Our budget has a very limited place in it for extras, which has led me to be more creative with the gifts I give. At first that really frustrated me, but now I think it's kind of a challenge, and I love spending time on things for people I care about. I thought I would share a few of the things from Christmas and the baby madness that is going around lately =)
I really wanted to make my mom a quilt, and she wanted it to be out of black and white fabric. I used these instructions from Cluck.Cluck.Sew and she really simplified the process. (sorry I don't have a great picture, I didn't think about that until after I gave it to her).
I decided to wing it and make a purse for Tara too. It has pockets on the inside and straps of course that you can't see.
We used this tutorial to make coasters and they were really easy. I would have to say that we ended up using a sealer on ours so that the stamping wouldn't wipe off.
I was reading on a blog, I think it was Prayer of Hannah in the comments, that you could use sheet protectors as a way to reuse stickers. Since Reagan is a sticker fanatic, I made her a folder with sheet protectors, stickers, printed off coloring pages, and dry erase markers (you can wipe off dry erase markers from the sheet protectors and re-color the coloring pages). No picture, but you get the idea.
This isn't really along the same lines, but I also finally made the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon roll recipe! They are a bit time consuming, but definitely doable, even for a novice like me. We won't be eating them regularly (they are in no way diet food =), but they have definitely made the list of things we will make again.
We also have lots of new babies in our lives. I have enjoyed finding new patterns to make gifts for those little ones. Here are a few things I've made along with links to the patterns:
Changing pad/wipes holder(pattern from Cluck.Cluck.Sew)
Blanket (no pattern here, I just cut two pieces of fleece the same size, sewed together and top stitched)
Bibs ( pattern from Chickpea studio), burp cloths (pattern from Nap Time Crafts), baby shoes (found via Laffty Crafty, pattern from Stardust shoes).
Lots of fun, and much less money!
