Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Gift Giving

I am a gift-giver. I love finding something that reminds me of someone and being able to purchase it, or make it, and give it to them. I love expressing appreciation through gifts. Rewarding through gifts. Gifts. Gifts. Gifts.

Today's blog is a little "dated" because I'm going back to Christmas gifts. I wish I had had enough time and money to make everyone a gift for Christmas... since that isn't the case I want to just take a minute to show you what I did end up doing this year. These 4 projects were really easy and a lot of fun. 

First was a beach bag for Ali. Back in August we took a trip to Vegas and I made a couple beach bags. Back then I had the thought to make one for my cousin-in-law but there was no way I could pull off a 3rd bag at that time and I'm pretty sure I was burnt out on the particular craft. =) Well I'm happy to point out that the 3rd time was the charm in this case. The project was quick, painless, and turned out quite well!

Alison is married to my cousin Wyatt and they joined my parents and my family in Hawaii last February. Well we had such a great time that we booked our second trip for February again. My Hubby is a bit of a photographer and has some fantastic shots from our first trip and I wanted to incorporate those photos into Ali's bag. Those didn't go as well as planned but they were still fun (I think I needed to get a different iron on photo paper for this project, but overall it went fine). In hind site, I wish I'd put the owl print on the outside of the bag, but really that's just a minor preference. =)

My cousin just had her first baby, an adorable little boy, on Sunday morning! She had decided to not find out the gender of the baby which was really hard for the rest of us! hehe But she went with a yellow and white/gray color theme that allowed us to still make goodies for baby ahead of time. Most yellow and white/gray fabrics are very feminine which doesn't exactly work for boys. My cousin had expressed a love of chevron fabrics and I always had my eyes peeled for yellow and white/gray chevron prints. One day at the fabric store I spotted a yellow and grey flannel chevron... Oh sweet Heaven! Burp rags were in my future. And let me tell you - they were super easy, super quick, and super cute. 

 
 


That same day at the fabric store I was on a mission to find some cute cotton fabric to make my niece some hanging pillows. I inherited some big bubble letter patterns and after my sister-in-law had seen something similar on ETSY and given me a color scheme I had a plan. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of my niece's pillows finished and lined up (I spelled her name) but I got these sweet shot after she opened her present;

Lastly - I wanted something crafty and fun for the guys this year and was very inspired by the Rudolf Rootbeer on Pinterest. I made my own rendition with some special beers and wine coolers. I'd like to think they were a big hit, but at least they were cute. 
 

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