Homemade Gifts

This year, like many in the past, I made a lot of the gifts I gave out for Christmas.  I know I teased you a little with last week's post of all the wrapping I did, but I didn't want to give away any clues to my family in case they were reading!  So here are some of the gifts I crafted:

I started off with this blue box that housed something in it's former life, then sanded it and painted it black

I bought some pens

a booklight

(I stole borrowed his a couple of years ago)

and found some great printables online including library cards

library envelope templates

bookplate templates

and some cute little list books (this gal also has some super cute books for sale in her etsy shop!)

and put it all together to make a little library kit for my son:

He and I share a love of books and feel a twinge of sadness that it all seems to be going digital, so I thought he'd appreciate this for the books he already owns.

When my son was in town for Thanksgiving, we went to a craft fair and he saw a scarf that resembled this one, but it was grey and it was crocheted.  He asked me if I could make one like it in black; I told him I could try knitting one and see how it turned out.  He loves it!  I'm so glad- it looks great on him, too.  It's an infinity scarf, so he can wear it like a chain, or double it up to keep warm. 

I decided to "tea stain" some coffee filters and flour sack towels for a few projects.  I live in an apartment, and it was 30 degrees out, so I opted to dry them right there in my kitchen window.  Once dry, the filters flattened out nicely and held a little texture to make these snowflakes that I used for wrapping the presents.

 And with the flour sacks, I ironed them and used freezer paper stencils to make these cute little kitchen towels for my sister:

Other than that, I just printed out some other "freebies" I got off the web, cut them out accordingly, and packaged them as nicely as I could so they could pass for a gift:)

We hope your holidays were filled with warmth and joy and that this new year brings everyone great happiness.

Hannah moved to a new home with her fiance and son over the New Year's weekend and her sewing studio is no longer in the dungeon (the basement)!  She couldn't be more excited- so no more pictures with bad lighting- at least from her house.  I'm still a night owl, so I'll have to work on that!

Cheers to a great new year!

A Little More Crafty Love

Hi all!  Hannah's sewing machine is broken at the moment (we entered to win one on a local TV show, so our fingers are crossed!) so we're on break from producing anything at the moment.  But I thought I'd show you a little project I did for my sons' new (6 month old) little brother.  I was getting ready to send my son that Skull Notebook I made for him not too long ago so I thought this would also be a good time to give his baby brother a little something.

 My son's father re-married a beautiful woman (inside and out!) a couple of years ago and recently had a little one.  The baby came a little early and then summer was here and things were a bit crazy for a while, so I thought I'd make her a late (sorry!) baby shower gift.  Remember those freezer paper stencils I did for my friends' kids a while back? Well, I thought about what I could do for a boy- I chose a rubber ducky for one, and a sock monkey for the other (his mom loves monkeys!).

I can't believe I photographed them on top of my dirty lookin' craft table, but it's all dry paint, so it didn't hurt the baby onsies:)

And then, I decided to try my own version of a burp cloth.  Hannah has done a few for friends of hers using cute fabric on one side and just white terrycloth on the other. I didn't have any terrycloth, but I did have some white gauzy material that I thought might work.  I just doubled it up, sewed it together and then used the blue striped fabric (all the other fabric I have is pretty girly) in a sort of cloth diaper pattern.  I think it turned out pretty cute!

I just love making stuff for people!  I hope the baby likes it!