It doesn't feel like Christmas to me until two things have happened:  1)We have the house decorated and 2)I've made something for someone.  Well, the house isn't decorated yet, but on Tuesday, I was finally able to make a Christmas gift and we've been crafting fools here ever since.  So, it's starting to feel a little like Christmas here.  As of this afternoon, the girls are out of preschool for the year and tomorrow, we're going to get decorated and start baking so I imagine I'll be humming Christmas carols very soon!  And, because I'm a geek I took pictures of my crafts this year and because I like to torture you, I'm going to share them with you.

Here's the ornament I embroidered for Gracie's ballet teachers.  It doesn't look perfect; in fact, most of what I've made this year has looked slightly off and not quite right, but I'm telling myself that what's the point of making something handmade if it doesn't look handmade?  Right?



The girls painted wooden ornaments for their teachers and the school's director.  I struggled with how to write names and years on them without messing up their painting jobs.  I had an epiphany and used these gift tags.  I put their pictures in them, printed them out a bit smaller than they normally are, and glued them to the back of the ornaments.  They turned out cute and now the teachers can remember who they're from, but I didn't mess up the girls' painting masterpieces.




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Here's what we made for Gracie's classmates.  They were a big hit - the kids liked them and several moms asked how I made them so I got to share digital scrapbooking with some people.  A Win/Win situation.  I used these from Heather Ann.  All I had to do was add the names, print them out, and stuff the bags...which was an event in and of itself.  I lost the bags I wanted to use; I spilled sparkling sugar all over the floor;  Ella Bella ate the cheerios...apparently dogs like reindeer food ; and Abigail "helped" me by dumping a cup of birdseed...


I struggled with what to get Gracie's teachers for Christmas.  I really wanted to do something special for them - they have been so good to Gracie and to me and they are just both awesome women.  (Abigail's teachers are awesome, too, but I don't know them as well - basically because Abigail only goes an average of about 1.3 days per week )  Yesterday, I finally decided what I'd do.  Yes, yesterday!  The last day of school was today, but I managed to finish the gifts in the nick of time...

What I did was scrap a quote for each teacher and put all the kids' names from the class underneath.  I printed them out on fabric paper and then just attached them to a premade bag from Jo-Ann's using ribbon.  Here's the first one:

The quote for this one was:  The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book.


And the second one.   The quote for this one was:  The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind



And finally, here's the director's bag.  I wanted to make her something special, too.  I took her daughter's pictures in October, so I used one of those pictures and did the same thing I did with the teacher's bag.



So, I've been a bit busy, but instead of being running around like crazy kind of busy, it's a happy busy!  I love making things....

And just for fun, here's Abigail from a couple of days ago: