Gifts Made with Love

I just thought I would share the gifts I made for friends and family this past Christmas. Hope you enjoy and become inspired to create something yourself...

Here are two painted stain glass pictures I made for two of my nephews. I used 11 x 14 picture frames, glued the glass in with E6000 (the greatest glue ever), found the logos online, printed them and traced them onto tracing paper...next I taped the tracing paper under the glass and following the image I began outlining the image with liquid leading...I let that dry overnight and then with the stain glass paint finished it. I really like how they turned out. They were my first attempt at using stain glass paint. My mother does large windows and such...she was my inspiration for these gifts. I'm so grateful for her talent that she willingly shares with me.

These next two photos are of the bath salts my dear friend, Jessica, and I made together. Some are Lavender, Lavender Vanilla, or Orange Vanilla. We put them in these practical containers purchased from Hobby Lobby (Jessica's great "sale" find). I printed labels on card stock and decorated them with ribbon and vintage jewelry. A simple soothing smelly good gift.

Next are the tin can lanterns. These are great! They don't look pretty unlit, but when the lights are out and they are lit...they are beautiful! I wish I had a fireplace mantel to line different sized ones on top of and light at night. I did mostly circles as the pattern...only a couple did I do stars, but you could do us about anything. I started by printing out the different sizes of shapes and cutting them out as templates to use. I positioned them where I wanted them on the cans and made dots outlining the shapes using a sharpie marker (don't do a solid line). Then I filled them with water, froze them, and once frozen I was able to use a hammer and nail to punch the holes. You can make the holes as large as you like...then once your done hammering you can melt the ice cube in them dry and presto, you have a tin can lantern.

I came up with the idea of making rubber band guns for the boys and their dads. I was inspired by Travis and Avrie setting up army men and using rubber bands to have a battle. So, I searched for ideas of how to make one. I used a dowel rod, clothes pin and glue. Of course I painted them and put their names on each one, but that wouldn't be necessary. I just tend to go over the top. I purchased each person a different color of army men. Then I had the idea to make a bag to hold the items all together. With my abundant supply of fabric I had plenty to work with. I bought a camouflage t-shirt from a thrift store for 25 cents and used it on the green bags....then not having any camouflage print to go with the red and blue bags, I decided to go over the top once more and create my own using white and light blue fabric and sharpie markers. I'm sick I know. So, when all was finished, each person had a bag with their name on it, a rubber band gun, a supply of army men and a bag of size 30 rubber bands.

For my 14 year old nephew, I made a message board out of an 11 x 14 frame without the glass...I covered a piece of foam board, tacked it in and covered the back with brown paper bag paper to hide the mess. I bought some tiny clothes pins for him to use to attach his pictures and keepsake things. Then for giggles, I put some old pictures from him growing up and his mom with she was a teenager :o) This was an easy to make gift and it was fun to pick out the fabric and ribbon.

This here is a little girls skirt that I turned into a purse. I lined the inside with a lighter green fabric and used corduroy pants I cut up for the handles. I really liked it when I made it...still do, but then I made the next three used little girls jean skirts. These though I didn't sew up the bottom, but made the inside and attached only from the top...that way the skirt look was still there. Then I used the same fabric and made the straps and appliqued each girl's first initial on the front to match. I really like the jean skirt ones!

Well, that's it for Christmas gifts. I've got a plethora of ideas for gifts this next Christmas. I am in the process of getting started....gathering materials and deciding what to do for who! I love making the gifts that we give. I'm so thankful to the Father for providing the means to do so and for giving me the ability to be creative. The options and ideas are endless.

Along with getting started on Christmas gifts, I am also going to begin to make me a new quilt for my bed. The first one I made (took me five years) is falling apart slowly. We have had it on our bed for almost four and a half years, but my desire it to pass it onto one of my children some day and it won't do much good in pieces....so let the challenge begin!

For this next one, I had the idea of making a rag quilt, but I also wanted to use my old fancy hankies somehow....so I am going to attach a hankie to each square and go about it the same way as a regular rag quilt. I chose a light cream color top fabric for each hankie to be attached to and a taupe for the backing. I chose neutral colors to not take away from the beauty of the different hankies. I can't wait to get started. I will post pictures of my progress.