Day 13 - Misty

First of all, I just want to say thank you all for including me on this swap! It was such a nice surprise seeing an email from Allison, and then Keri asking me to join. How could I say no, right?! I love you girls, and miss you so much!

Ok, onto my crafty. It wasn't too hard deciding what to make. My craft stash only includes red and white felt (unless you count popsicle sticks). I thought red and white screamed candy cane, and I've really been into wreaths this season, so  voila, a mini candy cane wreath. I did enlist the help of my girls. They both did all the cutting while I strung the wreaths together. We had a blast, and only a few sore "cutting" muscles. I was pleased with how they turned out.  I hope you girls enjoy them! 

Merry Christmas!

Misty

Day 12 - Stefanie

This year for the swap, I wanted to try my hand at something crocheted since I am fairly new to the craft and was having a lot of fun with it.  I have a crocheted bracelet that I was gifted that I am really in love with -- so I tried to find a similar pattern but without luck; I got all creative and I ended up making my own!   It is a simple cuff of alternating single and double crochet stitches. It was too plain, so I tried my hand at crocheting a snowflake to go on top. I used this pattern.  My first 2-3 were epic FAILS, but once I got the hang of it, they were pretty simple.  Instead of just attaching the snowflake directly to the bracelet, I hot glued it to a pin so it can be removed and the bracelet/cuff can be adorned with something else or worn just plain.  

I made one for myself because I thought they were pretty cute!  Hope you enjoy them!

Day 11 - Michelle

I have a ton of buttons in my craft supply so I knew I wanted to use those in my gift.  So I came up with these adorable snowman ornaments.  First I mod podged Christmas paper unto a small wooden plaque.  Then I inked the edges to give a distressed look.  I looked thought my vast supply of new and vintage buttons to find the right ones for the snowmen.  Some of the buttons are from my mom and some are even from my grandmother.  I glued the buttons on, added arms, a hat and a ribbon for hanging!  Voila!  A button snowman ornament!

Day 10 - Lindz

I'm so pleased everyone was willing to jump on the theme of using up scraps or otherwise thrifting this year's swappie gifts!  Goodness knows we wouldn't want to let the economy dampen our holiday spirits!

I love putting the FUN in function (and also dysfunctional, which you would see if you ever had to attend one of my family's gatherings) so this year's gift was all about function.  I made a whole batch of these hand warmers for the Pumpkin Pies (sorry Nas!) and was itching to make some more, so that is how you came to be the owners of your very own set of felt hand warmers.  They are filled with rice and tea leaves for a pleasant aroma when you heat them in the microwave (30-60 secs depending on how how you like them).

I was so pleased with how they turned out - no two are exactly alike.  I was done with them and went to peruse the old blog entries when I discovered that team received some like these last year!  So sorry ladies for the repeat gift!  Just know they were made with love and ignorance!  :)

Merriest of Christmases to y'all... your continued friendship truly warms my heart!

Day 9 - Nasrene

So I’ll be honest.  I am not “craftily inclined,” so coming up with a cute, fun, not-too-kitschy, Christmas gift for twelve of my most crafty and creative friends was anxiety inducing.  Not to mention I obviously wanted to create something that y’all WANTED to get, and would enjoy having,

Oh yeah, and then there was that clause about it having to be constructed of materials that I readily had around my home, and OMG, the panic was on.

{I decided I was going to cheat on that part.  I certainly wouldn’t be able to find ANYTHING crafty in my house, unless you count a couple bent pipe cleaners, and Sadie’s dried-up silly putty.}

Everyone started posting about their progress, and mentioning that they had decided what they were making.  Then they were saying how far along they were in making their craft, and finally, (some particular overachievers) had to mention that their gifts were complete and ready to be mailed. 

OMG.  I started to panic again (a little).

But the I remember I had Day NINE!  The latter half of the 12 days, and thus I could relax a bit.  I didn’t have to mail out until December 11^th.  Whew!

Well, at some point during this time, my darling five-year-old daughter decided to start a…shall we say, small project.  And this small, well intended project quickly consumed a good chunk of my life.

I found myself in a house full of cardboard boxes (thanks to aforementioned five-year-old’s small project).  So I figured surely I could come up with something crafty that would make use of those boxes. (Remember the challenge was to make something with materials already on hand).  I decided on cardboard gifts tags.  And since my recycling container was filled to the brim (with boxes) I couldn’t fit any of my magazines and catalogs into it, so I’d make use of those as well, and make some homemade gift bows.  (This idea was posted by Sarah of the Avy sometime last year, so this would’ve make year two in a row that I copied one of Sarah’s ideas for a craft.)

I made the first set of gift tags AANNDD…they looked like cardboard gift tags that my daughter could’ve made.  Fail.

I made the first set of gift bows AANNDD…they were darling, but I quickly realized that I would need to buy a whole slew of MINI cardboard boxes in which to send them, so they wouldn’t get squished.  And the idea of purchasing mini cardboard boxes when I was living in a house FILLED with them, was kind of a buzz kill.  Fail.

(I know you’re probably thinking, “you couldn’t just MADE small boxes out of the larger ones!” 

Yeah, that’s not happening.)

So here it was, December 9^th!!  And with only two days left and my gift idea literally SCRAPPED, I did what any self-respecting OLW’er would do.

I had a glass of wine.  J

And that’s when it came to me!  WINE!  I have a ridiculous, freakish, almost embarrassing quantity of wine corks that I’ve “collected” over the years, most recently a pile from Boordy Vineyards, one of my most favorite local wineries.  Surely I could find SOMETHING to do with those corks, as a gift for my fellow wine-lovin’ girlfriends. 

A quick scan of Pinterest and there they were…wine cork keychains.  I even had the hardware and some decorative beads on hands to pretty them up.  The next day I ran to the hardware store and picked up the only thing I needed to make this craft:  A bag of keyrings.

On the night before crafty mail date, all through the house, I was the only creature stirring making these bad boys.  And a true Christmas miracle occurred when I was able to knock all twelve out in less than an hour!  Thirty more minutes later, these wine cork keychains were in their envelopes, ready to make their December voyage to their respective owners. 

Boordy Vineyards is a favorite place of mine because they have awesome summer and fall music festivals at the winery where you can bring a chair or blanket, and picnic lunch and just buy a couple bottles and relax with some friends.  Kids are even allowed too, so you don’t have to worry about finding a sitter.  There’s enough entertainment to keep them reasonably occupied.  I often think it would be so fun in my perfect world if we were all able to go to one of their events together.  It definitely would be right up the OLW ladies’ alley!  Since this is such a fun, favorite, place of mine, and reminds of the kind of fun WE’D all have together, it was a perfect choice.

Shockingly I didn’t have enough Boordy corks to make an even dozen (some have been broken, or lost, or sadly must’ve been accidentally thrown out and missed it’s opportunity to be turned into FINE ART ;-) but I found some other to add to the bunch that I thought were equally fun for the season…particularly two that read “the JOY of wine.”  Tis the season , afterall!

Day 8 - Sharron

 I decided to do felt wreaths when I, of course, found them on Pinterest. I knew I had a large selection of felt in my stash and I could follow the rules!

Day 7 - Emily M.

I chose to make stackable braided friendship bracelets for you. I found a website that had dozens of ideas for different bracelets like these.  I really wanted to make armfuls of bracelets for all of you but my schedule and budget wouldn't allow it! If you are interested in some other ideas, let me know & I'll give you the website. One last thing- Alex helped me pick some of the the color combinations and then I bagged them randomly so I'm sorry if you don't like the color you got! 

Day 6 - Kristina

At first I did not think I would be able to meet the challenge of using materials already on hand because I recently did a purge of my supplies. While searching for crafts I came across these button tree ornaments. We have so many buttons! It was perfect and I think they turned out pretty cute! Hope you all do too!

Day 5 - Hollie

For my swappie gift, I decided to make this little guy! I saw it on Pinterest (probably with everyone else) and fell in love with him. Despite having issues getting his head to stay, it was a fairly easy craft. I hope that he brightens up your trees and holiday season :)

Day 4 - Amelia

I was reading a Washington Post article that had a link to a blog that linked me to another blog that I quickly became obsessed with.  And since my sewing machine is broken and I couldn't come up with something to knit, I hoped I'd find something here.  I know a lot of people do necklaces, but when I saw this I immediately thought of the group, it's cute and different and kinda nerdy and, most importantly, I thought I could do 12.  I don't think it came out quite as cute as the original picture, and it quickly became obvious how useful and absolutely necessary a Silhouette is.  Instead, these were lovingly cut and stacked and glued by hand, as you can clearly see.  I keep finding tiny paper squares all over the house.  I know some of you aren't fans of the more pastel colors, but I already had the paper.  If you like the idea and want a brighter color it isn't hard to make one yourself.  I tried to seal them up as best I could, I hope they hold up okay.  Just don't dip them in water or anything.  The card idea came from the original blog, it seemed like the perfect way to "package" up my gift.

Here's a link to the necklace tutorial http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2012/02/diy-pixel-heart-necklace.html.  Seriously, this blog is CHOCK FULL of super cute ideas, yarn, fabric, and paper.  The mustache cards are here http://sah-rah.com/send-a-stache/  This one also has tons of cute crafts, but is mostly just pictures without any real help for making them yourself.  I really wanted to do something else from her blog, but with no tutorial I knew I wouldn't have time to figure it out and then make a bunch more.  Maybe next year ;)

Happy Holidays!  I love you all!!

Day 3 - Allison

I had a bunch of white felt left over from last year. I searched pinterest for an ornament to make with it. I found this, http://www.thatartistwoman.org/2008/12/skates_02.html and decided to make it. It seemed simple enough which was required since I had to make 12 sets of them. And I loved that it used paperclips for the skates. I did modify them a bit since the glue wasn't holding them closed, so I hand sewed around the edges. The only thing I had to buy was the red sequins. Hope everyone enjoys their ice skate ornaments. I had fun making them!

Day 2 - Keri

When I was scouring my craft stash to see what I had on hand to make, I had a EUREKA moment when I found my embroidery floss container stocked with jewelry making supplies. The only things I needed to purchase were extra backs for the earring and a few extra of the earring tops! I even took apart of few of my old ratty necklaces that don't get used to recycle the beads! The only one sad. tragic piece of information I forgot to take into account is the number of people who might not have peirced ears... ;-( If you are one of those people, please PM me and I will have something else sent your way asap. Hope you like 'em.

Day 1 - Dawn R

When the challenge was thrown down to use scraps I knew instantly it would be felt. I have an obsession with felt. I love the colors, versatility and the ease to work with it. Originally I found these cute little felt trees, after making two I realized they just were not working. The pattern wasn't that great, they weren't matching up and they weren't as cute as I would of liked. I was browsing Pinterest when I noticed these cute little ornaments that had been pinned by Emily. The blogger did them with a kindergarten class, I figured if they could do it I could. I had the shimmery embroidery floss from another project and the Rick rack from another swap. I did buy the small glass beads for $2.99.

I love how they turned out, the hodge podge of colors, the mismatched circles and the star in the middle.