Christmas Gifts Reveal (with photo update)

Christmas has come and gone.  We enjoyed some sweet time with both sides of the family as well as a worshipful celebration with friends in our church community.  Heading into the holiday season, I would have told you that I simplified things this year...handmade gifts, no fancy Christmas candies, and a decent amount of time to be reflective.  But it still felt busy and a bit stressful.  That made me sad.  At one point, I told T that I was kind of looking forward to it all being over because the to-do lists and sense of urgency made it difficult to really be present.  So, anyway, with that said, I'm thankful that we were able to celebrate with family and friends, but I'm also thankful to return to life as "normal".

One of the things I was super excited to do a couple months ago was to write detailed blog posts about all of the different things I made for gifts.  But much of that enthusiasm has waned.  However, I'll go ahead and throw some photos and quick descriptions in this post since I know some of you are sincerely curious.

Greeting/Note Cards

Hand-cut envelopes with homemade lick-and-stick and cards with my own artwork...

 Flower Headbands

Hannah and I worked on these for some of her friends...she LOVES to make things for people...

Scented Glitter Play Dough

These were made for stocking stuffers and as little gifts for some neighborhood friends...

Crazy Crayons and Texture Cards

Melted and formed crayon pieces packaged with mat board rectangles on which I had created raised texture designs with glue.  The larger crayon chunks are great for little hands and fun to use for texture rubbings.  It's fun to get an unpredictable rainbow of color too...

Cookie Mix in a Jar

Hannah and I mixed up 14 of these guys and we delivered them to neighbors and other people like the kids' Sunday morning classroom teachers.

Painted Barn Wood Wall Decor

I used pieces of barn wood to create some artwork.  I forgot to take photos of some of the other pieces I created, but here is one with a minimalist bird silhouette... 

Molded Bird Seed Wreath

I mixed up some special paste and made birdseed wreaths of varying sizes.  Hopefully the birds actually like them...

T-Shirt Scarves

I forgot to take a picture.  I took a self-portrait for those of you who asked.  I made several simple scarves from old t-shirts.  I first saw the idea on Pinterest, and once I wore one, they became quite the hit amongst some friends!  All you do is cut across the torso of a t-shirt (w scissors or rotary cutter) and make approx. 1 1/2" strips.  An athletic t-shirt without side seams works best.  Then pull the strips until they stretch and roll on themselves.  Then clump them together and VOILA!  The one I'm wearing is double wrapped around my neck.  Then I used a little scrap of sleeve fabric and wrapped it around, tucking it inside itself.  I've seen others mix colors and even braid several strands to add textural interest.

BBQ Sauce and Spice Rub Kit (no photo)

I forgot to take a photo of this as well.  I canned a batch of homemade BBQ sauce and mixed up three different spice rubs to make a little BBQ kit.  I repurposed baby food jars for the spices, spray painted all of the lids black, and made custom labels for them all.  I hope they taste good!

So there you have it!  Those are the things many of our friends and family received this year for Christmas.  We did buy our kids a few things, but otherwise this was pretty much it.  As you may be able to tell, the packaging and presentation of each gift was pretty important to me.  I enjoyed making many of the items look "boutique" if that even makes sense.

Next up, I'll have to show you some of the handmade gifts we received from other folks...some impressive things, I tell ya!