What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow. ~ Martin Luther

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

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?!"

A Homemade Christmas at SimplyVintagegirl.com


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!

19 comments:

Angel said...

Thank you for the compliment on my blog! Yours is VERY lovely! I will definitely be back!

Kyleigh said...

The picnic rolls are absolutely gorgeous. They'd make wonderful place settings as well, even for dinner at home.
And I love your daughter's book. It is so darling. :) My 8-year old sister still makes things like that all the time. Her latest project for composition was making a book about David and Goliath.

Bonnie said...

These are all really neat Rebecca!
I actually started bringing non-disposable picnic things along this year, and can I just say it bumps up the charm factor?

Corynn's pictures are to precious for words, the elephant is my favorite (probably since I just made Muffin an elephant b-day cake).

Can't wait to see what else you do, I am desperately trying to get my gifts STARTED, but my goodness, have the sickies and baby crankies come for a long visit!

Terri said...

I LOVE the picnic rolls. What a wonderful idea! Corynn's pictures are just too cute. I love them all.

Unknown said...

You have a busy beaver, huh? All your gifts are LOVELY, Rebecca!! GREAT JOB!!! The cloth tic-tack-toe is something I'm going to eventually try *places in pile were pillowcase skirts sit* HEEHEE!

Your dd's book is adorable! :)

Blessings!
Amy

Unknown said...

been a busy beaver...doh! :P

Wendy said...

Doesnt it feel good to handmake a gift..you have so much more pride about it! I need to find some time to work on my projects...time is flying!

Danielle said...

The picnic rolls are a wonderful idea! It is so fun when you can see a need and fill it:-) I have to remind myself that just because I love all things homemade doesn't mean everyone else does. It is great that this will be a useful gift as well as homemade!!!

The headbands are very cute as is your daughters book.

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness. You are talented.

Peggy said...

I love the headbands, the picnic roll, and reusable "ziplock"!! Thank you for some great ideas!! Corynn's gift Adele is absolutely precious! Our middle son is looking for ideas so we shall see... I think he is making his younger brother a gumball machine. This weekend we are starting our pasta making!! :) Dried pasta in different sizes, shapes, and colors!!

Nanci said...

Like mother, like daughter. Both are very gifted and creative. I love the picnic sets.

You have been busy!!!!!!

Grandma Bibby said...

What wonderful creative ideas for gifts. I was at Cracker Barrel today, and they had some small snowmen with silverware in them. No napkin though. I wanted to buy a ton, but alas, I was good. Keep up the great work. Your receivers will be so blessed with their gifts.

Full of Grace said...

Great job by mama and daughter!!!

hillary@dark :: light said...

Amazing! I love the little book. I remember doing something like that with a sister for another baby sister. So precious!!

Caroline said...

Hey Rebecca,
I'm looking so forward to coming up and visiting you and your family in a couple of weeks. I just wanted to say i wish i was as talented as you of thinking of things to make for people for Christmas, God has certainly blessed you with great talent. See ya soon, Caroline.

Alyssa Spring Corley said...

LOVE the picnic rolls...please do a tutorial sometime!!!

Riahli said...

I love your ideas for handmade gifts, they are all so beautiful. The picnic rolls are perfect, what an awesome gift for them. I made quite a few things last year, but haven't done so well this year with the new baby and all. Hand made makes it so much more personal doesn't it. I am trying to think of some really simple fun things my little boys can make for their friends for gifts...any ideas? :)

Leah said...

What awesome gifts you've made! They're all so thoughtful and fit the "giftee" perfectly! You're such an inspiration!

I need to get some pictures taken of the gifts I've made so far. I have lots more to go before Christmas day! Ack!

Abigail said...

I love the picnic roll, especially, but they're all so wonderful!

The picnic roll is very cool, and this comes from one who used paper plates for trailer get-togethers. GASP!