Valentine's Day Gift Jars

Valentine jars for each of my classroom assistants



A view of one of the jars



Here are the Valentine gifts I made for my fabulous teaching staff! I simply used glass, airtight containers I bought at a dollar store and filled them with cute, Valentine-y stuff (Valentine socks, lipstick pens, candy necklaces, chocolates, etc.). I then hot glued artificial roses and leaves (also purchased at a local dollar store) to the tops of the glass containers and added glittery letter stickers (bought at...you guessed it! Dollar stores rock!) to spell out each of their names on the front of the containers.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

A view from the top of a jar

Another glance

Handmade Bibs and Burp Cloths

Owl print burp cloth and bib set

Bird cage and bird burp cloth and bib set

Pastel animal print burp cloth and bib set

Back view of burp cloth (fleece) and bib (terry cloth)

For the past five months, it has taken everything out of me to simply get out of bed, much less get any housework or hobby-related stuff done. With that being said, my crafting time has really taken a hit over the course of this pregnancy. Never fear...the nesting phase is FINALLY upon us (or at least that's what I'm calling my productivity level this weekend)!!! I found really simple and adorable patterns for burp cloths and bibs online, along with adorable cotton prints on sale at Joann Fabrics and went to TOWN! Here are the instructions and patterns used for each of the items. Stay tuned, as I have recently discovered some Steelers fabric and black fleece I had on hand, so you can guess what the next burp cloth and bib set will look like!

Velcro Baby Bib (this pattern allowed for the possibility of a pocket, but I decided not to include it in my creations)

Easy Burp Cloth

Organza Flower Hair Clips

Organza flowers

Now that my favorite local craft store, Pat Catan’s, has begun selling organza fabric, I have been obsessed with making organza flowers, which look much more complicated than they actually are! There are a million different ways to create these types of flowers, but I simply cut out organza circles in 4-5 different sizes and singed around the edges using a lighter (be careful to not leave on too long, as the fabric will burn!). The circles naturally curl up when singed, creating a flower petal look. Using a needle and thread, I sewed each of the circles together with the large circle on the bottom descending to the smallest circle on the top. I then embellished the flowers by hot-gluing various beads into the center of the flower. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! Flowers can be adhered to hair clips, headbands, pins, household decorations, etc. The sky is the limit!

Organza fabric used for this project

Simple Turtle Cuff Bracelet

Turtle pendant made for Tam

My best friend Tammie LOVES turtles! As a result, for one of her Christmas gifts, I simply bought a cuff bracelet blank at Hobby Lobby and an adorable turtle pendant I found at Michael’s. Using 9100 epoxy I glued the turtle pendant to the center of the cuff and allowed it to dry overnight. Voila!!! An item that appears store-bought is actually homemade (not to mention personal, far less expensive, and super easy to complete!). This could virtually be done with any type of pendant, bead or found item!!!

Example of a blank bracelet cuff similar to the one used

Family Recipe Books

A copy of our Beaver family recipe book

One of the yummy recipes in the book

Since our family, immediate and extended, seems to be growing by the day, we mutually decided to just buy gifts for the little ones this year and forgo our usual exchanging of names. I still wanted to do a little something for everyone but was having difficulty coming up with what would be an appropriate gift for everyone. Being in my first trimester, I found myself craving my grandmother’s vegetable soup recipe, followed by her slippery pot pie recipe, followed by my other grandmother’s jam tarts. After becoming really bummed out that I did not have recipes for either of the three items, I knew what had to be done…every family would receive a recipe book for Christmas filled with all of our personal recipes!

I began the process by letting my family members know my plans and asking each family to submit two or more of their favorite or most famous recipes. I included a template to make it a little easier for them to type in ingredients and directions as an attachment and asked them to send it back to me a few weeks before Christmas. After I assembled all of the templates, emails, and hand-written recipes (for my non-tech-savvy family members), I made copies for each family. With the help of my awesome mother, we cut and bound the recipes and laminated the front and back covers of the books about one hour before Christmas celebrations were to begin!

Although the books were a lot of work, I was so happy with how they looked. Now, not only do I have something nostalgic that I can cherish for years to come and pass on to future generations, I can satisfy all of my cravings any time they hit!

The recipe book for the Dalby family

Another delicious entry to the recipe book