Handmade Christmas Gifts

Tis’ the season for finding the perfect gifts to give to our family and friends. I Decided to make a few gifts again this year, to add that personal handmade thought and touch to each one. So I put the wood working tools, paint brushes and Cricut to good use this holiday season.

I started with another Family sign for my sons Great Grandparents (they have been asking what I’ve been working on all year long… every time their saw was borrowed to cut my wood in fact) LOL. I chose the colors that I knew where in their new furniture and I must say, it looks great in their home.

Then I wanted to do something a little different for the boys’ grandmother, so I decided to make a smaller sign with a different phrase. “Home is Where the Heart is” is what I chose. I knew shelf space was limited so this one fits in nicely. Again I used the colors that were in the furniture to tie the look together.

The next couple I did for my Sisters in Law. One of them is very much into the Primitive Décor, country sayings and plaids so I made this set of words that are stackable in pyramid form. Another 2x4 project, and I made sure to keep the biggest of the 3 under 12 inches wide so I did not have to piece and seam the background paper. They are 10”, 8” and 6”.

The next is probably the most personalized of all. My other sister in law loves shoes! When I was looking for ideas I kept seeing references to the Wizard of Oz and the Ruby slippers and an idea hit me right away! I had a vision in my head of exactly how I wanted things to look and I achieved just that by keeping things classic with the black and white AND by making the paint job very rough looking. I added some bling to the shoes to make them appear fancy and the project was complete. This one was made on a 10” wide pine board, cut 2 feet long, and I did use mod podge to seal everything in to place.Everyone was pleased with what they got and only then did I know I did a good job.

Happy Crafting!

~Jenn

My Christmas Signs

It is true, I am picky. LOL To elaborate, I have an idea in my head of how I would like my home to be decorated during the holidays, and since it is very hard to find what I want I decided to make some things for myself.

First thing I made was this set of stacking blocks (made from 2x4). I love all things with peppermint and candy cane stripes (just red & white, not really green). I saw a set of painted blocks on the internet with just these words. I changed it up a bit by adding background papers to mine.

Next I made a few signs out of pine boards 3 are from 6 inch pine, the other is of 10 inch pine. All words were cut using my Cricut, and I did seal all of these over with Mod Podge.

In my house we are believers of Santa Claus. I do collect Santa’s so I decided to make this sign to put over my window that says “We Believe in Santa Claus”. I was happy with how it turned out so I kept going….

I made another sign in the same color for the same room except with pegs for the boys to hang their Stockings on since we don’t have a mantle of any kind or a fire place. I cut the phrase “The Stockings Were Hung” for this sign. It looked so cute with the stockings hanging and served its purpose well.

This year was the first year I had decided to decorate my Kitchen. As I said before I am not a huge fan of green, BUT with forest greens mixed with old minty greens and white things looked really frosty and cool. Of course I still added the Red in there with words, berries and my Peppermint/snowy accessories.

I went with a theme in my Kitchen of my Favorite Holiday Movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”. With my windows being different and having nice lengths I made signs to sit on the tops of each of them. The first being simple and saying “It’s a Wonderful Life”, the second being like the road sign in the movie saying “You are Now Entering Bedford Falls” (I know the movie says you are now IN Bedford Falls, but this just looked better).

I THINK next year I will add to this theme and make a sign to hang on the wall on the other side of the Kitchen that says “Bailey Brother’s Building & Loan”, or something like that. J

Thanks for reading along and checking to see what I’ve been up to. I wish each and every one of you a Happy Holiday Season and maybe you have a wonderful New Year!

Happy Crafting!

~Jenn

Teacher's Gifts

I was asked this holiday season if it were possible to make a few Teacher’s Gifts. I was excited to create something different than what I have been doing so I accepted the job. I was sent a photo of the type of idea she was looking for, and I went ahead and did my own thing and came up with these.Pretty simple… again I chose to work with 2x4’s, kept it classic with black paint, but instead of using background papers, I opted just to do the letters, and to give it a more finished look I tied a piece of Ribbon around each “I”. Each set is personalized with the Teacher’s name.

I really liked how these turned out. Later in the week my nephew had asked me to make a gift for his Teacher, so I decided to make another one of these. As I was working I had a domino effect of ideas and decided to make one for my nieces Teacher and also some for my sons Teachers as well.

So in total I made up 7 of these and couldn’t have been more pleased with how they all turned out.

Happy Crafting

~Jenn