New Resources for Homemade Gifts!

In my search for original, fun, homemade gifts, I discovered the following websites with lots of great ideas!

http://www.thepompom.com/crafts_kids.html
I especially love the sweater animals (http://www.marthastewart.com/article/stuffed-animals-how-to?rsc=also_try), scrubby buddy, and the wall pockets. So cute!

http://www.tipjunkie.com/handmade-kidchristmas/
This one has cute elf slippers, a play stove using a rubbermaid container, handmade wooden dolls, a cozy car caddy, and many other cute ideas. Thanks Tip Junkie!

Black Apple Doll

Ok, I just learned about these adorable dolls that are perfect for handicrafts and homemade gifts! I am so excited to make one! This doll originates with Emily Martin, you can find her store on Etsy or go to her website Inside a Black Apple (www.theblackapple.typepad.com). Thank you Emily for sharing your pattern and instructions 1, 2, 3 with us! Blogger is not working well for me right now, so I will paste the links below.

Original Martha Stewart page about Black Apple Dolls:
http://www.marthastewart.com/article/black-apple-doll?rsc=fav_Homepage_Homepage

Instruction page 1:
http://images.marthastewart.com/images/content/web/pdfs/2008Q2/tvs_3128_031108_ba1.pdf

Instruction page 2:
http://images.marthastewart.com/images/content/web/pdfs/2008Q2/tvs_3128_031108_ba2.pdf

Instruction page 3:
http://images.marthastewart.com/images/content/web/pdfs/2008Q2/tvs_3128_031108_ba3.pdf

Pattern:
http://images.marthastewart.com/images/content/web/pdfs/2008Q2/tvs_3128_031108_dolltemplate1.pdf

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas! Our home-made gift tradition turned out very well. Here is the run down: Nate gave me book display case, I gave him beef jerky, Emily gave Miles a flannel board with letters and shapes, Miles gave Emily a t-shirt with a design colored on sandpaper and transfered with an iron, Hannah gave Amanda a blanket-stitched felt purse and a cardboard dollhouse, Amanda gave Hannah a jewelry dresser. It was a lot of fun!

Barn and Doll House

Doll House and Barn Tutorial

Home made

These are some pictures of things I made last year for Christmas. The Peace block in this picture obviously isn't finished, but I neglected to take a picture of one that was finished before giving them away. I used my Quickutz squeeze to cut out letters. I then used Mod Podge to adhere the word "peace" to the block. My husband kindly cut out the blocks and I painted and sanded them.

The tile sign quote also has Quickutz letters that I cut out and carefully glued. This was much more time consuming than it looks! Then I sprayed it with clear coat spray. Sorry the pictures are not better! I hope that these can still give ideas to someone.

Home-made gifts

We have a tradition of drawing names and giving a home-made gift to that person on Christmas Eve. I am collecting some ideas for these gifts here. Some of these are just ideas in my head, some are links to cute ideas, and some are things we have done in past for family members or friends. If you have some ideas please post them!

puppets scroll down pretty far to see the puppets, they are cute! Look at the cute felt boards (jungle and desert) and the felt activity boards and pictures to go with them, too.
doll house: my husband helped a daughter make a doll house and she painted it.
crayon roll up
Fabric Barn/Doll House
Make a doll: look up the pictures on Flicker (here's Ella, Dorothy,Dolly), PDF pattern available here
chalk board, so many options. Here is one made from a globe! This is interesting, use existing furniture.
photo board
custom tee-shirt: child colors on sand paper and you melt the design on a tee-shirt
make a pillow or pillow case
delicious food
tell stories with a digital recorder and burn them on a CD
make a story book
make a special scrapbook for that loved one
little toys made out of sculpey
beaded jewelry
a blanket/quilt
Flower Press