Monogram Placemat Purse

Here is one last purse I found in my photo stash. I think I may make a few of these to sell in the etsy shop!

A few handmade gifts

My grandma loves birds, so I appliqued this store-bought (had to make some short cuts in this handmade holiday) tote with a wintry cardinal scene.  I just printed a children's coloring page to use as a stencil for the bird.  Then I just cut out the branch and slapped some "snow" on it.  I'm going to put the kleenex cover I made inside with a cross I got for her at a craft show.  I didn't get it for Christmas but I forgot about it until now.

Then, I made this plate for Holden with a few others I can't show you yet...Here's how they'll look on Thursday night.

 

I (very roughly) followed the tutorial at Just Something I Made.  Though I didn't follow the steps exactly, I dd get the idea and the supply list there.   I used a few plates I got at St. Vincent de Paul in Spring Arbor and a few I got at Wal-Mart.  The Wal-Mart plates didn't have a good lip on them, so they'll turn out a bit different.  I'll show them to you later this week (after I've gifted them)!

Though my progress is a bit slow with a toddler running around, I'm getting there.  I'll show you more as I get things finished!

Hope to "see" you soon!

-Heather

PS - I'm linking this to DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land. (technically Tuesday, but I posted late last night and am modifiying on Tuesday.  That counts right?)

Heather's Handmade Holiday - The Grandma's

As part of a gift for my Grandma's this Christmas, I made these Kleenex covers. Both of them seem to have tissues at all times and carry the little tissue packages in their purse, so I thought it would be fun to dress them up a little. I used this tutorial at Skip to My Lou. I did add a slight overlap on the front. I had seen this somewhere else (I'm not sure where – sorry!) and I liked the look of it. So, you can overlap or not; your choice! Anyway, I made these out of some vintage fabric I bought at a flea market a while back. I think they're kind of fun, but pretty too! These are REALLY easy to make with very basic sewing skills. I think these would be great gifts for lots of people: teachers, daycare providers, Grandmas, Aunts, Hairdressers, etc.

I have to say that with all these crafty people out on the web, a handmade holiday is much more do-able! I think if I was to do it on my own (without everyone else's wonderful ideas) I might only have a few different things. This way, I can make something that each person will enjoy and maybe even treasure! I love the internet. It's one of the few reasons I don't want to be Amish – LOL!

Are you having a handmade holiday? Or maybe making a few more things and buying a few less things?  I'd love to hear about what you're making this year!

-Heather

PS-I'm posting this to A Soft Place To Land's DIY Day!

A Blingy Cupcake Ribbon Tassel

I've been seeing a lot of tassels around so I thought I would try to make one myself. It was easier than I thought..and a lot less expensive than buying one.

The materials you need for this project are: ribbon, glue ( I used tacky glue), acrylic craft paint, glitter (optional), and the wood base piece. The wood pieces are sold at Michael's in their unfinished wood aisle. I bought a package of 6 for about $3 without coupon or sale. I made a matching monogram star ornament to go with the gift.

I painted and glittered the wood piece to my liking, let it dry, and then started gluing the ribbon pieces around the inside. I layered the ribbons and just continued adding ribbons until it looked full enough. I threaded a piece of thin ribbon through the top pre-drilled hole and then took a fabric scrap and glued it inside the wood piece in the center of all the ribbons. (hard to explain!)

This is my little "faux" tree so far..I am making a few ornaments a day so it should be full by Thanksgiving!

A Colorful Teacher Gift

A coworker of mine, Judy Tubbs, told me about a wreath her daughter had seen made of crayons and embroidery hoops. I loved the idea of it. I thought then it would make a fun teacher gift. But since I already told you that I am impatient, it will come as no surprise to you that I wanted to try it out, didn't have the embroidery hoops and tried it anyway. Well, let's just say that my idea to make a hoop from a coat hanger failed miserably. Luckily, something sort of good came out of disaster. I wanted to use the crayons right away before my son could destroy them. (He's 19 months old and snapping crayons like twigs is one of his favorite pastimes.) I had this candle in my could-be-a-gift-in-a-pinch box. It smells like peppermint, so it screamed red and green crayons at me! Unfortunately, I didn't have several boxes of crayons to steal red and green from. I figured red-ish and green-ish would have to do. This is the candle I came up with. I hot glued the crayons on alternating red and green. I think this might look a lot cuter with real red and real green or silver and gold. I'm going to look for a teacher store to see if I can get 20-40 of one color crayon. I think that would be cool for the wreath idea too. Anyway, this was SUPER EASY! I didn't even burn my fingers! I will tell you that as the glue gets really hot, you start to smell the candle a lot, but I like peppermint, so that wasn't a hardship either!

So, what do you think? I'm sure this is a purely decorative candle because burning the candle would melt the crayons too. Do you like it? Hate it? If you try it with different colors, I'd love to see it. I'll get back to you if I ever get the actual wreath done…

Until another project goes awry…

-Heather