Elf at work

This year I took the handmade pledge for Christmas!



With the combination of an overwhelming supply of craft items and the lack of work for 2 1/2 weeks because of surgery/holiday break I was forced to compromise on my Christmas gift splurging. I brainstormed for ideas for all 3 kids as well as for the nieces and nephews. I'm happy to announce that spent less than $300 for all christmas gifts that were purchased this year. And the amount is that high only because the girls are getting new bikes. So that was $160 of the total right there. Everything else is being made with love by me!

It's been exciting to come up with ideas and turn them into reality. I've worked with supplies I had around the house with the exception of lining material for the girls' tote bags that I'm picking up tomorrow. Only 13" of fabric needed for each bag so the cost will be minimal. Oh and the tshirts for their Christmas jammies.

Here are the pics that I got of their gifts. Not everything is finished yet...but I plan to finish everything up tomorrow after my doctor's appointment.

LJ's jammies


Trini's jammies


Loo-Loo's jammies


I embroidered shirts I bought at Walmart and sewed the flannel bottoms.

A Christmas iPod cozy for my new iPod Touch. Merry Christmas to me!




I added a clip to the back so I could clip it to my purse. With my new larger purse I keep losing things!

And my wrapping paper this year is being replaced with these cute drawstring bags. Why didn't I think of this earlier? I refused to wrap and have LJ unwrap all the gifts, so I didn't put them under the tree. I found a tutorial for a simple drawstring bag and I whipped up several today to wrap the kids' gifts in.



Don't they look cute under the tree. And I used up those extra pieces of Christmas fabric from prior projects.



The nieces all got bottlecap necklaces as their gifts. And the nephews got bottlecap keychains. Taylor loved his Go Dawgs keychain.





Not a great pic but here are the keychains


I think those are all of the pictures I have of the items I've made. There are more, but I didn't take pics of everything. More pics to come Christmas morning.

It's been very rewarding and exhausting at the same time. I plan to do this more often...just need to get an earlier start!