52 Weeks of Pinterest: Weeks 6 & 7

Apparently, I am doing this Pinterest challenge thing in two week chunks. Whatev. My latest Pinterest inspired projects have been holiday related pieces of awesomeness. If you don't know, I absolutely love holiday everything. October to December is my time to shine!

Last week to get into the holiday mood, I made Thanksgiving/Christmas place mats. While this wasn't something I saw on Pinterest, I came up with the idea while perusing the boards and I think that should count for something. I had all intentions of making place mats for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but in an effort to save time and money, I just made them reversible. Really, who looks at the other side of their place mat? Exactly. It made a great project for my serger and I love how they turned out.

To make the place mats, I cut out 14" x 19" rectangles and serged the pieces together. Originally, I was going to turn and top stitch them with my sewing machine, but really wanted to take my serger for a spin. I like the rough edge - makes them look kind of rustic. Or something.

I had about 4 yards of each fabric and it made ten place mats. This would make a super quick and easy housewarming/hostess gift!

This afternoon, we made salted dough ornaments to give as gifts. The dough was incredibly easy to make and held up really well under little hands and feet. We asked Charlie's friend Ben and his family to come over and make them with us and it was fun! Here is the recipe:

Salted Dough Ornaments
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups water

Knead dough for about 15 minutes and roll out to about 1/2" - 1/4" inch thick. We used the Wilton 101 Cookie Cutter set and just went nuts. Just that one batch of dough made about a dozen hand/foot prints and a bunch of Christmas trees, stars, letters, and other shapes. Don't forget to stamp a little hole for the ribbon hanger!

Put all of the shapes on lightly greased baking sheets and bake at 300 degrees for about 15 - 20 minutes depending on thickness. The dough will finish hardening as it cools.

We plan on using these as decorations, gifts, and gift tags. Overall, I highly recommend making these!

Want some motivation to actually DO some of those neat projects you pin? Its never too late! Join the 52 Weeks of Pinterest challenge at Dutch Being Me!