Homemade Christmas 2013

I hope you all had wonderful holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and a very happy new year! My family celebrates Christmas, but a little different than most: we make our presents. You may remember some of the items from last year's post (like the art smocks which my nephews still wear all the time!), and the cookies and baked goods. This year featured a lot less baked goods (due to my allergies and food restrictions), but some fun little homemade items I would like to share.

 It started with some pillowcases for my nephew, Enzo. He is three now, and has graduated to a big boy bed, so he needed some pillowcases for his big boy pillow.

The soccer print is a must, since he is in soccer and seems to love all things sports... although he is still working on the sharing and teamwork part. He is a bit of a ball-hog. But what do you want? He's three, for crying out loud.

 The other pillowcase needed to be turtles. His nickname is turtle (given to him by Reney when he was just a baby), so the turtles were a must. And I LOVE this fabric. It's so bright and colorful, and it looks almost 3D - like the turtles are just popping out at you.

 Mike's main present was a video game (which I did NOT make), but since he brews quite a bit of beer, which means he bottles quite a bit of beer, which means he then mops up quite a bit of beer... the beer towel seemed appropriate. Besides... I just really liked the beer fabric!

Then I had some fun making super-hero capes for the boys. One each for Reney, Enzo, Orry... and of course that meant that Aaron needed one, too!

I used a velcro on the straps to hold the capes on. I'm not sure if the boys liked them, but Aaron wore his all evening. :) 

 And for my sister... a Friday night apron! While her boys are out saving the world in their super-hero capes, she can be whipping up a big batch of cookies, since I'm pretty sure they will be hungry when they are done!

I absolutely love the fabric on this apron, and fortunately my sister and I are pretty close to the same size, since I had to fit it to myself instead of her!

She also got some kitchen towels to go with the apron. I am a firm believer that you can never have too many kitchen towels.

 For my mother, we didn't make her gift this year. She really needed a new TV, and I'm pretty sure any TV that we could make her would not be fulfilling her needs. So instead, we made the wrapping paper.

 Each of us made a tree out of our fingerprints.

 This one is mine!

 Enzo and Reney decorated their trees with some glitter paint.

It was a really fun project, and a great, relaxing Christmas with the family. I hope you all had wonderful holidays too! If you got something really cool and homemade for Christmas, send me a picture in the comments! I love to see what others give/got and their ideas for homemade gifts.