I was amazed by the handmade Christmas gifts our family made for each other this year. I’ve spotted many of these ideas on
Pinterest so it was surreal seeing crafts from my pin-boards in real life. You may want to save some of these ideas to make for Christmas next year.
FELT OWLS
One of my favorite gifts was from my sister-in-law; felt owls hanging on a branch for my son’s nursery room.
Aren’t they adorable? I have a whole
Owl pin-board with samples of these that I wanted to make but never have time – and she made me eight of them, all hand stitched!
She also made me this custom menu board for our
kitchen Diner.
We can change the menu as needed. I’ve been eyeing these but have never gotten around to making one. Now it looks perfect in our diner. See more of our
diner here.
EVEN MY MOTHER-IN-LAW USES PINTEREST
I love that my
mother-in-law uses
Pinterest. I get to see what she likes and in return she sees my interests. She made me this cute ‘camera attention getter.’
She cut up a small stuffed animal she got at a thrift store and used the extra fabric from the body to make the elastic scrunchy to fit around my camera lens. Much more fun for my kids to look at than just a black hole.
I had pinned this
Elmo version from Etsy earlier in the year. It is only $10.
She also gave me a bokeh camera filter which I just discovered on Pinterest in December.
You can see DIY bokeh filters by
The Friendly Fox (pictured on left) or on
I Heart Faces. Both are on my pin boards and I plan to make more shapes. I took the picture on the right with my bokeh star filter. I can’t wait to use it more.
CROCHET and KNIT GIFTS
My 2nd sister-in-law makes amazing crochet blankets & hats.
She created this special blanket for my in-laws who are a split-sport family. One side likes BYU (Brigham Young University), the other likes the University of Utah. So she combined them together “BYUTAH” into one blanket so they can still sit by each other while watching games. So creative!
R2-D2 Crochet Hat
Here is the R2-D2 hat she made my son. (I did send her a picture from Pinterest a few months ago for an idea.) She created her own pattern. See the
original pattern with ear flaps at
Nesting Sticks.
Matching Girl and Doll Hats and Headbands
Then she made these cute matching knit headbands and hats for my daughter and her American Girl doll. The ribbons and pom poms are perfect accents.
She also made the ‘J’ initial hat for my son and a “U” hat for my toddler son and matched it with a T-shirt. And made another U hat for my husband. She has been a busy crafter this season.
My sister made me the turquoise hat last year and my daughter steals it from me all the time.
Crochet Stuffed Animals
My 3rd sister-in-law made this adorable crochet lamb for my son. Can you believe the detail?
BEARDED BEANIE and FINGER-STACHE’S
I pinned this bearded beanie a few months ago from
Etsy and wanted one for my husband.
I went to a blogger’s “White Elephant Party” hosted by Kathy @
Danish Mama earlier in December and I happened to score this
bearded beanie made by Ashlee of
I’m Topsy Turvy. She also made the
finger-stache’s that my kids love.
See pattern for knit
Bearded Beanie and knit
finger-stache’s.
Funny Story: I got them the first week of December and hid them to save as presents. My husband actually emailed me the 2nd week of December with the same pic as above from
Etsy and asked if we knew anyone who could make these. I was laughing because I already had this hidden in the closet for him. He got it Christmas Eve and loves it.
DIY JEDI ROBE
I started pinning patterns for a Jedi Robe in November. I have a lot on my board. One of my friends commented saying “
I used this one at Halloween and it turned out great.”
See pattern at
Degraeve.
So I took her advice and whipped this one up while my kids went to a movie with Dad.
SILVERWARE WIND CHIME
Okay, I wanted to share this cute picture of my husband and son under the mistletoe – but look closely at the silverware wind chime in the background. My sister made that for my mom.
STOCKING SHELF
We don’t have a fireplace so I’ve never known where to hang our stockings until I saw this idea on Pinterest from
Alayna’s Creations.
I had this shelf in my laundry room and it was perfect to pull out and hang our stockings for the month.
I got the stockings at the
Downeast Home Outlet. They all had other monogrammed names on them from being returned so I covered them with ribbon, except the one I found that says “Victoria.” Just right for $1 each. We also have the matching tree skirt for $8 that is monogrammed with “The Kwans” name but we cover that with the train track and no one else knows about it (except you now).
Holiday Paperwhite Flower Planter
I also made these paperwhite planters out of food cans after seeing ideas around pinterest. See this version from
Tauni at It’s a Tradition.
I bought ribbon and the fake berries at the dollar store to dress up the cans. I attached a card that said “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas” with instructions for taking care of the flower.
MERRY PINTEREST!
It was a Pinterest filled Christmas! I am still in awe of all these wonderful homemade gifts we will forever cherish.
I’m going to keep pinning ideas on
Pinterest and maybe more dreams will come true next year.
What homemade gifts did you give or receive this year?
by Roald Dahl
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