My dh is a painter and I did a few cans years ago. I'm having him save me more currently so I can do more. and I made a matching frame: See if this works. Kristine
Ok ladies, I have to admit, I am faltering some. This week has been such a whirlwind for us! All I can think is baby this and baby that..lol. I have even dropped all of my doll clothes I'm working on to plan out a stash of newborn cloth diapers (I make my own!), but now that it is pretty much planned out, I'm trying to get back into the Christmas present frame of mind. We get the "antique pictures" done every year at the fair. It is what we use for our family pictures..lol. Anyway, I showed hubby the candles, and we decided that they would be perfect with the antique pictures on them...so my mom and MIL are both gonna be covered now They are each also going to be getting a new clothespin bag, made from out grown baby size shorts overalls from my 2 little ones.
When Rachael was 8, she made a sock doll for her aunt's baby shower that she found in a craft book at the library. Faythe made a picture frame, glueing puzzle pieces around a paper mache frame we bought at Michael's. Rachael's doll was the hit of the party!
Jackie mentioned puzzle pieces and reminded me of a Christmas craft. We let our afterschool kids at church make these. We glued small puzzle pieces into the shape of a wreath. Most were circles but some wanted more of an oval shape. It took at least two layers of puzzle pieces to make it look right and to hold it all together. They painted them green once the glue dried and then we let them add tiny red pom poms for berries. They got to choose a magnet back or a pin back. We had an old puzzle that had lots of green trees so some of the kids didn't paint theirs. They liked the way the leaves from the trees looked. The were about the size of a silver dollar. All the mothers loved them and several wore their pins to church the next Sunday. The kids were so proud.
You can take all the puzzles lying around your house with missing pieces and sort them according to color. (Blue is easy, because of all the sky, and there's usually lots of green, too!) Or you can glue them without any regard to color, or spraypaint them gold or something!
Every year my mom and sisters get together for a Holiday craft decoration and/or ornament swap instead of having a cookie swap because some of us are watching our wieght. Each of us make different items, for example I make felt ornaments, stainglass ornaments and decorative wreaths, while my older sisters: Diane does beadwork and felt ornaments Teri makes dried floral ornaments and wreaths Roslyn sews and makes stockings and ornaments with fabric. My mother paints and makes wonderful ornaments with light bulbs! I organize the get together and my sister Diane and I make the food. Yes, I said we are watching weight but where there's family there's food. Right? We look forward to it each year and I enjoy getting handmade ornaments from my family members. My mother's christmas tree is filled with handmade ornaments through the years. She even has the ornaments we made as children! I can't wait to have on my tree the ornaments my children make through the years! Here's a picture of my Christmas Felt ornaments and PAPER bag ornaments. (we recycle around here too) I just started a craft blog this past week (the link is in my signature).
We make ornaments every year. It's one of our traditions. I love looking back at all the things my children have made. Last year we bought a second smaller tree and filled it with the kids ornaments. We had so many we were running out of room!
Check out my pics for a great gift idea, cheap and easy but elegant and nice! Neat gift for a teenager or an adult to put in a Bible. This is made out of a place mat, folded up, pockets sewn in and flowers sewn on with cute buttons. A journal holder! I did put flowers on the inside which are not shown in the pics.
I made one of these for my niece a few years ago and she loved it. I used cork board and material, ribbon and batting that I had around the house but I did purchase some of the little pins that you use to hold bedskirts in place. What I did was 'screwed' them through the material into the board and then covered them with some random buttons I had and hot glue. It turned out super cute and had a quilted look to it.
Christmas already ?? Wow you ladies are so talented. Very creative ideas. Thanks! But wait, you're putting me under a lot of pressure ...
For me I have to start in the summer on account of my hands (carpel tunnel and nerve damage). I can't do alot of sewing so I do alittle over the course of the Summer and Fall months.
I found these "tables" at Hobby Lobby for $.35! My son stenciled it for me and then I painted it. The bugs were rub-ons that I found. The tables are about 4 inches high and 7 inches long. I found some holdiay rub-ons that I may use on one or two of them for the holdiays.
Picture frames are simple and run about $2 each. My dd made this one and used scrapbook stickers but we've also used rub-ons on them.
ideas Im not too crafty, but one year i made the cinnamon ornament dough for christmas ornaments. instead of cutting them out, i used a coffee can lid and cut out the circle then the kids put their handprints on each one. after they were done drying we glittered them up and they looked cute. we also have cut back on who we gift because of sheer necessity. we do grandparents, 1 special friend a piece, sunday school teachers and each other. my dh and i very rarely get each other gifts because of money , but we do try to do something special for each other, like he might clean the whole house while im out grocery shopping, or i might block out the whole weekend for him to go deer hunting and just chill. so thats what we do i did make ribbon and bead ornaments that were super easy , just a little ribbon, beads and needle and thread. they zig zagged back and forth and in the end looked like ribbon candy. one thing i have just started is watchin ebay. this is a first but i did get my dd 14 american girl doll books in a lot for $14 and that included shipping. i didnt think that was bad, and i bought myself 9 different craft books for $8 shipping included, so im trying to find good deals. i also bough ds a john deere monopoly game. it was $15 . dont think that was exactly a bargain, but we live in the sticks, so finding one cheaper would have been hard. just some ideas! have loved reading all yours! Heather
I plan to sew each of my kids a kitchen apron. They both love to help in the kitchen and the last time we made one they were only 6 and 8. They are now 12 and 14, they have outgrown them.
Oh and I'm also making my ds a scrapbook of all of his pics that I took of him playing football this year and I had one blown up to 11X14. The photographer even threw in metallic finish for free!
