Handmade Gift Guide

December 17, 2013 By Erica Deuel 4 Comments

What is the most special gift you have ever received?

Was it something you had been wanting for a long time?

Was it a surprise that you weren’t expecting?

When I think of the gifts that have meant the most to me, it is gifts that show thought and effort. I love personal gifts that are a reflection of a time spent thinking of what I like, need, or enjoy. Sometimes these are bought gifts. For example, my sister-in-law bought me an appointment for a new hair-do this week, and I was so thrilled. She knew I had been wanting blue in my hair for a while. So thoughtful!

A lot of my most special gifts are ones people have made me. I can think of the T-shirt quilt my mom made me as a high school graduation present using all of my favorite childhood shirts. I think of the stamp, business cards, and organizer book Matt made me for me first little craft company years ago. Handmade gifts can be some of the best. They show time and effort and can’t help but make you feel special.

I have rounded up some of my favorite crafts all in this one post. I think this collection of crafts would make great gifts are additions to gifts and stocking stuffers this holiday season. Christmas is a week away, and you have a weekend to get some stuff done. Imagine the joy you could bring someone in your life with one of these handmade gifts.

Ruffled Fabric Bag

Ruffled Apron

Burlap Flower

Decorative Front Porch Hello Pot

Set of Greeting Cards

Yarn Picture Frame

Textured Rug Pillow

Decorative Stepping Stool

Little Girl Hair Bows

Sunburst Stick Mirror

Chevron Heart Pillow

Most of these crafts have a base item that I started with, and I simply embellished it. They are all possible to do relatively quickly. Just follow the tutorial steps in each of their links and switch out the colors, fabrics, etc to make it personal to your individual.

I am busily trying to finish up a few gifts of my own. We have a week till Christmas! Let’s imagine the joy we can bring to someone by taking the time to create something especially for them.

Special Reminder: Coming in January, I will have packaged crafts for you to receive on your door step. This special membership will eliminate the hassle of having to find the supplies while providing the joy of a fun, seasonal craft to make as a gift or for your home. For more information, watch this video.

We are Moving!

February 14, 2013 By Erica Deuel 11 Comments

We are moving! Or we are trying! Last week I shared that I had fallen into my hole. Today, I want to explain a little bit as to why and share some of the exciting things we have facing us as we move forward.

For about a year and a half, we have been talking and praying about what was next for us as a family. There have been a series of events like our best friends moving across the country and our family month-long road trip. These have been chapters in “our story” and have given us the sense that something new was coming. There have been ideas, conversations, and dreams all over the place. Its been exciting and fun, but no clarity was given until this past fall.

We now have a dream that is coming into a plan that we believe God has placed directly in our hearts. I have LOTS more details coming to what is next for us, but for now, the part where it all melted down.

One thing in the mix of the coming changes was knowing we need to sell our house. Shortly after we made the decision to sell, a situation presented itself to us, and we thought we had sold our house before even placing it on the market. It felt like all the “arrows” and “signs” were saying YES!

We were then surprised by the news two weeks ago that the deal we had been working on for about two months, fell through. We were crushed, and that is where you heard from me last week. I had sat on the news for a week, opened up to you, and then many of you all poured tons of love and kindness out to me in response. I STILL have not responded to every loving message I received through emails, comments, texts, facebook messages, in person hugs, phone calls, and tweets. I have felt supported and encouraged. Thank you for caring for me and helping to carry me through. Please know that I will respond to each and every message I have received. You all have built into me, and I am forever grateful.

You might have seen this picture on instagram last week, if you follow me there.

A smile was on my face.

My Valentines Day present from Brin came in the mail, as I was processing what was next for us as a family. Questions were racing through my mind like “Did the lost sale of our house mean a “no” to our plan?” “Was it just a bump in the road that we had to over come?” “Why did we have to go down this road for two months to drag out acting on the next step?” I was emotionally drained and discouraged and then Brin’s package arrived. I had never done a blogger swap until I signed up for this one and was paired with Brin at Bold Butter Baby. She way outdid herself on our Valentines Day swap. See what I mean…

Her package came and it had lots of my favorite stuff. The candy is amazing…does this girl get me or what? Yes, candy does brighten my day.

I adore the coffee mug and all the bright-colored socks she chose for me. Two of my obsessions are COLOR and socks…and she paired the two together. Amazing.

Did you catch that infinity scarf I am wearing? She ordered that for me, and I am obsessed with it. Brin WAY over did herself, and I was truly teary eyed opening her present and feeling the love pour out.

What I have seen modeled in Brin, as I have gotten to know her is strength. Through the process of email, twitter, instagram, and lots of direct messages I have seen and heard how Brin and her husband have moved in the last few weeks. They have a young active boy, Dexter, and Brin has been really sick. She’s had a lot going on, yet she has reached out to me. One day I literally was crying on my floor direct tweeting with her about my house and get this…some one stole my present to her. She found the remains of the packaging. I was crushed. She deserves my present and so much more. I wish I could send her another right now. I will some day.

What surprised me is how in a dark moment, the person that was there for me and was lifting me up was a new friend. Direct tweeting me hope and perspective. It is moments like this (after being pulled out of them and can look back) that I see that I was not given the short stick. God has not forgotten me and is loving me by orchestrating an even better story for me. I have found a new friend and I know I will always cheer her on. Someday, I will meet this girl in person.

It is funny how circumstances happen in your life that you don’t get, you don’t want, yet something good becomes of it. I have gone from feeling God’s plan was laid out for us to becoming more raw and accepting that although our path may be before us…we might have to work, struggle, and endure a little to get there. Just because we sense God’s desires for us, does not make the path easy and simple. I’m finding that it means we have the peace to continue on.

We have decided to put our house on the market with a realtor. Exactly one week from tomorrow it will be up for sale. We have been busting butt to get things cleared out, closets simplified, and pictures packed away. It’s been busy and our house is currently at the “it gets worse before it gets better stage,” but we are making progress.

Wearing a pair of my new socks, while cleaning out my vanity cabinet. A not fun job, made better with new/fun socks.

I am convinced now that we will see God’s might and hand in “our story” even more clearly than if that first sale had gone through. Thank you for being a tool used to impact and encourage me. Tomorrow, I will lay out what we have been doing and still have to do around the house. On Monday, I will share WHY we want to move.

Thank you Brin for the amazing package. Please visit Brin and say hi. I highly recommend her facebook, twitter, instagram, and blog. Today is the last day to enter her Cricut giveaway. Enter it and check out the sweetest post she wrote about me.

Toddler Picture Books

January 8, 2013 By Erica Deuel 5 Comments

Welcome back to week #2 of it’s All About the Kids link up! Thank you so much for joining me, and I hope you link up a fun kid related post this week.

There were some great link ups last week! I loved the post from Dollie on how to Use Puzzles to Teach Geography and the post from Heather on how to have A Snow Day with shaving creme! Both amazing ideas and fun activities to do with your kids.

The link up that I randomly picked to feature today was The Blessings Jar from Heather at Upside Down Homeschooling.

Heather is going to keep a jar and write blessings on little of slips of paper as they come in through the year to stick in the jar. I love this idea, and we will definitely be doing it in our home as well. Thank you so much Heather for inspiring us to look and appreciate the GOOD things that happen! Please thank her for this great idea by stopping by her blog to say hi!

Today, I am sharing a toddler picture book I made for my nieces for Christmas.

My sweet niece, Charleigh, lives 14 hours away so we only get to see her a handful of times during the year. She is almost 18 months old, and I want her to know us. We send pictures and Facetime, but for Christmas I wanted to add a personal touch to her present. I thought of this cute little book. I simply got a few pictures developed and ran them through my laminator at home. I ended up going back and laminating them twice, so the pages are extra thick and protected from little girl drool. Once I had the pages laminated, I punched a hole in the top of each page and stuck them all on a keyring, so they can be flipped easily.

I loved it so much, I made my niece, Natalie, one as well. Even though we get to see her quite often, she loves her book because it is people that love her and she loves too. My brother and sister in law took it out to dinner with them the other night and helped pass the time while they were waiting for their food. How smart is that!?

If you read my DIY Ruffle Fabric Bag and Christmas Wrap Up Post, you got to see a few other Christmas presents I made this year. Did you make anything you gave away this holiday season?

Now, I am so excited to party it up with you all again! Please link up your newest All About the Kids post!

8 Easy DIY Kid Ornaments

December 12, 2012 By Erica Deuel 5 Comments

Today, I have 8 easy DIY kid ornaments to share! They are all really cheap and would make presents for grandparents or proud aunts and uncles! I bet you already have the supplies in your house to make a few of these with your kids.

1. Wood Block Ornament

I have gotten some sweet comments on these wood blocks on Facebook, so I thought I would share how to make them. I started with a small piece of wood. It’s cut roughly about 2.5″ x 2.5″. I sanded it down, so the edges and corners were smooth. I then let my boys paint their ornament any color they wanted. My sweet girl was only 10 months at the time of this craft, so I painted hers a solid purple. I sized the pictures down on my computer, so they would print a size that would fit on the ornaments. I cut them, rounded their edges, glued them on, and gave the whole block a good coat of Mod Podge. I then screwed a little hook in the top and added ribbon and string, and they were done! We gave ornaments like these to their grandparents last year for Christmas, and I think they were a hit! Other ways to use the ornaments are to capture a first year marriage (with wedding pic) or a baby’s first Christmas (with a baby picture). These are both gifts I have given. I love to add a personal touch to gifts. There are so many ways this ornament could be given as a wonderful present! I can’t wait to make new ones for our tree for this year!

2. Paper Hand-print Ornament with Bells

You might remember from my Thanksgiving Turkey post that I am obsessed with hand prints. For this ornament, I simply stamped their hand onto a sturdy card stock, cut it out, and glued it to a coordinating color card-stock. I then punched a hole in the top and added some ribbon and bells. I love that it’s simple, but it captures the “year” of your little ones size hand. Make sure to date the back!

3. Painted Plastic Balls

You can get a big tube of plastic ornaments anywhere. I had a package of plastic balls that I no longer liked to hang on the tree. I let my kids paint them, and I all of a sudden liked them again. 🙂 We switched out the hooks for pipe cleaners, and they make great ornaments on my boys’ tree in their room.

4. Paint Pre-made Wood Ornaments

There are a lot of simple but cute wood ornaments you can find on sale at your craft store. I love to let my kids paint one every year. It is fun to see their growth in their painting skills to look back at previous years. I also like to maximize the use of a tacky, kid ornament going on my tree. I stamp their hand or glue a picture to the back side of these ornaments, if there is room for it. It is kind of like having an easy scrapbook to pull out every year by having ornaments that contain their art, picture, or hand prints. I love it.

5. Paint Pre-made Pottery Ornaments

Right by the pre-made wood ornaments there are usually unfinished clay/pottery ornaments that you can buy. I also love to do these every year. After we paint them and let them dry, we go back and give them a good coat of mod podge and they look just like any DIY pottery ornament that you could paint at an art studio for probably about 1/4 the price. We did this same technique with our pumpkins this past fall. In that post, I gave you tips on how to paint with little kids. Yet, you can see from these pictures even with lots of painting practice, it is still tricky. I had to stop my four-year-old from eating paint after taking one of these pictures.

6. Popsicle Ornaments

I love all the possibilities with popsicle sticks for ornaments. We have done a Christmas tree and a star so far this year. I actually love their stars probably more than my star. I still want to make a popsicle snow flake this Christmas season. After the glue dried holding the popsicle sticks together, they painted their trees green and their stars yellow. They then went back and glued buttons on their trees for ornaments and sprinkled glitter on their stars so they would sparkle. We simply added some pretty rope, and they were done! I then picked a few pictures to cut and paste to the back allowing the popsicle sticks to act as a frame.

7. Puzzle Piece Ornament

This puzzle piece ornament is another one we did last year. We got a dollar store puzzle and painted all the pieces red and green. After they were dried, I let them glue the pieces around a the construction paper “frame” that I had already cut out. Once that was dry, I glued a picture to the back and hot glued some rope on. I love the contrast of a black and white photo with the colored puzzle pieces.

8. Tomato Sauce Lid Ornaments

We go through a lot of salsa and tomato sauce around here, and I have started saving the jars’ lids. I knew I would come up with a reason to use them, and I did. I used the same technique I created for my bottle cap necklaces. I spray painted the backs white, nailed a hole in the top, added string, cut pictures to fit, glued them in, and mod podged over them. These are still drying, but I plan on writing a quote my kids have said this Christmas season on the back of their lid. I think it would also be cute to write something they “wished” for this Christmas, so you capture what they were asking from Santa. Another idea instead of inserting their picture is to allow them to draw a picture of their family and glue that inside. I might have to spray paint some more lids and create a few more of these. 🙂

As you can imagine, my Christmas tree’s theme is “kid created.” I think someday I will probably have a more fashionably decorated tree, but I will probably have to have another tree with all my kids’ ornaments too! I’m sure this one will remain my favorite.