a christmas giraffe

 Since my friend and I had our Christmas meet-up on Friday, we decided to open our presents there and then to up the festive atmosphere.  It was a good decision, as Dulcie's face on opening her music box was a picture I wouldn't have wanted Bernie to miss!  You'd think she'd just been given the crown jewels!  So sweet :)  This giraffe was part of my handmade gift for baby Scarlett Rose, hence the rose-covered scarlet material.  See what I did there?  Scarlett seemed about as impressed with this as a six-month-old could be.  Hooray!

 This was the item I made from The St Michael Book Of Handicrafts For All The Family that I blogged about the other day.  Here's the giraffe along with her "ancestor" in the book.  I think it's a really nice design (I love the fact it's only got three legs) and it was easy to adapt slightly.  I used ribbons for the tail and made a mane from those ribbon tags that babies always love.  Other than that (and the omission of the eye because it was looking quite busy) I pretty much stuck to the original pattern.  Oh, and I made it a bit smaller than it was supposed to be so that I could fit the pattern on A4 paper.  That made it a nice size for a baby too.

And here's a shot of the ribbon mane in all its flowing glory!

I'm classing this giraffe as an out-and-out success.  It's not perfect, of course, but handmade items aren't meant to be, are they?  And, for once, I made something from my massive collection of vintage craft books, which I'm sure was my new year's resolution for 2012 or something.  Oh well, better late than never!