DIY Holiday Gifts - Guest Post

We are down to 14 days until Christmas! Do you have your shopping completed? If you aren't pregnant like me and due in three weeks, then you may not have gotten your presents bought and wrapped two months ago. :) So, to help out, we have special guest, Adrienne from Military Spouse Central here today to share a few DIY Holiday Gifts!

DIY Holiday Gifts Under $25

The holidays are right around the corner, and for many Americans, the jingle of sleigh bells will be drowned out by the ringing of money exiting consumer’s wallets.

From presents and parties to buying that new fancy dress, the holidays come at a pretty penny. Luckily, there are hundreds of quality homemade gifts that you can personalize and make yourself, leading to a decrease in the amount of money you could spend this year.

Here are a few DIY craft ideas to make for someone special or send in a care package that are all under $25:

Mason Jar Lanterns are a great way to let your creativity shine, no pun intended, and are available at most grocery and craft stores. One great gift is the mason jar lantern, which is accomplished by placing stickers all over the jar, spray painting the jar with your favorite color (or white for a wintery theme), and removing the stickers after it dries. Once you’re ready to pack this out, you place a candle, also available at your local dollar store, on the inside and light.

The stencils you made out of stickers make beautiful shapes on the walls and light up any room, and if you want to show off your patriot side, you can buy American flag stickers or use letter stickers to write out whichever branch your spouse is in.

Homemade Ornaments come in all shapes and sizes and are the perfect customizable gift while still being affordable. If you stop at your local dollar store, they usually have packs of smaller, plain ornaments for a $1 or larger ones sold separately.

Now, for the decorating part, make use of the numerous amounts of materials, some of which might even be lying around your home, to use for decorating. You can use stamps, glitter, and even wrap the ornaments with twine or ribbon! What’s easier is that you could buy a metallic Sharpie pen and monogram the ornament for a personal touch. It’s very simple, and looks great.

If you choose to make a few smaller ones, you could always put them in an inexpensive vase, garnish the vase, tie off with a ribbon and give it to a loved one. Also, when sending ornaments for a care package, it’s best to opt for plastic and avoid the odds that your ornament may break. Other best practices for care packages can be found in this short video.

Cookies-in-a-Jar is a personal favorite. Not to brag, but my family knows me for my gingersnap cookies and frequently asks me for the coveted recipe. So, instead of giving away your secret recipe, send it in the mason jars we talked about earlier.

You could use this for any baked good, of course – from cookies to your famous quick bread recipe.  All you have to do is measure out all the ingredients, layer them one by one, and add a little decorative tag for the finishing touch.

Personalized Calendars are a fun option, especially to send your spouse if he or she is deployed. Although this one requires the use of a computer, it’s still a very thoughtful, personalized gift that truly shows that you care.

Typically, any Walgreens or Walmart (any store that has a photo department) offers a photo calendar where you upload pictures, pick your theme, and order it online in no time. Calendars range from $10-$30 for the most part, but you can usually find a few online deals to ensure you’re spending less than $25!

Also, if you go through a local store, you can avoid shipping charges and just pick it up yourself. Another great place to make a photo calendar would be Michael’s Photo Creations  or another scrapbooking store. These are wonderful gifts that really show you took the time to create a special, personalized calendar for your loved one.

Homemade Lamps can be a fun project, especially if you have someone on your gift list that enjoys having a drink now and then. With this, all you need is a lamp kit, found for under $10 at Walmart and usually includes a shade, a bottle and access to a drill.

Drill a hole in the side of the bottle near the bottom and be very carefully so you do not crack the bottle. From here, run the wire through the hole to the top of the bottle, where you can hot glue the bulb fixture in place, and voilà you have a great accent for anyone!   

The holidays are special times that are filled with traditions and being together with the people that mean the most. Whether your loved ones are able to be with you or serving overseas, creating homemade gifts are the ultimate way to show them what they mean to you. From favorite recipes to a memory-filled photo calendar, there are many ways to create the perfect personalized gift that will cost you $25 or less, but will leave them with something special that’ll last a lifetime.

Adrienne May is a military spouse, mother of three and featured author for Military Spouse Central, offering news and tips to an active social network of over 100,000 military families. Follow her on Google+ or tweet her @AdrienneMay.

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Camp John - A 4th Birthday Party

My sweet John turned FOUR earlier this month. You may have heard some distant crying at the beginning of the month and that would have been me. So, to celebrate my baby growing another year older, we had a fun camping themed birthday party with family and friends. So, if you haven't figured it out yet, that is what today's post is all about!

To start off any party, you know I had to whip up a cute invitation:

I tried to slyly convince John we should have a 'family only' birthday party (Matthew's was so fun with just family!) but he really wanted to invite his classmates this year. I really think he is loving his new school and new friends so I just couldn't say no to him! I am sure lots of moms have the dilemma of the toddler invite list. It can get HUGE pretty quick- family members, classmates, playgroup friends, family friends...YIKES! We just had to cut the list somewhere which is so hard! But, I digress...

We happen to live about 5 minutes from Lake Grapevine where they have day sites which were PERFECT for a camping party (and FREE!). John loves to go throw rocks in the lake (sounds boring to me! guess it is a boy thing) and climb on the big rocks. Plus the scenery is pretty nice for a birthday party! However, it was SOOOOOO windy the day of John's party. So that means all my cute party ideas, and cute party decorations I made, went out the window, couldn't set up the tent we brought, and I couldn't even put out the cupcakes because they would have blown away. This was all a little disappointing because I had ideas in my head of everything set up cute but the wind won out. Oh well!

One of the favors we had was a canteen for each guest. I set them out on the table next to a water jug so they could use them during the party. I got them at Oriental Trading and then put stickers on them that I made at home.

Here are a couple pictures of the kiddos hanging out, throwing rocks in the lake, and eating some yummy hot dogs. We had gummi bears (grizzly bears!) and the kids LOVED them!

One of the cute set-ups I had in my mind was a craft table so the kids could do a 'camp craft'. I made this sign (which of course couldn't be used due to the wind) and thought I would set up all the supplies on a table.

We still did the camp crafts, but it just wasn't set up beforehand. The kids didn't mind- they had fun painting their pinecones or making bird feeders. I had favor bags ready for them to bag up their works of art and take home with them. 

We had all the supplies to make s'mores but I figured it was too windy to try to make a fire suitable for roasting marshmallows. Another grand idea that was thwarted by the DANG WIND!!!

After the party, the boys had a little camping experience in our backyard with Daddy. It was the CUTEST thing I have ever seen! I hung out for a little bit with them but then headed back inside since this 9 month preggo lady wasn't about to sleep on the ground! As I suspected, they lasted about an hour and then the boys decided they would rather sleep in their own beds. Brad was not about to argue with them so that was the end of their first camp out!

Last but not least, I made up this thank-you cards to look like post-cards. I actually finished writing the thank you cards last night and they are ready for the mail! 

So, another fun birthday party for the books! John had a blast and I think the rest of the kids did as well. Now we can get ready for the next big event...the arrival of baby #3 in just THREE WEEKS.....


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Deja Vu

It is Deja Vu over at the lil Mop Top house. Baby #3 is due in 5 weeks (anyone else panicking?) and one more thing added to my to-do list is the baby announcement.

I am in the same situation I was two and a half years ago: John and Matthew had super cute and unique announcements so what in the world do I do for the next one?!

As a reminder, here is what I have made:

and what Brad has made (which make me laugh but we didn't send those out!):

Can you tell Brad loves the movie 'Jaws'?

So, anyone have ideas of another unique baby announcement???

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Cheater Crib Skirt

We are finally getting the baby room underway and with no time to spare! Baby Brown #3 will be making his appearance is just over 5 weeks. What was the hold up? Mr. Matty B wasn't wanting to give up his crib very easily. Little stinker!

So, let's talk bedding. After browsing the ol' internet for a while, I decided I liked grey and a bright blue for the colors and I jumped on board the 'chevron train'. However, since this is for our third baby, I couldn't justify spending a ton of money on a third set of bedding. In fact, John and Matthew used the same crib skirt so the only thing I did for Matthew was make him a new bumper by recovering one I found at a garage sale. Poor John didn't even have a bumper! Furthermore, we know the baby will only use the bumper for about a month or so and then we will take it out so I definitely didn't want to spend a lot of money for it to be used for such a short time. Therefore, instead of buying expensive pre-made bedding, I designed the layout, bought the material, and my sewing-savvy MIL sewed it all up for me!

Pretty dang cute, right?!



What I wanted to post about today was the crib skirt. I had seen a couple posts on other blogs about making adjustable panels. Why? Well, look at John's crib when it is at the lowest position:

See how sloppy it looks at the bottom with all the fabric hanging out? But then, when the crib is at its highest point, like it Matthew's room, you can't even see the bottom. You would never know that my MIL added a plaid trim to match the bumper because it is hidden by the crib. 

   

See what a nursery crisis we have on our hands here???

Our solution: adjustable panels to make a crib skirt! As the baby gets older and we lower the mattress, we can move the crib skirt so that it always is flush with the ground. Awesome!

I didn't take step by step pictures. If you recall, my MIL made these so I just have the final product pictures. I can however explain a little bit about these. 

-The crib skirts consists of three separate panels: a front and two sides.

-The panels are a couple inches longer than you need so they can fold over the mattress springs. 

-Once the panels were sewn, we marked where we wanted to add velcro strips so that we could velcro around the springs. The front panel has 4 sets of velcro and the sides each have 3 velcro ties.

-We made a panel for the back but the way my crib is made, it wouldn't fit right and would have been bunched up on the sides. So we decided not to use it in the end, but it doesn't matter since it is up against a wall.

-The top edges of each panel are trimmed with bias tape. Diana wanted to use twill tape because it is thicker, but Hobby Lobby was all out of it when she was there. So, bias tape it was!

You can see how we used velcro to attach to the springs. 

We attached the side panels first and then overlapped the front panel.

Although I didn't sew this, I would guess it would be very easy to sew 3 rectangles compared to sewing a full crib skirt. I love how it looks and love that I can adjust it to keep it looking pretty the whole time. 

Once we added the mattress, you would have no clue we totally cheated!

Didn't she do a fabulous job on the bumper too? To save money, she used an old quilt and batting to make the bumper fill and then covered it with the coordinating fabric. 

I happened to find the crib sheet online at Walmart for less than $10! Thanks, Garanimals! I was shocked at how well it matched the bumper.

Now that the crib is ready, I just have to finish painting the curtains and add in some wall art. Don't worry- I will post about it as I get it done! :)

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