Christmas Projects

Today was sewing day. I sewed/worked with fabric.. for 6 hours. Here are two of the projects I finished.

Arn't they cute? They are kids aprons made from ribbon and hand towels.

I am wrapping them with a cookie cutter and a bag of cookie mix.
This was a beast... I am good at baby blankets.. crib size, but my baby (who is 10) wanted her mom to hand make her a blanket for Christmas.. so how could I say no? It was big, and hard, but made with a lot of love!

New Year Teacher gifts

Small bins, pencils, pens, colored pencils, blue sticks, chocolate, handmade magnets, state cards, shirt, erasers and of course, hand made card! So excited for school to start!

Getting ready for school

As a welcome back to the teachers and staff I put together these water bottles.

The holder says "We have the "kool"-ist teachers! Thank you quenching the "thirst" of knowledge.

Twins?

Two wonderful teachers at our school are having babies. Recently they both found out the sex of their children and I finally got to go shopping. While I was at Joann's waiting in line at the cutting counter a nice, talkative lady next me asked if I was having twins.. one of each. Yeah, I am going to start living at the gym!

Anyhow.. Joann's had these amazing panels I just could not pass up, and the cutest appliques that match, of which I had to make pillows with. I know its a pig, not a bunny, buts its the right color and adorable! The pillows took longer to make than the blankets, in all about 4 hours and totally worth it!

Mothers Day Gift.

For my MIL's gift this year, I put together this portrait wall. She has 6 kids (hers, his and theirs), and they all have families of their own. I got tiered of seeing all the random 4x6's laying around that she gets so I thought this was something she would like. I mean after 81 years of birthdays, christmas', and 60 mothers days its hard to find something unique!

The saying at the top says "Family link to our past, bridge to our future" there is an 8x10 of each child with their families and a 5x7 for each grandchild and their families. Right now there are a lot of names showing, but hopefully in the coming months we can get these blank spots filled in!

More Teacher stuff

As PTA president for our school, I get to help with the week long fun for the teachers! Here is our lay out.

Monday: Continental breakfast.
Tuesday: Gift Card to Walmart and these adorable paper clips.
Wednesday: Dinner in bag for them to take home.
Thursday: Hand lotion for the taking and a seated message in the library.
Friday: A 10x13 matte signed by all their students, with a class picture in the middle.

Teacher appreciation gifts.

We started with fortune cookies, sprinkles, white and milk chocolate.

Dip the fortune cookies in chocolate.

Sprinkle and drizzle till your hearts content.
Aren't they pretty?!

Put in cute $1 Chinese take out container, with custom made gift card that says something about how fortunate we are to have them as a teacher (wrapped in plastic so the chocolate doesn't get on it), tie cute school color ribbons around the handle, attach handmade card with letter from parents AND child saying how grateful we are, and WHALA.. home made, with cutisie side, much love, teacher gifts. :)

Stop me before I make more!

I love these! I love them! I have made 5 so far, I have plans for 2 more. They are so much fun and SO easy! I am getting better as I go, I think!

Brown swap.

For my swap I had Kim so it was easy to make personalized stuff. So I wanted to share what I did.

The jar was simple, left over vinyl I had with a rub on decal filled with only the best chocolate from See's.

The picture board was a kit I got from Ben Franklin's, I ordered part of the name in vinyl and the M is wood. This was fun and easy to make. The last I just loved the material so I made a baby doll blanket. Now that she has all the stuff I just had to share!

Thank yous.

I am always looking for great ways to say thank you. As President of our PTA I have a few people I wanted to do a special thanks for jobs they have endured all year long. I ordered a custom made Visa gift card for my daughter for her birthday and used a photo I had, and while brainstorming with myself (yes I do that a lot) I got the idea of creating an image to go on the cards myself.. So there it was. 2 hours later I made something I liked and ordered the cards. I think they turned out fantastic! I can't wait till April to pass them out. (yes, I do a lot of pre-planning!)

I love this site!

I found Tip Junkie, through another site, and I love it.. its so crafty, its everything I want this site to be, but better. Go check it out!

Home made gifts

Due to peer pressure I am going to post these. I have been working on making my gifts for a while and they are finally all done. So here are some simple ideas that are very budget friendly.

This is a "build your own snowman kit". I saw his last Christmas and loved it. Started making it in May and got the bag and things done in October. It includes bag, scarf, pipe, heart, 3 buttons, and nose. I am also adding hot co-co and a box of girl scout cookies to make it a total family event. All the pieces were from the wood cuts and I had to drill a few holes to add the dowel rods, really easy and fun.

This was one I fell in love with. Magnet Boards they were cheep, cute and by adding a few small items a wonderful gift! I ordered the metal as the unfinished kit, painted and put them together myself, ordered boxes that fit the board (a friend and I ordered 50 and split the costs of the boards and the boxes). I got an easy recipe that I could include all the ingredients in the box and stamped the box. It was fun to make and so easy. I got a couple for my girls to give their friends and will include a photo in a bag that the girls can stamp and make themselves.