Handmade Christmas
At this time of the year I start to get overwhelmed and frustrated by the social media influence to buy buy buy. There are so many good deals and I know that influencers are able to make their livings off of some of the affiliate links that they share, I get that side of it. That does not stop me from feeling frustrated with that push.
Around Black Friday I start to minimize my online time for a week or so, mostly because I don't like the icky feeling that creeps in with the push to buy.
This time of year tends to make my thought process make a shift. I shift gears into increasing my thrift store shopping and into my DIY projects.
Last Christmas I made my favorite DIY gifts to date: my Christmas gift baskets. I thoughtfully pieced together homemade and minimal useful gifts for some of our family and our framily (friends that are family). As it would happen all three of our family groups made the move to the lower 48 this calendar year, as I'm missing them that much more as we enter the holidays I felt it was a good time to share the gifts I pieced together for them last Christmas.
First with the assistance of my little helpers we made cinnamon ornaments. This was our first time making them and I loved every bit of the process. We simply mixed together about 1 1/2 cups of ground cinnamon, 1 cup of applesauce, and 1/4 cup of Elmers school glue. Then we rolled them out, cut our pieces with cookie cutters, used a pencil to poke a hole for the string to go in later, and placed them on a cookie sheet to dry out.
My favorite addition to their boxes were the Framily flour sack towels. For these I used my Cricut to cut stencil vinyl with the text that I wanted. I placed the stencils on, painted over them with a mixture of black acrylic paint and textile medium (which prevents the paint drying hard on the fabric). As soon as I was done dabbing the paint on the fabric through the stencil I immediately pulled back the vinyl to prevent the paint bleeding further in the fabric. I then hung them from clips to dry, and this was the result. This DIY project really allowed me to make a personalized fun gift without the price tag of someone else making it.
Other additions to the box were our homemade treats. We make almond roca with my in laws recipe each winter, so each box had a bag of that, a loaf of homemade cranberry orange bread, and several jars of my first ever homemade jam. I had seen recipes floating around Pinterest for several years for Christmas jam. Most of them had cranberries and strawberries. I decided to add in the raspberries we had in the freezer from the summer before. The result of this concoction was my favorite jam I've ever tasted. Since I had never made jam before this batch I used the freezer jam pectin because I was scared to try the other method. This made it very smooth and easy. This Christmas I will make sure to actually write up the recipe for this little creation of mine.
I also added in some festive popcorn mixes from target, and for one friend I made a custom sign for their family with all their names on it.
Around Black Friday I start to minimize my online time for a week or so, mostly because I don't like the icky feeling that creeps in with the push to buy.
This time of year tends to make my thought process make a shift. I shift gears into increasing my thrift store shopping and into my DIY projects.
Last Christmas I made my favorite DIY gifts to date: my Christmas gift baskets. I thoughtfully pieced together homemade and minimal useful gifts for some of our family and our framily (friends that are family). As it would happen all three of our family groups made the move to the lower 48 this calendar year, as I'm missing them that much more as we enter the holidays I felt it was a good time to share the gifts I pieced together for them last Christmas.
First with the assistance of my little helpers we made cinnamon ornaments. This was our first time making them and I loved every bit of the process. We simply mixed together about 1 1/2 cups of ground cinnamon, 1 cup of applesauce, and 1/4 cup of Elmers school glue. Then we rolled them out, cut our pieces with cookie cutters, used a pencil to poke a hole for the string to go in later, and placed them on a cookie sheet to dry out.
The resulting ornaments are fragrant, simple, and beautiful.
My favorite addition to their boxes were the Framily flour sack towels. For these I used my Cricut to cut stencil vinyl with the text that I wanted. I placed the stencils on, painted over them with a mixture of black acrylic paint and textile medium (which prevents the paint drying hard on the fabric). As soon as I was done dabbing the paint on the fabric through the stencil I immediately pulled back the vinyl to prevent the paint bleeding further in the fabric. I then hung them from clips to dry, and this was the result. This DIY project really allowed me to make a personalized fun gift without the price tag of someone else making it.
Other additions to the box were our homemade treats. We make almond roca with my in laws recipe each winter, so each box had a bag of that, a loaf of homemade cranberry orange bread, and several jars of my first ever homemade jam. I had seen recipes floating around Pinterest for several years for Christmas jam. Most of them had cranberries and strawberries. I decided to add in the raspberries we had in the freezer from the summer before. The result of this concoction was my favorite jam I've ever tasted. Since I had never made jam before this batch I used the freezer jam pectin because I was scared to try the other method. This made it very smooth and easy. This Christmas I will make sure to actually write up the recipe for this little creation of mine.
Other additions into the box were just a few little odds and ends I found. Christmas bulbs and candles.
I also added in some festive popcorn mixes from target, and for one friend I made a custom sign for their family with all their names on it.
Remember that despite all the retail pressures, Christmas is not meant to be a time to go broke or put yourself in debt to celebrate. Christmas is a beautiful joyous time of year, and if you are able homemade gifts from the heart are a meaningful alternative to buying a gift for everyone on your list!
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