Custom Bible Cover

How is your holiday season so far? Ours is great but busy, busy. I have not forgotten about the blog. It is just much farther on my to-do list right now. I have been so busy with different crafty things. BUT, I cannot show them to you because they are all presents. Bummer. Expect to see a ton of things here, after Christmas.

Until then, I wanted to show you a custom Etsy order I did. One of my goals has been to work on more bible covers for the shop. It is one item that is looked at often, but I only have one. I want to make more color choices, and I hope to soon. This the bible cover that was requested, and I think it turned out cute.

I can't wait to have some free time (Ha, ha) and make some more.
I hope to make the Christmas pillow, I have had in my head for weeks, this afternoon. But we shall see, there are so many things I wanted to do for Christmas, but there is just not enough time. I know next year to start way early on all of my projects!

Rasta Hat

As with the other teen beanie I made, My friend's daughter wanted a beanie also. She wanted rasta colors, with no black and long braids. It is not my favorite, but I also do not have a teenagers style. Hope she likes it!

Ornament Wreath

I am sure you have seen about 200 of these on the web, but I wanted one, so I did. I saw one at Pier One had one for at least $30, it was all red and beautiful, but mine cost $9, so ha!
Here is a link to the original wreath that others, better than me, have copied.

I used one wire hanger, glue gun, a ton of dollar store ornaments, and ribbon.

First step is to hot glue all of your ornament tops to the ornament itself so that it will not fall off. This is time consuming but worth it, and it will ensure your wreath lasts.
Next, make your wire hanger into a circular shape and make it ready for putting on your ornaments.

Put all of your ornaments on. I used 8 tubes of various sizes of dollar store ornaments. I would guess it took maybe 75 or more. The wreath is bigger, so you could use less and make a smaller wreath. As you put the ornaments on they will settle in place and start to hide the wire hanger.

Once you have them all on you can carefully close the hanger by wrapping one end around the other. This can be hard, other wise you could glue or tape the ends together, and hide it with a ribbon.

I added a ribbon, and hung it nicely on my door. It is so thick that with the storm door, the door barely closes, but it works, and I love it. Now I just need to find more time to make all the other Christmas things I want to make! Merry Christmas to all, I hope you are having a blessed holiday season. 

Curious

So I am curious today and wondering how you all feel about giveaways? If you read other blogs, do you enter giveaways on them? Do you hate them? How do you feel?

I myself am not really a giveaway person. Don't get me wrong though, I have entered some, and it is hard to pass up a certain coveted cutter giveaway, but otherwise I do not enter many.

So, I am wondering what you think. I put a little poll up in the right hand corner of the blog so you can answer. It is anonymous, so even you blurkers can answer.

Thanks for your input!

Button Earrings

How was everyone's Thanksgiving? I hope it was wonderful, and very blessed! We had two Thanksgiving FEASTS, and we are still full! I was very thankful for maternity jeans that day!

There are only 26 more days until Christmas! Crazy, I know! My favorite gifts to give and receive are thoughtful gifts. What could be more thoughtful than a homemade gift? Today I want to share with you an easy homemade gift that any girl could love!

The day I did this, and took pictures it was so overcast. I am impatient, so forgive the pictures and look past the lighting.

You will need some earring back posts, glue of some sort (I used super glue), and cute button that would make great looking studs. 

 After you have all your supplies, you can cut off the back of the button with scissors. They sell a special tool for this, but if you are using a plastic button, and have a junky pair of scissors, then this works just fine. 

Once the back is cut off, you can glue the stud pieces on the back. I used super glue because that is what I had, but there has to be something better out there. If you know what that is, please let me know!

So you let the glue dry for quite some time, and then you are done! I bet there are some awesome old buttons out there at a goodwill, begging for you to make beautiful earrings out of!   

Don't want to make some earrings? Check out these adorable ones you can buy on Etsy.

Turkey Towel

This year I wanted to make something special for the Grandparents for Thanksgiving. I found some cheap dish towels, and flour sack cloth at the dollar store, and we decided  to make some turkey towels.

Brady helped by making hand turkeys with paint on the flour sack cloth. I added a few embellishments, and personalized it for each Grandparent.

Then I sewed the turkeys on the dish towels.

They kind of look like Brady sewed them, but I am okay with that, and the Grandparents like them so that is all that matters. Happy Thanksgiving!

Shutterfly Cards

I also wrote about this on my family blog, but I wanted to make sure that I included readers here too!
I have read on several blogs about how shutterfly is giving away 50 free Christmas cards to bloggers if you write a blog post about it. Ummm yeah, I will take free Christmas cards!

I love shutterfly! I have ordered quite a few photo books and calendars from shutterfly and I love them. They provide a great way to preserve memories, and they turn out so nice. All of the loved ones that I have given photobooks or calendars to have loved the sentimental gift. They have great service and with promo codes you can get some awesome deals.

I already have my cards all picked out, but there are so many beautiful options. Here is a sneak of our possible card this year. There is a possibility I may always change my mind. It is hard there are too many choices.

And here are some of the others I really love!

 How neat would these be with a wonderful message inside?

If you are interested in getting in on this deal, make sure you blog all about it, and get your free cards!

Teen Beanie

A new friend, who I met while working, asked if I could make her son a beanie. I showed her several different options, and she choose a beanie with ear flaps. Her 13 year old son, Kaleb wanted Rasta colors? I did my best. But I think that overall they are happy with the product.

 I did not have a head to model, so a basketball came in handy.

 Side view

 Close up

 The ear strap thingys

 I charged $15, which I think is a pretty good deal. If anyone is interested in any kind of beanies, contact me, and I would be happy to make one for you.

Fall Decor

Okay, so I lied. I did not get to posting this weekend. But today is better than never right?

I literally did this stuff right after labor day. It has been up in the house (getting dusty) since, and I am just now blogging about it. There were a few more projects I really wanted to do before Thanksgiving, and maybe it will still happen, but I would rather get ready for Christmas instead.

Here are some of the things I made this fall.

After having leftover acorns from my wreath, I decided to put them in a vase for a fall touch.

(I made sure all the acorns were very dried out and bug less before bringing them into the house.)

 I tied some twine and ribbon around the base and they have a nice fall feel.

Also with the twine I made some fall frames.

 I found some old frames in the goodwill pile

 I covered the metal one with masking tape, because other wise I was not sure my hotglue would stick

 I slowly glued the twine all around the frame until it was covered.

 And I now have a fall frame that has been saved from the goodwill pile

I used the other frame too. I covered this one in dollar store leaves.

 Excuse the bad picture, but it is covered in leaves, and really cute. Even craft scrooge, Jerm thought it was.

 Because there were a million leaves in one pack, and I bought two, I was able to make a leaf garland for the fireplace.

 I slowly just added more leaves as I was sewing, so easy!

 The last thing I did with the leaves, was just put them in another vase, and of course add twine.

 Pretty vase of leaves

That scarecrow came from this deconstructed dollar store wreath.

 After adding some other fake leaves I had lying around, with of course hot glue, I got this beauty.

 The "Give Thanks" sign was done on a piece of scrap wood. Wouldn't it look so much better in vinyl, with a circut? A girl can dream.

This behind the kitchen sick arrangement, was a dollar store decorative broom I tore up, and plain ole dollar store pumpkins. I like them the way they are but the options are endless.

 Of course our decor includes pumpkin candy corns!

And a garland with more pumpkins around my candles, on the table.

I think that is it! It is really fun to decorate for the holidays, and I cannot wait to add to it year after year. I hope you are truly blessed, as I am this holiday season.