents!

And the drawing, colored in Photoshop, just for fun:

If you want to make your own, here are some quickie directions. [I have very detailed directions, ideas and experiments…