Here are a few of my personal favorites!!!

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Nativity Puzzle

Okay, so let's talk Teacher Christmas gifts for just a second. I think we can all agree how important teachers are to our community, to our children, and to our families. 

Well, with that being said... What in the world do you get them????

How about a personalized pencil sign for their desk?

Cute right? And so simple to make too :) 

I started with a regular old 8' long 2x4 from my local Lowes. It cost around $2.00 in the lumber department and they will cut it in half for you for no extra charge (in case you have a tiny car like me). 

Plus you could use this 2x4 to make 4 pencil signs! 

From that line I measured back towards the edge 3.5" and made another line. (B)

I then measured the width of the board and made a line to mark the center on line (A).

Then use a ruler to make two lines from the center point on line (A) to the outside edges of line (B). This will create the shape for the point of the pencil.

There you have it! Now the fun begins... bust out the paint and have some fun. I went to the store and picked out the paint colors and bought a sample size of both colors. (red and yellow/orange) 

This is how I painted on the teacher's name. 

When I was all finished painting I used some scrap wire and filled in the indent that I made next to the eraser and added a little curl :) just for a little extra sumthin sumthin....

My little man is loving the pencil and can't wait to give it to his student teacher tomorrow 

(it is her last day... sad face**)

I had so much fun making these signs for Jonny's teachers. 

I hope my little tutorial can help some of you give it a try too!!! If making them yourself isn't for you...you can also place an order for one in my shop found here!!!  hint hint:) 

 

 

 

I finally got back to work on some of my DIY Christmas presents this week. I know homemade gifts aren't really for everyone, but I personally am a sucker for giving and receiving anything homemade.

 

I have been really into making signs this year. We are working on redecorating our house and I think I could honestly find a sign I want to make for almost every room in our house... It's turning into quite the addiction. I even made a bloggy sign for my Package Pal... read all about that here.

 

 

I started with a scrap 1x6 pine board... nothing fancy, but it is a nice board and doesn't require any sanding to get started.

 

 

 

The color wax really takes no time to dry. I applied the paint about 5 minutes later. I used a white sating finish paint that I had bought in a sample size for just a few dollars. I didn't worry about making it perfect since I was making a distressed sign. (notice you can still see the dark color coming through the paint around the edges)

 

 

Once the paint was dry I used my little electric sander and sanded the ENTIRE board, even over the center where I wanted to paint. This gives the paint a smooth finish. It will not remove the paint from the entire board. The bare spots along the edges are where I pushed a little harder and sanded the same spot repeatedly. This doesn't have to perfect... after all a board wouldn't weather perfectly.

 

 

I then used plain old Microsoft Word and printed out the words I wanted to paint and taped them down into position.

 

I used a pen and traced the letters, pushing down hard enough to leave an impression in the wood.

 

 

 

I used regular acrylic paint to fill in the letters. This is time consuming but I found it gets easier the further along you get. When I was all finished painting this sign I added a LITTLE  more of the color wax to the entire sign. When I did this I started on the outer edges and rubbed it toward the center to avoid any extremely dark spots on the white paint. To finish it off I sprayed the entire sign with lacquer to help protect it.

 

 

 

I sent Stefani a pair of super cute mustache earrings too. My friend Chacoy sent me a pair a few months back and I LOVED them... (and so did my niece)  so I decided to order some extras for gifts:)

 

 

I also noticed that we both pinned these super cute blocks on pinterest. I had pinned them a while back because I just knew Bella would love them, so I assumed her little gal would LOVE them too:) I also included a little cinch bag to hold all of the blocks.

 

 

 

 

I also included this jumbo clothes pin, which I stained and mod podged and also some fun goodies from my new Saline Ambassadors kit (more on that tomorrow).

 

 

Last but not least I decided to send her some super SUPER super yummy sticky buns from my local Amish bakery. I LOVE living in Amish Country. I love driving by nothing but corn fields and horse and buggies. I was born and raised here and I can't imagine life anywhere else and boy oh boy do those Amish ladies know how to bake. These are from my favorite bakery and they were so fresh they couldn't even wrap them because they were still hot:) mmmmm... It was killing me not to eat just one before I sent them!

 

So there you have it... I am already looking forward to the next swap! Thanks so much to Stefani for all the amazing gifts and to Jamie for organizing the BEST craft swaps ever:) I <3 Package Pals!!!

 

I knew right away that I wanted to try to make something for the little princess. My main reason for wanting to DIY something is because I knew there was going to be a TON of people there... and let's be honest, there really aren't that many toys for toddlers to choose from and I didn't want to risk getting her the same thing as someone else...

plus you know me, I'm always looking for something to get into:)

So here is what I came up with...

This cute little stuffed owl pillow:) 

 No tutorial needed for this... you can find the pattern and instructions on pinterest here.

I have to admit though... it says in the directions that the owl takes about 15 minutes to sew... but if you are anything like me and aren't quite friends with your sewing machine yet, it will probably take you MUCH longer... like 3 hours:) and the ears might not be exactly the way you had planned...

just saying!

I looked on etsy for some toddler toys and found a lot of wooden pull toys,

but couldn't see spending $30 plus shipping on something that I knew I could make myself for so much less so I decided to ask my dad for a little DIY help and this is what we came up with!

I love it, and couldn't be happier with how it turned out.  I am working on a tutorial for the whale that I am hoping to share with you at the end of the week... so stay tuned:)

 We had the best time at the party and we feel so blessed to be in this little ladies life:)

 Isn't she beautiful!