The Crafty Scrapper

Let the gift making begin....this year I got very ambitious and decided to make handmade gifts for many of my friends and family. I just wanted to give something special this year, something with thought, and little bit of my own touch. Something that said I'm thinking of you...I value your love and friendship. I've mostly spent the time right now making trees, but I have made a few ornaments too, a picture frame and a shadow box frame. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of some them before I gave them to their receipents. Oh well, take my word for it they came out soooo cute. Now this year was also the year I went a little crazy on ebay buying vintage glass ornaments and mercury glass beads. So on many of my items I'm using my buys from ebay. Some are faded, some have cracks but believe me it gives them such great character. Plus, it's bringing back wonderful memories of my childhood. So, enjoy and hopefully it will motivate you to give a little of yourself this year and make something with your hands for those you love.

This one I made for my sister. Can you tell that I am loving the Maya Road birds? I have used them on several projects this Christmas. Autumn Leaves buttons from the Christmas collection this year. I wanted to give her something handmade this year along with her other gifts. The only thing that I had a hard time deciding was do I put it on an easel or do I make it where she can hang it on the wall. I decided to go with the easel (as you can see).

This tree I did on the Friday after Thanksgiving...I actually started last year and finished this year to say "thanks" to friend (Thanks, Tracey) who is kind enough to host a girl's weekend for 4 of us every year on the weekend after Thanksgiving. This was our 4th year to go. It's become a very nice tradition. A wonderful way to start the Christmas holidays. We hang out, watched movies, shopped at Hobby Lobby, ate, and get even a little sleep.

And the other tree was done for Carolyn (queen of The Crafty Scrapper). It's become another tradition for me...making her some sort of Christmas tree. Just a quick note...I used foam cones for the base of all the trees. On this one I used the bag of buttons from Autumn Leaves and felt from the Creative Cafe and....Yes, I sewed each button on...one...at...time. I'm crazy like that. Carolyn is such a great friend and I really wanted to put a smile on her face. I think it's displayed in the store if you want to go by and see it close up. I know she won't mind...and pick up some felt and buttons while you are there. I plan on making 2 more with different colors schemes but all with the felt and buttons.

I'm still making more...but here is the latest, and i think the greatest so far. I did this one for my best friend, Lisa, and I didn't want to post it until after I had given it to her. I'm posting more than one picture...I wanted to do close-ups so that you can see the detail. I really had a lot of fun doing this one, the hard work really paid off. Oh yeah, and let me say I did get the basic idea from a posting on the Maya Roads Design Team blog. Go there and see it, it's beautiful and creative and all that stuff. I didn't have any christmas sheet music so i improvised with some paper from Flair that I've had for 2 years. It has the story of the birth of Jesus from the bible on it.

http://mayaroad.typepad.com/dt/2007/12/birds-of-a-feat.html.

Well, that's all I have for now. I've got to get busy and make the rest of my gifts. Merry Christmas to all! Be loved...and blessed this holiday season.