Christmas Gifts: Wood Gifts by Andy

My hubby is pretty creative too, so I thought I'd post some of the wood projects he did this year. I didn't get a before and after picture of this table he refinished for his mom, but he did that as well. For my nieces, he did name plates. He carved the letters and sanded the blocks really smooth and then stained them. I think they look amazing!


For my dad, Andy did a display block for my dad's flies (flies for fishing). It turned out looking awesome!
Last, for Auden, he did a sensory game with nuts and bolts. The block of wood was super smooth and I think it turned out great!

Christmas Gifts: Travel Tic Tac Toe

For Auden, one of his gifts was this travel tic tac toe board. I made it out of felt and then attached a pocket onto the back for the pieces. I wish I had done a gathered pocket so that it would have laid down a bit better, but this was fine for the purpose. They travel a lot so I was thinking he could use this on the go.

Christmas Gifts: Art Case

For Anika's stocking gift, I put together this Art Case. It holds colored pencils/pens and has a large pocket to store a coloring pad/notebook. It also has a small pocket that she can stuff stickers/prizes inside. It closes up with velcro. I used a tutorial from www.thismamamakesstuff.blogspot.com. In her tutorial, she only adds velcro to the center. I didn't like the way the sides flapped so I added additional velcro to the corners as well. Anika seems to love it!!!

Christmas Gifts: Large Barn and Fences

For my niece, Rayna, and Benji I made large cloth barns. I made a small version of these last year for my nephew, but this year, I decided to enlarge my pattern so that more animals could be stored inside. I also did velcro closures instead of buttons and loops so that it is easier for Benji to open and close it himself. Andy, my hubby, also made some awesome fences to go with the set. My pattern was a bit off so the barn is a little lop sided, but Benji is absolutely loving it! I have to post the awesome farm mat my SIL made him to go with it...so stay tuned for that.

Christmas Gifts: Jingle Bell Ball and Taggie

For my 6 month old niece, Ella, I put together this jingle ball. I found a free pattern at http://grandrevivaldesign.typepad.com/ (if you look in the right hand side bar, she has patterns posted for free). She doesn't add a jingle bell, but I added 2 for Ella's.

I also threw together a taggie blanket. I appliqued shirts as well, but forgot to take pictures of them! Oh well. I think I did a flower, a butterfly, and a heart.

Christmas Gifts: Produce Bags

I decided to make my MIL some produce bags for either the grocery store or the farmer's market. I picked a 100% cotton muslin, rope drawstring, and I freezer paper stenciled the images on the corners. If you've never done this before, it's super easy. Basically:
1. Iron freezer paper to the inside of your project
2. Draw and Cut out your image on another piece of freezer paper
3. Iron this stencil onto the front of your project
4. Fabric paint onto stencil and let it dry
5. Peel off freezer paper and enjoy!
(I've done this on all sorts of projects and it always turns out great. I'm not the best stencil cutter so I use pretty simple designs, but you can get really elaborate).

Christmas Gifts: Car Cozy

After getting inspiration for this car cozy from soyouthinkyourecrafty.blogspot.com, I decided to design my own pattern. An evening worth of work and I was really happy with the result. Benji seems to really like it (as does my niece, Rayna). I made it originally for my nephew, but made one for Benji at the same time. Not sure if Auden is playing with it or not. It's approximately 15x12 give or take a bit, but folds up into about a 5x5 square. I used heat-n-bond to iron on some numbers on the pockets and appliqued by machine the car design and the racetrack. I think this will be useful for travel, but Benji loves to pull it out and play with it on our coffee table.