A Handmade Christmas

Now that Christmas is over I can blog about some of the handmade Christmas gifts that I made this year. I try to always make a handmade gifts for the kids and their cousins if I can get my act together. Last year I didn't do too well but this year I went to work. Thought I would share some of them. I really like how some of them turned out. Others well...you'll see.

This one here was for my niece. Its a take-n-go Tic-Tac-Toe Game. I think she really liked it.This one was for my nephew. Its for his hot wheels. I know he has a lot of them. Its an organizer for him to hang on his door or I guess really anywhere. There are little individual pockets for his cars.Here is an animal scarf I made for my niece. It turned out more creepy than cute. It looked like a cute idea when I saw it online but when I was done making it it just looked creepy. I guess I should have figured out that it was going to look a little creepy when I had to cut the stuffed animal in half.Here's a little blanket and some burpies that my baby Nephew got for Christmas.

My mom and my Aunt got these heat/cold rice packs. I think I might make one for me. They smelt so good!Both my mother-n-law and sister-n-law got these sugar rubs. Here's another that I want to make for myself.One of the gifts I made for my kids was this. It looks like just a sack right?


Its a Lego Sack! So far this is solving all our problems with Lego's in the carpet. No more Lego's in my vacuum. All he has to do is open up his sack and when he's done well, just close it. This is making clean up so much faster and easier now. Yay!Last but not least my hubs and I bought Snuggies for the kids a few months back. They were on clearance for $3 at CVS. We bought one for each of the kids. To make them a little more personable I sewd their names on them. They are using them everyday and every night.

Well there's our homemade Christmas this year. I was lucky to find most of these ideas on the Internet. I wish I had more time to do things like this. Its was so much fun. Finding the time is difficult but I really do love making things like this.

Lego Birthday Party

Big Guy is OBSESSED with Lego's. I mean any and every kind of Lego thing there is he wants. He has always been really good at putting things together with his hands. It was no surprise that he wanted a Lego party.
Here were the invitations that when out. I found a bunch of ideas online for invitations. I incorporated a lot of the ideas and this is what I came up with .

Here is the front

 The different backs that I did.

I was planning on having most of the party outside. I didn't really have any big plans for the garage but with the weather deciding it was going to rain I knew outside play wasn't an option. We did our best to decorate the garage "Lego" like as much as possible. I was a little concerned with having 23 kids in my house but we did manage.

I spray painted the dance floor from Bear's sock hop party to make it look like Lego's. My Love wrapped some shelves we had with wrapping paper and then I plopped some paper plates on them to make them look like giant Lego's. It turned out well.


I made this shirt for Big Guy. He thought it was really funny.


Here was the inside of the house. I mostly decorated with colored card stock and cut out circles to the stick on the paper to make it look like Lego's. It was all really inexpensive. Of course the tradition of the banner lives on. This year it was Lego guys.

The table setting. I don't know if you can see it but there is a giant felt Lego on the table.


This cake was harder then I thought it was going to be. Frosting those stinkin' cookies on top was so hard. I didn't like the way it turned out. It looked like I was throwing a baby shower for Big Guy. It reminded me of baby blocks but it was the best I could do.We had the Lego movie playing in the background in the garage but we did play some games too. We played "Pin the Dot on the Lego" as well as "Who can build the tallest Lego tower". This was a huge hit.

At the end of the party everyone got a party favor. I made these marshmallow Lego guy heads with yellow chocolate and then took edible markers to draw faces on them. Can you tell which face My Love drew?

Lots of Lego heads.

The finished product was a Lego head, some Taffy, coloring crayons I got from the dollar store that matched the color theme perfectly and a coloring book that I made for each of the kids.

It's a Sock Hop Party

This year Bear wanted to have a Sock Hop Party.

These were the invitations that we sent out. I tried to make them look like a record. I clipped a little brad on them so they would slide open. I thought the poem fit perfectly with the theme.

I tried to turn our kitchen into a Soda Shop. I bought a ton of records for super cheap at a thrift store.  I also lined our kitchen "island" with a black plastic table cloth and taped white computer paper to it to make it look like a checkered counter.

I'm trying to make it a tradition to make the kids a special banner every year for their birthday. Here is Bear's banner this year "_____'s Soda Shop".

I wish I would have gotten a better picture of the table setting but I totally forgot to take one until almost all the food was gone. I cut a big piece of black glitter felt and tried to make it look like a big record.

Now for the Sock Hop Bash! This was the hardest to decorate for since there was little to non Sock Hop decorations at the party store. Originally I wanted to line the garage with white sheets to cover up all our junk but that was going to be too much $$. So plan B went into action. Once again the amazing visqueen came to the rescue. I picked up a bunch of dollar store white table clothes and hung them from the ceiling to give a "curtain" effect. I covered the ugly couch with a white sheet and borrowed pillows and a blanket. Billy picked up the pink shelves for free on the side of the road. I'm using for another project but for now they worked out great to display the jute box and records.

I knew Bear really wanted a checkered dance floor. But hello, can anyone say lots of $$? I had a crazy idea that ended up working out perfectly! I bought a bunch of really ugly peel and stick linoleum tiles at Home Depot for a total of $14. The hubs helped me spray paint them black and white and then I attached them to some old flannel material that I had. Wha-la! A dance floor. I loved the way it turned out! Of course Bear wanted a poodle skirt. I had originally planned to make her one at family camp but never got around to it so I ended up sewing one for the party. We added a little felt "L" to her leotard and she was ready for the Hop.

For the activies we had a ton of dancing. The Hand Jive was definitely a big hit. My friendcame through and made me a couple of Cd's with a ton of "50's" music on them. I loved the songs she picked out! And so did all the girls.

We also had a Hula Hoop contest.

And a "Who Can Blow The Biggest Bubble Gum Bubble" contest which ended up changing to a " Who Can Just Blow A Bubble" contest. Apparently 9 and 10 year olds don't have this technique down yet. But we did have a winner. Great Bubble.

Cake Time! I really had no creativity when it came to the cake. My DD said she wanted a record but seriously all I could think about was black frosting getting all over my carpet so I decided to just make her a clone of her outfit that she was wearing that day. I'm glad she liked it and I managed to serve almost every part of the cake except the black belt.

Wouldn't be a Sock Hop with out Root Beer Floats! A bit overkill on the sugar but hey these girls were going home soon. Haha.

When it was time to leave each one of the guest got a giant lollipop that I found at the dollar store (I love that place)! And they also got a music CD that my friend made for me.
I knew I wanted the Cd's to look like a record. I asked a friend to design the label for the Cd's.

Gotta say I was a little concerned about how this party was going to happen but I think it all worked out spectacular.

Total cost of party including food was $93!

Recipe Binders

Started and Finished 1 thing on my Summer Top 10 To Do List. Drum roll please.......my new recipe binders! Please please no applause necessary. Well okay just a little.

Lets see what will be my next accomplishment? Hmm....

Teacher Appreciation

Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week. I wanted to do something for Big Guy's teacher. She is such a wonderful teacher and does a great job with the kids.
I found this idea and thought it was super cute. Something she could do with the kids everyday. I went out and bought a pill organizer thing. I forget what they are called. Anyway I printed up 7 different little sayings that played on certain words and then stuffed them into the pill box. Each day she opened it in front of the class. She loved it and said the kids also had a great time finding out what treasure she was going to get each day. Simple and sweet.

At the end of the week I also gave her some biscotti. She had been asking me for a recipe that I had for biscotti but I kept forgetting to give it to her. So I decided to make her a batch with the recipe attached. I kept a few for myself too. Well maybe a little more than a few but hey I'm technically a "teacher" too. Can I just say YUMMO!

Army Cake

 My nephew was having an Army Themed Birthday. I was asked to do the cake. This is was a came up with. It was simple and to the point. 

It's a Rocket Birthday Party

That's what Monkey wanted. I cant tell you how long he has been talking about having a Rocket Party. If I knew how hard it was going to be to do one I probably would have tried to convince him to do something else. But I made the invitations and sent them out before I went looking around for decorations.

Here are the invitations I sent out.
Seriously there was no decorations out there for a rocket, space or even an astronaut party. So I opted to go with a color scheme and made my own decorations. I know it looks kinda fourth of July-ish but hey my brain couldn't think of anything else.

I forgot to get a picture of the the whole area but here is a picture of the banner I made him. I think this has become a tradition now. Each one of my kids loves personal banners.

The table setting.


Monkey wanted a Rocket cake. So here is what I ended up making. I thought it kinda looked like a wedding cake but he was convinced it was a rocket.

Monkey inside the rocket

When the Astronauts arrived at the party they were greeted with this sign.

I asked my friend who drinks bubbly water (like there's no tomorrow) to start saving her bottles a couple of months ago. With a little bit of tape, cups and tissue paper I was able to make these Astronaut Jet Packs that I had found on the internet a few months back. Also every Astronaut also got a personalized name tag.

After being suited up the astronauts took a trip into the "GALAXY."

I thought it would be a great idea to turn the garage into the "galaxy" since we didn't really have much else planned for the party. After all it was going to be for a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds and I knew I probably could keep their attention with games.

The Entrance to the "GALAXY." I found these wall stickers at the dollar store. I didn't know what I was going to use them for but this ended up being a fun thing the kids got to do.

My Love was in charge of this part of the party. Didn't he do an amazing job!! He put up visqueen and attached stars from the dollar store everywhere. Since I couldn't find any planet stuff I bought some cheap bouncy balls from Walmart which he hung from the ceiling. We also had "space galaxy" type music from the internet playing. It was perfect! It sounded like you were in space when you walked inside.

My Love made this Rocket for Monkey too. It was made out of refrigerator boxes that he had gotten at an appliance store. After making the rocket he wrapped it with left over Christmas wrapping paper. I loved the way it turned out.


When it was time to go home each person got a this favor. Moon Sand with a little candy bag attached. The candy bag had Star burst, Milky way and an Earth chocolate ball in it.