Stocking Stuffer Swap

So, I keep mentioning this Christmas crafting swap that I'm taking part in and I wanted to share a bit more about it, since we are really enjoying the anticipation and the crafting! There are 6 families taking part, and 14 children between all of us. The way it works is that all of the mamas make a gift for each child, then send the gifts by Christmas. My kids will get lovely hand made gifts from a bunch of other crafty mamas. Since about half of the families that are participating live in New Zealand I had to finish and send all of their gifts last week, here are some of the things that I made...

The top picture is of a little felt pouch for a 4 year old girl, inside the pouch I tucked some rainbow colored arm ribbons which I have yet to get a picture of, basically they are an elastic bracelet onto which I sewed multi-colored ribbons that stream behind when the child moves, my kids love them!

For a few of the children, as an add on gift I made this little needle felted bee, inspired by a gift that the teachers in our Waldorf Playgroup in Brooklyn gave my children. We've got a while hive of these bees on our family nature table, they are really sweet and so quick to make.

For one set of brothers, ages 4 and 7, I wet felted these two pouches, with swirls on the front. The pouches are almost identical but inside I tucked two different things,

Inside the pouch for the younger brother I tucked a set of arm ribbons, here they are all rolled up...

Inside the pouch for the older brother I tucked a set of these acorn men, Jasper really loves them and they can become anything, fairy guys or army men, you name it.

Here they are all cozy inside,

For a seven year old girl I made a moon fairy,

Who is coming tucked inside a pouch that I wet felted to match the fairy's colors,

Then there are these little needle felted birds that I am just dying over, I love them so much,

These are for a few girls who are 10 and still like cute things a lot. Frank cut a birch log into pieces so that each bird has it's own little perch.

Here are all the packages, I wrapped each gift individually and then put them each in a separate package for each family in NZ, tied up with string. It felt so festive to prepare them and send them off that now I really do feel like Christmas is around the corner! I'll post some pictures and a tutorial of the arm ribbons soon, they are so easy and fun!
You can check out what Morgan, one of the other crafty mamas, is making for the swap on her blog right here,
and here is a post that my friend Em did about some of the gifts that they made last year, such crazy cuteness.