Review of Fast, Fun & Easy Christmas Decorations: Festive Fabric Keepsakes to Create & Embellish by Linda Johansen

Fast, Fun & Easy Christmas Decorations: Festive Fabric Keepsakes to Create & Embellish by Linda Johansen is filled with great simple ideas that I call investable crafts. I say this because the crafts will last for years. Some of my favorites in the book are the fabric wreath, fabric boxes, and the array of ornaments. Most of the projects involve several steps including cutting, sewing, ironing and arranging. Here is a list of the most used items needed to make these crafts:

Beautiful fabric
Lace trim
Sewing machine
Fast-to-fuse fabric fuser
Circular cutter
Scissors
Templates from the book

Pros and Cons of Linda Johansen’s Christmas Craft Book

Pros:

It was hard to choose a favorite craft. The ornaments are awesome because they are all fabric and are kid and pet proof. No more having to put the pretty ornaments at the top, with these crafts you can have pretty ornaments all over the tree. I have always secretly hated our plastic ornaments scattered all about our tree because of how generic and boring they were. Now I can have beautiful and personal ornaments all around the tree.

I also love the little boxes. I have many friends being a military wife. We are not made of money, so i buy little things like lip gloss or hand lotion. Some years I make cookies or rum balls. These little gift boxes are perfect for holding small gifts. The handmade box is part of the gift and while it might cost a bit more than buying a pack of generic gift boxes. These boxes have love and labor in them, which is what real friendships are made of.

Making the holiday wreath was probably the easiest, thing to do because it involved little sewing. The fast-to-fuse needed for most of the projects, including this one, is amazing. It is very quick and since the pieces you are fusing are tiny, it is really fast. you don’t even need to put anything under the fabric or worry about it cooling off because of how fast it is. The wreath comes out beautifully and can be given as a gift or kept for years to enjoy.

Cons:

These crafts are not very fast to do. You have to cut the fabric, sometimes with the circular cutter in addition to with standard scissors, apply the fast to fuse, iron, and lug the sewing machine out. There are a lot of steps to getting one craft done properly.

That said these crafts are better than most in that they are an investment in holiday enjoyment. Since they are made by hand and cannot be broken or torn, the make perfect home crafts and gifts. There is nothing better than a usable gift that lasts years and generations.

Once my boys are older, they are two and three now, I plan on having them help me make the advent calendar with cute little animals for each day of advent. Its a great way to teach kids about the meaning of Christmas and to have a nice wholesome family activity to do together. This book is filled with memorable and lasting crafts that are great for gifts, family projects, and fun.

Fast, Fun & Easy Christmas Decorations: Festive Fabric Keepsakes to Create & Embellish by Linda Johansen was provided to the Untrained Housewife for the purposes of review.

About Angela England

Angela England has written 562 posts in this blog.

Founder of Untrained Housewife, Editor-in-Chief of Blissfully Domestic (http://blissfullydomestic.com), mother of five, wife of one, and God-seeker always.