Holy Crap, it's Friday!? (on Saturday)

After hearing The garbage trucks pull up to our house, 

the first thing that I think to myself isn't "oh no, we forgot to take out the trash!"

 It's  $@&%  I haven't blogged all week! 

I can't say that I have a lot of projects done and ready to blog.

The truth is, all of my energy has been put into one single project.

Recently, Levi and I signed up for the Handmade Gift Exchange.

And while Levi has already completed his, I'm still in the beginning stages.

I get a little stressed under pressure.

When working on projects for our home, I can knock them out quick but when making something for someone else, it takes me forever and also adds a level of stress and anxiety that can't be explained. 

Maybe Levi can describe it, he experiences it on a regular basis.

Last month, for example it was my sisters birthday.

I decided that I was going to make her something and add some store bought things with the gift.

I tossed around a bunch of ideas but ultimately, the one that stuck out in my head was a piñata. 

First I had my husband draw out an ice cream cone.

(For some reason, when I think of my sister I think of cute things like cupcakes, ice cream cones and cute little pink donuts with sprinkles.)

Then we cut it out and traced that to make a second ice cream cone.

Then we cut that one out too.

 Then I drew out some straight lines that were all the same length and width. 

Then cut them out.

Then we folded and taped the strips we cut to fit around the ice cream.

From the other side.

Once all of the sides are taped, tape the other side.

Once that's done, it's time to decide what color tissue paper you want to use.

I used the usual colors.

Pastel yellow and pink.

But first I glued the tissue paper flat to cover the whole ice cream.

Consider it a base layer, just in case the strips of paper don't fully cover your cardboard.

Next you start cutting your strips of tissue paper and snip the edges!

This is the time consuming part. 

Then glue your strips all around the box.

Make sure you start from the bottom!

Keep going!

The tissue paper strips aren't long enough to go all the way around, so I covered the front first, then the back and then the sides. 

After that was done, I poked two holes at the very top and put a zip tie to hang it.

I also cut a hole on the top right corner large enough to fit all of the small gifts that I bought her.

But before I filled the piñata, I wrapped her gifts.

I couldn't find any cool wrapping paper that wasn't expensive (we're on a budget here!)

so, I made my own! 

First, was leopard print.

It was way easier than I thought it would be.

I can't draw- like at all and it was simple for me!
I just googled it and copied the patterns.

First I started out with the dark circle-type things.

Once enough of the page was covered, I colored the inside with a few colors.

Then added some more colors and it was done! 

Here are a few more examples of wrapping paper that I drew.

There were a few other gifts that were wrapped but I forgot to take pictures of them. 

I also forgot to take a picture of all of the gifts together.

The piñata was way more time consuming than it seems. 

It took me a few hours to do it, but it was spread throughout a couple of days.

We took a piñata stick so she could break open her gift, but she didn't want to break it. 

Instead, she just pulled out all of her gifts and enjoyed them.

I love making handmade gifts for people.

It's a lot easier to personalize a gift for someone when it's being made by you.

This was my first time making a gift for someone, but it wont be my last!
It was also my first attempt at making a piñata and it just might be my last!
(unless Mia decides she wants one for her birthday)

I've considered making my own Christmas wrapping paper this year, but we've got so many gifts to buy so it may be easier just to buy some!
Who am I kidding, I have a crapload of Christmas wrapping paper! 

Who knows, maybe for Christmas you'll get some hand-drawn wrapping paper!
I hope I do! 

*Okay, so I started this blog post on Friday morning and forgot about it until around midnight so it's technically Saturday- but who the hell is that technical? 
Either way, sorry so late! *