Handmade Gift Challenge 2011 Roundup

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been sharing all of the handmade Christmas gifts I made last year. I did more batching of gifts this year (making the same thing for two or more people). That did help both to speed up the actual gift making and also eased the stress of coming up with more ideas.

I started in full force in October and I’m so glad I did because it allowed me to finish early. The week before Christmas was actually relaxing! (A novel concept, I know!)

Forgive me as you’ve seen most of these not that long ago, but I wanted to collect them up in one post.

Ugly craft makeover: House shelf turned toddler dollhouse

Simple hand painted peg dolls

Kid-painted Christmas tree ornaments

Record cabinet makeover: Scratched to basic black

More abstract kid art (Now trimmed with yard sticks!)

Personalized iron-on label pillow

Mod Podged tile map coasters

Reusable cloth napkins for everyday use + FREE printable tag

Back-painted mirrored year painting

Countertop sample wall art

U.S.A. map blankets + FREE printable tag

Boxy fabric tote bags

Geeky TARDIS tote bag

Fabric wrapped photo frame

Rusty junk art

2 Quick and easy semi-handmade tiny gifts for kids

In addition to all the above, I also made a couple of photobooks of Elise for our dads, continuing the tradition I started in 2009. I like to use photos all from one photo session on each page or spread, and the pages below are representative of the entire book.

This collage technique has been really helpful as it’s hard to get a single great photo of a small child. But she’s getting older and it’s getting easier to get good photos, so next year I may just do a book of full page photos.

This is the last year in my self-imposed challenge. While I do think I will continue to make some gifts, I don’t think I will force myself to come up with something for every member of my family. If ideas come easily, then I’ll be happy to execute them. But ideas for some (mainly the men) are harder to come by, so I’m not going to stress about it.