A Homemade Christmas

2011-12-27T11:01:00.000-08:00

This year I had a brilliant idea- homemade Christmas. The idea was that we (I) would make as many home made gifts as possible. I love to sew, craft, create and to give gifts. I am aware that homemade gifts aren't always the most exciting, so I usually try to reign myself in but this year I just wanted to...so there. Now that all the gifts have been gifted I can share what I've been up to for the last 6 weeks or so (It clearly wasn't blogging!).

First, for the little boys I made these adorable car caddy's. I used this tutorial as a template. I made some changes, I didn't number my pockets and I just freehanded the applique and wheels. I think they turned out cute and they were big a hit in the 2-4 year old set. As a side note...matchbox cars come in packs of 5, so it might be a good idea to resize so that it makes 5 pockets instead of 6.

The inside

The outside, when it's all folded up

For my sisters, I made these necklaces. This was only my second time trying out the world of jewelry making but it was surprisingly fun and easy...although I think next time having a pair of needlenose pliers on hand will save me from sore fingers. I only hope that the clasps hold up well, I need to figure out how to make a more secure connection. Here's the tutorial for these adorable things.

This one I made a loop and attached the chain

For this one, I used a pre-made O ring

For my sister in law who is expecting a new baby in the spring, I wanted to add to her collection of maternity wear, so I decided to buy her a simple gap maternity shirt and create a fun little flower she could dress it up with, I used a linen fabric and little jewery pearls sewn into the center. Here's the tutorial for this one. I made three different flowers before I finally got it right with this one! The tutorial says to just cut out the petals (because they're all supposed to be different, anyway, right?) I suppose that's true if you're not challenged like me! If you try this one yourself, I would suggest making a template of 3-4 different sizes and then cutting out 4-5 petals of each size. Also, with this flower, the fabric does matter- I would recommend using a stiffer fabric, if you make a large flower, otherwise it doesn't hold it's shape at all. Even with this linen, I had to use some hot glue to get it to lay right.

The Flower

I put a little clip on the back, so she could clip it on her
shirt or a bag or whatever.

For Jason's Grandparents, I made this little photo matching game with pictures of her family from this year. It ended up being the most time consuming project I did this year...mostly because my printer is finicky about printing on photo paper and I had never used Mod Podge before, so I had to undo and redo some of my work. However, it came out super cute and I hope it will be something that Grandma can have at her house that will be fun to do with the little ones who come to visit.

All the pictures

Dean and Addy making sure it works!

I made a little drawsting bag for all the pieces to go in.
If my embroidery machine was working, I would have
put 2011 or something on the front.

I also made my mom-in-law a cute little cotton scarf...which I completely forgot to take a picture of. Sad. Here's the tutorial. I used a patterned cotton instead of the flannel; since this is Arizona, I went for pretty over warm! This is yet another project that I made two of, the first one I had almost completely finished and I made an unfixable mistake. grr. The end result ended up being better than the first try anyway. Hopefully someone will dig up a pic of my little scarf and I'll add it later.

The kids each made a gift for each other, so here are those Mommy-adided efforts:
Addy made Dean a Super Hero Cape for dress up.

Dean made Addy a Princess Tiara and Wand also for dress up.

And here they are on Christmas morning enjoying the gifts!

In the middle of the holiday season, a friend of mine turned 30 and had a big birthday bash. I decided to make her a little gift I'd seen somewhere on pinterest, my new favorite site.

isn't it cute?! I just covered some floral foam with coordinating fabric and stuck the suckers in, then attached a little note and gift card on the back of the 30 sucks sign. She loved it & it was super easy and fun to do.

Ok, back to Homemade Christmas...This year, I decided to wrap all my gifts inexpensively with felt pieces, newspaper & yarn. I ended up also using some craft paper for the big gifts and random things I had lying around (jelly jars, flour sacks and sharpies). All in, I spent about $10 on gift wrap this year. Score! Plus, it was super cute...see:

Last, I wanted to show off the centerpieces I made for Jason's Grandma's annual Christmas party. This was also a Pinterest inspired idea...I saw a picture with the cut Poinsettia in a canning jar and decided I could use that idea to create some cute centerpieces, so with canning jars (two sizes), some tea candles, ribbon, pine cones, cranberries, some cuttings from my citrus trees, hot glue and two poinesttia plants I made these:

We just put them in the center of the table on Christmas table cloths that Jason's Grandma already had. Everything I used I had lying around the house, except for the cranberries, so I made 10 of these sets and the whole thing cost me about $3. See, Jason, I AM thrifty!

So there you have it, my homemade Christmas! I'm going to go take a nap!

The Van Hofwegen Family

A Homemade Christmas