Gift Making

I participated in the "Homemade Gift Exchange" through Craftaholics Anonymous again.

My exchange partner said she decorated with red in her kitchen and wanted to add some teal/turquoise too. I thought this would be the perfect thing for her kitchen wall. I was inspired by this project. It's a little different than the inspiration (mine was made with scrapbook paper and hers was made with batting and fabric), but I liked the result.

My partner also mentioned that she LOVED elephants.

Saw this hippo photo holder and knew I would make her teal elephant "recipe holder" for her kitchen.

I also added one of our recent favorite recipes, "Crockpot Potato Soup" and sent it in the mail.

Hope she likes it.

On the Smullin side of the family, we have created a new annual event...the "Smullin Traditions Weekend". It takes place the first weekend of December (between Thanksgiving and Christmas). We eat like it's Thanksgiving and party like it's Christmas.

The cousin/grand kids exchange homemade gifts, while the adults find something from the Dollar Store or around the house, that reminds them of their exchange partner, to give. Treyson's cousin gift was for Jeremiah... a scientific, brainy kind of guy.

Treyson and I measured, bagged and labeled different ingredients to create a "science kit".

We included gloves, safety goggles and a "science notes" book. It had instructions for the experiments, as well as space for Jeremiah to write his own observations and notes.

Abree had her cousin Adam. Adam comes from a family of 5 boys (and 1 baby girl). They like all things boys, but especially super heroes! Abree decided to paint a canvas of super hero logos (with a little help from me).

We traced the logos onto contact paper and then taped off 4 sections. Abree painted the background colors, then dotted/spotted them.

Next, we cut apart different sections of the logos and painted.

There were several steps to this process and it was quite time-consuming, but the result was great.

The perfect wall hanging for that super hero lover in your life.

Taylee was giving me a hard time saying, "Mom, no kid wants a wall hanging for a gift. They want a toy. You guys should have made him something he could play with. She had a point... maybe she was right, but the ball was already in motion when she pointed this out. Hopefully he's ok with a non-playable gift.

Taylee made a fashion notebook for her cousin Jordyn. It was cute and SUPER detailed.

Rylee made an iron-on t-shirt for her cousin David. It said, "I (picture of moustache) you a question" and then on the back it said, "but I'll shave it for later". Ha, funny, eh?!

Homemade gifts feel like a lot of work in the process, but are TOTALLY worth it in the end!

The Stockings Were Hung

Once again, I participated in Crafaholic's Anonymous "Homemade Gift Exchange".

She does it twice a year, once before Christmas and once during the summer. It's really fun. You should try it.

This time I made a "Christmas Sock Advent Countdown".

I got the idea for the sock countdown here. There were over 100 activities to choose from. I picked my favorites then printed them off, cut them out and mounted them onto green cardstock.

After searching a number of stores (I think over 7!), I finally found some inexpensive Christmas socks at Walmart and Kmart. I didn't LOVE all of them, but was tired of searching.
My favorite socks were the red/white striped ones, with the green cuff. :)

I wanted to make it extra cute and more "homemade", so I painted the clothespins in festive Christmas colors.

Finally, I printed numbers off for the countdown and glued them to the clothespins.

I sent more than 25 activities and left a few cards blank, so she could customize the activities to her own family. I also suggested putting a little treat in the sock each day.

As it hung on the mantle, my kids asked if we could keep it.

Wish we could....it turned out cute. :)

Recent Craftiness.. and re-craftiness

For my birthday, my sweet friends Marianne and Jaime took me to dinner and then we went back to Jaime's house to craft. We made these holiday countdowns. One for Halloween...

and one for Christmas.

We finished the Halloween one that night, but I took the Christmas one home to finish up. Upon arriving home I started tweaking the original materials. I changed the numbers from white to green, sanded the edges, stained the edges and finally put it all together with Mod Podge.

When finished, something kept bothering me about it. I finally realized that it was the "countdown" that was bugging me. The background was burgundy and the lettering was white. It just didn't fit with the numbers and colors of the background papers. So I peeled off the old "countdown" and replaced it with a new and improved "countdown".
Here's the finished product. A true red background with a green letters.

Ahhhh, much better!

Don't say it... I already know... I can be a little... whatever you want to call it. But in my defense, I was sending it to a "Handmade Gift" swap partner and I didn't want to give her something that BUGGED me... it might BUG her too.

This was a inexpensive fun project. I bought the metal platter at the Dollar Tree, spray painted it red, then stenciled the word JOY on it. Also bought a little metal easel at the Dollar Tree to display it on.

I wasn't satisfied with the stenciled JOY because of how the paint bled under the stencil, so I purchased some vinyl and slapped it on and liked it a whole lot better.

See?! Much better, huh?

Don't say it!... we've already discussed this. It too was a gift. Can't give a gift that BUGS you. :)

I found this project here.

The instructions called for different sizes of styrofoam cones. I didn't have any or money to purchase cones (I've been told they're kind of expensive) so I got creative and used rolled up newspaper ads and duct tape. I covered them with wax paper and hoped they would work for what I needed.

Next, I soaked the jute twine in the Stiffy fabric stiffener and wrapped it around the newspaper cones. I let them dry for 24 hours and then peeled them off the wax paper.

Next step was to decorate them. Instructions called for little red berries or glittery spray paint. I opted for the "natural" look.

I think my "Stiffy" wasn't as stiff as it should have been (it was 18 years old, or so!) so my trees started to "wilt". I may try this project again with not so old "Stiffy" to see if it works better.

Here are what hers looked like... so cool!

Photo from "Chris, Erin and Jayce" blog

I found this project here.

I thought of my mother-in-law immediately and knew I HAD to make them for her for Christmas.

Instead of making the bookends, I found mine at a thrift store. I liked the beadboard look, the time savings and the price. :)

I used soup cans, wooden circles and cotton yarn to complete the spools.

I also added my own touch by creating and printing off decorative "labels" for the spools.

I think they turned out kinda cute.