Creative Giftwrapping

I like to be creative when giving gifts.  This often extends to the wrapping as well.  But at Christmas time (yes...I admit it I made these back in December), time is short and I have to be careful to be "equal".

Equal meaning I don't want one gift to look more extravagant than another....for some reason kids think things should be equal/fair! And "hell no!" do I want to be the aunt who shows favoritism or even appears to show it! So after wracking my tired/worn out/holiday stressed brain...I came up with the idea of personalized embroidered pillowcases as wrapping! "Genius!", if I have to say it myself...guess I did! Of course having just made the wedding gift pillowcases I would have to say that pillowcases were on my mind! This idea even allowed for me to use up some of that HUGE ribbon stash I have sitting in the back room!

Brooklyn Headband

I found this headband in the dollar spot at Target and decided to personalize it for my great niece.

Live Love Laugh Blankets

These blankets were my "go to" gifts for Christmas this year. They were super simple to stitch out, but turned out looking quite nice!

Neveah's Christmas Gifts

I love having nieces to make girly gifts for! These were two of the gifts I made for my niece Neveah. I love the raggy flower on the jacket and these were two of the first items made on my new embroidery machine which I LOVE LOVE LOVE!! Applique's came from Planet Applique

Christmas Towels

I found some really fun Christmas designs this year. These two made really cute towels. Unfortunately, the burgundy one, which says "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" didn't photograph well...it looks great in person though!

Fun Stuff

I had so many Christmas gifts and baby gifts to make this month that it became a blur! This was a fun "gift" that I made for a white elephant game. The embroidery was done on an actual roll of regular toilet paper!! I'd been wanting to try this and this seemed like the perfect time! :)

Practice Christmas Towel

I downloaded this great free embroidery file from sewforum.com and wanted to try it out on a "practice" towel prior to investing in better quality towels. This is a dollar store towel I picked up quite some time ago. I really like the quality of the file and can't wait to try it on better towels!

Teacher Christmas Gifts

I saw this done on another blog...shame on me for not saving the link! I made up a "practice" one to see if I liked the final concept. I need several gifts for each of my third graders teachers and I thought these Christmas ornaments would be a good idea...now I've got to stamp them all out and find some different ribbon.

Christmas Tree

I'm obsessed with switching out my Christmas decorations each year! This year my tree is silver, mercury glass, blown glass and deep purple.

I LOVE it!

Crystal Garland

So I totally fell in love with this Pottery Barn Chandelier Garland. But with a couple of drawbacks; price, no longer available, and length. I was able to find it on ebay for around $30, but it was only 60" long. Definitely not long enough to drape over the doorway I had in mind.

So what's a girl to do? Make my own!! The best part I had two ways to go about it. I have glass chandelier drops that I picked up at a sale a while ago...but alas there were not going to be enough to do what I wanted to do. Option #2: Dig through my current stash of goodies and see what I could put together!! Best option of all since there was 0 new out of pocket cost! I had all of the acrylic beads left over from last summers projects, I had the pearl necklace and bugle beads in my stash, and of course the never fail fishing line! :)

I am pleased with how it turned out! And mine are 106" EACH in length!!