I already mentioned that all of my christmas presents will be handmade this year and shared some of them in previous blog posts.
I don't want to brag but i am absolutely in love with my knock-off coffee capsule tree!! So much that i would rather keep it than giving it away, haha!
It turned out amazing and looks way prettier than the original! I think this is the best DIY i have made so far and i will share a tutorial after christmas.
This alu gift "box" is a fun gift for my parents and i know it will make them laugh.
My father works a second job at a samaritan organization and delivers meals to the elderly people. Those meals come in aluminium food containers and everytime my parents come to visit us they bring along this food, since it is quick and easy to make and tastes good. I kept one of the aluminium dishes because i wanted to cut it and use it for a DIY project, but i think it's funny to return it to my hard-working best dad in the world. So i just folded it in half, padded it with cotton wool to protect the lazy Santa and wrapped it with brown paper.
My parents will also be given a DIY photo canvas but i forgot to take a photo of it. And i made this painting:
It is painted on glass and you can find the tutorial here.
I decided to give the wooden cutting board to my mother, and my father, who dreams of having a yacht, will get this little boat that i had pinned into my "Gift Ideas" board.
I rediscovered the pin last night and realized that the tutorials comes from Ann Woods. She makes the most adorable bird cake toppers and i am totally in love with her creations since i started planning our wedding last summer!
However, i did not follow her tutorial since the picture is quite self-explanatory.
I wanted to use handmade paper that i made a few months ago but could not find it, as always, and quickly had to make a new sheet. Again, not intending to sound narcissistically but i love how the two-toned paper turned out! ( anyone interested in a tutorial?)
I had some the blue pulp left over, and you know that i can't just throw things away so i splashed it onto my baking sheet to let it dry, thinking i could use it one day. When MisterT saw it he asked "Oh, is this the ocean for underneath the boat?" Et voilà, there was my use, faster than expected. MisterT is
I could not wait to try the Martha Stewart supplies that i won at Mom Endeavors. I have never owned or used a Martha product before!
Moreoever i had collected some of the Ikea packing paper ( the one they offer for free after checkout) throughout the year and decided to follow the trend and use it with the seasonal stencils that were part of my prize package.
Ok, no, that's not true and i have to make a confession: The reason for keeping the Ikea paper everytime we brought home fragile ( and not so fragile items) is not because i am a visionary and knew it would become a popular gift wrap this year, but because i cannot stand the fact that nobody in my family seems to care about pretty packed gifts. I have numerous rolls of christmas wrapping paper and gorgeous fabric ribbon, but why waste the good stuff?? So by keeping the Ikea paper that otherwise would have been thrown away i kill two birds with one stone: I could test my new stencils and sponges and at the same time do not have to worry about how my family treats my gift wrapping. Geez, how mean does that sound??
After all that's what wrapping paper is for. But i belong to the minority of ( annoying?) people who actually take their time to enjoy the unpacking process instead of shredding everything apart. And i love pretty looking gifts and could spend days to pack everything for the ones i love, if only they would appreciate it. Oh how i wished everyone else was like me, regarding gifts.
Anyway, each gift is stenciled, monogrammed, wrapped with strings of wool and has a "handmade with love" gift tag.
This cute idea on The Crafting Chicks inspired me to make my own tags. Feel free to use them.
This DIY card does not look as good as it did in my vision.
Then it's my mother's birthday the day before christmas; she will get store-bought gifts but this handmade card ( still working on it):
Everyone will get some small stuff in addition to their gifts, like chewing gum and a magnet for my father, reusable parchment paper for my mother etc. I also wanted to bake these cookies today but we ran out of eggs, so no cookies.
I had planned to make gifts for the kids as well, but my mother bought some Lego and HelloKitty items on sale for me to give it to them.
MisterT and i will not be giving gifts to each other this year; we're broke. But i found a website where you can create a personalized video message from Santa Claus. Check it out, it's fun!