Homemade Christmas Ideas!

Ok, I know. I have been neglecting my blog! I promised you all something amazing and yet... nothing! So here we are a week later and here is the surprise!

Homemade Christmas Ideas!

I am all about making Christmas special and giving gifts that are useful and special to the recipient. So over the next couple of weeks I am going to give you a few gift ideas! I will try and make them of all different crafting levels so all of my readers can enjoy! There is something special about giving a handmade gift.

As my sister and I were getting out our Christmas decorations today I realised the only ones we really care about are the handmade gifts we gave to our parents in the past... so for my first day of homemade Christmas Ideas I will give you some past Christmas crafts from my childhood :) Yes all of these were made by myself or my sister in the past :)

Past and Present... When I was in kindergarten I really wanted to give my mom a present but being a 5 year old I didn't have much money :) My grandma went out and bought me and my sister Styrofoam trees, cotton balls, sewing pins, and beads. We pinned the cotton balls to the trees and glued on the beads. I remember this took f.o.r.e.v.e.r. This year my sis and I were walking through a store and saw these gorgeous shiny trees and we said "lets make them!" So off we went to the store to buy the cones sequins and pins. A little blood, 1000 pins, and 1500 sequins later we got our trees :)

The trees with all of our childhood Christmas friends (mom's saving for grand kids someday) on top of our china cabinet :)also from kindergarten! My mom made the one on the left at a craft party then came home and left me with my dad while she went to the store... I found some scraps and made the one on the right (with no directions!) I still remember her surprise when she found me hard at work on my angel... that looked just like hers! All you do is take a circle of fabric and fill the bottom with rice and the middle with polyfil and then make fabric tubes for the arms. gather at the bottom and glue on a bead for the hand. Glue a wooden bead for the head and draw a silly face! glue on hair and some lace for wings and ta da! Pillar candles from 4th grade. Very basic.

1. Stamp tissue paper

2. color it

3. blow dry with a hair dryer until candle melts and tissue adheres :)

Last but not least a Christmas pillow! Naomi made this when she was 5. Just have your kid draw with fabric markers and then sew it into a pillow! fun for years to come... and you can always remember when life was so simple no one needed arms :)