Nifty gift-y tags for kids

Patricia at A Little Hut has come up with some delightfully practical, practically delightful gift tags for children who are just learning to print. As she writes in her post,

As a general rule gift tags are small. Sometimes really tiny. This makes it difficult for children, like ours, who are in their first years of writing to write on tags themselves. I made these holiday tags so that the kids can address the gifts to their teachers and friends this year. They are fairly large (1/4 of a letter size sheet of paper) so that they can fit in everything comfortably.

Hop over to the Little Hut to see what they look like -- classy and sweet -- and to download a free PDF for the project. Many thanks, Patricia!

PS If you like this project, you can buy more things from Patricia, an independent graphic designer, online.

Advent calendar ideas

Too late for this year, unless you're a fast crafter and don't mind missing the first few days, but there's more than enough time to start planning for next year.

Cami at Full House and her kids made an advent calendar with homemade paper boxes, filled with treats, including wooden paintable nutcrackers and ornaments. I like the idea of larger boxes for such reusable and crafty gifts, rather than smaller boxes with candies; I noticed last week that our local craft shop has some inexpensive cutout wooden ornaments ready for decorating. We don't have much extra wallspace around here, but I could see affixing magnets to the back of each box and turning the front of the fridge into a giant advent calendar.

Alternately, if you have a large collection of Altoid and other such tins, you can try your hand at this advent calendar. If you don't consume a lot of mints, those round metal spice cannisters would probably work, with the tops painted, or old Christmas cards or other decorative papers cut to fit the covers, with or without ribbon hot-glued around the edges...

And Marilyn Scott-Walter's lovely website The Toymaker has a printable PDF advent calendar here and here, for those of you modern types with color printers. More of The Toymaker's Christmas projects here -- you could also make a nifty advent calendar with the Glad Tidings Boxes, Santa's Heart Boxes, Elf Balls, Angel Boxes, and/or Candy Cane Bags. (There's a Toymaker book, too, you know.)

In the meantime, we're sticking with our (very last) Advent candle, and the 3D calendar in the shape of a house I found on sale one year. But I think later this month we just might start making our very own calendar, probably following the Full Circle model, for next year.

UPDATED to add: I forgot Dawn's snazzy "Tags of Comfort & Joy" wreath advent calendar!

Homemade gift exchange

Via JoVE at Tricotomania, via Kim at Relaxed Homeskool, a homemade gift exchange meme, because I can't possibly resist the promise of a homemade gift from the self-styled Tricotomaniac.

Here are the slightly abbreviated rules from Kim's blog:

If you are one of the first three commenters on this post, then you are in. I send you a homemade gift sometime, er, soon. When inspiration and time collide for me (usually 2am). In return, you go to your blog and make the same offer. So, you’ll be making 3 things and receiving one.

FAQs here at Kim's post.

I will warn you mention that I am decidedly not a home schooling knitting mother, or even a knitting home school mother. I don't sew, either, and unlike JoVE I'm not particularly inclined to mail anyone homemade pickles; I'm still scarred from a childhood vacation involving a leaky bottle of Croatian olive oil, a suitcase, a transatlantic flight, and a surprised customs officer. In fact, I reserve the right to press my artistic and crafty children into service, and to turn the homemade gift project into a back-to-home school project once we get going next month.