Homemade Christmas Treats & Gifts

Every Christmas, at least a few homemade gifts join the pile under the tree. This year, the homemade additions were a bit more sparse than usual, but at least there were a few, right? Here’s what consumed my creative time during all those pre-Christmas days in 2010:

1. Diaper Bag Insert/Organizer

My sister Heather is expecting a little girl sometime next month (!), so I decided to try my hand at something I actually wanted for myself but won’t need for about 4 more months. : ) Knowing Heather, I guessed that she (like me) didn’t want to use a traditional diaper bag, and I was right. I saw this idea in a magazine and decided it was something I could probably figure out how to make myself.  The thought is that you can use whatever bag or purse you want, then you slip this inside to keep everything organized.

The top of the bag closes with a drawstring to keep everything held nicely inside, where there are pockets all the way around. These pockets are just the right size for diapers, wipes, extra clothes, etc. There is also plenty of room in the middle of the bag to stuff things that don’t fit into the pockets.

There are pockets of varying sizes around the outside of the bag as well. Some are small for items like a cell phone, ipod, keys, pacifier, etc, and some are a bit bigger. Now, I just hope I can understand the notes I wrote about dimensions and such things for when I make my own. : ) If you like the idea but don’t want to sew it yourself, there are quite a few options that pop up if you search “diaper bag inserts” online. Oh, how I love organization.  Update: I posted a tutorial on “How to make a Diaper Bag Insert”.

2. Friendly Lens Faces

For Katie and Joey, I made a couple friendly faces to stick on their camera lenses, especially when taking portraits of kids. I was hoping to make a few more as I got the hang of it, but I ran out of time and energy. : ) These are simply felt (with some sewn-on beads) hot glued to a scrunchie. They fit right on a lens and will hopefully help kids look the right way..Katie tells me some adults even ask her where to look, so maybe these will be more useful than I anticipated. : )

Mr. Gingerbread Man

I meant this to be a dinosaur or something like that…I just really like the glittery pink felt.

3. Christmas Cookies!

I went a little cookie crazy over the weeks leading up to Christmas, but the result was pretty tasty. I had only decorated cookies with royal icing once before, but I thought it would be cute to make a bunch of different designs for Christmas. This was actually the most time-consuming Christmas “project” I did, because I didn’t really have all the supplies I needed to be efficient. It was still fun, but I think Tim got tired of seeing me sit at the table piping out Christmas designs. : )

I think the snowmen and snowflakes are my favorites of the bunch. The snowman faces and buttons were drawn on with Americolor edible ink pens. (The same ones used for our marshmallow project).

All ready to be given away to friends and family!

Now to start collecting ideas for next Christmas…maybe I’ll start earlier this year so that I can have even more homemade gifts under the tree for Christmas 2011!