homemade christmas

 Each year, I try to make a few homemade gifts. Both to save money & to create something unique or special. This year, I may have bit off more than I could chew, since we also threw in a trip to Hawaii during prime Christmas prep time. :\ I managed to get some done before we left & still had enough time to finish up when we returned...but perhaps only because some of these gifts didn't need to be done until after Christmas! Now that all the gifts have been given, I can share them on the blog.

First up, I made stuffed foxes for some of our littlest friends.

 I found these on Pinterest & followed the pattern provided here!

 The orange fox was made from a thrifted sweater & definitely stretched more than the felt the original pattern suggested. Still cute though, right?! :] I also decided not to go with the scarf, since these were meant for younger toddlers. ;)

 Elsa approved! 

 For our preschool friend, I was inspired by this idea & created a matching/memory game. We used some of the branches that had fallen in last years ice storm. I went with a woodland/nature them when choosing which pictures to paint.

 I 

 They're a little shiny from the spray sealant I used.

 I loved the thrifted basket I found to store them in.  A little bigger than it needs to be, but it was too cute to pass up.

 For some of our friends & our moms, I found this idea to replicate. I didn't want to use spray paint though, so I used acrylic paint & thought it worked well enough. Spray paint would've been smoother, but seemed like more work to me.

 These aren't the greatest pictures, but I also made these slouchy bags for my friends out of pillow cases & belts. I was inspired by this pin, but the link rarely worked for me...not sure what's up, but I loved the look of these tote bags!

 Sewing leather was trickier than I first anticipated, so I'm hoping they hold up well. It's definitely a learning process!

 They ended up being the size of a messenger bag & seemed like a good size for a catch-all, "mom-purse". ;)

Finally, there were tons of ideas for how to use wood slices & I knew I wanted to make ornaments for my kids, the cousins & for my co-workers. I'd imagined making tiny chalkboards, but ended up just painting their initials. Josh (my brother-in-law) actually made chalkboard versions for all the family members this year, so I'm glad I took a different route! :P