Handmade with Love

Not sure if you remember me saying it or not...but I have been a busy little bee in my craft room, finishing up the last of my gifts to give.  I can finally show these off a few of them, as they were for my coworkers and the kids' teachers, and they were delivered either yesterday or today! 

Let me just start by saying that I have a lot of coworkers that I give gifts to.  What can I say?  I work with amazing people and while I thank them over and over for making those last minute copies, collecting money/pictures for yearbook, or helping me with whatever really, Christmas is the one time of year that I try to spoil them {just a little}!  I also try to give something to each of the kids' teachers, aides, and extended day workers.  My children spend the majority of their awake time with them and each and every one is special in their very own way and plays a big part in molding my child into who he or she is becoming.  Their positive impact means a lot.

Wheat Therapy Sack

So, for the extended day crew at the kids' school and for the front office peeps at my school {secretaries, advisers, coaches, principal and assistant principal} I made wheat therapy sacks.  While searching pinterest for an idea that was relatively inexpensive, I found the Brassy Apple's tutorial for these bad boys {click here to learn how to make your own}!  I had all of the fabric already, just needed to get wheat, like 4 lbs of it!  That is where my sister-in-law comes in.  Just so happens that she had some in her food storage and she let me have it, all 4 lbs!  So, that means that I was able to make all 21 of them for FREE!  My kind of craft! 

As I mentioned above, Megan of Brassy Apple gives a great tutorial on how to make these bad boys and you should go to check it out if you want to make your own!   She even had a little poem to attach to with the gift.  I loved it and decided to use it to, only I doctored it up just a little on picnic.com and printed it off at my local Walgreens!  If you are wanting to use them too, you could! Just drag the image onto your desktop, upload to the your favorite place to print and attach it to your gift!

 

 Good Luck  Penny Key Chain

For my 8A team, I experimented a little bit this year!  Again, while pinning my little heart out, I came across the coolest key chain I have ever seen, found here, you know, in case you are curious, didn't want to make your own and just wanted to buy it, or wanted to see how I was trying to make mine look!   

This project was relatively simple to make on my own, although there is one more step that I probably should have done to make the letters stand out more.  First I found the pennies with specific years:  birthdays, heart surgeries, anniversaries.  Then I had my husband drill holes in them after I duck taped and vasolined them to a scrap piece of wood.  I stamped a copper piece with special words for each girl:  lucky or blessed.  Then I put them {okay, okay...it was Celeste, I didn't want to ruin my nails} on a key ring! 

I knew I was going to make one for me too while I was at it, the only difference mine has is the picture charm!  I saved the little picture that came on my tinyprints Christmas card order, cut it up and slapped a little mod podge dimensional magic {first time ever working on this project} on top!  I let it dry overnight and woke up to my most favorite key chain ever!  My pennies are of the year I got married, and the year each of my kids was born! 

Emergency Clutch & Starbucks Gift Card Holder

These were each for my kids' teachers at school!  Kyan has just one, but Lola is lucky enough to have 3 of them! 

I have made these clutches before and to see how to make your own or what it is exactly, click here!  All I know is that every girl should have one!  It has been a life saver on more than one occasion!

And while I might be the only person on the planet who doesn't love Starbucks {I know, I know...horrible huh?},  I happen to know that their teachers do!  But I didn't just give them a plain old card, even though I know it spends the same, so I asked Starbucks if I could have empty cups/lids to put them in!  I threw in some tissue paper and a straw and placed them in the drink carrier {that I ask for with each McDonald's ice tea order in the mornings}!

 That was the bulk of my handmade gift making for this holiday, but I am still NOT finished yet!  I have a few more projects up my sleeve, can't show them off just yet though!

I love handmade anything.   Hoping that each and every person that was given a gift knows just how special they are and how much love was poured into each gift that I made myself!

 PS-Linking up this week with my favorite party people!