Some more Handmade

Ready for another post on handmade Christmas gifts?

Well. Turns out, there is a whole Meme going on, sharing handmade goodies and gifts so I said to myself "SELF. You are going to be sharing them ANYWAY. Why NOT participate in the meme?!"



Besides, I love that family.

If you are looking for ideas~ you should pop over to see what is cookin', craftin', and being stitched.

If you are already doing the cookin', craftin' and stitchin' then you ought to join up too, so we can oogle your goodies.

And that's all I am going to say about THAT.

ONWARD HO.

Present 2: For the "Earthies" of the family. I was shocked to go picnicking with some relatives and having them open their basket and unload silverwear, ceramic plates, and all other manner of non-disposables. Now, I am all about saving the earth. But I am so not into hauling around dirty silverwear on a picnic. But they are, and I love them for being who they are so I thought WHY NOT make them something that they can carry all that stuff around, while being stylish and fun, that can just be stored in their baskets awaiting the spontaneous idea for a picnic and can be easily grabbed for one, two or a whole company of people?

So I made "PICNIC ROLLS"



I had a set of four cloth napkins that had a pretty embroidered flower on them.


The colors coordinated really well with these leftover scraps (yay!) making this not only cheap-but whenever a project "comes together" without any assistence, it is just plain exciting.

The napkins were large enough to cut into the back of the roll, the front pocket, with a square cut also for a coordinated napkin (smaller) to tuck inside. I stitched around each napkin with different decorative stitches in coordinated pink and green thread.


And sewed a ribbon on the end for a tie closure. I binded the edges with fabric, after first rounding the top one. You know. For style.

Believe it or not (I still don't know how it happened), after all that, I *STILL* had some leftover cloth napkin fabric, which I used to make a quilted "faux ziploc". Completely lined.
:: Completely washable. Completely perfect for carrots sticks, pretzels or cookies for two.

I used Randi's tutorial here. Super simple. Super cute. (More of these in my future, to KEEP though!)


If anyone is interested in a tutorial for the picnic rolls (AFTER Christmas!) let me know. I know I won't have time before then but I would be glad to make one at some point.


Present 3: This is a present within a present. One PART of the present.

Anybody here the word BORED ever?

That word is a curse word in this house (absolutely not tolerated) but I have a young brother who uses it all the time. So-I am making him a BOREDOM BUSTER BOX. I am including lots of activites in it: one of which is....

this fabric Tic-Tac-Toe board

The circles are large button/ beads (from my stash) and the x's are wooden ones from A.C.Moore that I puff-painted dots on. The fabric "board" is just two squares sewed right side together, flipped-opening stitched-and then ribbon grids stitched in place.

If I had to do this over again, I would have first made a pocket on the backside to hold the pieces before sewing the board. Matt suggested that (after I had made it. Drat.) I will sew up a quickie drawstring bag or something.

Present #4: For A Girl...........Flower Headbands


I *almost* followed this tutorial but I didn't sew a stitch and used elastic bands. I hot glued the flowers on to the metal piece of the headband and hot glued a very small petal over the otherside, completely enclosing the metal part on the bottom of the flower.

These are (again) super simple and VERY addictive.

So addictive...YES, I couldn't refrain from making some for my own girlies. Here is one:


I don't know if it is because I am busy with my own Handmade Christmas projects or if six years old is the magic age of thoughtfulness AND capability, but she is getting right into making handmade Christmas gifts for everyone too.

For Miss Adyay she made an alphabet book. I gave her a small photo album book they gave me when I gave birth and a handful of large index cards and said "Have at it!" She worked on it all in one day-for hours. She just wouldn't stop.

I was mighty impressed with the finished product. From start to finish, she did it all~the only thing I did was~I covered the whole cover with clear contact paper to protect it.

This is one of those "save forever" treasures.


Here are some of my favorite pages:

I is for I love You (Get it...EWE?!)

She loves that joke. I find notes all around the house with this very thing on them. This page is so utterly and competely CORYNN, I love it.

E is for Elephant

See the water splashing out of his trunk?

G is for Giraffe

My favorite animal...how could I NOT love it?! PLus, I remember drawing giraffes JUST like this when I was girl...with those funny puffy little antlers that looked like lollipops. Takes me back.

You know how hard it is to not show you all 26 pages? I mean, they were all great.

I will refrain but I wouldn't be much of a sharer if I didn't share THIS page with you...

Y is for Yak

I didn't even know she knew what a YAK was!