christmas presents - forest friends

When I married Timmy, I became an instant aunt to one beautiful niece and three adorable nephews.

My nephews are not only delightfully boy-ish and perfectly rambunctious, but they are also so sweet, well behaved, and imaginative. And I know they love books, because they have a fabulous mom who reads them stories. (Lucky boys!) I think you will agree, there is nothing more wonderful than an imaginative child who loves books.

So, for their Christmas gift, we bought them one of my all time favorite books, The Mitten, by Jan Bret. And then we created a series of animal masks, one for each furry creature that stars within its pages.

Because stories are so much more magical when there are costumes involved.

These masks were so much fun to make! I spent a weekend designing and sketching and cutting and sewing. An old children's puppy mask became my model for sizing. Once I had the basic shape down, it was just a matter of tweaking the ears, face shape, and eyes to make each individual animal. The back of the masks are stiff black felt and the fronts are regular felt. I used interfacing to fuse the layers together - no sewing necessary!

 

I love these little masks. I love how they are just so whimsical. I love that the felt makes them so soft for young faces. I love that they are durable, ready to engage in any sort of activity a young badger or bear might deem necessary.

But mostly, I love that they instantly turned my darling nephews into a crew of growling, hooting, squeaking, and grunting forest friends.