my little mochi

New in the shop! Stu the Penguin Doll & Fun Pack - ePattern & Printables

New in the shop! Stu the Penguin Doll and Fun pack.

Perfect as a stocking stuffer or a gift for a little one. ePattern includes:

• 12 pages of detailed step by step instructions with sketches to make a 3-inch high felt penguin doll
• cap, scarf and easy to make felt bedding designed to fit in an Altoids mint tin
• felt fish softie toy

Also included in the ePattern:

• Mint tin printables for quick and easy decorating of inside and outside of tin - 6 to choose from
• Stu the Penguin Gift Tag printable
• Stu the Penguin and Friends Paper Dolls - 3 pages of printables
• Stu the Penguin Fun Pack - 4 pages of kid activity printables

Visit My Little Mochi Shop or Craftsy Pattern Shop
to purchase.

 

Holiday Gift Tags

Some gift tags to print should you find yourself in
need during last minute gift wrapping.

Happy Holidays everyone, see you next year!

Click below to download file.

 my little mochi 2011 holiday gift tags

Gum Advent Calendar

Sorry to recycle an old post, but this project is always popular this time of year so I thought I'd re-post for those who might have missed it.

If you're looking for a quick and inexpensive gift that you and can make and give in multiples - how about an Advent Calendar made from packs of gum!

 

holiday oldies but goodies

Hi there! I've been super busy and don't have anything new to post but here's some crafts, recipes and tutorials from the past that may come in handy in the next couple of weeks. Happy Holidays!

  

cranberry bliss bars

 

snow globe necklaces

 

reindeer gift card holders

 

origami snowman gift bags

 

pinecone hedgies

 

snowman cookies

Another breath freshening craft

 

You might have guessed from my pocket advent calendar post that we like to keep our breath fresh around here and so we end up with a lot of empty mint containers that I just don't have the heart to throw away. But I finally came up with a use for them - snow globe pendant necklaces! I can't decide whether to make these for the kids or do it as a Christmas craft with them because they were really easy to make. In case you want to make some too here's a little tutorial for how I did them.

Pocket Advent Calendar

  
(Dear Reader: Please be sure to credit "My Little Mochi" and link back to this post if you are going to share this project on your blog or website. It's been a little disheartening to see gum advent calendars on so many blogs without crediting where the original idea came from. -Aloha, My Little Mochi) 

Over the past few weeks I've been thinking about what kind of advent calendar I should do for Buddy this year. I wanted to do something different from the snowman origami ones I've done over the last couple of years. So I created these pocket ones which were really fun and so fast to make that I  think I'm going to make a bunch more for friends and family.

I came up with the two different versions pictured above. I made the red one in a "book" style. Here's the inside, can you guess what it is?

 

Sugar, oh honey honey

I can't believe it's already December. We were supposed to put up the tree this weekend but never found the time to squeeze it in. Hopefully we can get it done this week, I know Buddy can't wait. I did manage some Christmas crafting during the game last night.

 
We tend to give out a lot of gift cards this time of year, and I always feel a bit sheepish just giving them out in those cardboard holders they provide at the store. So I came up with these felt reindeer pouches sized to fit a standard gift card (sans cardboard holder). I made two different versions one hand-stitched with felt antlers and a quicker machine sewed version with pipe cleaner antlers. I didn't want to have to fiddle with too many little pieces so the ears are part of the back pattern piece. Here's what it looks like from the back.

Wanna make one? Here's a pattern with instructions for the hand-stitched version.

(Update: I noticed a small error on the pattern where I wrote "ear placement" instead of "antler placement". Sorry if that confused anyone. I reloaded the file with the correct wording and some revised instructions. Thanks!)

Reindeer pouch pattern and instructions.pdf

In other news, I've never been much of a sports fan, but I couldn't not get caught up in the University of Hawaii Warrior football fever here in the islands. Last week UH became Western Athletic Conference champions when they defeated Boise State and added another win to their undefeated record of 11-0. Yesterday was their last scheduled game of the season against Washington State and a win last night almost guaranteed they would be invited to a BCS bowl game, something that has never happened in University of Hawaii history. It was a crazy game and in the end Hawaii was triumphant and we learned today that they're going to the Sugar Bowl on New Years day!

Let it snow!

Who says you can't have snowmen at Christmastime when you live in a tropical climate?

 

I got the idea for these cookies from a Japanese food book I bought earlier this year called "Character Ippai no Okashi" (ISBN 4-8347-1739-9) by Yukiko Brenek.

She used sliced dried mango and cherry for the nose, eyes and buttons and slivered almonds for the arms. I used dried papaya and cranberries for mine. I didn't want to do the conversions for the recipe so I used this almond horn one instead and it worked just fine, although the cookies did expand quite a bit. I think any cookie recipe that doesn't bake up brown should work great, like a sugar or shortbread cookie.

Almond Horns
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup ground almonds
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 325F. In large bowl combine powdered sugar and butter. Beat at medium speed until creamy. Add egg yolks and vanilla extract; continue beating until well blended. Reduce speed to low. Add flour, almonds, cream of tartar and baking soda. Continue beating until well mixed. Refridgerate dough until hard enough to form into firm balls.

Shape the dough into little balls and add a small amount of water between the two balls to join them. Apply dried papaya for nose, thin slices/pieces of dried cranberries for eyes, mouth and buttons and slivered almonds for the arms. A toothpick helps to pick up the various dried fruit bit and apply it to cookie. (Note: This is a very soft cookie recipe and the dough tends to spread easily when baked. Since we live in Hawaii I shaped my cookies and then put them in the fridge for a while before baking them to help prevent them from spreading out too much in the oven.)

Bake for about 8-10 minutes. Cool completely before sifting powdered sugar over cookies.

Here's Buddy's version of us as a snow family. Note the legs on his snowmen. This addition was necessary for them to be able to walk off the plates and into our mouths. Yum!