{ Homemade Christmas Crayons }

This year I have endeavored to either make or buy from etsy/madeit all of the children's Christmas gifts I need to get. I have four nieces, Mr M has a niece and a nephew. I also look after children in the area as a babysitter/nanny and was looking for small, inexpensive but practical gifts to give to these children. Stocking stuffers if you will.

I'm sure a lot of people have seen this idea getting about. All you need is left over bits of crayons {or new ones if you're like me you don't frequently have crayons in the house!}, some silicone bakeware and an oven! I bought some silicone stars off ebay, they promptly arrived in my mailbox {otherwise a trip to Seymour, 45 mins away, or Melbourne, an hour and a half away, was in order} and I bought some crayons at Yea's fabulously junky $2 shop. The stars are very Christmas-y as well as being a good shape for little hands to grab and scribble with as they have multiple points obviously!

I made 24 stars using similar colours - blues and greens, oranges and reds, pinks and purples, greys with blacks and whites etc. I then tied them up in neat little bundles with some excess ribbon I had, all ready for Christmas!

As well as Little Miss Emma and my photography business in 2010, I will be nanny to a four year old little boy, Monty, three afternoons a week. I have looked after him and his brother Oscar throughout this year and they live just over the hill from the cottage - our closest neighbours as the crow flies. In fact Ythanbrae was their Dad's family farm and he grew up in the cottage. I have posted about Monty's grandparents before here. Monty has recently become a bit 'army obsessed' after a recent deer hunt, much to his mothers delight {kidding!}, so I made these colour ones especially for him:

{ Images by Little Miss Emma }