A "Pin"teresting November-Part 2-Christmas

I started prepping for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving.  I like to do a lot of handmade things and that takes time so I need to get an early start.  Here are some of the things I made this year.

Those fancy dresses are cute but way too pricy for me when my daughter was only going to wear in maybe twice.  I found this idea and made it on a 9 month sized onsie.  The original design uses pink (as if girls don't wear enough pink), but I used Christmas colors instead.  After all, it IS a Christmas shirt!

Christmas Tree Onsie

I never know what to do with all of the adorable picture cards I receive at Christmas. I saw this idea and thought it was a cute, easy way to display them every year.  Make them into a book!  I made two books (so far).  The first one has cards that were sent before WE had children.  The second book starts when we had our son, Derek.  I made dividers to separate the years and the first photo for each year is the card that we sent out.

Photo Card Books

I think I am going to use that idea to make a book of birth announcements as well.

The majority of my Christmas decorations were handmade by my grandmothers and my great aunt.  Some of them are also things that were given to me as a baby.  When these decorations are eventually passed down to my children, I want them to know where they came from.  The following idea shows how to do that.  I used s 4x6 photo album and took pictures of the important decorations.  On a 4x6 index card I wrote an explanation of who made it and why it is important.  I thought hand writing that information was the best way to go.

Decoration Information Book

Finally, I wanted to create an Advent calendar for Derek, and eventually Brooke, that had them doing special activities and things to help others.  I searched for several different ideas to find the best way to create my own Advent calendar.  The idea I ended up making uses a 16x20 canvas, spray paint, and clothespins.  I also added stickers for decoration.  The original idea called for making cards for each day with the date on one side and the activity on the other.  This does not allow for any movement of activities from year to year and I didn't want to be stuck doing the same thing in the same order every year.  I created a list of several activities and I put the numbers on the clothespins.  This way I can easily change the activities every year.  

 

A Homemade Christmas

With a growing family and a budget to stick to, Christmas 2011 had a focus on homemade gifts.  On Christmas Eve my fathers’ side of the family gets together. I always like to give a little something to my aunts and my sister.  This year I went completely homemade.

I made gifts boxes for each of them.  Some of the items I made include strawberry jam, hot mocha drink mix, hot pink drink mix, lemonade iced tea mix, and candles made in an old miniature jelly jar.  I also included Derek in the homemade gift project.  He made travel mugs and apple-cinnamon ornaments.  The items were put together in gift boxes I got from the Target dollar bins.

                                                                      My finished jars

                                 Candles made in jelly jars (the scents match the flavor on the jar)

                                                                Jam and Drink Mixes

                                              Derek working on his apple-cinnamon ornaments

                                                          Ready to bake the ornaments!

Finished gift box for my sister (Aunt Momma as Derek calls her).  Includes a travel mug and ornament made by Derek as well as a jar of Hot Mocha mix and Pink Drink mix.

The main gift I made for my parents and my sister was a joint effort between Bryan and myself.  I had this idea that I saw in a magazine to make a large letter depicting a last name.  This could be hung inside or outside.  So that I did not have to enlarge a letter and cut it out of wood myself, I searched several craft stores to find what I wanted.  JoAnn Fabrics had letters that were large enough to use for this project.  I got a D for my sister and an H for my parents.  The next step was to do the decorating.  Bryan helped me by cutting wooden dowels that had varying thicknesses.  He cut them into different lengths so that they would be varied on the letter.  After he was finished, he sanded the edges and I glued them onto the large letter.  The final project was sprayed with polyurethane so that it would be safe if it were to be hung outside.

 

This was a very rewarding way to give gifts this year and I already have a plan for Christmas 2012!