handmade gifts for christmas and celebrations 2011

ChocolateIsLife

Hi all,
After all the inspiration for christmas from all the marvelously talented people out there, I'm keen to keep up the momentum and create lots of homemade gifts this year! For christmas I put together themed hampers which generally went down very well and everybody commented on the presentation!
My mum bought me a lovely sewing box which included a little tin of sewing bits that belonged to my late Nan so I feel sewing crafts will be my challenge for this year. Not really done a lot of sewing before so will certainly be a challenge. I think I might start with a sock monkey and if anyone has any tips on sewing projects for beginners and where to find them it would be gratefully appreciated!
Look forward to seeing / hearing about all your makes xx

wammy77

esmer wrote: »

I like the idea of door stops, and some draft excluder's.

Do you have a plan for the doorstops yet? I'd like to make a couple of the pyramid ones.... an excuse for getting a sewing machine me thinks :rotfl:

Laura_D wrote: »

Betterlife/ Wammy77 I saw these amazing piccys for a fairy party on celebrations at home http://www.celebrationsathomeblog.com/2010/07/enchanted-fairy-party.html


Wammy77 That key ring is amazing. How did you make it?

Wow! That fairy party looks brilliant, thanks for the linky.... gonna have a good look and nab a few ideas

The keyring is made from artclay silver. I made a stamp of my sons writing using photopolymer plates and pressed it into the artclay. Once dried I sanded it, fired it, sanded it again, polished it and attached it to 3 silver jump rings which I soldered shut and popped on a silver split-ring.

It sounds complex, but actually all you need is a bit of time a patience - you don't even need all the fancy equipment, you can fire it using a hand torch

nellis10

HI Guys...

I'm up for a homemade Christmas 2011, my mum gave me an album of photos of me, including a letter I wrote to my dad when I was about 8 when he was in the army, it made me cry, so I would love to make something special for mum and dad this year...dad loves his cooking so a hamper would be nice I think...

Hoping for loads of help as I am hopeless!!

esmer

Wammy - I am going to do a cube with a handle I think. Maybe some appliqu! on it or something. and someway of taking out the contents so it can be washed. I have some really nice tea towels that I think will do a lovely job.

Other than that Im stumped other than the stuff I made for my hampers.

Laura_D_3

Wammy77 I didn't even know art clay existed - it's amazing. How much clay would you need to make the keyring? I just been hunting it down and it looks like about £10 for 7 grams. Is that expensive and how much would it make.

CT19720

Is there room for another small one on this thread?

I've been crafting and making handmade cards for about 3 years, so normally post on the card thread.

Most Christmas's I do hampers that suit the recipent, but because I changed jobs, and took a big pay cut, I made more things as christmas presents, these included:

Kitchen organisers; handmade blank cards; pots of gold, snowman soups; magnetic fridge pegs. Everyone who got a handmade gift seemed genuinely pleased by them, so would like to think of something different for next year, maybe edible gifts, so I would love some tried and tested recipes for things like peppermint creams, chocolate truffles etc. Love the look of the marshmellow towers, and dew drop trees that were posted earlier in the thread.

Not sure how often I will post, but I will be an avid reader throughout the year, and look forward to reading eveyone's ideas on homemade gifts.

sarahpowell

Whoooohoooo ladies (and gents) I have managed to get my blog up and running and can now be found in the usual place :-)

Sarah

rufusdog52

sarahpowell wrote: »

Whoooohoooo ladies (and gents) I have managed to get my blog up and running and can now be found in the usual place :-)

Sarah

Following you Sarah, I like your notice boards. I made one for my craft room last year but the pics kept falling out, just realised I forgot to put the buttons on where the ribbons cross lol. Good job I havent chucked it out yet. Rufus xx

mary-op

sarah -love the notice boards.............:T Might have a go at a small version for my study just to pop the endless bits of paper in that end up on the floor............lol

Want to have a go at painting some ''distressed wood'' signs with little phrases on this year, plus a bit of stitching on the same lines on something like stuffed heart. Think we've got enough odd bits of wood kicking about plus leftover paint so with luck I could end up with a few ''freebie'' pressies.:j

sarahpowell

Thank you very much both, I am gutted I didn't get a pic of the two hanging together, but I might ask the recipient to take one for me

I plan on making a huge one to go on the wall in my craft room, the bigger the better.

Mary-op your distressed wood painting sounds intriguing would love to see what you can do
Rufasdog - I'm glad you hadn't disposed of yours, get those buttons/embellishments onand see if helps.

Sarah