List of ideas to make for Christmas

Here's the list we came up with this year for ideas to make each other for Christmas. (We decided we were ALL, kids too, making our gifts this year. I think we will continue next. I love it, except my lack of time that is...)

(The starred ones are ones that one of us chose to do, whether for a brother/sister/cousin/parent/etc.)

Homemade play-dough (Love the kool-aid recipe I have for this.)
*Matching tu-tus for girl and doll
Hair accessories (pony tail ribbons, big flower clips, etc.)
Boxes to hold collections (rocks, etc)
*Leather projects (ex: keychains, etc. The boys had a leather stamping class in our homeschool co-op and made some things there and finished at home.)
*Name Frame
Cut out Wooden letters to spell names to hang on wall
*Pillows
Aprons
*Stamped family portraits
*TX flag painted pic frames or mirrors
Glass etching (done previous years)
*Wooden photo cubes stamped/decorated/modge-podged
Sock bunny (like sock monkeys)
Tin of homemade cards (did for two of my sis-n-laws bdays this month)
*Blanket
Pillow cases
Ornaments
*Shelf to display/hold pinewood derby cars
*Hiking staff
*Candy (A's idea for dad: fudge and pecan logs)
*Wooden nativity
*Wooden toys made on lathe and in shop
*Wooden jewelry box
*Wooden baseball bats turned on lathe and then soft baseballs made too (sewn)
Wooden high chair for doll (almost did this one...running out of time.)
*Wooden rattle for baby turned on lathe
*Doll blankets and pillows
Birdfeeder
*Bookmarks from the baby with her handprint for everyone :)
*Photobooks created online

I'm sure we will continue to add to this list this next year too. :) Can you see how busy we have been? Speaking of that, I still have lots to do and no so much time, so I better go! Doubt I will be on here much until next week. I'll have to post pics of the projects we do.

Merry Christmas everyone!

My 1st Name Frame

My older daughter wanted to make one of these for her younger sister for her Christmas present to her this year, so she picked out the paper with me and helped me make it. She's proud of it and so am I. It's more pink than I would have made it, but at least I got to throw some other colors in there too. Now all my kids want one. :) (The first letter n and the e, as well as the bird, are all covered or inked chipboard.)

She kept touching the ladybug. It was too cute! (Yes, she got to see it early. She'll get to unwrap it still later.) :)

Wooden nativities

Been making some of these wooden nativites. Tried painting them two totally different ways. I like them both. (The lighter one is also stamped in gold ink with the Baroque set.)


Close up of stamped swirls:

Yes...

...I am still here. No, I have not really been stamping, other than the occasional stamp night I make it to. And even then, I seem to be the last one there and the first to leave with unfinished projects in hand...that I come home with...with the best of intentions to finish, but...

However, I am working on a project with my daughter that is a Christmas gift. So I have to finish this one. I'll try and post pics this next week. (as well as a list of requested ideas or things we are doing/making as Christmas gifts this year.) I have to say that we are all having so much fun making them. (the kids and hubby and I) It's getting a bit stressful with much left to do and less and less time to do it, but I love hearing the kids talk about it and excited about what they are making. Means so much more this year...to everyone! :)

Merry Christmas!

Update

I actually went to stamp club night this past weekend! It's the first time I have been able to go since the beginning of the summer. I haven't stamped much lately at all either, so I haven't really had anything to show. Just isn't a season of stamping for me right now. I have done a few sewing projects and have some more I am going to start soon as well as some other crafts, but they aren't papercrafting. Hopefully I'll get to post some of them on here soon though, along with the few cards that I made at stamp club.

My kids are all making their gifts that they will give to one another for Christmas this year. My husband and I quite often make their gifts from us to them, but we wanted them to do the same this year...to appreciate the homemade gifts more, to put more thought into them, and to make them more meaningful. So, I have started a list of ideas and actually have quite a few, but I wanted to ask (if anyone still checks this blog haha) if any of you have any ideas too. Anything that you have done in the past? Your kids? Anyone else that you know of? A friend referred me to the design mom's blog and I checked it out and got a few more ideas there. (Tks!) But we're still thinking and plan to start on gifts the beginning of November. My goal is to have all of our Christmas gifts done by the end of November.

For this week though...I have to sew 5 jawa costumes for Halloween. :) hee hee And our baby will be R2D2, our prisoner. Excited! :)

I'll try and post some stuff later this week.

Happy Fall!

Ideas welcome!

Okay...so I really have not been stampin' much these days. I've done a little here and there and need to get those pics up, but honestly not much. I can't even finish the stuff at club nights it seems.

I have a favor though. I am teaching a couple of classes at our homeschool co-op and one of them is a stamping/papercrafting class. It is set for ages 10-12, but it really encompasses some of ages 6?-12...boys and girls.

So...what I am asking is what are your favorite stamping/papercrafting projects that you would suggest to do? I have an outline already of mine, but I thought it would be find to get some new ideas...if there is anyone out there reading this still. lol They have to be very very low cost. My budget is about $2-$2 per kid for the whole semester, although we only meet once a week, every other week. I also only have 45 min max to do this with about a dozen or more kids...so keep that in mind.

Let the ideas pour forth! :)

Secret Sister Day #4; Notebook

Just another small altered notebook for this day. Inside I stamped: A little birdie told me...you are great!

Hope she had fun getting this stuff every day! I had fun making it and thinking of her. :)

Secret Sister Day #3; Some Value-able Items

In our Young Women's program at our church, they have values that the girls focus on. Each value has a designated color to represent that color and to help in remembering the meaning and purpose of the values. The values with their colors, scriptures, and meanings are as follows:

* Faith (white)(Alma 32:21) : I am a daughter of Heavenly Father, who loves me, and I will have faith in His eternal plan, which centers in Jesus Christ, my Savior.
* Divine Nature (blue) (2 Peter 1:4–7) : I have inherited divine qualities which I will strive to develop.
* Individual Worth (red) (D&C 18:10) : I am of infinite worth with my own divine mission, which I will strive to fulfill.
* Knowledge (green) (D&C 88:118) : I will continually seek opportunities for learning and growth.
* Choice and Accountability (orange) (Joshua 24:15) : I will remain free by choosing good over evil and will accept responsibility for my choices.
* Good Works (yellow) (3 Nephi 12:16) : I will nurture others and build the kingdom through righteous service.
* Integrity (purple) (Job 27:5) : I will have the moral courage to make my actions consistent with my knowledge of right and wrong.[5]
* Virtue (gold) (Proverbs 31:10) : I will prepare to enter the temple and remain pure and worthy. [9]

Since the girl that was assigned to me had just turned 12 (the age where they go into the YW program), I figured it would be nice to give her a few things about the values. So, I printed out a little booklet (actually, since I was out of ink, I asked a friend to do this), made this little scripture bookmark that you can tuck into the spine of your scriptures and use the ribbons as bookmarks and added ribbon in the value colors to the scripture marking pencil too.

Secret Sister Day #2

I really don't know what order she got these little gifts in, but I am calling it this way. (I sent them all together in a bag for them to give to her one day at a time.)

These were also supposed to be simple, inexpensive little gifts, and for me, they had to be pretty quick. I was making them the night before and had a baby that wanted me...so:


They had given us a little print-out about the girl that we were "secret sisters" with and it told us a few thins about her, like her fav candy bar: Butterfingers. :) Thought the glow sticks would be fun too, so I threw those in too. Put the popsicle card in there and said, I hoped she was having a "sweet" time at camp! :)

FTTT: Possibly my most favorite project EVER!

I have to say that I absolutely LOVE LOVE the way this turned out! I want to make one for me as well as some others as well, but I don't want to spend the time on it right now/again/yet...make sense? Someday...

This is really a "From this to that" (although it isn't Friday this time). Remember those? I wish I had time to do more of them, but not right now...someday again...

There's a bit of a story behind this project:
About a year and a half ago? I was at a PTO mtg for my kids' school. A friend of mine, E, was there as well. They had been cleaning out the PTO closet and had some things they were giving away/throwing away. There was a little "recipe" box from a Sallie Mae fundraiser deal. They asked if anyone wanted it. Nobody raised their hand (Who still uses those?) Anyway-so I said I would take it and alter it. My friend, jokingly said, "Yeah-why don't you make me something with it?" Well, I actually thought that was a great idea. Problem was...it took me a year and a half to actually do it! :) BUT she recently had a birthday and I thought it was the perfect time to finally do it. I think deadlines help me be productive.;) (It took me a couple days of ignoring the dishes, etc and spending every spare minute I could steal away to get it done. Thanks to a great husband who understood and helped more (with a relatively new baby) and let me do it.)
So, from this:

(decided to go with different colors than the ones in the above pic though)
To:



I had envisioned this long ago. A box full of quotes, that you could take a quote out and display it, and change it with another when you wanted to see something new. Something that was decor, but also uplifting. My friend likes birds, so as I was pulling out stamps to decorate it with, I pulled out all of my bird stamps. I was amazed at how many I actually have. I thought of her when I saw this paper, although I myself love it too! I wondered if I was making the cards themselves with the quotes too simple, but with so many...As I look back over them, I like them and don't think they were too simple. I don't want to take away from the words being read...just make them look better. Anyway, it all came together beautifully I think. I love it!
Example of the box with a quote card on top displayed:


I ended up having WAY too many quotes to fit in the box and ended up sending her an email with a bunch more if she wanted them. I also left a few cards in the back blank, so that she could add some of her favorite quotes onto them as well.


The Quote Cards:





The blank cards:

I hope she enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it for her. :)

7-UPlifting Thoughts for your Week

In our church, the teenage girls go to a Young Women's Church Camp every summer. Well this year, in our church ward (congregation), they asked the women in our ward if they would like to be a "secret sister" to one of these young women and put together four little gifts as writing down our testimony for them. They would receive one of the gifts each day and would then receive our testimonies to read at the end of the week, prior to their testimony mtg (I believe). I thought it was a fun thing, so I volunteered to be a secret sister.

For the first day, I sent this 7-UP can and the thoughts shown. I was originally going to print out some thoughts, but didn't have any ink in my printer, so I went through my stamps and found some fun ones that would work. The girl I got had just turned twelve the previous week, so camp and Young Women were all brand new to her. I hope she had a fun week!

So fun!

I have to say that I love altering notebooks! They always turn out so cute and fun and really are so easy and fairly quick to do. I made this one for one of my piano students for the end of this past semester. I think she liked it. :)

Do you want to hear something sad?

I really have stamped some here and there, but have had no time or sometimes no energy to stamp, even THINK about stamping, let along upload the pics and get them on here. Hard last few weeks with my baby and that equals less energy and desire to blog. Sorry. There are seasons of life that we all go through and this one for me right now...well, stamping is not the priority most of the time. Someday I will do more again...I will get some pics up here soon though of some past projects from this past month. One that I esp love and want to share! :)

May Club Card #4 + Swap card

Okay, this one was my fav from club last month. I think just b/c it was fun to make and try a new technique. I love having someone else prepare and find new techniques for me to try and to have all the stuff ready to go too! Love it! Thanks S!

This was made using wax paper wadded up and then ironed onto the paper...can't remember what kind of paper this is...we were talking that night and wondered if photo paper would also work with this. Anyway. after that, you just sponge color onto the paper and it resists the color where the wax melted onto the paper. I think my kids would also love trying this. You could make all kinds of designs with the color too.

Gorgeous card from S to wap that night. I don't ever seem to tire of this stamp. I like how she used the crystal effects instead of embossing powder too. Made the scene more shiny. :)

May Club Card #3

Don't you love the graduation cap? And honestly, this was one of the fastest card to put together at club...now S had it all scored for us though too. See the little pocket inside to add some cash? Unfortunately, at club, ours didn't come with cash included. ;)

May Club Card #2

I still love this DP paper. What an easy card too! Great for OSW!

May Club Card #1

What a fun and easy card. I forget about my crimper half the time, but I like it here on the white background. And the flower petals are made from an oval punch and then another circle punch inside the oval.

A Simple Thanks will do

Couple more...

Where's my groove?

Ever since my baby was born 3 months ago, I have been trying to make a bunch of baby thank you cards. Here are a few I made a month or more ago and honestly, I've never gotten them sent out or made near as many as I still need. I can't find my groove or mojo with them. I do like the first one, but the other two...blah...I was trying to stay simple and minimal stamping, just b/c I have no time and need to get them done. I'm about to find an old design and just copy it a bunch of times though, b/c they need to get done and these are just O.K.

I do really like the faux leather paper on the left panel on the first card and would like to use it more...when to find the time though...?

Simple is my New Middle Name

Stamp, stamp, stamp. Punch, punch, punch. Glue, glue, glue.

Made this last night and actually like it! Popped up the centers of the flowers and the sentiment with dimensionals.

Haven't stamped in awhile, still need to show you the cards we made at club night a couple weeks ago...soon. :)

BTW-The flowers I punched here...do they look familiar? They are the same ones I used to make the citrus circles below on the popsicles. :)

Is it a Bread Box?

Or a circus tent? haha I wanted it to be cheery, so I picked this colorful paper and didn't think anything about it until I added the scalloped edges to the top and then though..."It looks like a circus tent!" Oh well. Cheery. haha

The one I posted below is for a mini loaf. I made up my own to use for a full size loaf pan. The sides are shorter...had to do it that way for it to work on one sheet of paper, but I think it still looks good. Not as much room to place anything on the side, but I still think it dressed it up more. I think I may have liked it better, if I chose different paper...next time! :)

Making this...

tomorrow!!! I found this on a fellow stamper's blog a long time ago. This pic is from her blog of the bread box she made. Here is a link to a tutorial for it on her blog. I'm excited! I've wanted to make it ever since I saw it. Got the bread made tonight to take to a friend. Now for the box...I'll show you pics later. :)

Sweet Treats

I made these a couple years ago and did the orange and chocolate ones. Thought I would try some new flavors this time for our club swap last night.


I don't have a "real" citrus stamp. Just used my flower from my Shapes and Shadows set and punched it inside the petal, so it looked like a citrus. My 10 yr old thought this was "really smart!" haha

Cardboard Tube Art

How cool is this???!!!

I found it here:
http://belladia.typepad.com/crafty_crow/2009/10/cardboard-tube-wall-art-for-kids.html
where they have all kinds of other fun ideas to do with kids.

I want to try it out! I could even adapt it (possibly) to cards!

Kaleidoscope Card

I realized that I had never posted this card from our last club night and I loved it! It is such a fun card! I just should have put my wheel that you turn (look on the right) out a bit further. It's kinda hard to get a hold of it to turn the way it is.