Christmas preparations continue...

I have been working steadily on Christmas gifts this week, though, I have not competed nearly as much as I had hoped over the course of the week.  I am starting to feel the crunch and worry about competing all of the gifts for our Handmade Holiday at this point.  My husband is teasing me about this, but since all of his gift buying will happen in November (hopefully from either local crafts people or etsy) he is much less stressed out about this than I am.  Of course, he's also trying to figure out everything that I'm making for him and driving me a little batty!  Since he is an occasional reader of my blog I may have to post about the things I am making for him sometime after Christmas.

I will admit, that towards the weekend I did get distracted with making an autumnal wreath for our front door.  I'm going to show you all a picture of it before I move on Christmas gifts, because I love it!

Okay, on to Christmas,  Last week I  mentioned knitting a hat for W. I had hoped to finish it this week, but did not quite finish it.  I'm still really excited it about it though and it has been a really fun project.  Here it is as a WIP.

The one Christmas gift project that I finished this week is a little stocking stuffer for W.  In this month's puzzles out of popsicle sticks.  It's such a cute idea, but I also know that it's beyond W's capabilities for this year so I decided to make a couple for his stocking myself and put my own twist on them.

First I laid out my popsicle sticks and taped them together.  

Then I painted them with watercolors, which made them expand and warp.

So, I flattened them under a large scrapbook while they dried.

I then penciled in a drawing on each one.  I traced a wood cut out of a snail (I frequently trace wood cut outs when I don't feel like I can draw something freehand) and drew in the details myself.  I did draw the bee freehand.

I then traced and filled the pictures in with a black marker.

I removed the tape and polished the pieces with my beeswax polish.

And tied them into little bundles.  I'm thinking I should make some little fabric pouches for these though.

I think these would be a great little toy to take with us to a restaurant for W to entertain himself while he waits.

In other holiday related news, I completed exactly none of the Holiday Grand Plan's week 1.  That means this week I need to complete Week 1 and Week 2.

How are your holiday preparations coming along?