Chocolate Body Scrub

I needed a quick and easy handmade gift that O would enjoy helping me make, so I was very happy to find the recipe for Chocolate Body Scrub at Sweet Tidings via The Crafty Crow. 

To make Chocolate Body Scrub, you need cocoa powder, brown sugar, olive oil, and vanilla extract.




We had to make a lot of this stuff, so we made a double batch each time. 

Mix together:   2 cups of brown sugar, 6 tablespoons of cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract, and 4 tablespoons of olive oil. 

O LOVED mixing these ingredients together.  She is very proud of her role of "taste tester," and she assured me that the chocolate body scrub does NOT taste good!




O was thrilled when I told her that we'd made a jar of Chocolate Body Scrub for us, too!  She can't wait to use it!



The jars came from IKEA...I really love these little jars (and I love IKEA, too!).

Christmas Pillowcases and Tablecloth

My mom made the mistake of saying that she felt bad that she hadn't made many handmade gifts this Christmas.  I immediately set her to work on various projects!  She made Christmas pillowcases for the girls with this super cute Christmas cat fabric.  E points to the cats saying "cat, cat, cat, cat,......."  Love it!



I love the stitching at the bottom.




She also made a little tablecloth for the small table where the girls and I eat our meals.



I guess I should admit that I usually remove the tablecloth before we eat so that my messy eaters won't destroy it!

Magnettis for O

A few months ago, I asked O what she wanted more than anything for her handmade Christmas gift.  She immediately answered that she wanted a "collection of magnettis."    These magnetic necklaces are easy and fun to make.




I bought unfinished wooden hearts, circles, and rectangles from Hobby Lobby and/or Michael's.  I painted them, and put cute stickers on them. 
















Since the letter stickers are flat, I painted over them with a layer of mod podge.  (the other stickers are puffy, so I left them as is).  I glued a strong magnet to the back of each decorative piece using E 600 glue.  These magnets make me pretty nervous since I have a baby who puts everything in her mouth, so I used super strong glue and will check the necklaces often to make sure the magnets are secure. I made a set of magnettis for O and for my niece. 

A Pet Softie

E LOVES our cat, Gracie.  She wants to pet Gracie and hug and kiss her.  Unfortunately, Gracie is scared of E, so E never gets too close to her before Gracie runs away.  Poor E.  She is completely obsessed with cats, but her own cat will have nothing to do with her....Mama to the rescue!



This Gracie will never run away from E, and she can hug and kiss her as much as she wants!  I know she is going to love this, and I can't wait to see her reaction when she opens it!

To make the Gracie softie, I took a picture of Gracie (this is easier said than done!) and printed it on iron-on transfer paper.  I cut the picture out and ironed it onto a piece of white cotton fabric.  I cut around the image and sewed it right side to right side to a coordinating piece of cat fabric.  I left a small opening for turning, snipped around the edges, and turned it.  I stuffed it, and my mom sewed the opening closed.  Easy and fast!  

It felt really good to finally make this Gracie softie since it's something that I've planned to make since O was a cat obsessed toddler who could never get very close to Gracie!

Easy Crowns for Wisemen (or Wisewomen!)

Both of my girls were wisemen in our church's Christmas program, and they were adorable!  When I first heard that they needed crowns, the thought (very briefly) flitted through my head that I could make felt crowns for them.  That thought was gone before it fully formed because the lady in charge of the play told us we could just get paper crowns from Burger King and spray paint them.  What a great idea!

Here are the Burger King crowns.





I spray painted them with metallic gold paint.





I planned to let O decorated them with jewels and glitter, but we ran out of time and I had to finish them while she was asleep.   I made some squiggles with glue and shook on gold glitter...done!  Both girls love their crowns!




The folks at Burger King gave Grandpa a stack of crowns when he stopped by last week, so I may buy silver spray paint, glue on jewels, and glitter glue for a fun activity in a few months.  Oh, and maybe I'll paint a couple of them pale blue, and we can glue shells on them when we are at the beach this summer, or we could paint them a leafy green and take them with us on a walk along with a glue stick and make an "on the go" nature crown...the possiblibities are endless.  All I know is that we are going to have fun with these crowns!

A Book Writing Center for O

While on the way home from school a few weeks ago, O was THRILLED to tell me that she is now working in the writing center.  She loves to write, so she has been anxiously awaiting her chance to work in this area of the classroom.  After hearing how excited she was to be writing, I decided to make a book writing center for her for one of her handmade Christmas gifts.   Here's what I came up with...

I bought this wooden suitcase from Hobby Lobby (I originally planned to put paper dolls in it, but hopefully I'll find another one for that purpose).  It was 50% off, so I only paid 5 dollars for it.  I cut an O from scrapbook paper and decoupaged it onto the suitcase.



I bought a bunch of these plastic pencil cases from WM when they were 25 cents each.  I put velcro on the back of it and on the inside of the suitcase to hold it up.  I filled the pencil case with stickers, mechanical pencils (O has never seen mechanical pencils, so they will be exciting for her), blank labels to use for the titles of her books, erasers, etc



Here's a picture showing the velcro on the pencil case and the suitcase.



I put a packet of lined paper in the suitcase.  O's a little young for this paper, but I know she'll be excited about it and will have fun trying it out.



She's also going to love these glittery numbers and letter stickers.



I made a bunch of scrapbook and computer paper books to add to the suitcase.  I think this will be her favorite part of the gift.  To make the books, I just cut the paper to the size I wanted, folded it in half, and then cut the computer paper to fit in it.  I planned to staple the books, but that wouldn't work.  My mom came to the rescue and sewed the pages together on the sewing machine (while I worked on a gift for E).  I tied the strings at the each end of the book, so that the binding wouldn't unravel.  Once I started making books, I couldn't stop, so I'll be able to replenish her supply often :)



These super cute erasers are a last minute addition to this kit (Thanks to Grandaddy Harry who discreetly purchased them at the Cracker Barrel and slipped them to me when O wasn't looking!).

Christmas Surprise Balls

I made Christmas surprise balls for the girls a few weeks ago, and they are nestled near the top of our tree.  O is SO excited about opening hers!   I'm going to let them open them on December 23, so they won't get overlooked in all of the Christmas excitement. 










E's center gift is a holztiger cat Holztiger Katze, klein, grau.  I started a collection of holztiger animals for her for her 1st birthday.  We gave her a giraffe since we fed giraffes on her birthday.  She'll get this cat and a zebra for Christmas, since she is obsessed with cats and she dressed as both a zebra and later a cat for Halloween.




O's center gift is a pack of silly bands, but I'm sure the chocolate will be her favorite!




I made a Valentine's Day Surprise Ball for O this year for Valentine's Day.  I explained how I made the ball and included a pic of the process in that post if you are interested in more details.