And just like that, Christmas 2014 is in the bag. Can you believe we are at the end of 2014 already? Where did the days go. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and that Santa was good to each and every one of you. I went to Boston to visit family and friends. Good times. I even ran into one of my high school crushes. He is still just as dreamy as he was when I was 18. Now comes the oh so fun task of putting everything away. Its all fun and excitement putting up the decorations. Taking them down is another story. So, now that the holidays are done and gifts have been given, I can talk about my last project. It seems like every year I find making gifts is just easier and more personal. This year was no different.
First was my aunt. The last couple of years I got her something butterfly related. She recently has started collecting Wine Bottle Stoppers. I was going to buy a monogrammed one, but in the midst of my Googling I found that Hobby Lobby actually sold the blank piece. That was all I needed to know.
I was originally going to paint right on it, but then felt it needed some extra pzazz. So I made a trip to Michaels and found an embellishment to use in my design.
The pieces were to go on either side of the bottle stopper. The back side I knew I wanted a little sparkle. I brushed the inside of my piece with glue, and filled it with pink glitter (Which happens to be my aunt's favorite color).
Now for the monogram. I tried out several techniques. First I decided to freehand with markers, but it looked a little too crafty. Then I attempted to create something in Photoshop, but I didn't seal it properly so it blurred when I added the pendant gel. Then it hit me. I could use more glitter. That would let me freehand, but without the marker look. I attached my pen size tip to my glue bottle and wrote her initials inside
Then I covered it with a dark pink glitter
To attach the pieces to the actual stopper I spread the backsides with E6000 glue, gave them a firm press, and let the whole piece set overnight.
Now for my uncle. He is probably one of the easiest people to get gifts for. He loves t-shirts and hats. He wears them all the time, so you can never go wrong with either one. (Well unless the hat is a bright color, or the shirt is argyle.) I looked around for a hat, but couldn't seem to find one that was plain or the right color. I did however have a hat that I got from an event I attended. The only problem was that it was already embroidered. Yeah, let's just talk about how much you have to love someone to unstitch a heavily embroidered item. UGH! My uncle is totally worth it though.
I thought about a lot of different and cool things to put on the hat, but somehow settled for a simple monogram. He has a lot of hats, but none with his initials. I purchased some hard felt fabric from Michaels. I measured the size of the front and cut out the letters to size. I almost got fancy, but I kept it pretty simple with a thick block print.
I turned them over and gave them a generous layer of fabric glue before placing them on the front.
I put several pins to hold the letters down while they dried. However the fabric glue did not create a secure enough hold so I applied a a little bit of E6000 for extra security. Once the letters were fully dry and secure, I brushed some black fabric paint over them to deepen the color.
The last gift belongs to my sister. My sister really loves writing in journals, and for the last few years I always get her one. This year I wanted to find a journal and customize the front. However it was a little harder to find the journal that really worked for my idea. It did cross my mind to just make one, but that still wasn't going to give me what I wanted. I did buy one with the intention of recovering until I realized I actually kind of liked the front. The inside cover was totally fair game though.
This is before,
and this is after.
All in all it was a good Christmas. Everyone really enjoyed their gifts. My aunt and uncle both really loved theirs. My uncle wore his hat Christmas day. He said it matched what he was wearing...gray. Go figure. My sister was quite happy about hers as well. She found my doodle to be "So Awesome!". It just makes me happy to know that they are happy. I always wonder about giving handmade gifts. However people seem to really like them so I must be doing something right.
So I guess this is my last blog for 2014. It's been an amazing year. I appreciate everyone's love and support. 2015 is going to be busy say the least (I already have projects for January all lined up). I ended up having quite a bit of down time while I was home and binge watched HGTV for several, several hours. It was sooooo dangerous. So needless to say my creative brain is on Hyper drive. If I had a wall to knock down, it may have already happened. I mean, I started last year with demolition. Why not make it a yearly tradition? No...I can picture the mass *smh* from all of you. HA! Until 2015...it's on to the next project!
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