#11 and #12 Handmade gift exchange!

Last month, Levi and I took part in a Handmade gift exchange.

It was hosted by a fellow blogger named Linda at her blog Craftaholics Anonymous 

We basically had to make and ship a gift to our assigned partner by November 30th.

Levi finished his in about two days and it was awesome.

Mine, took much longer.

I decided to make a wreath for my partner and a matching ornament.

Here's how I started the wreath. 

#11 Handmade Wreath and Ornament!

First I wrapped the wreath with yarn.

I did that for about two or three episodes of Ghost Whisperer a day for two days.

I would alternate between wrapping my wreath and making flowers.

Once both of those were done, I glued the flowers into a big cluster and placed them onto the wreath.

Once the wreath was done, I decided to work on the matching ornament.

I cut circles out of felt and did the same scalloping method that I used here

Also added a hook to the top!

Here they are together.

Now onto #12 My Gift

After exchanging emails with my partner, she learned that Mia and I loved pink!

So she knitted us some matching pink headbands!

Along with the headbands she included the cutest little ornament!

She knitted a tiny sweater!

Of course, it didn't make it to the Christmas tree because Mia called it as soon as we got it!

She tried to fit it onto all of her dolls.

But I'm excited to add it to our collection of handmade ornaments!

If you're interested in participating in the next handmade gift exchange, I believe it's going to be sometime during the summer time.

Be sure to check out Craftaholics Anonymous for more info!

Christmas post #2 Tis' the season to be jarry.

It's been a pretty gloomy day today.

It's been raining all day and plans to stay that way throughout the weekend.

You know what that means, time to stay inside, wrap gifts, watch Christmas movies 

and if you're me: work on crafts!

Today's craft is going to be a scalloped ornament.

It's pretty much like the tree's from yesterday, only we're going to be using

a Styrofoam ball instead of a cone!

First, I cut out my circles to layer the ball.

I just used some leftover white paper.

It was my second attempt at leopard print gift wrap gone wrong.

Once I cut them out, I colored a few of them just so the ornament would have some contrast.

Then starting from the bottom, I started layering.

There's no real guide to start with when layering the pieces of paper, but I glued a dot on the top and bottom of the ball to signify where I'd start and end. Just to make sure that the layers stayed even.

 (Not that they stayed even.)

I just eyeballed it when adding the different colors.

Then it was done!

Levi also made one using the paper leftover from our trees.

His came out completely awesome and proportionate while mine... well, not so much.

For some reason he's good at just about everything he tries.

Video games, cards, home remodeling, lego building and now Scalloped Christmas ornaments.

Anyone else notice that?

I wasn't really sure how I'd hang these on the Christmas tree, but Levi had the idea of using the hooks from 

some old ornaments that we had. Yes, he's also resourceful. <3

See that little loop thingy on the top?

Pull the top off, then squeeze the loop to get it out.

Then it's out and you have this weird looking hook type thing for your ornament.

First, I had to find the tops of our ornaments.

 (Which was hard because mine was completely uneven!)

Then I poked some holes with a needle.

As you can see, I poked a lot of holes to make sure mine would hang evenly.

Then I glued the holes with some hot glue and before it dried I inserted the hooks.

Then pushed them in a bit to make sure it wouldn't fall off easily.

Then added some string and hung those babies on the tree!

Pretty simple handmade ornaments and pretty cheap!

We're really excited about Christmas this year.

Mia's learning about Santa Clause and she's also learned a few Christmas songs.

We haven't watched one of our favorite Christmas movies, yet but I can't wait to introduce Mia to it

 and have her love it as well! 

Here's a little taste.

I'm sure you love it too!

Stick around, tomorrow's post is gonna be magical.

I promise, it won't be another scalloped decoration!

Meet you back here tomorrow!

Or Monday, depends on the rain.