made and gifted with love :: handmade christmas 2016

This past Christmas, I found myself challenged with a limited budget for gifts. At first I felt stressed out and worried, that I wouldn't be able to give nice gifts to friends, or to the kids for that matter, but after discussing these challenges with friends, I realized that I just needed to find the inspiration to make my gifts.
In the past, I have always enjoyed making gifts for family and friends, so I decided to take a look through some old pins on my Pinterest boards and get inspired.
These really cute and simple wooden houses came to mind, so I asked Winslow to cut some up for me and I made up some simple villages and Christmas tree ornaments.
My second challenge was that I really wanted to buy this play campfire for the kids, but couldn't justify the price. On top of the exchange rate, I'd have to pay shipping, duties and taxes. So I just couldn't afford it. My friend sent me this pin, so I took a look at it and adapted it to my liking.
In the end, I am very pleased with the play campfire I came up with, and love how it promotes open ended play (camping, storytime, ect). Also, it was made with love, by me. I hope the kids know that it was made especially for them.
A few other simple gifts I made and gave this year (no pictures sorry), were homemade potpourri bags like these (for neighbours) and some peppermint bark (to give to Scouts/Sparks leaders and bus drivers).
Hope this inspires you to make and give some handmade gifts!
xox

handmade Christmas 2013

Making handmade gifts for Christmas has always been one of my favourite ways to get myself in the mood for the holidays. It began over 10 years ago when I was a broke art school student. With no money for gifts, but a lot of creativity, I sewed, painted, baked whatever I could, and always was happy with the results. I think making and giving handmade gifts means that not only have you thought of the person that you are making the gift for, but that you have truly given them a little piece of you to remember.

So here we go with my 2013 gifts.

The first thing I made and gave this year were little clay house tree ornaments. I used Crayola airdry clay, wire, acrylic paint and acrylic gloss, oh a little bit of baker's twine. I like how they turned out.
I also made a few sets of houses that were not ornaments. They are more "year round" decorations. I have a thing for miniatures - so these are just cute in my opinion.

The next thing I made were hand melts- recipe found here. These were SUPER easy to make (I had all the ingredients on hand) and actually work really well. You can rub them into your hands or feet, use them as a lip balm or drop one into your bath water. I had some IKEA icecube trays that worked well for the mold.

I also made a batch of peppermint sugar scrub (I did these in previous years) to give to a few friends. Super easy to make up.

And the last gift that I made were loaves of "Starbucks" ginger bread. I'm not sure if Starbucks still makes these loaves, but they were always my favourite Christmas treat when I used to frequent it. I loved the cream cheese icing with candied ginger on top. But at nearly $4 a piece, well I knew that I could easily make them myself , so I searched for a recipe. This recipe is great because it uses applesauce, making it moist and not so oily. I gave these loaves away as gifts with some Starbucks hot chocolate, a pound of coffee would be nice too.

And there you have it. A few gifties made by me with love. Now, to start thinking about next year. Just joking. Well, kind of.
xox

handmade Christmas

Back in the day, I used to be much more resourceful and crafty when it came to my Christmas gifts. It came mostly out of necessity, I had very little money, but wanted to make meaningful gifts for family and friends. I would make little hand sewn bird and owl ornaments, jewelry, art, stationary and more. More recently I have found it difficult to find the time to make things the way I used to. Time is limited and these days, my attention is pretty much focussed on the children, but still I managed to make a few gifts that I thought would be fun to give and receive.
The first was a very simple sachet of homemade potpourri. I simply filled tiny bags with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom pods, dried orange peel and bay leaves and wrote out the instructions (simmmer the bag in a pot of water on the stove). Easy and very Christmassy.
The next idea I had was found on Pinterest. It was to create "family conversataion starter"jar. I found a cute printable and printed off a bunch of sheets at the local printer. I then cut the strips up and put them in a little decorated jar. A simple gift that promotes family time and eating meals together. I gave these as "family gifts" to some of my friends. (I can't find the original source of where I got mine, but if you do a search on Pinterest, many show up... here is one I found.)
And as a gift for Noah's friends, I made a big batch of gingerbread playdoh and included a Christmas cookie cutter with each package. Simple but useful. Noah is just at the age where playdoh is still fun and useful. In a few years, this gift wouldn't fly, so I'm taking advantage of this one. For the older friends I made simple bead kits (no picture). Just a clear baggie with multicoloured wooden beads and elastic.
I also made up a few beeswax ornaments but forgot to take a picture of them. They were so easy to make and I am excited because I recently purchased some bee
swax candle making supplies and plan on making a few candles over the winter months with Noah. That's all for this year. I'm hoping to gather my ideas a bit sooner for next Christmas so that I can get back into making more of my gifts.
xox

1 a month

Last Saturday was Winslow's and my 5 year wedding anniversary and I spent quite some time thinking about what I would give/make him for his gift.
We don't usually give gifts on our anniversary, usually just a card and some flowers will do, but this year seeing as it's our 5 year anniversary, we agreed to give each other a little something.
So after looking around the internet and racking my brain for what to do, I decided that I would pre-organize (plan, buy ect) 12 dates for us to enjoy together over the next year.
Because I had to plan 12 dates, I tried to think of ideas that wouldn't cost too much and that could be done easily. With two little ones under 3, it can be hard to arrange babysitters and to get out of the house alone, so some of the dates are "date night at home" ideas too. The idea is not to be too fancy with the dates, but just to intentionally carve out some time once a month just for us.
So first, I started by going out and buying some gift cards to a local coffee shop that makes delicious desserts, to Starbucks, an itunes card (for movie rentals at home), the movie theatre, and the hot springs. Then I made 12 separate cards for each month that describes what each date will entail. I put each card and gift card into an envelope and sealed it so that he can only open them once a month. Some dates involve us getting a babysitter and going out (to the movies, out for coffee, to the hot springs ect), while other dates include a theme like a foreign film and dinner to go with it. They aren't fancy, just something fun for us to do.

Hope you enjoy this idea. Maybe it will inspire you to make a gift that gives something year round.
xox

handmade giving

Christmas may well be over, but I wanted to share with you this little toy that I made to give to the babies in my life for Christmas this year. It's a simple taggie triangle that has two different materials on either side (for texture and colour) and has cellophane paper inside to make it crinkle. It was really easy to sew up, so easy in fact that I made up 4 of them in like 10 minutes. Done and done!

I wish I had taken step-by-step photos to show you how to do it but I didn't, so these instructions will have to do. Feel free to ask me any questions if it doesn't make sense.

Step 1:

Gather supplies : 2 different fabrics, assorted silky ribbons, stuffing and cellophane paper. You will need scissors and a sewing machine too.

Step 2:

With a pen on the WRONG SIDE, free hand draw a triangle onto one of your fabrics. Make the triangle larger than what you hope it to be, as you will need extra room for the seams. I would go 4 inch long sides.

Step 3:

Hold your two different fabrics together and carefully cut out the triangle. You should have 2 pieces of fabric cut exactly the same now. Place the fabrics RIGHT SIDE together.

Step 4:

Cut 3 different coloured ribbons to 2 inches. Fold the ribbons in half and place them in miscellaneous spots inside the triangle. Pin them in place.

Step 5:

With your sewing machine, follow the outside and sew the triangle, leaving about a 2.5 inch space unsewn so that you can turn it inside out.

Step 6:

Turn the triangle inside out and then stuff the triangle with stuffing. Don't fill it too much, as you also want to put cellophane paper inside it too. I kept taking stuffing out and adding more cellophane until I was happy with the the softness-to-crinkle ratio.

Step 7:

Hold the gap closed tight and sew up the triangle with your machine or by hand.

And that is that! A super simple tactile and colourful toy that takes no time to make.

xox

homemade gifts to make and give

the mess! I love a beautiful, creative, messy table.

the galaxy play-doh

maybe more sparkles next time?

I have a confession to make. I stay up way way way too late almost every night looking through my favourite blogs and Pinterest and it's getting a bit out of hand. I might need an intervention...I just might. But at the same time, how can I not keep going back when I'm always finding fun ideas for amazing things to make, cook or bake. Really! How can I not?
While blog surfing the other day, I came across this great idea to make collage kits to give to children ( I heart her blog btw...such impeccable taste and style). I had a birthday coming up for 2 little boys and one of the mommies (who is my good friend Carol-Ann) said that her son Jack would like some new art supplies. So upon seeing this collage kit, I knew that it was something I wanted to make.
I spent a few days looking through the craft isles at the dollar store and also went through some of my arts and crafts supplies (goodness knows I have enough of it!) and then found some old cellophane bags from my craft fair days. I collected, sorted and packaged it up to make 2 very cute and useful kits. On the label I wrote "MAKE YOUR OWN COLLAGE" and on the back I wrote out some simple directions.

Here is what I included in the kits:

:: a small bottle of glue

:: a small bottle of sparkly glue

:: a small 5 by 7 flat canvas

:: a selection of buttons, circle stickers, sequins, pom poms, cut up textured paper and other doo-dads

:: some colourful and metallic papers

You could add all kinds of things to the kit if you wanted to switch it up...cut outs, different stickers, fabric, paints...it goes on and on.

The second project I made for the birthday gifts was "galaxy play-doh". I found this idea on Pinterest and love the look of it. It is basically play-doh that you cook on the stove with black and blue food colouring added and then lots of lots of sparkles. I went to the dollar store and found a pack of 3 containers for 1.50$ and made a batch that was divided into three. One for Jack, one for Aiden (the other birthday boy) and one left over for Noah. At the dollar store, I also bought a small rolling pin and some cookie cutters to go with the package. I thought it looked really cute all packaged up.
I just love giving gifts that I know will be used and enjoyed by the people who receive them, but when I get to make the gift, I find it that much more enjoyable to give. I'd love to hear if any of you have come across any good homemade gift ideas.
Hope you are having a great day! I'll be back soon to tell you about Winslow and my date day!
xox

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