Handmade Holiday

This year, I am making a lot of the gifts we are giving to our family for Christmas. I love being crafty, and have really enjoyed creating all of these handmade items. An added bonus to making a lot of the gifts this year, is that we are not giving nearly as many gift cards as gifts. We still have a couple gift cards being wrapped, but it is for those individuals who actually WANT them, not because we don’t know what to get!

Family Tree & Sister Plaques

I have been wanting to do some type of family tree for quite a while. I decided to do them as a tile display rather than in a picture frame to hang. I also made a plaque for my sister with a special saying on it. These were made from regular 6x6 tiles from Lowe's, tissue paper, Mod Podge and acrylic sealer. I purchased the displays at Hobby Lobby. I can't wait for these to be unwrapped at Christmas!

Colored Pencil Monogram

I got the idea for this on Pinterest (I LOVE Pinterest!!!) and thought it would make the perfect gift for Owen's 1st grade teacher. The one that I saw on there was actually made with crayons. I decided to use colored pencils for mine. I purchased the colored pencils and shadow box (8x8) from AC Moore. Hubby hooked me up with a nice little jig to make it easier to cut the pencils. I would say this took me 90 minutes, tops to complete, and I love how it turned out!

Snowman Fingerprint Ornaments

I love anything that is made using my kids' hand prints. Again, this idea came from Pinterest. I bought 3x4 artist canvas, and just used regular acrylic paint to paint the background and to do the kids' fingerprints. I used Sharpie paint pens (which are awesome, by the way!) to paint on the snowman features. Staple a ribbon to the back, and you have a lovely ornament. Owen is going to be 7 in a few weeks, so his hands are much bigger than Evan's, and we could only fit 3 of his fingers on the canvas and still have it look right, but I still love it! This was another super easy craft - it just took a little more time due to allowing time for paint to dry. Owen actually did a lot of the snowman decorating himself.

Glitter Ornaments

I made 24 of these ornaments for our tree this year. I did red, white and green glitter, and tied them all with a sheer white organza ribbon. They look amazing on our tree. They were another super easy craft. I followed this tutorial for making them.

Sewing Projects

Last year, I started playing around with my sewing machine, and made a few items. One of those was a cover for my Cricut machine. My mom saw that, and asked me to make her one. Being the super awesome daughter that I am, I never did it. Oops! I decided that would be a Christmas gift this year. I also had a request for a toaster cover for my mom. Not too shabby for someone who didn't even know how to thread a sewing machine a few years ago!

Toaster Cover

Special thanks to my mother-in-law for doing the embroidery for me. I am so proud of how this turned out - especially since I did not follow any pattern. I just measured and sewed!

Cricut Cover

To make the Cricut cover, I followed this pattern. Super easy, and super cute.