An AWESOME DIY Homemade Christmas

Well, Black Friday has come and gone and now onto the the non-stop deals on whatever crap people are compelled to buy in the hustle to get Christmas shopping done.

I have a different plan.  Nothing speaks to my heart more than a nice homemade gift. I love receiving them and getting them!  While there are lots of great diy gift ideas on Pinterest, I am going to share some of my plans for diy Christmas gifts this year.  Most of our Christmas shopping this year is going to be for supplies to make these.  I even did take advantage of Black Friday shopping by getting a great deal on blizzard fleece on Joann's website so I never even left the house!

These are not just cheesy homemade gifts that you make and then at the last minute feel like you should still buy something anyways to go with it...These are AWESOME stand alone great gifts that can replace whatever else you may have purchased otherwise!

MERMAID AND SHARK TAIL SNUGGLE BLANKETS

For all the girls and boys in my life I am making either fleece mermaid tail blankets or shark eating me blankets.  I got the fleece on Joanns Black Friday cyber deal for $2.50/yard so these are a super fun gift to make and keep your budget down!  

You can get a tutorial here and here


but it looks pretty easy to figure out and just wing both without a pattern.

Howeverfor those who like to SEE examples and various ways to do it, shark blanket tutorials can be found such as this 

Or HERE

or get a pattern to make both on etsy here 

ANTI-AGING AND HEALTHY HAIR SILK PILLOWCASES

For the women in my family, I will be making up some hair and beauty silk pillowcases.  There is a great tutorial on HowDoesShe that you can follow.  I may do mine a little different and try to embed some lavendar...we shall see.  I ordered the real silk on dharmatrading.com as recommended from the tutorial. I will make a cute litle printout of all the benefits of silk pillowcases to go with.With 1 yard per pillowcase this gift rings in at just under $10 each.

WOODEN MINECRAFT BLOCKS AND PLAY PARTS

For my son who likes Minecraft and loves building with blocks, I ordered a set of 50 1.5 inch unfinished wood blocks from craftparts.com.  He's 5 and I LOVE Grimm style wood toys, but instead of rainbow blocks, I am going  to dip dye the blocks in food coloring in the main minecraft colors and may get a little creative to make a few special blocks.  My son has a good imagination, and dying them with minecraft theme colors, he can enjoy building his own minecraft stuff but his imagination wont be limited to minecraft play.  If you want a more specific minecraft look check out this diy post on wooden Minecraft Blocks.  It's more involved with printing the skins, cuting, modgepodging etc but looks cool.
 

My daughter is making other minecraft things to go with the block set as her gift to her brother with perler beads.  She is just making them up based on how she knows minecraft looks but here is some inspiration...Check it out HERE

GYMNASTICS BALANCE BEAM

For any gymnastics loving girls, there a tons of tutorials online for constructing your own balance beam.  I plan on using a fun color combo with fun faux suede and paint on the wood frame.  There are LOTS of different tutorials to make them but it doesn't have to be complicated! Here's a simple tutorial here

For awesome balance beam color combo ideas, check out this pinterest board.

DIY DOLL GYMNASTICS SET

For our little gymnasts and doll loving girl, my husband is going to "help" our son make a gymnastics set for his sister for his Christmas gift to her.  He'll make a set of bars from pvc pipe and using a tutorial like this and we'll make some velcro grips so she can swing around.  

For a mat you could just layer some craft foam or get a small piece of thin foam padding and wrap it in cute duct tape.

Doll Beam (we'll make one that matches her beam)

CANDY POPCORN

For other great people in your life like friends, neighbors, teachers, etc...ne of my favorite things to make is my mom's carmel popcorn recipe and then drizzle melted chocolate over top, package in cellophane bags and pair with a Christmas card.

and for the men....that's where I am still deciding!  Maybe homemade BBQ rub and custom aprons? i don't know but here are some great lists of ideas for the men here and here and here.

Shopping for the perfect gifts can be super stressful and time consuming and making a bunch of gifts can seem completely overwhelming.  But if you can consolidate projects by making all kids the same thin, all women the same thing, all men the same thing and all neighbors etc the same thing...then you just take a couple session focused on that one project.  The key to enjoying the season and meking homemade gifts is to be intentional about how you spend your time.  Less running around and more resting and making.  Less Christmas activities for more relaxed Christmas season savoring at home!  Don't feel like your kids are going to miss out if they don't attend every Christmas party and activity there is to do.  The kids will remember making a homemade gift while smelling cookies in the oven more than they will the blur of events and errands that sometimes englufs the entire season.  Order as much as you can online, even fabric if possible and only do the running around that is absolutely necessary!  That way we can be productive, give great gifts while still feeling the joy of the season and create lasting memories with our children.  

As for us as homeschoolers, I also posted about this on instagram under the picture of my daughter making a minecraft diamond with her perler beads...that since we HAVE the flexibilty, we are going to take the month off of regular school and learn through living and all the productive hands-on Christmas time things we do. It is just too much to maintain a regular homeschool schedule and then pile on top of that all the other things we want to do.  So we are making the season fun and learning through all our fun seasonal activities and gift making!

Fathers Day Craft

Cute and Easy Fathers Day Craft

Shrinky Dink Neck Tie Key Chain 

Here is a super cute, simple and easy fathers day craft kids of any age can make for their dad...even babies can scribble on the paper.  I had never heard of shrinky dinks until earlier this week when my friend had the girls make some on a playdate and sent us home with the scraps to try making more.

Pick up some shrinky dink paper

 My friend found some at Hobby Lobby in the kids craft area in the back.

Preheat oven to 300 F

Draw a basic tie shape on the paper, or find a clipart drawing of a tie and print it out on the shrinky dink paper.

Have your child color in the tie with regular markers.  Younger ones can just scribble..older ones can try and make a pattern...

Carefully cut out around the edges once it is done being colored and punch a hole near the top.

The colored tie in the middle used to be the size of the outlined tie

Place the tie on a baking sheet lined with parchment or wax paper and put in oven

Set timer for 3 minutes (according to instructions but ours took longer)

watch it curl up and shrink, then it will slowly start to open back up.  Once it is looking pretty flat, take it out of the oven and press it flat with an oven mitt.  Let cool.

Attach neck tie keychain to key ring.  I had to use a safety pin to attach it because I made my hole too small for the key ring to go through.  You can do this too, or use string or something else thin if your hole comes out too small after it shrinks.  

Now daddy with have a cute fathers day craft from the kids that will always be with him!

And for more fathers day neck tie goodness...check out these free fathers day printables
http://amandaparkerandfamily.blogspot.com/2011/06/freebie-fathers-day-printables-are-tie.html

Valentine's 2.0 Felt Heart Cookie Set

Valentine's Day Post 2.0

Felt Heart Cookie Set

and

Valentine's Day  Fun

My friend found this super cute felt cookie tutorial on pinterest (I think) and we decided to do it last night, just in time for Valentine's Day for our girls.

 

J said it was a wonderful gift!

My brother is arriving tonight for a visit before he goes off to start training for the AF Para Rescue program and so we cut out lots of hearts and the kids spend forever decorated them all for him and then J carefully, thoughfully placed them all around his room he'll be staying in the surprise him...

We also had an impromptu playdate with our friends and they made necklaces together gluing a heart doiley on a paper heart, then adding a sticker, ribbon and we took their picture and printed and cut out and glued to the back...and they decorated and ate Valentine's cupcakes

And here are the crossword puzzle valentine's we made and passed out at the retirement home with our MOPS group

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

5 Easy Handmade Gift Ideas

Great Handmade Gift Ideas

I haven't had enough time lately to get started on all the things I have on my list of things I want to make this Christmas, but here are a few at the top of my list to try that would make great handmade gifts.

Magnetic Bookmark

I'm totally diggin' this magnetic bookmark tutorial, it looks super easy and I could make some cute ones with all the fun fabric scraps I already have on hand!  View the tutorial by Louise found on the Southern Institute.

Coffee Cup Sleeve

I definitely want to make some of these coffee/tea cup cozy's for Christmas too!  These would be a great handmade gift to make for all your girlfriends, sisters, sister-in-laws, moms, aunts, kids teachers...etc. Just follow the great Coffee Cup Sleeve tutorial by Staci HERE.

Chef hat and Apron

And for the lil' cuties, I ADORE this tutorial for the kids apron and chef hat!  You could even pair this with the paula dean kids cookbook 

Ruffle Scarf

I also heart this frilly scarf made from a T-SHIRT!  Check out the tutorial Here if you want to whip up one of these.

Holiday Clothespins

These holiday clothespins from Blue Cricket Designs are a fun and easy gift you can make.  They can either be strung along a ribbon to display christmas cards on the mantle or you can attach a magnet to the backs to put the on the fridge.  

Are you planning on making any handmade gifts this year?  Have you bought any cool handmade gifts?

Newborn Tutu

Newborn Tutu

newborn photography props

This is my sweet little niece who I am dying to meet in a few more weeks!  She is about 3 weeks old and isn't she precious?  I think she looks darling in her baby tutu and flower headband.  Her daddy is a photographer and so this little newborn photography outfit is one of the first things I made for her because every little girl needs a tutu, especially a little girl who's mama is a professional ballet teacher.

dare I say...like mother like daughter? what do you think?

Although I know my sister would love it if her daughter does love dancing, I know she won't force her onto it.  Either way, I know there are a lot of tutus in this little cuties future, whether for fun or function...or both!

 I sent this outfit along with the personalized baby name hanger and this awesome little sign for her carseat and stroller. You can pick these up in either blue, pink or red in english or spanish.  I got one of these 4.5 years ago when J was a newborn after hearing about all the people that try to touch your baby at the grocery store and random places...it's an automatic reminder that people need to be careful about getting germs on baby without mom having to be confrontational or rude when strangers approach...Pick some of these up for  yourself or a baby gift for someone else (know any germaphobe moms? they would love this) My Tiny Hands

Personalized Hanger - Baby Name Gift

Personalized Wooden Hanger 

baby name gifts

I made this personalized hanger for my baby niece who was just born as a funny, cute way to remember how my 4 yo daughter named her "Rainbow Gotters" while my sister was pregnant.  During the pregnancy, Rainbow Gotters kind of became the baby's name until she was born and although her parents gave her a beautiful name, my daughter was a little upset when she found out Rainbow Gotter's wasn't going to be her real name...because that's the name SHE picked out and that SHE wanted her to have.  So we said that it could be her special cousin name for her.  This personalized hanger would be a cute baby name gift for real names too :)

 Trace the outline of the wood hanger on the back of your decorative paper.  repeat for both sides and then cut out the hanger shape from the paper. set aside.

 Paint the sides of the hanger and the front and back if you like.  (although that will be covered by the paper so isn't really necesarry)

Once paint is dry, using a foam brush, apply an even coat of modgepodge over the wooden hanger.  Carefully line up the precut paper and press onto the hanger, smoothing the surface.  Allow that to dry and then repeat on the back side.

Now, using your letter stickers,  personalize the hanger by adding the baby's (or whoever's) name and embelishing with gems or other stickers.