Update on my ten craft projects to complete by the end of the year

At the beginning of September I set myself a crafting challenge - a list of ten craft projects to complete by the end of the year.

With the end of the year firmly in sight, I thought I'd do a little update!

Felt Autumn leaves - I was really pleased with my embroidered felt Autumn leaves. I displayed them in a small bowl by the fireplace and they looked really pretty. Next year I might string them up into some bunting for a bit of a change.

Felt sugar skulls - My embroidered felt sugar skulls were another great way to work through my felt stash. I loved making these, and coming up with all the different colour combinations for the felt and embellishments. Next year I'm planning to make some more, perhaps using different colours of felt for the skulls.

Cross stitch Christmas hanging - This project idea was always a bit vague, and it changed somewhat in the making! I had three mini Christmas cross stitch kits that I wanted to finish and find some way to display. I ended up framing each one in a mini Christmas embroidery hoop that I painted and added glitter. 

Three Christmas wooden shapes to decorate - I had bought a blank wooden sign, a sleigh and a gingerbread house from The Works.

My first craft was a Christmas wooden sign which is now proudly hanging in the hallway to welcome guests. I was very pleased with my attempt at brush lettering!

Then I decorated the wooden sleigh with red paint and embellished with metallic pen. I made a little sack from some festive hessian fabric and ribbon and wrapped up some pretend presents. I was originally going to make the wooden house into a gingerbread house but I changed my mind and made it into a sort of Scandi inspired house instead with red and dark yellow.

Stretch beaded bracelets - This was a new craft for me, and so I was delighted with my ocean themed stretch beaded bracelets. They were really easy to make and I love wearing them. I'm definitely going to be making some more bracelets using different colour schemes.

A sea themed fabric project - This was another project idea that was quite vague as I had some lovely fabric but didn't know what to do with it. I decided to make an ocean themed fabric tote bag and I was so pleased with the result that I went on to make several more to give as gifts. 

A Christmas mini cross stitch designs craft - I wanted to do some sort of craft using my free mini Christmas cross stitch motifs and so I decided to make some cross stitch gift tags. They were really quick and simple to make and a great way to use up some odds and ends of embroidery thread.

Finally, there is one craft on the list that I didn't get to, and that was the Wooden READ sign, a wooden sign spelling out the word 'read' which I wanted to display on my bookshelf. Not for lack of time or lack of ideas, I just decided that for the time being I quite like how it looks in its natural state! I may come back to this in the future but for now I'm happy with the way it is.

I found this way of listing out my craft projects really motivated me to get on with them. Next year I want to make an effort to work through some of my crafting stash, and making a list of the things that I want to complete is definitely going to be a big help.