Cozy Christmas Gift Ideas

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October is here already and  that means we are getting down to the wire as far as handmade gift giving.

Using your electronic cutting machine to speed up production is a  great way to create unique gifts for everyone on your list. From T-shirts to personalized blankets you can"t go wrong with a couple of rolls of iron on vinyl and some blanks from Micheal's, Amazon

, Scrapbook.com or Dollartree.

Another great gift is a personalized planner or printed wall art. You can create these at home with your printer or save your files and have them printed at Staples.

Check the aisles at Walmart for clearance frames and laminating pouches. Use the frames for the wall art and pouches for planner covers.

The easiest and cheapest (free) software to use to create your designs is Canva. It will allow you to arrange your pictures and text in endless designs. It is super user friendly and you will be cranking out personalized designs in no time.

Another great resource if you are looking for photos to use as backgrounds is Pexels. They have thousands of royalty free images to choose from and again, it is a free resource.

If you want a more painterly background or a special font I would suggest signing up for Creative Fabrica. They send a daily email with 3 new free downloads every day. The files are usually a font, a graphic collection, and a craft file. I am thinking of using some of the cute gnomes I downloaded last week.

Remember, you don't need to break the bank to shower your friends and family with thoughtful gifts to make their Season Bright and Merry.

If you are running low on time and want to find the perfect designer purse for your sister or vintage tshirt for your nephew, be sure to check out #secondhandsunday on Poshmark November 27th, 2022.

Repurpose Old Wooden Hutch to New Doll Dreamhouse.

Hubby and I just finished of our first major creative project together (since getting married) on Friday and it is already in the hands of its new owner. We were pleased with how the end project turned out though there were times that I think one or both of us worried we would not get it done on time.

The piece was a dollhouse commissioned by a friend of a friend of my mom. I admit we really should not have taken on the job as we have several other projects on the go. There is no way of getting out of a job that you received through your mother's praising you up to her friends though.

The requirements for the piece were that it was to be solid wood,  at least 4 foot tall, doors to close it all up after playtime. Our budget was $500.

Due to Covid lumber prices have skyrocketed and a single sheet of plywood rose to $90 and we were going to need several.

We flip allot of things on Facebook marketplace and I happened to see a post for a hutch. It was perfect. At $40 the price was certainly right.

The first thing we did when we brought it home was carefully remove the glass shelves and mirrored backing. There were also some pot lights which we needed to take out.We initially thought we would keep the doors on and work with them but it was not long until we decided they were not going to work for our idea.

I remembered seeing a post on Pinterest where the lady flipped the hutch upside down to make a farmhouse cabinet. My husband was skeptical but after some discussion we decided to give it a try. Voila, we had a lovely base for the house.

My husband is a carpenter by trade so I just let him do his thing taking out the wine rack and putting in new wooden shelves. Initially we were going to put just a single peaked roof over the entire piece but inspiration struck and I asked James to cut off the top section making it two levels at the top. I thought the two seperate levels would make the roof more interesting. Once the piece was removed we suddenly realized it was the perfect place for a garden terrace for Barbie to relax on.

Once the basic shape was established Hubby built a roof for the highest surface, and large plywood doors for the two living areas. The doors swing from the centre out so that they are out of the way during playtime. He used 3 small hinges on each door just be sure that they would remain in place for many years.

The customer was purchasing this house for her 18th and final grandchild as a gift for her 6th birthday. She told us that each of the grandchildren had received a special handmade wooden toy. You know I love that kind of thing. As part of the gift the family had been collecting little pieces of carpet and bits of wallpaper from their own renovations so we were only decorating the outside of the house and priming the inside. 

We had a choice of the little girl's 2 favourite colours, purple or pink. We went with a Fushia Pink in Behr flat acrylic paint. The roof was painted black with a can of tremclad glossy black. We primed all the surfaces with a water based primer.

The window grates were made by cutting up a white basket from dollartree. After the windows were cut out to size we used gorilla glue to attach them to the wood.

After the final coat of paint (which took 2 full coats and then some touchups) I applied some cardstock stickers that I had in my craft stash using decor art decoupage glue which dries clear and matte. 

The front windows, door and porch were all painted on using lots of 3M painters tape and Folkart Acrylic paints. It did take several coats to cover the fushia paint.

BONUS

We made some furnishings before we realized the family was decorating the interior. Here is quick list of some of our creations. We used only Dollartree materials.

1. The swimming pool was made from one of the plastic containers with blue transparent lid and some acrylic paint.

2. We used one of their Jot stationary organizers covered with marble contact paper for the counter and  put it on a cabinet base made of Dollartree Jenga pieces.

3. The rooftop garden was made using one of the clear acrylic makeup organizers, some cut up scrubbing sponges, and random small floral stems.

4. The bathtub was made of a plastic drawer organizing basket with the grey grip on the bottom. I used hot glue to attach foam board as a base and then used the tiny self adhesive mirror tiles in hot pink to cover the two outside walls.

4. My favourite creation was the toilet which we made using the small flip top jars. You get 2 in a pack and I just got hubby to cut the threaded neck off one to turn upside down for the tank, the other was perfect with the lid opening and closing like a real toilet seat.  We spray painted these white to look like porcelain.

5. The final piece was the fridge, made from a clear acrylic storage container with 3 sections. I used electrical tape down one side to hold it together when it is opened and closed and the we spray painted the entire thing white.

We are really excited to find out how the birthday girl liked the dollhouse. Putting it all together turned out to be a really fun project.

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