A Handmade Christmas

I used to start in January making gifts for Christmas. I never realized how much these homemade gifts meant to people until recently.

 I went to visit my son and he still has the rocking horse I had lovingly stained and coated with polyurethane when he was two years old. At the time the unfinished wooden horse cost a fortune. LOL! I had to borrow the money from my mother-in-law to buy it.

I decided since I retired to start making some gifts last month. In  previous posts I showed the headbands I made as well as Fritzi the frog hair clip.

I also made this darling pendant for one of my granddaughters. I printed  the image on frosted Shrink Plastic (print on the rough side) and cut it out with my Cameo but you could also cut  something like this out by hand. Or if you have a die cut machine and a die you like you could use that.  Just remember if there is words to mirror your image before printing. While still hot I sprinkled embossing powder on the printed side to give it shimmer. Under a dollar for the Shrink Plastic which I used the scraps after cutting out for snowflakes for the head band. I went to my local bead shop and the cord cost me a dollar and the owner put the cord on for me  at no charge and made it so the cord can be adjusted different lengths.

I have a pompom left to make for this knitted hat for another granddaughter. It had been ages since I've done any knitting. Under $4 for the yarn and I have yarn left over to knit head bands and knit flowers for embellishments. I love the colors and the pattern that the variegated yarn created.

I have a lot more  projects to do and hope that I can get the gifts to be mailed finished by next week.  I would like to also get my cards made and mailed by the first.

I don't plan to do any shopping on Black Friday but on Saturday a place where I shop has a coupon for 30% off all my purchases including sale items. I have one gift to buy of something I can't make. Otherwise it will be a handmade Christmas.

Wishing you the best of luck if you go shopping Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Come back for an interesting painting technique tomorrow.