Stocking Stuffers...

It 's been a while since I've made bows or flower clips for my girls. I was motivated to make more after seeing THESE and THESE. They will make perfect stocking stuffers for my girls!


Last week my cousin asked me to make some CD holders for her. She is a leader in the Primary in her area, and they are making a CD with the songs in the 2010 Primary Sharing Time Outline for each of their Primary children for Christmas. I was so excited about this project that I made all 50 of these CD holders in 2 days!!

Now I need to find some stocking stuffer ideas for my little boy. Time is running very short!! If you have any ideas, please share!!

Handmade Christmas Gift Idea...

If you're looking for a gift that will last all year long, this idea is for you!

For the past couple of years, my Christmas gift to my Dad and Mom has been birthday cards. I make enough birthday cards for them to give to their children and grandchildren for the year. It's a win-win situation for all of us....they don't have to worry about buying birthday cards each month, and I get my 'fix' by being able to create them.

These are the cards they'll be getting this year.
The ones with the flowers are obviously for the girls, and the star ones are for the boys. You can't tell from the picture, but I used a foam square on the star to give it a 3-D look.

I had fun making these cards (all 27 of them) and look forward to getting mine on my birthday!!

Candy Cane Kiss Brownies...

One of my favorite holiday treats is Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses....love them! Picky Palate inspired the making of these...
I did a few things differently than Picky Palate....

**I used my favorite homemade brownie recipe
**I made them into brownies instead of brownie bites

Here's what they looked like before baking.
I could've eaten them just like this!!

They turned out fantastic....which didn't surprise me. Everything Picky Palate comes up with is amazing!

Cinnamon Ornaments...

I'm sorry for the lack of posts lately. My computer was infected with a nasty virus that froze up everything. All of my husband's files were ruined, but luckily, mine were saved (whew!). You never realize how important all the files you have are until they are gone!! My husband has been working hard at restoring our programs and trying to get our computer back to normal.

Anyways, let's get on with a cute project that smells oh, so good! My kids and I made some of these cinnamon ornaments for our tree last year, and we all agreed that this would become a new tradition. They are easy peasy to make, and they make your house smell yummy!!

To make these, you'll need:

1 cup cinnamon
1 Tbsp. cloves
1 Tbsp. nutmeg
3/4 cup applesauce
2 Tbsp. white glue

Mix everything together and roll out to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters and let dry at room temperature for several days, turning often. You can also dry these in the oven set at about 200 degrees for several hours. (Don't forget to poke a hole in the top portion if you're going to hang these from your tree!).

Revamped T-Shirt...

I have a love/hate relationship with t-shirts. I love them because they are big and roomy....and I hate them for the same reason. I'm on the shorter side (5'2" on a good day), so most of the time a t-shirt ends up drowning me.

I've been wanting to try my hand at 'repurposing' for quite some time now, but always get intimidated when I see all the fabulous things you crafty ladies make. I loved this ruffle shirt tutorial from homemade by jill from the moment I laid eyes on it....but didn't think a beginner sewer like myself could make it.

Then a thought hit. Could I possibly make a cute ruffled shirt out of one of my big, roomy t-shirts? Hummmmm...there was only one way to find out!!

I grabbed 2 t-shirts (I practiced first with one of my husbands, just in case I totally messed it up!) and got to work. Here's a picture of my t-shirt before I started cutting.

I used homemade by jill's tutorial as a guide and found one of my old, dirty, oh so comfortable shirts to use as my 'pattern'. Yeah...the red shirt is pretty yucky! It's one of my 'work shirts' now, but I love how it fits, thus the reason for using it. **The picture doesn't show this step, but I did fold in the sleeves of the red shirt before I started cutting.

Here's my t-shirt with all the cuts. I guess there's no going back now.... **I used the sleeves on my red shirt as a guide for cutting the green sleeves (I know...I didn't take a picture to show them cut afterwards). And I used the bottom of the shirt for the ruffle around the collar. It turned out to be the perfect length.

And here's the finished product. I absolutely love it!! The ruffle neckline is adorable...and comfortable!

The white one was my 'practice run' using my husband's t-shirt (shhhhhh...don't tell!).

These aren't the greatest pictures....but I wanted to show you how it looks on me. Just ignore the crazy lady in the photos and focus on the t-shirt! This is to show a close up of the ruffle neckline.
And the top half of my 'revamped' t-shirt....

I sort of look scared in this one...I recruited my 8 year old to take these....she doesn't know yet to count to 3 before snapping the picture. We'll work on that!
What a fun project! My husband is worried that I might really go crazy and revamp all of his t-shirts to fit me now. Maybe I will......a girl can never have too many, can she?