homemade holidays: gifts of 2012
After counting them all up, I figured I made over 50 handmade gifts for Christmas this year. Most of those gifts were small scale, but that added up to a lot of crafting hours, and not many sleeping hours in December. :) I promised my husband not to make anything for two weeks after Christmas, but luckily I have plenty of things to show you during my hiatus.
All of the projects in this post are lumped together because I only have fuzzy phone photos of them - sorry about that. Guess that's what happens when you craft late at night and wrap/ship first thing the next morning!
I took advantage of the free house box printable by Polka Dot Prints for Design Mom and made a gazillion little treat boxes for friends, playgroup mommies, helpful ladies at church. I paired as many as I could with an extra little gift, like a sparkly bird ornament or small pack of letterpress cards.
These houses were obviously designed for Christmas, but swap out that wreath, and you could definitely use it all year round. A heart for Valentines? Bunny for Easter? I think I'll get a lot of use from that printable.
My L-Letterpress was working double-time, and I gave out a lot of notecard sets. These were printed with the Ruffles Printing Plate, which I think is quite pretty.
FYI ... Lifestyle Crafts currently has all their letterpress stuff on sale for 50% off. You can add my promo code, HOMEMADE, for an extra 20% off your order. For example, the Epic Combo Kit, which includes the Epic 6 die-cutter and L-Letterpress System, is on sale for $85. Add my promo code, HOMEMADE, and it is only $68! That is a killer deal, because regular price it is $169.99. This sale ends December 31!
For Oscar's preschool teachers, I made patchwork lanyards using the tutorial from the blog, Simply Cotton. These are super easy to make, and only take 8 charm squares (5x5" cuts of fabric). Just a note, if you are sewing them in bulk: sew all 8 charm squares together first, then cut the long strip in half, essentially making two lanyards at once. It speeds things up a bit.
Also speeding things up, use one kind of fabric and skip the patchwork. I made a more neutral (wardrobe friendly?) lace print lanyard for my sister-in-law, BYU-Idaho's newest librarian. Love you, Holly. :)
I think these lanyards make a great, useful gift for anyone required to wear a name tag to work. If I were having any more babies, I would make some for the wonderful nurses in the maternity ward. I bought the lobster clasps from an etsy shop, twpmango (also got some cufflink backs ... but I'll show you those later).
Phew ... sorry again about those fuzzy photos. I'll take better photos of the things I made for my kids. :)
All of the projects in this post are lumped together because I only have fuzzy phone photos of them - sorry about that. Guess that's what happens when you craft late at night and wrap/ship first thing the next morning!
These houses were obviously designed for Christmas, but swap out that wreath, and you could definitely use it all year round. A heart for Valentines? Bunny for Easter? I think I'll get a lot of use from that printable.
My L-Letterpress was working double-time, and I gave out a lot of notecard sets. These were printed with the Ruffles Printing Plate, which I think is quite pretty.
FYI ... Lifestyle Crafts currently has all their letterpress stuff on sale for 50% off. You can add my promo code, HOMEMADE, for an extra 20% off your order. For example, the Epic Combo Kit, which includes the Epic 6 die-cutter and L-Letterpress System, is on sale for $85. Add my promo code, HOMEMADE, and it is only $68! That is a killer deal, because regular price it is $169.99. This sale ends December 31!
Also speeding things up, use one kind of fabric and skip the patchwork. I made a more neutral (wardrobe friendly?) lace print lanyard for my sister-in-law, BYU-Idaho's newest librarian. Love you, Holly. :)
I think these lanyards make a great, useful gift for anyone required to wear a name tag to work. If I were having any more babies, I would make some for the wonderful nurses in the maternity ward. I bought the lobster clasps from an etsy shop, twpmango (also got some cufflink backs ... but I'll show you those later).
Ok, last up in the terrible lineup of photos, I made three colorful clutches using Elm Street Life's Bow Clutch tutorial. I love this little bag - it is the perfect size for the little necessities ... wallet, phone, chapstick, etc. Anytime I don't want to haul my diaper bag, I grab my little clutch like this. Admittedly, the pink one turned out a little wild (sorry, Megan!), and the polka dot clutch was somehow sewn backwards, but are still cute for a pencil case, make up bag, travel pouch ...
Phew ... sorry again about those fuzzy photos. I'll take better photos of the things I made for my kids. :)