Homemade Gifts for Christmas

It's the time of year when I start looking around for ideas of gifts I can make for Christmas.  I like to make things myself to give as gifts - I have a large-ish family and not a huge budget, so when I can make things that I'm proud to give that cost a reasonable amount, then I'm happy.  Last year I started panicking in October, I think, so it seems like I'm doing a better job managing the stress of it this time round.  I may regret not starting sooner... or I may not even think of gifts till after my sales at the end of November.  I'm sure I can get it done in December...!?! 

As I was thinking about starting to think about getting started, I thought I would do a round up for you in case you might be in the same place as I am, wondering what to make...  Here are some of the different homemade gifts I've given over the years, a few gifts I have thought about making to give, some gifts I have received, and some gifts I would kind of like to receive.

Soap - I did this one year - it's the kind of gift that you invest in the basic supplies, make a few varieties, and that's what everyone gets that year.

Wheat Bags & Handwarmers - Yes, I sell these in my shop, but they started as Christmas gifts for my family (everyone got one!) more than a decade ago.  Simple to make, and if you use rice, easy to find all you need.

CD of piano playing or singing - sometimes it would be nice to hear someone who's far away. 

CD or you reading a story aloud, along with the book - grandparents, this one is for you!  This would rock bedtime.  *Cheaper version - snag a few of the favourites they already own and record yourself.

Pencil Cases - Find a tutorial and make this up for your favourite pen addict... I can't be the only one out there.

Popcorn Seasonings - this is one we were given and I am still enjoying them on every batch of popcorn.  We almost need some more, though...

Homemade Notebooks - I like paper, and playing with paper, and sewing... Sometimes the paper gets sewn and is awesome.

Fairy Garden - I've never made one, but saw lots of fun ideas this summer.  Maybe an awesome gift would be some supplies to build one and the promise of a spring date to do it together?

Magnets - use clip art or words between flat marbles and magnets - personalize for the recipient.  I made some as teacher gifts and some with the Fruit of the Spirit on them (Galatians 5:22 & 23).

Playdough - fun for little ones.

Sock Monkey or Stuffed Animal - my boy has a monkey and an elephant made by his Aunts - treasures, for sure.  Meaningful for the parent as well as the child.

Doll Clothes - I still remember the Christmas when we were small and we got a load of Barbie clothes sewn by Mom and knitted by the Grandma & Granny, and then later making them for our Cabbage Patch Dolls.  If you know a girl with a doll in her life, this one might be a win for you.

Aprons - I've made a few of these over the years, including some fun matching parent / child ones.  My secret is to use one I like the shape of as the pattern.

Fire Starters - We made these for camping this summer - they might be nice for the camping enthusiast in the family.

Cookies in a Jar - Always a good idea.

New Products

I got an invitation from the Regina Family Child Care Homes to be a part of their craft and trade sale happening on March 7 in conjunction with their annual conference.  It's from 8:30 - 4 at the Conexus Arts Centre, if you are close by and want to come.

It gave me a boost of motivation to sew up a few things that I've had in my mind for a while - Kid Sized wheat bags that are half as long as my regular ones (9x6), and mini 5x5 wheat bags to keep in the freezer as ice packs, or 'Owie Bags.'  I figure the crowd at a child care conference may be interested in some child specific products - here's hoping, anyway!

These are the kid sized bags - I've mad a few for friends before, but never had them listed in the shop until now.  I let Nolan pick one, so the blue cars bag is not in the shop, but the rest are available here.

And these are the Owie Bags.  They have covers that are removable, just like my bigger bags, but these have a full double layer of the flannel on one side, so you can choose your level of protection from the ice, or you can use the opening as a pocket to hold the bag in place.  This first batch is quite full, so a little difficult to get in and out of the cover; I think the next batch I will try a third less filling. You can find these in the shop here.

These next two are favourites - I love using N's hands to show the size of the bags.  He's a fun little hand model.

This one shows a regular bag and a kid sized one for comparison.  The owls are fun.

I found some time too, to make up new regular wheat bags - I've got 11 new patterns that I've just listed today.

I'm also hoping to have a booth at the Cathedral Village Arts Festival May 23rd, and at the Etsy Made In Canada Sale on September 26th.  I'll keep you posted on those as they get closer.

Thanks for having a look!
Alice&Victor

What to do when you buy the wrong ribbon.

We got a 'prayerline' email the other day from our church, and one of the people to pray for was a dear lady who was in the hospital.  I thought I'd send her a little card and let her know how special she was to me, but I had no cards.  Sigh.  So today I made some.  And she'll get one of them asap!

I've been having fun making bookmarks lately, (and have a bunch listed in my shop here), so I stocked up on ribbon at Michael's a couple of weeks ago. 

I didn't realize till I got home, though, that one package (the biggest bunch that I got, of course) was adhesive backed.  They wouldn't work for the bookmarks, but I decided to keep them for other projects.  Like this one.

I pulled out my box of blank cards (you can get these sets at Walmart, Michaels, Chapters), the adhesive ribbon, my flower stash, and a couple packages of self adhesive gems.  The flowers all had gem centers already.

It was super simple - I picked a card base that went with flowers I had, picked the best ribbon to go with it, and added a few gems on some of them.

Why it works: Any design is more satisfying to the eye when you follow the rule of thirds.  Slap that ribbon down with one third of the card on top and two thirds on the bottom and you're halfway there.  Then remember that things groups in threes are often more visually appealing, and it practically makes itself.

Once again, nothing fancy, but nice to have around when you want to send a little note:

By Special Request...

In January I had two sales through Etsy plus one custom order that I'm still working on, one sale through Used Regina, and one custom order coming from that, I had one "Can you make this?" from a friend, and some little things that I made for Madeline.  So it was not too busy, but all over the map as far as what I was doing.

Bows for M - Madeline asked if I could take her shopping because she wanted new bows.  I had a look at one of hers, told her I could probably make them for her, and let her have a look through my stash.  The backings came in a package of four, so this is what she got.

Custom size magic bags - (forgot to take a picture...) The fellow who bought three magic bags emailed the next week saying a coworker saw him using one at work, and wondered could I make them twice as wide?  I was happily in between buying fabric and cutting it all up, so it worked out fine.  I've made one extra long, a couple of squares for a lady who was happy with the old size she had, but needed new ones, some small 'across the forehead for migraines' bags, and a handful of half size 'kid-sized' bags, but this is the first time I've done ones so big.  At $25 each, I'd do them again.

Boot shapers - a lady from church who has bought a number of things from me in the past sent me a link from another Etsy shop wondering if I could make 'something like this.'  It was a pair of boot shapers - have you ever seen these before?  I don't think I have, but I also keep my one pair of tall boots laying flat, so haven't thought of the need for something like that.  I played around with some stuff I had and came up with something that worked for her, and who knows?  It might be something that would sell well at a winter craft sale - one to keep in mind, anyway, especially when I see fabric on sale...

Zip pouch with dividers - The request for this was from a girl who wanted separate compartments for her quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies.  Obviously American - we would need one more compartment.  Add Toonies and Loonies and take away the pennies!  The first attempt at this was a learning experience - a little stiff.  This is the second try, but the dividers are still too loose fitting for my liking.  She can take it or leave it, but I'm not spending any more time on something that won't make me much.

What are you making these days??

Mass Production Card Making - a Tutorial

I rarely buy cards.  Partly it's because I'm too frugal to spend the money, and partly because I have the supplies on hand to make my own.  Add to that the fact that I like making cards and giving cards I made myself, and I've got a win-win.

It's a win except when I need a whole bunch, now, and I have none made.  They do seem to get sent as soon as I can make them and I rarely have a good stock on hand.  I often fall on 'mass-production' to solve the problem, but thankfully, I quite like the ones I make in bulk. I thought I'd take pictures of this last bunch and share with you my marvelous mass production technique.  Feel free to copy away!

The only tools you really need are a cutter and some sort of adhesive - I always use plain old Scotch double-sided tape.  Start with a handful of cardstock and the secret ingredient - a 6x6 pad of scrapbook paper.  You can use any patterned paper, but a set (small or large, doesn't matter) does so much of the matching work for you.  (I have bought some of these little pads online, and some I have found at Winners at a good price.)

 Pick out a bunch of papers that you like and match them up.  You'll be using about one third on top and two thirds on the bottom.

Then trim your cardstock into half, so it's 8.5 x 5.5.  Either 65lb or 110lb works fine - I like the heavier one for a crisper feel.

Fold them over, and you'll have cards that fit 'invitation' sized envelopes.  Buy a box at Staples or wherever and you'll be set for a few mass-production sessions.

If you'd like, round the corners.  Totally optional; they look fine left square, too.

Trim your papers down to slightly smaller than your card size.  I finally nailed it down to 4 x 3 3/4" for the bottom piece and 4 x 1 3/4" for the top so I could give you sizes, but feel free to wing it, too, if that's more your style.

Round your corner pieces to match, if necessary.

Tape the pieces on the card front.

You can see my uneven gaps - I'm not too worried about that because of the magic next step...

Take one of your cardstock sheets, cut off a piece 4 1/4 " wide, then trim into roughly half inch strips.  These ones are slightly less.

Using your adhesive, nail that strip down edge to edge over the join of your papers.  Voila!  Your stash is ready to go!

The finishing touch, when you know what you are going to use it for, is to write on the strip - Happy Birthday, With Sympathy, Just a Note, Happy Anniversary, Congratulations... they are good for whatever occasion comes up.

This is the super basic model - it does the job, and very nicely, too! - but you can step it up a notch in a number of ways.

• If you don't like your handwriting, or want to make them fancier, print your sentiment on the computer, then cut it out and attach.  Or if you have stamps, use those, trim and attach.  
• Add a flower or other embellishment two thirds of the way along the strip, instead of, or along with, your words.
• Add a strip of ribbon (maybe with a bow?) instead of the paper strip, and do your writing inside the card.
• Use an inkpad to ink the edges of your paper strip to make it pop.
• Use a brad in a coordinating color through the end of the strip before you tape it down - maybe a fun heart one?

Hope you found this helpful, and I'd love to see a picture if you make some, or one in my mailbox, maybe??

Have time for a coffee?

Hello, Friends. There's a reason I haven't promised that I would post on a regular schedule... because life's not like that for me!

I got an order last week from Ambassador Coffee saying the coffee cozies they bought were selling really well, and when could they get another 50?  So I've been ironing and cutting and sewing and stitching on buttons and this morning I delivered 60!  That's thanks to my business savvy husband.

I bought these 3 packs from Cindyrella's Quilt Shop for making the tops (here's me telling all my secrets), and made up as many as I could make from them, along with some other fabric I had been planning to use.  I had a few on hand already, too, so when all was said and done, I had 60 made.  I planned to take them the 50 they ordered and list a few on Etsy, but Sean suggested when I let her know they were ready, I should ask if she wanted all 60.  So I did.  And she did.  So happy selling to me.

Here's what 60 looks like.

The new labels!

We are back in the swing of things with soccer.  Sean usually takes M to the evening practices while I put N to bed, but usually we can make it to the games.  Nolan likes being there, and likes that we usually get him a Tim Bit when we get our coffees...

This week we have a piano recital and a harvest party at the church thrown in the mix, the Amazing Race for youth group, and then a tournament this weekend, so it should be a fun busy week.  M has been going to youth at another church with some camp friends, and it's been a good group for her to be a part of.  They are on different nights so she can usually make it to one or the other most weeks.

Ciao for now - have a great Monday!

Scrapbook Pages!!!

It's been a long time since I had pages to show you!  I had a good time at the retreat, though; while some of my friends make works of art and only get a few pages made all weekend, I usually want to come away with as many pages as I can.  It is a good place to spread out all your supplies and take the time to play with more time consuming techniques, but I kept it all pretty simple this time around.  Pretty much my style anyway.  Without further ado, in alphabetical order, here they are!

M's 14th Birthday

Just a series of shots I took of N playing with a friend's trike.

This one I did a while ago, but never took a photo of.

Frozen blueberries make a messy snack.

Cousins.  Always gotta get one of these shots.

This is M!!!

An 8.5x11 just for fun.

From a little photo shoot at the park down the street.

Love this pic from a few years ago.

Love these photos.

Always so interested in looking at and touching what's down there.

She's so pretty in this picture.

Part 1...

...and part 2.

Love this picture - and I took it with my phone!!

*A note on the photography:  I made a lightbox for taking product pictures, and it worked great as a place for shooting these.  I propped it on the back of the couch catching the indirect light through the window, but balancing on the couch and using no flash made for a case of the fuzzies...  I'll rig it up better next time, but thought I'd rather show these to you imperfectly now instead of next week sometime...