Handmade Christmas II

For the second year in a row our family decided to do a handmade christmas. It is a nice option because those who want to make gifts can and those who want to purchase gifts can do that too. This year, my little chickens and I decided we wanted to go with the handmade option. It is nice because by the last week of Christmas, it gives the kids something to do. Unlike last year, Beech and I actually argued about what we would make for his cousins, Vivian and Jesse. At first, I heard...."ugh...mom can't we just buy them toys.......". Then, he and I went off to Michaels craft store and Beech decided he wanted to buy a paint your own piggy bank kit. I explained to him that I thought that the kits defeated the purpose of handmade(where we create something from scratch. Well, after more tears(mainly mine--I hate the craft stores during the holidays) we went home.
A few days later, we sat at the table and brainstormed a few more ideas--we talked about things Viv and jesse like. Together we concluded Jesse likes all things starwars and Viv might like a memory bored for her room. Yahoo....agreement....finally!

So, off we went...back to the craft store and we purchased all the supplies we needed for Vivs memory bored. I had seen a similar creation donated to my daughters school auction and thought we could try to copy it. We decided she likes the beach and blue--so a beach theme it would be.

This is what we purchased for the personalized memory bored:
1 large cork board
1 lg bag of glass stones(I now know a small bag would have been perfect)
and lots of wood cut outs, beach themed

 

We also purchased a hot glue gun. We used two types of glue for this project; Tacky glue and the hot glue. I think the tacky glue actually worked better. Beech spent a lot of time sticking the stones and wood cut outs all around the bored. Then we hand painted little wood letters of her name and glued them to the top.

We did not actually take any pictures of the final product--but it was cute and Vivian seemed suprised when we gave it to her. I think Beech was very proud of this gift because of how much he adores "his Viv". We also made a tee shirt for Jesse that had his picture on it and said, "jedi jesse". I purchased iron on transfere paper and I was very disappointed with how difficult it was to use and I would not use it again. Last, Julian and I put together fruit foils(I forgot to buy the baskets) of fruit, nuts and chocolate for all of the adults. I really enjoyed putting them together because they were so easy, pretty and practical. All in all, I am glad we did the handmade Chrismas option again--all I care about it planting a seed for the kids where they know that they can buy gifts or make them and they can be equally as special. I am so proud of my little chickens for being such creative elves!

Christmas 2009