Christmas Presents - Part 2

4. Fort Kit

When I saw this idea for a fort kit, I knew it would make a perfect Christmas gift for my three little nephews. I changed it up a little bit, but the idea is the same. The boys get a king size sheet, rope, and a book to share. They each get their own box of fort "supplies" - flashlight, glow stick, clothes pins, clamps, and snacks. I think their favorite part will be the glow sticks.

5. Nail Art Book

Our sweet niece just turned 13, and she is probably the most fun person I have to make presents for. This year I collected various nail tips and nail art tutorials from around the internet and compiled them into a book.

6. Baby Shoes

Remember these shoes I made for Baby Love? Rose was born with huge feet. (No lie. Her feet grow out of her sleepers before the rest of her body does.) So these large shoes already fit her, and they look so cute, I decided to make her a couple more pairs for Christmas.

Every girl needs a pair of red shoes.

7. Miscellaneous

I also knit some mittens for my sisters, made two collaborative fabric books with my mom for my nephew, and designed a photo book for Timmy to keep at the store to show off his baby.

Whew.

December is such a busy month. I really am going to start my Christmas presents for 2012 early.

Christmas Presents - Part 1

Christmas is over and the last of my homemade presents are finally completed. After a frantic rush to get them all done in time, I really am going to make all of my Christmas presents for 2012 in January this year. I already know what I'll be making…

I love making presents. I love giving handmade gifts.
Here's a few that I made this year.


1. Felt Flowers

I used this tutorial to make felt flowers. One became a pin for Mom, and the other made Rosemary's Christmas dress complete.

2. Polaroid Magnets

I saw some ideas for making Polaroid magnets on Pinterest, but they all seemed a little too complicated. For my magnets I printed a bunch of photos on cardstock and laminated the photos. Then I took big white magnet sheets and cut them into rectangles and glued the photos onto the magnets. It was incredibly easy, and they look absolutely adorable.

3. Paper Stars

My mom re-taught me how to fold beautiful German paper stars. My family has been making these stars for as long as I can remember, but it is one of those projects that require a refresher because it can be a little confusing at first. We dipped them in wax and added strings to create gorgeous ornaments. I found an online tutorial on how to make these here.

Tools and Such

My dad is the handiest man I know. 

He has a manly shop, where he makes beautiful things like desks, 

blanket chests, coat racks, pizza peels, cabinets, and houses.

I blogged, almost a year ago, about spending some time with Dad in his shop,
and finding all sorts of “manly beauty” amidst his tools and wood shavings.
For Christmas this year, I made him a collection of thank you cards, featuring his tools.

 

And really, all that guy stuff can be very pretty.

Scarves To Keep Them Warm

I always try to make all of my Christmas gifts every year. 

Usually I go with some sort of theme, and make the same thing

- in different versions - for everybody. 

This year, it was scarves. 

Everyone got scarves, plaid scarves specifically.  

 The boys got "manly" ones, and the girls got "sweet" ones. 

Timmy helped me pick out five different colors and plaid patterns, 

and Mom helped me make 17 plaid scarves. (Mom is the best.)
Each scarf took roughly 1 hour to make from start to finish,
which feels like a lot when you try to do it all at once (which we did),
but really, it isn't. And they all turned out so prettily!! 

Making scarves is pretty simple.  

(Remember when I posted the directions, here? I was being sneaky,
little did you know those would be my Christmas presents. Or did you?)
All it takes is a lot of cutting, ironing, pinning, and sewing. (Timmy actually did all of the final ironing, and he did a very good job at pressing the seams.)

 

Judging from everyone’s happy smiles,
my scarf presents were a delightful success! 

Because, let’s face it, who doesn’t love scarves?

christmas presents - timmy's dvd

For Timmy's Christmas present, I made him a DVD. A year's worth of photos, videos, and audio clips were combined into a sweet little movie, starring us. It starts with our magical proposal and ends with our return trip to Disney World, with lots of love in between. Hours of tediously editing movie clips only confirmed to me that I would never make a good movie director. But I suppose it wasn't so bad, since I got to stare at clips of my handsome husband the whole time...

My favorite part, though, was designing the DVD cover. And my favorite part about the cover is the front photo, taken by Laura Zastrow.

Isn't it the perfect photo? I just love that we are holding hands and staring off at separate horizons, looking to our futures and facing it together. Doesn't it make you wonder what we're seeing? And isn't the wall behind us such a glorious color and texture? And those shadows. Laura, you're brilliant!

I loved this project. It's just such a great way to document a year's worth of happiness and memories.

And, after much deliberation, Just Us Two got a G rating. Whew.

christmas presents - owl pocket calendar

Meet Oswald, the owl. He's just as excited about 2010 as I am! *big smile* Happy New Year!

christmas presents - forest friends

When I married Timmy, I became an instant aunt to one beautiful niece and three adorable nephews.

My nephews are not only delightfully boy-ish and perfectly rambunctious, but they are also so sweet, well behaved, and imaginative. And I know they love books, because they have a fabulous mom who reads them stories. (Lucky boys!) I think you will agree, there is nothing more wonderful than an imaginative child who loves books.

So, for their Christmas gift, we bought them one of my all time favorite books, The Mitten, by Jan Bret. And then we created a series of animal masks, one for each furry creature that stars within its pages.

Because stories are so much more magical when there are costumes involved.

These masks were so much fun to make! I spent a weekend designing and sketching and cutting and sewing. An old children's puppy mask became my model for sizing. Once I had the basic shape down, it was just a matter of tweaking the ears, face shape, and eyes to make each individual animal. The back of the masks are stiff black felt and the fronts are regular felt. I used interfacing to fuse the layers together - no sewing necessary!

 

I love these little masks. I love how they are just so whimsical. I love that the felt makes them so soft for young faces. I love that they are durable, ready to engage in any sort of activity a young badger or bear might deem necessary.

But mostly, I love that they instantly turned my darling nephews into a crew of growling, hooting, squeaking, and grunting forest friends.

christmas presents - rynn's secret book

My little sister, Rynn, is beautiful and mysterious. She loves locks and keys and hidden compartments and secrets. And because she is so interestingly curious and imaginative, she has lots of good secrets worth keeping.

For her Christmas present, I made her a Secret Book. A little book that has a hidden compartment for hiding treasures. Full of secrets and just sitting on your bookshelf - but nobody would know it! Because secrets are so much more exciting when they are hidden in plain sight.

Secret books are most successful when they are purposely made to look positively boring. Find an old book that is so perfectly uninteresting that it can quietly sit on your shelf for years and years, without anyone ever wishing to notice it's shabby little spine. Because if someone did pick it up, it would ruin your secret hiding place. No good.

The great thing about secret books is that they are very easy to make and the results are guaranteed to be thrilling. After a little gluing and lot of cutting (Timmy did most of the cutting) a perfectly secretive secret book, one that made my Rynn's eyes light up in the sneakiest way, was created.

Happy Christmas, little love. Thanks for always sharing your best secrets with me. xoxo

christmas presents - cozies

Hot drinks just taste better when your fingers have pretty cup cozies to keep them warm and happy.

I have one amazing mom in law and three pretty sisters who love tasty hot drinks from Starbuck's. And so, for their Christmas gifts, I made them some fabric cup cozies. Now when they drink their Starbuck's, they can match their outfits, make a statement, sport their colors, love the environment... and remember how much I love them. Perfect.

 

 

 

They turned out so fun, it almost makes me want to start drinking coffee so I can use them too! And they are really rather simple to make. I say rather because they are time consuming, but not hard. I made all 12 of these in one day, with the help of my fabulous mom. The hardest part was creating the pattern and figuring out how to make them insulate fingers without being too thick and bulky.

I think there are countless ways I could switch things up to embellish these. Ribbons? Hook and eye closures? Iron-on transfers? Any creative thoughts?

christmas presents - jumbled cards

Timmy and I made all of our Christmas presents this year. We did not step into the mall craziness even once.

Of course, I could not show any Christmas present pictures before Christmas, because then you would all know what you were getting! Ahh, but it has been so hard not to show the beautiful treasures I have made for you all! Each present is full of love, love, and more love.

I can show these jumbled cards though because, in the end, I loved them too much to give them away, and have decided to keep them for myself. :) (Sorry Lizzy, you're getting something even better instead.)

 

 

I love typography, and I love asterisks. And I am currently in love with celery green and pumpkin orange.