I have been collecting photos of my Christmas crafts to share for awhile now. The problem was that I couldn't share them until after Christmas! Many of these (most) are not great quality, but I had to take them with my phone under not so great conditions at times in order to just get the shot before wrapping them & whisking them away under the tree. :)
I had so much fun making so many gifts for Christmas this year. I tried really hard to think of what others would like & how I could make them something rather than buy them something. For some- it was easy- they had requests... like Grandma Tee.... She requested a
mail holder like I had made for my kitchen. So that is exactly what she got. I actually like hers better than mine! It's the flower i added to the top of hers & i will be going back to put one on mine too!
I also made a super hero cape for Kaleb who i think wants to grow up to be a super hero! :) It is two sided - Batman on one side & Super man on the other.... Here he is sporting it on Christmas day....
And here is Jackson posing with the batman side right after i made it....
For his brother, Ethan, I made some bean bags. They were fun to make. I freezer paper stenciled the numbers on, using my cricut for the template and some acrylic paint. Then i sewed them up & filled them with rice (so i guess technically they are rice bags rather than bean bags!)
I made some onesies for Charlie that i just loved! I took a package of white onesies & dyed them. One was orange & the other brown. Then i freezer paper stenciled a rock n roll emblem on the orange ....
and I sewed on a tie using cute fabric onto the brown one.... I had made my boys some tee shirts like this back in the summer, so i just reused the same template!
The most time consuming projects of the holiday season were the two bags & two quilts i made. I totally have to thank my friend, Theresa, for the inspiration of both. She made her hubby a quilt & brought it over to show me & i instantly knew i had to make Randy one! Which then turned into - "i think i could pull off another one" so i called my step mom & she snuck some tee shirts past my dad! So.... here are the tee shirt quilts when they are opening them up at Christmas!
I told Theresa that i wanted to make my sister something out of some fabric she had been eyeing at JoAnns but didn't know what to make. She came to my rescue again with a bag someone had made her. She brought it over & we discussed how we thought it was put together. I took notes & measured the bag. Then the next day, I got to working on one. It turned out to be a gift for my mother in law. The fabric was fabric i already had in my stash from my mom, and it just looked like a "Jackie" print. It was a beautiful red and white print. I added a satin flower to the front too which added a little flair.
Here is the inside.... lots of pockets! One side has velcro to keep them closed & the other has a casing of elastic to keep things in their pockets...
And here is one last one - I have it strung over my shoulder for size perspective...
Once i knew i could make the bag, I set out for JoAnn's to get the fabric Rebecca had been eyeing. Then i spent another day working on hers. It turned out great too! It is pretty large- probably large enough for a short stay overnight bag. She loved it & was very surprised that I remembered the fabric!
I also made the boys a play tent for their playroom. Now that I think about it- I guess this technically took the most time of any of the projects. It wasn't difficult by any means. It just required planning, layering, & a lot of thread changes for each layer. They loved it & have already played many times in it. It is made to drape over a card table so there is a sturdy base holding it up.
One of the easiest & most versatile projects that I made this year were these little cuties. I started back in October working on these. I ordered a bunch of zippers off etsy to follow
this tutorial because i thought it was a cute idea that people could really use. And i wanted to learn to put in zippers well. This tutorial was a great one to learn zippers on! So I went through my fabric & used up a lot of small peices I had and made 8 of these initially (literally in like 2 days!)
They are perfect for holding a cell phone, some money & some chapstick (ask me how i know!? I kept the bottom right one for myself! lol!) The keyring fabric matches the inside lining fabric as well. Cute! After making the initial 8, i made several more with specific people in mind for Christmas using fabrics that looked like them (like peace fabric for Emma!) And then i had an epiphany. What if i embellished the outside layer before sewing them together? I started with making one to match Rebecca's bag.... HOW CUTE??
I made another one almost exactly like hers for Jackson's teacher as well. Then i made a cute pink/black one for my hairdresser and 3 more like the one below for Randy's aunt & grandma (& one for
Randi- but every store i went to was sold out of black zippers the week before Christmas... so hers still has to be sewn up together!!) The embellished ones turned out to be my favorites! Love those cute
little flowers that are so easy to make!
I also made several camera straps this year for many of my friends that have nice Digital SLR cameras. Unfortunately, i can't find any pictures of them! Argh! My phone deleted all my texts & i KNOW i texted a picture of one at some point. Oh well! Here is a link to the tutorial i used if you are interested in making one for yourself or someone else though:
Camera Strap Cover.
Whew! If you are still with me- thanks! That was a marathon post, no doubt! But I think I recapped *most* of what I made for Christmas 2010!
The boys always get so excited to decorate the tree each year & this year was no different. Well, except that Zack was interested this year too. He doesn't remember the tree from last year (since he was left underneath it by Santa at the tender age of 8 wks!) so he was intrigued when all the decorations started coming out!
He did a great job at leaving it all alone once it was up too. I was pretty amazed because i was expecting this year to be full of yelling at the dog for stealing ornaments or ribbons off gifts! Here is our tree once it was all finished & gifts wrapped...
