My gift

I just told you about Linda at Craftaholics Anonymous and her great gift exchange, so I thought I would share my beautiful gifts that Katrina sent me. She made the cutest banner out of paper bags. It is adorable! I never would've thought brown paper bags could look so cute! Even better she made it to match a wreath I had made. How thoughtful is that? She also included 3 cutie cute headbands that she had made. For some reason I only took a pic of the one my daughter tried on first, but they were all equally cute. There were two matching brown ones (one for me one for Courtni, my daughter). I love it all! Thanks again Katrina!

Homemade Gift Exchange

I love participating in the Homemade Gift Exchange over at Craftaholics Anonymous.  Linda does such a good job every time, despite the hard work it must be!  She does them twice a year, in the summer and the winter.  This time was a little different, we received a name, but the person that got our name was different.  I think I liked it this way!  I got Aimee.  She has a blog here. 
I have the hardest time coming up with gifts for these! I come up with great, elaborate and beautiful ideas, and then procrastinate run out of time to do as much as I want. I really wanted to make something with my Silhouette, but I also had some cute fabric that was calling my name. I would've combined the two, but nothing came to mind.
Aimee is a librarian, so I assumed that she liked books as much as I did, that seemed to be the recurring theme I kept going back to for her.

I ended up making a fabric bookmark I found here.  Then came up with my own using the Silhouette and a quote I love about reading that I put on the back.  I had some left over book pages I had used for other crafts that I cut and mod podged on to some clothespins.  I wasn't so sure about that last one, I was worried with her being a librarian that may be offensive!  I was also going to put a magnet on the back of them, but opted out so she could use them in other ways too.  I hope she enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed getting to do a little crafting!

I'm on an ornament kick!

I have mentioned before just how much I love Chloe (my Silhouette).  I never get tired of playing around and learning new things to make with her.  We recently became addicted to glass bulb ornaments.  I made them for my kids' teachers for their Christmas gifts as well as the people I visit teach (for church) and a gift exchange party I went to.  Of course, I couldn't leave my kiddos out, they got one too.  I took an ornament tutorial I found on pinterest and changed it up a little.  I used vinyl on transparency paper instead of paper like the original did.  I then added some of the glittery, fake snow from the craft store.  My favorite was the baby Jesus in his manger.  I also loved the snowman, and felt like he really wanted to be on my tree, but I let him go to his new home ;). I also discovered that it is impossible for me to take a good picture with clear ornaments!  I did add ribbon to the tops of the other ornaments, but forgot to take pictures of them that way before they were given away.  Oops

Photo boards

     Wow, I have been MIA lately!  I am here, I promise!  The Christmas season always leaves me so busy, just like everyone else.  I did get some crafting in there thank goodness!  My sanity needed it! 

   I adore these boards that I made for the sibling gift exchange for my hubby and my side of the family.  I found the tutorial here.  They were so stinkin easy!

The boards really are straight, but for some reason every time I took a picture they looked crooked.  I am so far from being a professional photographer that it is sad really lol.

I fell in love with them and almost didn't want to send them, but decided that I will definitely be making some for myself very very soon!

It was super inexpensive to make, and I learned how to make the felt rolled flowers for it too.  I really couldn't believe just how simple these were to make and just how beautiful they turned out.  Although, as I am typing this I just realized I forgot to attach the ribbon before mailing them.  Oh man!  That is the story of my life though, lol.  I guess I should go call some siblings and explain that.

Homemade Gift Exchange gifts

I love the gift exchange over at Craftaholics Anonymous that Linda does twice a year.  I have participated three times now, and love making something for someone that I don't know.  It makes you try a little harder to do your best I think.  This year my partner's name was Kelly.  I couldn't decide what to make her and finally decided to try making an ornament.  Her favorite color is purple and she loves to crochet.  Now, I know knitting and crocheting are different, but I had no idea how to make a crochet hook. 

What do you think?  I personally think it is adorable.  I took a plain ornament.  I had some that were not glass that I used since I was shipping it.

I then got my trusty glue gun and began to wind some purple yarn until all the red was covered.  I did leave the gold piece uncovered so that it would hang, kind of a no brainer, but you don't want to accidentally forget to do it!

I tried a few different things for the knitting needles, but liked this one best.  I simply took a couple of toothpicks and some beads I had from another project.  I glued the beads on (with E6000) and then gave a nice coat of paint.  As I was painting them I realized I didn't know how I was going to dry them.  Toothpicks are a little tricky and I was not going to hold it the whole time lol!  Luckily for me I hadn't cleaned up lunch yet and so there were still saltines on the counter next to me.  I thought it was sort of brilliant! ;)

It actually did work perfectly.  After they were dry I clipped off the end and touched up the paint.  Then slip them where you think they look best into your ornament and you are done! 

I also made her some Christmas magnets just for fun.  I am sure we have all seen these a ton before.  Glass jewels with scrapbook paper glued on and then a strong magnet.  They may be unoriginal, but I still love them!

I think Kelly and I were meant to be friends, we had a lot in common and even sent our packages off on the same day without communicating it until afterwards.  One thing I do not have in common with her however is her talent!  The girl can crochet!  She made the cutest jewlery set.  I had never seen crocheted braclets before, but they are too cute.  It is so hard to pick a fav part.  The gorgeous, delicate rings and earrings, the bold braclets, or the adorable little jewlery case and bag.  Seriously, I had no idea you could crochet a ring box!  It is so stinkin cute!  Thank you so much Kelly!

If you haven't been to Craftaholics Anonymous yet you have to go check it out and watch her blog so that you can be part of the next gift exchange.  It really is great!

Can a girl have too much Bling?

Who doesn't love jewlery? I have always loved looking at it, but stuck to my basics; earrings, wedding ring, and maybe a small necklace. Nothing big or fancy. A friend of mine started selling Premier Jewlery. I am sure we have all been to a home sales party at some point. My sister hosted a party, and I wanted some goodies! I don't have a lot of extra, just like most of us right now, so I hosted my own show and ended up getting a lot of good stuff! I got several long necklaces which I have been wanting for a while. Score for me! Only problem was I didn't have anywhere to put them. They were so long that the just tangled together.

I sprayed a couple of quick coats of trusty spray paint on a board I found for 50 cents at DI (a thrift store I love) and had been saving for just the right project. Sanded it down, and wiped a thin coat of stain to age it a little. Then, thanks to Chloe (my trusty Silhouette) I cut the word "bling" out in vinyl and added it to the top. All I could find were gold cup hooks, I would've preferred silver. Thanks to my amazing Hubby for putting those on (they would've been a disaster if I had tried) and it was done. Doesn't get much more simple then that!

  Now I have a place to hang my pretty new bling without it being a mess!  Sorry about the bad picture, cell phone, dark closet is a bad combo!

My fall wreath

What a week I have had! I have been uber busy, aren't we all? Somehow, in the midst of all the chaos and confusion, I had the chance to do a little crafting, which seemed to add a little sanity where it was much needed. I can't take credit for the idea for this craft, which is usually the case for me! I get inspiration from all the wonderful blogs out there just like anyone else! I have been in love with this one since last year from Sarah from Thrifty Decor Chick. Sarah is one of the very first blogs I found a few years ago and I read her faithfully almost daily. 

This is Sarah's door and wreath, her house is so beautiful inside and out!

Isn't it beautiful? She has a great tutorial on her blog, but I used different leaves (which I purchased at the Dollar Tree just as she did last year) I also used foam board from the Dollar Tree. I am cheap frugal what can I say! I ended up using 4 packages of leaves, my daughter had given me a couple of packages for my birthday in September. (She is so cute! She knew I wanted to make a wreath and that I am cheap frugal. So my Hubby took her to the dollar store where she got me some crafty goodies. I have trained them well!) ;) Anywho, that isn't my point! There were 50 in a bag and pretty thin material. One bag was green and red, and the other bag was yellow and red. I had intended to only use those two bags, but it ended up looking too one dimensional. It just didn't feel right. So I went back today and grabbed two more packages to complete it. I think I could've gotten away with three packages, but I like the fullness with the four.

Here it is in its one dimensional glory.  Unfortunatley all I had was a cell phone camera, but I wanted a close up of the leaves

The pictures don't do it justice, it is so pretty!