Christmas Crafts

Forgive the throwback to Christmas, but I obviously couldn't post anything I was making during Christmas. I did want to share some of the crafts I made and give a shout-out to my creative family too.

It all started with two things: One - we were trying to save a bit of money over Christmas by making some things for family and friends, and two - my brother Ben and sister-in-law Logan are amazingly talented and are definitely raising the bar for creative gift-giving. We've all decided that now every Christmas some of our gifts to each other should be upcycled, recycled or handmade somehow.

I started with some very simple fabric flowers from this tutorial. I really admire the work Emily does on her blog (and no, I don't know her at all) but she posts great stuff. I enlisted my friend Bethany to help me and ended up making enough flowers for some girlfriends, my two sister-in-laws, my mom, myself and two darling little headbands for the daughters of above mentioned girlfriends. I plan on making more of these in the future.

A close-up of the fabric flowers

All the flowers I made. I put pin backs on all of them except the two little headbands which received elastic.

Next, Rob and I undertook an enormous project that I had the crazy idea to even attempt. Back story -- my brother Luke has shot two deer and both of them have gotten away. It's very discouraging as a hunter I'm sure. So, to remedy that, Rob and I (ok, me) decided to make him a paper mache deer head. Friends of ours have one in their house and I've seen them all over blogs so I thought it would be fun to try. Plus, I thought Luke and Logan were artsy enough to go for it and possibly hang it in their house.

Well, needless to say the deer got a little out of hand. It worked great and we spent many hours working together on it, but it got wayyy bigger than we meant it to. I'll just let the pictures and captions tell the rest of the story...

Rob starting the cardboard construction for the inside frame of the deer head

Our friends Nate and Katie were about a week overdue with their baby (ie. they had no other plans and nothing better to do) so they came over one night to help us put the deer head together. They are the ones who also have a much smaller, nicer deer head hanging in their house.

Parts of a paper mache deer head: tinfoil, wire clothes hanger (for the antlers), flour and water paste and a phone book for strips of paper mache.

Rob and I putting on the first coat of paper mache.

First coat finished!

Was it creepy having a huge deer head hanging in our dining room for about a week? Yes, yes it was.

Finished! We painted the head a pale gray and the antlers darker gray. We were so proud. (It looks more like a moose, I know)

Luke loved the deer head, but ultimately he and Logan thought it was better to keep it at my parent's house. Mom wasn't too thrilled, but she'll find a place to hang it. And Luke and Logan can visit it on vacation.

Beyond those two main gifts, I also put together some other semi-handmade gifts for Rob's family: a Shutterfly calendar, a dinner date basket for Lauren and her boyfriend, some framed photos and mulled wine.

As for the other Yoder family gifts, those went way beyond what we made for sure. Ben is turning into quite the carpenter/craftsman and Logan dreams up all kinds of cool stuff from somewhere in her brain (and Pintrest :).

By far my favorite gift was our custom countertop Ben made us. When he visited earlier this fall I told him what I was looking for in the space above my front loading washer and dryer which are technically part of my kitchen. I was using the tops of them for counter space, but it would work a lot better with a real counter. He took measurements and asked a lot of questions about what I wanted and then he delivered. It's amazing -- all I ever dreamed of and more! He also made me some storage boxes that are going to hang on the wall above the countertop, but they didn't fit in his car so I have to get them another time.

The counter top on Christmas morning.

Proudly displaying my new countertop in my kitchen. Bonus: space under the counter and on top of the washer and dryer for storing cookie sheets.

From the other angle

I also already mentioned Liam's toolbox Ben made in my last post. He is really starting to learn how to play with it more.

Ben also made ornaments for my mom out of wire and Scrabble letters left from their wedding. And for my dad he made some custom shelves for some pots he wanted to display. Luke and Logan received a vintage door handle turned into a curtain tie-back that I was only a little jealous of.

These are hard to see, but the words match up with a "picture" made out of wire for hanging them.

Finally, Logan made some beautiful, framed wall hangings for Ben and Heidi's new home that I unfortunately don't have pictures of. She will probably put some up on her blog. They were so different than just framing photos. Her "baby" though, was a book page wreath for my mom. Wow. Beautiful! She had made one for her apartment a few months ago and my mom asked for one of her own. It is now proudly hanging over their fireplace.

This is all made from old book pages. So cool.

Overall, Christmas was a little more work for all of us this year as we attempted to raise the bar even higher in our creative gift giving. But it was all worth it and I'm already looking forward to next year!