give handmade gifts

I’ve finally got back to working on the illusion scarf for my Mom’s birthday, which was 2.5 months ago. Hoping to finish up soon so I can move on to other projects!

I found this neat link, and it has already inspired some ideas for future handmade gifts: http://community.livejournal.com/handmade_gifts/

Many of the people on our list this year got glasses etched with patterns personalized to their tastes. For example, SIL got a set of 6 glasses etched with an obscure character from a webcomic she likes. (See photo.) The glass-etching itself didn’t take very long (5 minutes, plus ample rinsing time) but making all the stencils did. SIL’s reaction on opening the present was awesome – she laughed pretty hard and asked incredulously “they sell these?” to which I responded with a hearty “nope!”

Again, DH helped with making these gifts, finding/resizing/photoshopping pictures for the stencils, and applying some of the etching cream. He’s been surprisingly helpful on the gifts this year!

I’ll put photos of some more glasses we etched in the comments of this post.

I can finally post about this since the brothers just opened their presents!

I made copycat versions of some coasters I found on Etsy for my brothers for Hanukkah. (I can’t find the Etsy link so maybe she doesn’t make them anymore?) They’re slightly different than the ones I found on Etsy; I used fewer colors and glued some cork on the back. I’m proud to have spent the time to make them (shows I care!) but actually I didn’t save much money over the Etsy version. I don’t know how the seller ever made any money off these! Maybe that’s why she stopped…

The picture above shows the two sets I made, before I assembled the storage box (which looks like a question mark block). DH helped me make these!

To be more precise, it’s more like a Strong Bad clock. DH suggested putting Homestar Runner in the center, but since he doesn’t have arms we’d have to take the hands off the clock. Functional, no?

Basically, we bought an inexpensive clock from Target and designed our own faceplate to put in (+ boxing gloves to paste onto the clock’s hands), using PowerPoint and images we got from the internet. The recipient seemed to like it.

I won’t give it away here, but it’s mostly handmade gifts. And although all the gifts are somewhat different, many of them use the same techniques so I can do them in batches and hopefully cut down on my time commitment.

I had it almost-finished over a month ago but didn’t get around to blocking it until last week. Brother #1 should be picking it up from the parents today!

has been on hiatus for the better part of a year now, but I’m back! This morning I started this awesome Dark Mark Illusion Scarf which I plan to give to Brother #1 for his birthday in September. I’ve been planning to make a Gryffindor one (red and gold with a lion rampant) for my Mom for about a year now, but I think I’ll do the dark mark one first. That’ll give me a better feel for how much yarn I’ll need for the Gryffindor one, and that one should be ready in time for Xmas, maybe earlier.

My aunt has asked for a cross-stitch version of Mt Rainier, so that’s what I’m making next. This weekend I got a little (well, a lot) over-ambitious and started a humongous (12×18 inches) version, but then realized that it was insane to try and do it in the timeframe I want to be able to give it to her. So, I think I will restart with a smaller one (perhaps 6×9, maybe smaller.) She asked for one of a certain size without a frame – I think she was just trying to make things easier. But honestly, it’ll be easier if I get to take up some of the space with matting and a frame!

Also, the October gift I mentioned was this adorable dragon scarf which actually came out pretty well. And now that I have the pattern I can make an army of dragons!! * * Evil Laugh * *

I finished the October gift, which I cannot reveal until the gift has been given, in October.

I can, however, reveal a gift (well, actually two) I gave in May and June. I made two sets of Firefly Coasters, using standard bath tiles, pictures which I photoshopped to add quotes and printed on my inkjet printer, and mod podge. They came out ok. Next time I would use a laser printer rather than inkjet in order to reduce bleeding on the picture during the decoupage process. Also, I would try to find a different decoupage agent, since mod podge turned out kind of sticky. Before I made the coasters, I tried, unsuccessfully, to find a heat-resistant decoupage material. Next time I’ll try harder, I guess. The most time-consuming part of making the coasters was finding high-resolution pictures I liked, and photoshopping them. See above for a picture of the finished product.