christmas present idea

My 2020 Handmade Christmas

January 6, 2021 by Jessica 4 Comments

Last year has come and gone and as slow as it felt at times, I’m still surprised it’s over. Christmas flew by for me and I was looking back at all the handmade things I created for gifts/decor and wanted to compile them all in one place. I have lots to share and hopefully it can give you some inspiration for next year. It’s never too early to start creating when you plan to give handmade. I always find myself making things last minute even when I started far in advance. Above is a sweet little lovie I sewed up for my niece. It had been a while since I made something like this and I enjoyed spending the time to make her.

I started off with a really simple shape and then had my daughters help me decide on the finishing details. We ended up giving her a pink nose, naming her Ruby the Pink Nose Reindeer. I experimented with using this sheet of glitter I had found at Hobby Lobby forever ago (near the felt) for the antlers. It’s stiff and holds up pretty well, but I ended up gluing a pipe cleaner behind it and then a piece of felt over that so it was covered. I’m thinking this will be a cute pattern to share next Christmas so y’all can sew one up if you want to as well.

The next few handmade Christmas pics are of these ornaments I made. I found the acrylic ornaments at Michaels and went to town. I played around with this process a bit and still want to try a few other things next year. Little touches like gold around the edges takes them to another level and finishes them off nicely.

The horse ornaments were actually unicorns. I did some research and found that I could use a dremel rotary tool (like these) and cut the horn off. It worked really well and then I lightly sanded where I had cut it off to make sure it was smooth. My oldest loves horses so I wanted to make her one and then made some for her to hand out to others she knows at the barn where she takes lessons.

These little guys were a handmade gift I crocheted. They are so cute and small! They fit in your hand. I started by using this bubble seal amigurumi crochet pattern from i crochet things. Then I used this amigurumi whale crochet pattern from Yarnhild. I used the basic shape from that pattern to form the jellyfish and the octopus bodies so they would be the same size roughly. I was able to look at other crocheted creatures and determine how to add the little extra “ruffles” on the octopus and used the tentacle pattern from this crochet jellyfish pattern (also from Yarnhild) to get the right sizing I wanted for my jellyfish.

This handmade gift is great because I think it is fun to gift “life” when it’s winter. I grabbed these tall vases and the rocks from the dollar store and the paperwhite bulbs I found at a local nursery and Home Depot. You simply place the rocks in the bottom and add a bulb on top. Then fill with water so only the roots are wet. The tall vase helps support the plant as it gets pretty tall and it has an elegant look to it. It adds some greenery to a time of year when there isn’t as much.

I snuck in a project for the kids welcome center at our church last month as well. I made these floating shelves and decorated them with party supplies I had that had a Christmas party vibe to them.

I tried to make one more ornament to gift, but only got around to making one of them. I used an old deck board to cut out a Christmas star shape. Honestly, it just took too long to do with my jigsaw so I kind of put it away for another year. I think I might need to add a band saw to my tools for projects like this.

One of the biggest diy undertakings was making 40 foam snowflakes. I learned a lot from this! It took over my garage for a while, but they looked so pretty when they were up. I used my projector to trace snowflake silhouettes as big as I could (I would do half of the shape on one sheet and half on another so I could tape them together). Then I used a utility knife for all the straight edges and an exacto knife for the curved spots.

To add glitter, I sprayed a spray adhesives and then dumped glitter on it. It was a mess, but it was the best way I could think of. I tried a glitter spray, but it just wasn’t glittery enough. Also, to make this job easier for myself, I only used three different snowflake patterns. Once I had made one from each, I used it as a pattern to trace the rest.

The last item is a gift for a friend that loves Christmas. She had commented on the ones I had made before so I knew I needed to make her one too. I can’t wait to get it to her. Well, that’s everything for my 2020 handmade Christmas. I’m already scheming for what I might do for next year lol. Anyone else with me? Happy new year to you all! May it be full of creativity and love.

DIY Pie Pan Package and Personalized Picture Frames

December 14, 2015 by Jessica 2 Comments

This post is sponsored by Cricut. See further down for full disclosure.

I find it really fun to create gifts and was looking forward to participating in a Secret DIY Santa Gift Exchange that is being hosted by Cricut. For each person who signed up, we were given the name of another blogger to come up with a special diy just for them that involved using our Cricut Explore machine. I created a gift package from a pie pan, personalized picture frames for the fridge, and a gift card holder for my giftee, Mariah of Giggles Galore.

I was thrilled when I saw her name because I know her blog and love it. I mean really, look at a few of these recent diy’s she’s shared on her blog lately.

Rustic + Glam Hot Cocoa Bar Cart; DIY Distressed Wooden Chalkboard; Chocolate Spider Cookies

Mariah shares a ton of stuff from recipes to parties and as she says on her blog she’s “an event stylist, creative consultant, blogger, social butterfly and multi-tasking mom.” Make sure to visit her blog to see a lot more creative goodness.

Winter Wonderland Party by Giggles Galore

Winter Onederland

Now for how to make your own pie pan package. It’s really simple to do and takes barely any time at all. You will need:

Pie Pan
Spray Paint (optional)
Cardstock (I used the Candy Shop pad)
Cricut Explore and Accessories
Glue (I used tacky glue, but hot glue would work too)

If you like, spray paint your pie pan. Just remember that you can’t put food in that isn’t packaged if you do paint.

Create a circle in Design Space that is the same size as the pie pan top. Make sure it is a cut file. Add any other design of choice on top that is in the written choice. You can find this specific file I created (for a 8 3/4″ pan size) here.

Use your Explore to cut and draw this file.

When it’s all done it will look like this.

The second part of this gift are these personalized picture frames. I found the refrigerator magnet frames at Target and knew they would be cute with some extra additions added to them.

To make your own you will need:

Frames
Vinyl (I used the Vinyl Sampler in Brights )
Cricut Explore and Accessories
Transfer Tape

You can find the three designs I used here: “you’re like, really pretty.”, confetti, and leaves. I simply used images in the Design Space library. That’s one of the great things about using these machines. I might not be able to create an image from scratch, but I can usually find pieces of what I want and put them together with what is already available. Once you have your design ready, use your Cricut to cut it out. I added the square cut around each design after I did the first one to make it easy to see what you needed. You can just peel off the unneeded area like above,

or you can cut out the area and then peel it. Whichever is easier for you. If anything has a hard time not staying put, use your tools to help hold things in place.

Next get your transfer tape.

Cut out a piece that is large enough to cover the area of the design. Peel off the backing and place the sticky side on top of the design. Rub over it with tool or something like an old gift card to make sure it really sticks to the transfer tape.

Grab a picture frame.

Place the transfer tape with vinyl right side up. Then place the frame on the side facing down that doesn’t have the magnet.

Rub over it again to help ensure it stays put when pulling off the paper.

Slowly pull off the paper and if anything doesn’t stick, just lay that area down flat again and rub over it again. If that doesn’t work, gently use the hook tool to help it unstick from the transfer tape onto the frame.

And I just had to add one more little thing so a little gift card to Target. I also created this little gift card holder using the Candy Shop card stock and this template. Then I glued the green to the blue for each side and then sewed both sides together leaving the one end open. It was such fun creating for a fellow craft blogger. I hope that this inspires you to create something special this month for a friend or family member.

I parterned with Cricut for this post and received compensation for doing so. All opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting businesses that support Happy Together.

Hot Chocolate Party in a Box

December 17, 2012 by Jessica 2 Comments

I have been making a lot of gifts this year. It’s for a few reasons, but it has really stretched me in a good way. One thing I just finished up is a few Hot Chocolate Party in a Box gifts.

I found this really cute Hot Chocolate Party invitation here. I filled it in with very vague info as it is for a gift. I then made some pom pom’s for the outside packaging.

For the inside of the package I crocheted little coffee mug cozies (pattern used is from here). I used Lily Sugar n’ Cream yarn, so I had to make the cozies smaller than the pattern as she used a different type of yarn. I suggest having a cup with you while crocheting then “trying it on” and adjusting throughout the creation.

I ended up making 10. All using what I had in my stash. It ended up being very therapeutic this weekend as I processed what happened on Friday and prayed a lot. It still grieves my heart so, but I am so thankful for God’s peace.

Lastly, I cut out coffee mugs from card stock and put it in the cozy. That way they would know what it was for 🙂 Of course, I also add a bag or marshmallows and hot chocolates in the gift as well. If I had the time, I would have tried making the marshmallows and hot chocolate on a stick! Maybe next year 🙂
-Jess

For My Helpers

April 12, 2010 by Jessica 7 Comments

I wanted to do a little extra something for my pattern testers for the Mod Tie shirt because there was a lot of things they helped me correct :). I wanted to try the posterized/image transfer method I did with this project on scrapbook paper, so this was the perfect time to try it.

I went on their blogs and found some pics of their kids/pets and went for it. The only thing different from doing this on wood or a canvas is that you have to cover the scrapbook paper with the medium gel and let it dry first. Then continue on with it.

Doing it on the paper was a lot harder though and didn’t work as well, but I’m happy that they came out enough to be presentable.

The little frames were from Michael’s. They only had three colors left, so I painted some of them.

Thanks again girls 🙂 And speaking of patterns, one is currently with pattern testers as we speak with another two on their way soon! Yippee!

Posterized Wood Plaque Tutorial

March 18, 2010 by Jessica 16 Comments

So, I had to do this with my new products from DecoArt .

It’s totally inspired by a few other’s tutorials put together along with my own, so there will be some links to follow because I want to give proper credit to where I learned some of these things from. This all began when I was thinking of a birthday present for my mom. Now I think I know what I’m doing for Christmas presents this year! See the end of the post for the other two I did.

Now, I by no means am an “artist.” This is a sewer/crocheter having fun with new ideas and concepts. SO, if I, with no experience in this stuff whatsoever can do it, you probably can to 🙂

What you need (what I list is exactly what I used; some things can be substituted or even not used at all. Just have fun and make it your own 🙂

–Wood plaque

–DecoArt Modeling Paste (available online or find a store) or texture of choice

-Acrylic Paints (your choice. I think I used five colors).

-Wood Stain

-Gel Medium (I used Liquitex Gloss Medium and Varnish from Michael’s, but after research it seems the one recommended by Ashley is one of the best. But, they all seem to be fickle sometimes….)

-Mod Podge (or a top clear sealant; you could use the gel medium too)

–Texture Tool with straight edge (or use a playing card; old credit card; etc).

-Picture to Posterize

–Printer

–You will need to get to a copy machine

1. Posterized Image:

I have to admit, Dana has me hooked on this now. It’s not a new thing, but it is new to me. Let’s begin by choosing the picture you want on your plaque. You need to posterize it either in Photoshop, Photoshop Elements (what I use), or find out the way without having any fancy program with Dana’s helpful tutorial here.

I played around with a few pics and found what I liked best. You could go over it with a black marker and make it more “posterized”, but I liked mine how the program did it, so I left it like that. Some are better than others. Having a light background in the picture made it work better from my playing around with it.

You need to then do a mirror image of it (I did this in Publisher), making sure it is the size you want it to be on the wood plaque. Then print it out and go get a copy of it at a local UPS store, post office, etc…. Wherever there is one. You need to do this because the copy machine ink comes off the best.

2. Wood Plaque:

Now to prepare the plaque. Grab your texture tool and modeling paste (or texture of choice) and have at it. On the large one I added a little more thickness to the edges to have it pop a bit.

LET IT DRY COMPLETELY.

Now it’s time to paint. This is how I started with the paint job.

Then I took my straight edge texture tool and swirled it around to my liking. I used a paint brush to catch the extra paint to cover the edges of my plaque.

LET IT DRY COMPLETELY.

If you desire, you can add some wood stain to the edges to have a more “old” feel to it. I did this lightly. Just swab some on a rag and swipe it on the edges.

Use your finger to blend it some if it looks unnatural.

3. Putting them together

Now, this part can be tricky and it might now come out perfect. Just warning you. If it’s your first time, maybe make two copies so you can practice with one first. You need to apply your photocopied photo with your medium gel as Ashley shares here.

Then cover your plaque with mod podge or even use the medium gel for the finished look.

My notes:

–On my first one (the pink one), I didn’t use a lot of gel. I forgot, so some parts of the picture didn’t make it.

–I also just used my finger to rub over the paper once on the wood covered in gel. I think maybe even using a popsicle stick would have been better and might have allowed me not to lose as much of the picture as I did.

–I ended up using the soft side of a sponge to get the paper off too. My fingers were not doing the trick. Some people use rags, etc. Just be easy. Rub off just enough. I recommend going slow so you don’t over rub and take the ink off of it too.

–With the texture, you might lose some of that too because it isn’t a simple flat surface. I ended up liking the end result though, even with a few bare spots here and there. It gave it a worn look. If you use only one color like I did in the green one below, you can touch up the spots after as well (which I did for that one).

– Remember, sometimes you can do everything right and this still might not turn out “perfect.” Fortunately, I was extremely pleased with each piece I did, but after doing some research, I found you might not always be.

Just have fun and go with it! Each piece will be different and unique 🙂

Add your finished product to the flickr pool