Handmade Birthday Calendar

So this past weekend we had our gift exchange with my side of the family.  The adults did a Chinese gift exchange as usual, and the theme was handmade/secondhand/re gifted... and I had so much fun coming up with and making my handmade gift! I decided to make the perpetual birthday calender I saw on Pintrest (link here) Here's my completed project:

Obviously the person receiving the gift would want to choose whose birthday to remember, so I just made 'people' for the grandkids since they'd go on everyone's calendar anyways.

To make the people, I picked up some game pawns from Windor Plywood. A lot of game pawns. My sister married into a huge family, and I wanted to make sure this gift could work for everyone. Unfortunately they were already painted, which made repainting them a bit more work since I had to do multiple coats.

 I started with painting all the heads flesh coloured. I then added the hair and features (half of the pawns are girls, and half boys, and I did half blonde and the others brown haired) The bodies were then painted red and blue. I drilled small holes in all the heads, and added small hooks (all facing left - I'll tell you why later ;)

I added the hooks at this point to make it easier to coat them in polyurethane. Instead of painting them each individually, I dipped them in the can, then hung them to dry. Don't they look cute all hanging there? They ended up with a dried poly 'drip' on the bottom of each pawn, but since I'd be drilling another hole in the bottom anyways, I didn't worry about this so much.

Once all the pawns were painted, hooked and polyed, I drilled another small hole in the bottom of each pawn and added a small eye, which was set perpendicular to the hook.  And why did I do this? So that when the pawns were hanging they'd all face out! (see, I DO think ahead once and awhile!)

 And here's all sixty pawns all ready to be named:

I picked up a ready made plaque (yes, I cheated a little) and painted it in a kind of neutrally-wood-grain colour (so it would work with all decors) To make painting easier, I stuck four push-pins in the back side.

Using my brand-new Cricut (!!!) I cut out the text and the decals in black vinyl, applied them to the plaque, and polyurethaned it.

Some more drilling and adding of hooks and the whole thing is DONE! I'm thinking I have to make one for myself now :)

And because I'm such a dork, I also made a custom box for the whole shebang so it would look all pretty when unwrapped:

Is anyone wondering what the hubby made for this gift exchange? Sorry, I'm gonna show you anyways:

His minimalist, modern clock. TA DA!

Homemade Birthday Gifts

My sister's kids have their birthdays on the 22nd and 25th of December.  I know. Great timing. And I sort of started a tradition for myself of making their birthday gifts, since we usually buy their Christmas ones. And this year was no exception! For the big 6 (!) year old, I found this Geologist Kit idea on Pintrest. I sewed up a vest and freezer stencilled his name on the front and 'Jr. Geologist' on the back:

























To go with the vest, Ashton and I put together a rock collection box for him:

and filled it with special rocks from Scholar's Choice, as well as a magnifying glass:

He has a rock collection already which he can add to this.  If I remember correctly, the rocks are (clockwise) assorted treasure rocks, an obsidian arrowhead, a geode which he can break open, agate, peacock ore, and pyrite (fool's gold) As you can see most of these came with little slips of paper describing them.  Educational AND fun!

For the 3 year old (who is singing happy birthday around the Christmas tree and trying to blow out the lights - poor girl!) I sewed up a dress using Burda #9740 and some funky Ikea fabric.  I've been hesitant to try out any of their fabric since it seems so heavy, but once washed it's like a lightweight denim.

And since no 3-year-old gets all that excited about clothes, I whipped up a little crocheted bunny to go with it (using this pattern)

I think I have more fun coming up with and making their gifts than they have receiving them!

Hand sewn felt doll

Yet ANOTHER idea from pintrest.  Found this link and I thought they were so gorgeous that I just had to make one.  I mean, don't they look simply amazing?

So I delved into my substantial stash of felt and got going!  I haven't hand sewed for awhile, but found it strangely rewarding...I could actually do other things at the same time!  Some things turned out a little wonky, but all in all I'm pretty pleased with it. Here's the pics:

She's so pretty - no name yet...Hmmmm

ABC Quiet Book

Once again being pinspired by all sorts of neat projects out there, I found myself making a quiet book.  Which was really fun but really piddly work. Involving lots of glue gun burns. But HOORAY it's done, and just needs to be 'bound' somehow.  So here's the pages:

A: removable armour

B: barn doors open to reveal animal finger puppets (and hayloft has a chicken)

C: clock hands rotate

D: dinosaur jaw moves

E: boring - just look at it...

F:eyes, nose, mouth and bow are removable

G: pluck the strings

H: propeller rotates

I: removable scoops

J: fish mouth zips open to reveal Jonah

K: Joey fits in mama's pouch

L: lift shade to reveal lit bulb

M: 2 pieces of felt with marble in between, sewn along lines.

N: ark zips open to reveal pairs of animals

O: tentacles wiggle

P: eyes button on and off

Q: boring - just look at it

R: zip car up and down the road

S: oops, still have to put a lace in...

T: tower segments removable

U: umbrella flips up

V: shadow matching

W: red sea parts

X:boring - just look

Y: yo-yo can be pulled up and down

Z: zip - pouch can hold candies/little toys...

Fun hey? Ashton's been eagerly waiting it's completion!  I think he'll really enjoy it!

Pinspiration

So here's a couple Pintrest project I've done over the past week.  Although my boards are chock full of nifty ideas, most of them will probably never get done, but I had to try my hand at these:

Taking my inspiration from this beauty Ashton and I made this piece for his room.  He thought the process was pretty cool

If I would do it again though, I'd buy a pack of brand new Crayolas instead of raiding the crayon bin and using no-name crayons.  The wax was a little runny, almost greasy, so I let the wax cool a few times and then shot it with the blow dryer again.

I also attempted something just for DH, although Ashton kinda ate them all.  When I saw this link for microwave potato chips I just HAD to try them.  They turned out much better than expected, even though I forgot to PAM the plate the first time...this is the amount you get from one potato:

The only thing I'd do different next time (and I will be doing this again!) would be to pick up some sea salt to season with.  Regular table salt just didn't seem to cut it.

I also made some homemade laundry detergent and fabric softener, both of which I'm rather impressed with.  I added some essential oils (lavender) so I wouldn't miss the store bought scents too much, and the only difference I've noticed is that the clothes are less static-y then they were!  Will definitely be keeping this one up!