make all my christmas presents

don’t want to spend so much money on christmas presents this year, plus everyone like hand made things!
I don’t know what I’ll make yet, but I’ll probably bake biscuits and other treats, or sew little toys etc. Still need some more ideas though…
Gotta start soon, christmas is in 6 weeks :]

Weeeell I’d better get started then.
So far I’m thinking about:
Shaped crayons (for Cata’s nieces and nephews)
Puzzle piece bracelets (Nikki?)
Map bangles (Mom? Nik?)

Eh, besides baking shit that’s all I have so far. Guess I’m gonna spend all my monies at Michael’s!

It’s no secret that I love Freecycle and the other day I was lucky enough to find someone that was giving away a super awesome food dehydrator. I initially thought I’d use it to dry my herbs but then I realized I could make all kinds of cool stuff…like beef jerky! I think jerky would make an awesome Christmas gift! He also gave me a book on food dehydrating and I found lots of wonderful ideas for gifts. Yay!

Being in grad school means you are very low on cash. This year I plan on making all my Christmas presents. I was lucky enough to get a bunch of free fabric from Freecycle and was able to get the rest of the stuff I need from a thrift store near my house. Overall I think I’ll be able to make for everyone for $30 + my time.

seriously satisfying.

this is me in my neices fairy tutu and my nephews magic hat with one of many loaves of pulla in my arm!

Everyone really seemed to appreciate what i made for them, and i enjoyed this christmas more than any other for a few reasons, but this goal was a major one. It was pretty nearly stress less!

I’m nearly done the dress-up presents that i’m making for my neice and nephew… a custom faerie tutu and a magical top hat, they’re eight and five years old…. and i;ve sewn nearly every other gift i’ve given. It feels great to give away things im’ proud of, and i know will be appreciated. It feels double great to see my bank account happily undisturbed by the christmas rush!

as much fabric as i have used, i stll have a ton left that i’ll have to use up before the summer… maybe i’ll make christmas in july!!! or something to get rid of the rest!

I’ve made,
re-usable nylon grocery bags,
curtains for my mom
table runners for my step-mom/dad
ear pop-overs for my brohers and brother in laws/guy freinds
‘fleurs’ for the lapels of all the beautiful women in my life
and now some more custom stuff for those special little people.

My holiday isn;t over until new years when we have ‘hastings christmas but this is seriously the best gift to myself… christmas feels so different… so much less guilty! I hate buying into tradition!

i’m so happy with the things i’ve made this year!

I might even go on to do a little more development and sell some of them at the indie shops around town.

This is a picture of the various brooch flowers i made with fabric scraps… I just love all the colours together!

Just finished hand block printing all my chirstmas cards and mailing them out…

Tonight i also completed the 4part table runners custom designed for my step mother…

Hooray…
yesterday i ordered a 50.00 gift card for books at indigo for my nephew the only person i know who will be happier with a non-homemade gift. So i’m not BUYING anything still!
Ah, loopholes.

This is all very OVERWHELMING but i’m actually on target which is strange for me, but quite fun.
Go ME!

I am going to make a list…

Things i want to make will be handmade in ‘batches’ seems to be the best way to get through the xmas gift laundry list.

I’m thinking of:
-handpainted/printed nylon grocerybags… they make good giftbags too… I need to make a quick pattern.

-Fleur’s D’a Fare…
for girlfreinds and penpals.

-bookimono’s
for dad/brothers

-ear popovers
for anyone who walks or bikes or doesn’t like hats.

trying to figure out exactly what/how many i need and then i can get started..

i’m not really excited to begin… i don’t know how to get inspired… maybe i need to watch a christmas movie or something… maybe i’ll rent white christmas. :)

best luck to everyone.

My entire blog is about making your own gifts! I live for this stuff. I love doing this.

If it helps you to meet this goal, I have pages full of ideas (and photos) and instructions for handmade gifts and recipes for gifts from the kitchen you can make/bake and give.

Can you tell I love to talk about it?

Good luck – it quickly becomes very addictive :-)

Kattitudes: handmade gift ideas

Kat