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Welcome to our new monthly feature, Handmade Monthly!
Every year, after the holidays, I think to myself that in the coming year I will make and prepare things all year to be ready for next Christmas and that will help me to take the hustle and bustle away a bit and leave time for all of the sweet, beautiful moments.
I love giving handmade gifts. I grew up with a mom who sewed, knitted and crocheted and gave a lot of handmade gifts so if I don't make a few things to give, Christmas just doesn't feel right. Afterall, handmade gifts require time, thought and effort, especially if you want them to be something that the receiver will love and use. So, because of these reasons, I talked to my girls and told them that I wanted to do a feature each month about things we can make that would make excellent gifts. They were all on board and have some great ideas for future projects! Get excited!
January's Project
January's project still has a strong Christmasy influence because we were influenced by the after Christmas sales! But, it is definitely something you could give at any time of year. I think these would make adorable bridal shower gifts.
When we were perusing the after Christmas aisles, one of the things we saw were snowflake stamped placemats. It was one of those, "How cute! I could make those for less!" moments. Then we went to the fabric store and found fabric on sale and it came to me that instead of just Christmas placemats, we could make reversible Valentine's Day/Christmas placemats instead! Double duty things are always awesome! 
I especially loved this plaid fabric that we found.
One thing I learned as I started to cut out the placemats is that while I purchased the same amount of yards of fabric, I forgot that the red was 60" wide and the plaid was 45" wide. The red was the end of a bolt, so I purchased all of it which was 1-3/4 yards. So, I purchased the same amount of the plaid. But, when I started cutting, I was able to get 10 red sections but only 6 plaid because of the difference in width. So, If I wanted to give 4 placemats as a gift, I will need to get more of the plaid fabric to make 2 gifts. If I make 10, that will leave 2 left over for me and my husband to use for a romantic Valentine's Day dinner! Ha Ha!
I had seen some really cute fabric napkin rings being sold online and I decided that I could do something similar on the Valentine's Day side of the placemats. But, I was concerned about a bulky button making a lump or scratching my table when I used the Christmas side. Then, I found these felt buttons, which were the perfect answer! I love how these built in napkin rings turned out!
Click "Read More" to go to the directions of how I made these! Let the gift making begin! (I am so excited!)
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This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for your support
I don't know if you are like me, but after I get all of the trappings of Christmas taken down and put away, I still have a pile of Christmas cards to deal with. Many of them are so beautiful, I hate to throw them away, and in the spirit of living a little greener, I like to try to recycle them. So, today, we will share some of our favorite ways! If you have any ideas to add, please let us know, we are always looking for new ideas!
Friday Faves #87-Favorite Ways to Recycle Christmas Cards!
1. For years, one of my favorite things to do with the Christmas Cards we receive is to make gift tags for next year. It is fun to cut out the cute motifs and the handmade cards are especially cute to use on packages. Just remember to put them in a place where you will find them next Christmas!
2. Of course, if we receive photo cards of family and loved ones, I like to put them in a photo album. It is fun to see how the families have grown year after year.
3. This year, on Everyday Reading, I found this really cute banner idea. Janssen used the photo cards she received to make a Valentine Banner. It was so cute. Unfortunately, I couldn't bring myself to cut the photo cards, but there were a lot of really cute cards that I used instead. I used a thicker version of baker's twine to make the banner.
I used two different sizes of heart cookie cutters to cut out the shapes.
4. A really awesome gift for young kids next Christmas, or a way to add to the Spirit of Christmas around the house, would be a book using the pictures from the cards. One year I made a Christmas ABC Book using Christmas Cards. It can be tricky coming up with a picture for every letter, but my friend had a poem that she shared with me to help me out. Unfortunately for this post, I gave that book away. But I got to thinking that it would be really cool to use the song "C is for the Christ Child" by Jim Reeves as the text for the book. If you have enough Christmas cards, you can make more than one! I put together a free printable of ideas for making this book.
Here is the PDF file to make printing easier:
It would be awesome to include the CD of the song with the book as well!
So, hopefully you can find a way to recycle those Christmas cards and get the last vestiges of Christmas put away. And, won't it be great knowing that you have a gift for the little ones, gift tags to use when wrapping and something to decorate with for Valentine's Day! Now that is thinking ahead!
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Or, in other words...
Those pictures of my son (and me) are from a year ago already! We were sending him off on his mission to Cote d'Ivoire, Africa! Wow! This first year has gone by quickly. He has one more year to go. If you want to see why he is on a mission, I wrote about it on this post.
Here is how he is looking now! He has lost weight!
He is 2nd from the left. Here with other missionaries that he is working with.
Jake is enjoying his mission so much and he is getting a lot of good work done. But, being away from home has helped him realize how blessed we are here in the States and he misses some of the food and extras that he can't get very readily over in Africa. Especially not in the small villages where he is working.
With Christmas coming, I wanted to make sure he had some greetings from home and a few of the treats that he has been missing. Luckily, Gift Baskets Overseas helped to make that possible! It all started with an email I received from them on Cyber Monday! They were waiving the delivery fee on their gift baskets! That was a great deal and so I jumped on it! If you haven't used Gift Baskets Overseas, they are a company that has many gift baskets to choose from. The gift baskets are put together and delivered in the country where your loved one is. This eliminates tariffs and fees that you otherwise have to pay when you ship things from one country to another. Those tariffs typically cost my son about $30 when he receives something delivered from the US. So, as you can see, he was able to save money right away by not having to pay any fees upon delivery. Gift Baskets Overseas are available in over 200 countries.
Here is how the simple process went when I sent Jake his package:
I knew Jake would love the peanut butter, Nutella and Dr. Pepper!
3. Next you just type in the information required about addresses, a phone number and email addresses.
It is a very simple process. Give your payment info and then order! Right now, there is a $5 USD discount code when shipping a gift basket, so be sure to enter that code when you order!
What I Loved About Working With Gift Baskets Overseas
In Africa, addresses can be tricky. I have to send things for Jake to his mission headquarters in the large city of Abidjan. Then, they will take the packages to him wherever he is working at the time. After I placed my order, I received an email telling me that they were concerned about sending the gift to a church building because it was sometimes difficult to deliver there. Doors weren't always answered, etc. I was able to contact them right back and assure them that the mission office was accustomed to accepting packages for missionaries and there shouldn't be a problem. So, they went ahead with the order. I loved that easy communication with them and the personalized service!
The package was delivered on the day that I had chosen. I know this because I received another email from them which also told me who had signed for the package. I was able to send a thank you email right back to them and send an email to my son telling him it had been delivered and who had signed for it. I was so happy when I heard that the package had been delivered in such a timely manner. But, I wondered what condition it was in when it arrived. There is chocolate in that gift basket and it is very hot in the Ivory Coast. I hoped it wasn't a melted mess. Well, today I received an email from my son, and this is what he had to say about his package. The Gift Baskets Overseas package was awesome. I got peanut butter, Nutella, sodas, peanut m&m's, pretzels, oreos, and chocolate! It was also put together really nice so everyone was jealous! lol
He also added that he really missed American candy, so he loved the candy he received. It made me so happy to hear how much he enjoyed the package and that it looked good as well as having a lot of good tasting stuff in it. (And, yes, he shared!)
So, if you have a loved one overseas, whether he is a missionary, business person, student or tourist, you can still send them holiday greetings in time for Christmas that will brighten their spirits. Just log onto Gift Baskets Overseas and choose something that they will love.
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Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to ten and counting! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, and my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! 
Click this link and visit 3WinksDesignShop on Etsy. Find our Hot Cocoa Bomb Idea Book, our For the Love of PIe e-book and more of our creations!
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