Homemade Christmas Presents!!

I made a TON of things for Christmas this year. As you scroll down, you will see the various papercrafted and sewed projects. :) I always make card sets for my Mom, Grammy, MIL, and Kristin (my future SIL). The yellow ones are for my Mom. I am proud to say that I cleaned out a lot of scraps from my scrap baggie this year. This baggie was practically bursting at the seams before and now it's almost empty. A lot of things in there were predone items from other cards that I worked on but couldn't get to come together or things that I made and decided to use a different embellishment or whatever. For this yellow set, I had pre-cut Pretty in Pink textured cardstock that was exactly this size. I just stamped the sentiments (SU! Curvy Verses) on Shimmer CS and used various punched and/or paper pieced elements to finish off the set. The star was already done in my scrap bag. I took a little remnant of Kiwi Kiss and a tiny piece of So Saffron to make the candle, which I scored with my stylus. I hand drew the wick. The hearts were punched with the new SU! Heart to Heart punch that will be in the 2009 catalog (LOVE THIS PUNCH!). I used a Pixie Pink scrap out of my bigger scrap bag. The flower was punched with the SU! Boho Blossoms punch and adhered with a So Saffron Brad. Very simple and cute set.






The star was already punched out of the Bashful Blue strip, so I just cut it to size, backed it with Shimmer CS, stamped the Barely Banana star on the inside, and added the sentiment. The background is Riding Hood Red and the BG stamp is Polka Dot.

Stamp set "Party Hearty." Colors: Rose Red, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Ballet Blue, and Bashful Blue.



Sets: Polka Dot background, Holidays & Wishes ("sweet"). Colors: Certainly Celery, Soft Sky (retired), Regal Rose, Kraft, Whisper White. So Saffron Brad, Quickutz tag die.


I made the "tiles" YEARS ago. They are Cameo Coral cardstock stamped in Versamark with a leaf stamp from a retired SU! set (don't even know which one it was so long ago). I embossed with Whisper White EP and then covered the whole thing in Versamark and embossed with clear EP several times. Sentiment is from retired Mini Mates, stamped with Old Olive. Background is Certainly Celery and the ribbon is Bashful Blue. If I had to do it again, I would have used Sticky Strip to adhere the coral pieces, but if I would have tried to remove it it would have torn the white piece and my DH said he liked them sticking up so I left it.


The heart had been stamped about a year ago (Almost Amethyst stamped tone-on-tone with Canvas BG, then stamped the heart in Versamark, embossed in clear EP, and cut out). The white and pink pieces were just that size in my scrap baggie, so this was a VERY easy card! :) The sentiment is from that $1.00 Michaels acrylic set.

Everything was pre-cut, so this went together in a snap. I just had to punch the scallop circle and the two regular circles, adhere, stamp, and stick it in an envelope! :)

Very simple card. Background Pink Passion, DS paper is SU! Cutie Pie (?), which is retired. The sentiment was already stamped and mounted in my scrap baggie and I just punched out the Celery scallop circle and trimmed the DSP to the correct size (they were already in 1/2" strips). The Bashful Blue ribbon behind the scallop was a nice touch, IMO.


This was another made from scraps. The more I look at it the more I think I maybe inadvertently CASED a SU! advertisement or something that stuck in my mind, because I think it looks familiar. It's Kiwi Kiss for the scallop edge, Upsy Daisy stamp set for the sentiment (with Old Olive and Rose Red ink), and a pre-punched flower with textured purely Pomegranite. The button came off of a denim jacket that was Gracie's and then Ava's. I passed it on to Kyleigh and my sister and I decided that the jacket didn't even need the button since it was in the center of a flower that was already embroidered and looked cute without it.


Another very simple card. Kraft cardstock and ALL of the pieces were already cut/punched and in my scrap baggie. I just cut a bit off of the Soft Sky (retired) piece, adhered it together, and stamped the sentiment. I believe the star is Ballet Blue and the green is Wild Wasabi (retired). I stamped the sentiment with Sahara Sand ink.


Pretty in Pink piece was already cut, as was the 1/2" strip of Cutie Pie DSP. I just cut it to size and put the pre-stamped sentiment with Old Olive mat in the scallop circle, which is Bashful Blue. The celery ribbon scrap was in my scrap ribbon tin.


The green glitter circle panel AND the flower were already pre-stamped and cut out and in my scraps baggie. The Quickutz white tag was as well. I just stamped the "Best Wishes" with a $1.00 Michaels acrylic stamp set, added the yellow brad, and I was done. The circles were made using a small circle stamp that was in the SU! Simple Shapes set (retired). I stamped the circles in Versamark, embossed with Iredescent Ice embossing powder, and used my anywhere hole punch to punch out the centers. I backed the Certainly Celery panel with Pixie Pink cardstock. I used my corner rounder on the edges. The flower is also in a retired SU! set (Shapes and Shadows), which was stamped on Pretty in Pink CS with Pretty in Pink ink.

ANOTHER QUILT! :) This one was for my MIL and was about 6 x 5 when finished. I started with 8.5 x 8.5 squares and it actually shrunk a little bit in the washer/dryer, so now the squares are about 6 inches square. It looks much better in person.


I made six heat/cold therapy neck rolls. You can microwave them or freeze them for various ailments. You can also warm one up and put it in your bed to warm up cold tootsies on cold winter nights! :) They feel heavenly. The pretty fabric is actually just a pillowcase that houses a muslin bag with the feed corn inside. There is a Velcro closure at the top of the pillowcase so you can remove it and wash it if necessary. The two-tone look was a happy accident, because the directions called for using two 24" long pieces of fabric and my fabric was only 21 inches long once the selvage was removed, so I added a 3" strip of the coordinating fabric and I think they look even nicer that way!

Here are some more of the cards that I made for my MIL, Mom, Grandma, and future SIL. As mentioned above, most of them were made from scraps and a lot of the pieces were already punched/cut/stamped, etc. and I just had to put them together in a pleasing manner. This brown "Thank You" card wasn't one of my favorites, but Sean liked it the best so I included it on here. :) The star is made by punching CS with the SU! small star punch, then centering the negative image in the large star punch and punching that out for the outline.

Another simple, easy card. The "Thinking of you" and flowers were already stamped and I just added the brads and the Almost Amethyst strip behind the focal point and adhered it to a Rose Red card base. The flowers are Rose Red, Old Olive, and Lavender Lace and the words and dividing lines are Basic Black. I just colored the stamp with markers before stamping.

A mini scrapbook that I decorated (the window in the cover and the ribbon/cord to tie it together) for Kristin and Adam (my BIL who just got engaged to his girlfriend). I thought she could put their engagement pictures in the album and therefore included a little tin of photo corners. Terrible picture, but you get the idea. I used SU! Shimmer Cardstock and brayered a bit of Bashful Blue ink onto the piece of cardstock I put in the window, stamped the ring (retired SU! Mini Mates), added the rhinestone "diamond," and used a $1 stamp set from Michaels for the "Happily Ever After" and "Going to the Chapel" stamp sets. She loved it! :)


A glitter re-inker ornament for us, with a key tag that I stamped with Karen Foster Snap Stamps for the date. I used a snowflake charm that I have had in my scrap stash for years and two circle punches for the white and red circles (Riding Hood Red). Some retired SU! cord and organza ribbon rounded out the effect. HERE is a great tutorial with pictures that shows you how to make a glitter re-inker ornament. I used SU! Old Olive Classic re-inker for the green, Pretty in Pink for the pink one, and Bashful Blue for the blue one.


Again, for Kristin. The ring stamp is the same $1.00 acrylic set from Michaels, added rhinestone and year with Karen Foster Snap Stamps. Green CS is Green Galore. I had the pink beads in my stash, I believe from a purse handle of Gracie's that broke.


For my in-laws. "2008" stamped in Night of Navy, CS also Night of Navy.

Crafty Things!

30 goody bags for Gracie's preschool class Christmas party that I stamped. The person who sent the pencils for the goody bags only sent 24 and there were 30 kids, so I made gingerbread man tags for the bags that didn't have a pencil tied on (Gracie got one of the pencil-less bags). We were able to scrounge up a "golden rule" pencil that hadn't been sharpened as well as two PBS Kids Sprout pencils that we got from the mall when Barney was there, so only three kids didn't get a Christmas pencil.



One of the four teacher's gifts I made...It's a stationery box filled with four notecards/envelopes that I stamped. I didn't have a chance to take pictures of the individual cards, but they were all different. I used one stamp set per teacher (Tagger's Dozen, Mini Messages, Tags So Much, and Event Full--all retired sets). They were white notecards (5.5 x 4.25) with one image in the upper center of each card...for example, on the pea stamp in Tags So Much, I colored the pea with an Old Olive marker and the sentiment with black marker before stamping, stamped it on the card, and then colored in the peas themselves with Certainly Celery marker. They were simple and cute. I also gave them an ornament to go along with the card set (not homemade).



Finally, I MADE A QUILT! :) I finally learned how to sew in the last month or so. I saw a bunch of cute pictures of rag quilts that people had been making on 2Peas and caught the bug. I had my mom sit down with me one night and she taught me the basics in about an hour and I was off and running....er, sewing. :)

This is for my niece Kyleigh and I chose pink and brown fabric because that's how my sister and BIL decorated her room. It's about 3x5 finished I would say...6.5 inch squares to start, 1/2 inch seam allowance. The backing fabric is that pink fabric that is all around the edge and chocolate brown flannel is in the center of each square. I am pretty proud of it. It is a Christmas gift, but I am posting it because I went to my sister's house the other day to take Christmas pictures of Kyleigh and she (my sister, that is) saw this picture on my camera. Oh well, at least it's a surprise to Kyleigh! :)

Whoa--two in one day!

Thanksgiving pictures! :)

Happy Halloween...er...Thanksgiving!!

I am such a slacker. Here are some Halloween pictures of the girlies. Ava was a chicken and Gracie was a cheerleader for her school party and Cinderella for Trick-or-Treating. Not a great picture from school, but I was about 15 feet back from her and had to crop out the other kids. You get the gist. :)

No crafty pictures still, because everything I have been making lately is a Christmas present and cannot be revealed! :) After Christmas is over, I will have a bunch of crafty stuff to post.