Craftaholics Anonymous Handmade Gift Exchange

Twice a year Linda at Craftaholics Anonymous hosts a Handmade Gift Exchange. This is so much fun! If you've never participated in one of these, I highly recommend giving it a whirl. I wanted to show you what I made for my partner Lauren, and what she made for me.

Here's what I sent Lauren:

First I made her some of the Christmas gift tags we did for the Ladies Craft Meeting at church a few months ago.

I also made her up a set of one of a kind cards like these.

I made her up a set of cute pillow boxes. Tutorial here.

And I sent a few pieces of handmade jewelry.

A pair of coiled bracelets. Tutorial here.

A pair of silver wire wrapped earrings. "Tutorial" here.

 

I had a lot of fun making the earring card for these.

These dropped bead earrings, tutorial to come.

And I sent her a 12 x 12 pillow cover featuring the title of my favorite Christmas song.

I really hope she loved everything!

And she sent me this AH-MAY-ZING Christmas wreath!

Isn't it gorgeous?

I just love these colors! In fact, I have a Red and Aqua Board on Pinterest, and this beauty is going straight there as soon as this post goes live!

Thank you, Lauren - I love it!

And thank you, Linda, for hosting this awesome exchange again!

Craftaholics Anonymous Handmade Gift Exchange

You guys, I got the cutest package today! I participated again in the Craftaholics Anonymous Handmade Gift Exchange. I got paired with Penny, and we have so much in common! She told me she loves handmade jewelry and family themed decor, so I put together a few little items for her, but first I want to show you what she sent me!

First of all, she sent this ADORABLE red, white, and blue clothespin wreath! Look at how darling this is! I love wreaths, and I so needed a patriotic one to grace my door!

Next she sent this gorgeous glitter filled glass ornament with our last name initial and the cutest little star hanger! I want 50 of these on our tree! Love it!

And last but certainly not least, this ingenious magnetic brooch! First of all the colors were perfect - they really bring out my eyes!

I love it so much! In fact, I wore it to a family gathering tonight. I love the fact that there is no pin, because I've ruined more than one shirt wearing a pinback brooch in reach of grabby baby hands.

Now for what I sent her:

She told me she loves monograms and other family themed crafts and decor, so I started off with this hand painted family name framed art. I painted her last initial over her family name and the year of her wedding on the same fabric I use for my pillow covers.

And speaking of pillow covers, I also included an Anniversary Date pillow cover. You can also find these in my shop. I've made a number of them for friends and family as gifts, and they've always been a big hit!

She also mentioned that she likes handmade jewelry, so I included this fun yellow cabochon ring with a frilly black metal setting on an adjustable filigree ring base.

I hope she loved her things as much as I love mine!

Last Mother's Day

So Mother's Day is in a little over two weeks. Gah! How does it always sneak up on me? I've got a couple of ideas, but we'll see how they pan out Meanwhile, I thought I'd show you some of the things I made last year for Mother's Day.

First of all, I tend to show the love to sisters and girlfriends on Mother's Day when I can. We all know that when your babies are small, you don't always end up with a thoughtful gift, so if I have the time and resources, I try to make it a special day for ALL the mommies in my life. My father-in-law made me a wind chime for my second Mother's Day. It was the only thing I got that year, and it meant so much to me that he thought to do something special for me, so I try to pay it forward.

So these are the sister gifts. And please understand that this was pre-blog and another one of those last minute, taken at night in my dark living room, not for anyone to see, just for me to have a personal record or what I made, super lame photo shoots. Ahem.

My SIL Rachael had a still pretty new baby boy, and she also had some blue and yellow in her home, so I thought I would try my hand at some pop art painting. I used my Silhouette to cut a stencil of the words, and I just blocked off the sun's rays with straight pieces of vinyl. Looking back I see all kinds of things wrong with it, but I guess it wasn't too awful for my first attempt, especially considering I am so not an artist.

My SIL Leah was pregnant with baby Lawrence, and her best friend (also a good friend of mine) Melissa was pregnant with baby Jackson, so they got matching gifts that fit right in with their sense of humor: We Made a Baby on This Bed pillow covers.

In fact, Melissa wanted it featured in Jackson's 3 month shoot. :) These can be requested as a custom item in my shop. :)

I sent my SIL Kristin in Texas this leather scalloped banner. I cut scalloped circles out of black and gold leather with my Sizzix Big Kick and cut each circle in half. Then I attached the circle halves to black satin ribbon with strips of Heat N Bond.

For my mom and MIL, I had three things. First, I made them each an infinity scarf (sorry, no picture). I also made them each a burlap wreath. The pink and blue was for my MIL, and the red and cream was for my mom. My mom had just redone her kitchen, and I made hers using the same Waverly fabric her curtains are made from. The flowers for both were made using a main fabric, felt, and drop cloth. I just cut the burlap in 2 inch strips and wrapped it around the wreath forms, securing with hot glue.

The last thing I did was to embellish a couple of Mason jars. For these I just wrapped them in burlap, then wrapped lace on top of that. I cut out several layers of patent leather medallions, again with my Big Kick, and attached them to each other and then the jar with hot glue.

I also made a few things for Nick's grandmother also, but I didn't get pictures of them. Anyway, I'm off to try to figure out what to do for this year!