December Recap, Part 3

Hello Hello! And Happy New Year's Eve! :)

Before it turns in to 2010 (2010, can you believe it?!), I wanted to finish showing you my Christmas projects from this year. This post is a random assortment of what's left to share, and there's a lot of it! :)

As part of our hippie-ness, we gave a lot of our family members a "reusables" gift set, which included a reusable bag, a stainless steel water bottle and a reusable coffee mug. It was a really cheap gift that has been reported by several people to be getting lots of use!

I wanted to dress up and personalize the mass-produced gift a little, so I decided to make little "cozies" for the coffee mugs. Reusable cup holders, if you will.




I made these out of felted wool -- old sweaters that were already ruined by washing too much. Basically, to make them, you just throw your 100% wool sweaters in the washer on hot, air dry them, and then cut the sweaters up however you want them. The edges won't fray because the felting process binds them all together.




Once I felted the wool, I just cut out a rectangle shape, attached eyelets (I backed the edges with thick cardboard, so the eyelets wouldn't just tear the wool) and decorated with felt and buttons. Then I just tied them on the mugs with twine. Super easy and no-sew! :)



Here are a couple of the ones I made for the guys on our list. Slightly less girly! :)




Wool isn't exactly vegan-approved (here's why, in case you ever wondered), so once this lot of sweaters is gone, I don't think I'll be making too many more of these, unfortunately. That makes me really sad! So, if you happen to have sweaters that would otherwise be thrown away because you've ruined them in the wash, please consider emailing me and sending them to me!!! LOL I'll pay postage if it will keep them out of the landfills! :)


I also made ornaments for a bunch of the ladies on my list. They made for a relatively easy and quick gift.




And all I had to buy was the fishing wire to hang them from for a whopping $2. I had all the paper and beads in my stash.




These look a lot more impressive and difficult to make than they actually are. I loosely followed the beautiful tutorial HERE, substituting a 3" square of paper for a 6" square of fabric. Instead of stitching the ends together, I used a very VERY small dot of hot glue. Then I just strung them on fishing twine with some beads!

One last share before I go have a totally crafty New Year's Eve Day... ;)

Every year I give my hubby an ornament. It usually has something to do with what went on that year (i.e. new house, new city, new cat, engagement, wedding, etc.). This year the most notable thing we did was have a complete life make-over by going vegan about 7 months ago. It is something that has (unexpectedly) infiltrated just about every aspect of our lives and most of the decisions that we make. It goes WAY beyond what we eat, and it's hard to explain or even comprehend how massive of a change it has made for us. Anyhow, since it was such an important milestone in our lives, I wanted to commemorate that for us in an ornament. Here's what I came up with:





Heheheh! Funny, huh? To make this, I covered one of the wooden tags that used to come with Unity stamp sets with decorative paper (I absolutely HOARD these -- I wish I had more!). I painted and sanded the edges of the tag and added two felt carrots (from the Easter collection at Oriental Trading Co.). I added googley eyes and some embellishments and stamped out "Vegan 2009" for the sentiment on the back.

Ok, that's all folks! Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a super fantastic New Years Eve! I hope to be back tomorrow with something fun to share!

Enjoy your day!

December Recap, Part 2

Hello again! I'm back with pictures of more of the Christmas gifts that I made for friends and family. And I have more advent calendars to share.

These advents are a little different than the first set, but (again), they didn't cost me a penny. I didn't even have to buy the bases for these ones today. I literally had everything sitting around my craft space just begging to be used! :) Call me thrifty! (Or call me cheap, whatever.) :P

The first calendar has a kind of wild color scheme for Christmas, I know. But the recipient (my sister-in-law) has a PURPLE Christmas tree. She posted a picture of her tree in all its glory a while back on Facebook:



Pretty wild, huh? I'm definitely more of a traditionalist when it comes to Christmas decorations, but I thought it'd be fun to create something for her using a wacko color scheme. I didn't have anything to match the pretty purple exactly, so I just kind of came as close as I could to it. Hopefully it will jive with her other decorations.



I covered the base (that my mom had gifted to me a while back) with decorative paper and sanded and inked the edges. Then I just embellished! I used lots of the MFT glitter garnishes, hotfix glitter pearls and swarovski crystals and some American Crafts Thickers.

The base came with tiles to add numbers. That way the recipient can change the number each day to count down to Christmas. I printed the numbers on my computer and attached them to the decorative paper-covered tiles.




For another gift, I decided to cover some wooden letters that I had in my stash. I had actually bought these letters for myself a couple of years back and never got around to making them. I don't know about you guys, but I am always making things for other people and never get to keep any of my stuff!!! :)

Anyhow, I was having a tough time deciding what to do, because I liked the letters but I had originally really wanted to make an advent calendar for these friends. About half way through altering the letters, I remembered that I had some matchboxes that my mom had also gifted to me a while back, and I decided to see if they would fit on the back of my letters. And what do you know?! ;)

Here's the "advent" in action. From the front, it just looks like altered letters. (Click on the pics for close-ups.)



My hand was SO sore after making these. I couldn't think of anything Christmas-y that I had in my stash that would look good, so I decided to use floral rub-ons, instead. I literally used an entire BOOK of rub-ons on this project! It's amazing my hand even works anymore! :P

When you turn the letters over, the advent is revealed.



I covered the matchboxes individually with decorative paper and attached them to the altered letters with hot glue. I attached a star punch and a printed number to each one. The drawers in the matchboxes slide out, so you can slip a little surprise in each one.



Hope everyone is staying warm. It is fa-reezing here! I'm staying inside and getting crafty today. I'll be back tomorrow with still more Christmas projects to share! Enjoy your day!

December Recap, Part 1

Hello out there! :)

I wasn't expecting to, but I guess I totally took the month off blogging! There was LOTS going on -- both on the crafting front and the home front -- I just didn't get a chance to pop on and say hello!

I've been composing this blog post for two days now. It is seriously hard to get back in the swing of things after being gone so long! It's like when you don't talk to a close friend for a really long time and then there's so much to report that you don't know where to begin... :)

There's a lot going on in our personal lives right now... I'll hopefully have more to say about that at a slightly later date. But there's been a ton of craftiness going on too!

We decided this year that we were going to be totally hippie and thrifty about Christmas. We decided that for family and friend gifting, the gifts were either going to be handmade or cheap and useful. And of course, I procrastinated like crazy (what's new?), so that meant that the 2 weeks before Christmas, I was seriously busting my butt! :)

I thought I'd break my Christmas craftiness in to a few days of sharing. Today, I wanted to show you the advent "trees" I put together for my mom and a good family friend of ours.

I picked up these tree bases from Walgreens (on sale! huzzah!) for a whopping $4.99. Not a bad price for a Christmas gift! But they were totally plastic and cheap-o looking:



I figured I could alter these to be a much better version of their former selves, so I got to work.

Here's what I came up with for my mom's:



To alter this, I covered all 5 sides of each box with decorative paper and then sanded and inked the edges. Several of the boxes were put together kind of wonky, so I had to take them apart and re-glue them straight before altering. Then I literally just raided my stash and started putting things together! I didn't buy a single embellishment for this baby (that should tell you what a hoarder I am! LOL). I just typed up some numbers on the computer, printed and cut them out and then started adding embellishments here and there.





The drawers pull out, so you can pop a little surprise in each box to be revealed every day leading up to Christmas.



I decided to add a tag for a little extra "oomph." This is one of the wooden tags that used to come with Unity stamp sets. I just covered it with paper and a rub on, embellished a bit, and popped it on!



I made a similar (but different theme) advent for my friend Liz and her family. This one was a little more bright and suited for a house full of kids. The pictures are totally crummy and dull. I wrapped up the advent before I realized they were so bad. Hopefully, you can get the idea, anyhow.






I put this one together basically identical to the first one and, again, didn't spend a dime, except for the $4.99 calendar base. I love thrifty gifting! :)

They were both pretty well-received, so I hope they get to enjoy them over and over again.

I'll be back tomorrow with more Christmas shares. Until then, have a good evening! :)

Hop! Hop! Beep... Beep... Beep!

Hello and WELCOME to the next stop on MFT's December New Release Blog Hop! If you're arriving here from Natalie's blog, you're right where you should be! If not, stop what you're doing and go back to Kim's blog right away to catch the fun from the start. We've all got a LOT to share with you, and there are a whole lot of special guest designers this month who want to show you their stuff!

Now, on to the fun! :)

Tonight, I have another card using the adorable robo-couple of the moment, Robot 2. I think you're going to have to agree with me when I say that you NEED this adorable robo duo in your arsenal! :)



This is a digi-stamp, meaning that you download and print it yourself on your home printer (or if you don't have a home printer, you can take it to a print shop and have them print it CHEAP!) This month, MFT is releasing FOUR new robot digi stamps. They are super easy to work with, MUCH cheaper than standard stamps and make for a nice, crisp image.

But you know what my favorite part of the digi stamps is? You can print them WHATEVER SIZE you want. Really. You can size them up or down to fit YOUR specific project with no loss in quality. Today, I wanted a really big robo-couple for my card, so I made them 4 inches tall. On my card a couple of days ago, I wanted them smaller, so I made them 2.5 inches tall. If you have a printer and paper that will accommodate it, you can even make them HUGE. They're seriously so fun to work with!

For this card, I colored my robots with Copic Markers, Copic Spica Pens, a white gel pen and Glossy Accents. I cut them out and popped them up on thick pop dots. Here's a side view that shows some of the dimension.



I also pulled out my Baby Braddies, which is an embellishment I haven't used before! I am in love! They are so tiny I kept dropping them, but they add the perfect amount of bling to the card! I am so glad that I have a ton more on order! I can see these becoming favorites of mine!

And here's a close-up or that awesome digi couple!



Supplies:
Stamps: Robot 2 Digital Stamp by MFT
Papers: Papertrey Ink's White, Georgia Pacific White, DP by My Mind's Eye and Cosmo Cricket
Inks: Stayz-On Black and Brilliance White for inking the edges
Accessories: Baby Braddies by MFT, Screw Brads by Oriental Trading, Pop Dots, Copic Markers, Copic Spicas, White Gel Pen, Glossy Accents, Rub-on by Cosmo Cricket

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you share my excitement over this new digi image. I have literally fallen in love! :) Next up on the hop is one of this month's talented guest designers, BONNIE! Trust me when I say that you are not going to want to miss what she has to share with you!

Enjoy your evening!