My "Thrifty" Christmas!

One of my favorite website currently is YouCanMakeThis.com. On their blog they have been running a little contest called "Thrifty Under Fifty." There are fifty participants that are creating as many of their Christmas gifts for under fifty dollars as they can. I didn't make it on a team this year. . . maybe next. But I have done a few little thrifty Christmas creations myself. The first on my list was to make a Christmas tree. Yes, you heard me right, a Christmas tree. We don't have much space or money, so Kira, Kamber and I created our own. We used some fabric glue and glued various pieces of fabric on cardstock to look kind of like a patchwork tree. I then used the tutorial on Martha Stewart http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/article/pom-poms-and-luminarias to make tissue paper pom-poms. It ended up being kind of cute. . . in a very out-of-the-ordinary sort of way. Take a look at the finished product.

It works. . .

One of the gifts that I created for a friend's birthday party was a pattern from YouCanMakeThis.com. Kind of a fun toy. . .

Play food made from felt! Cool! Now, if I was really on top of things, I would have added an apron and matching chef's hat. . . maybe next year.

Now, a gift for Mama and Papa that the girls can help with. . . we created a calendar for them. We used a calendar from the dollar store and glued over the pictures with our own. The girls thought it was WAY fun (their words!).

We even found some time to make some gifts for the area hospitals. These are little dolls that kids at a local hospital use to understand their illnesses, etc. Kira and Kamber helped me stuff them for family home evening.

And that is about it. My list was MUCH longer, but that is all I accomplished. Maybe when I don't have a nursing baby, a husband graduating, company. . . oh, wait! That is just life, isn't it?

I do have one more project that I made in years past that I wanted to share. I got the idea from Brandon's Grandma Payzant. I haven't come up with a cutesy name for it yet (maybe "Betty's Ornament Carousel?" What do you think?), but basically it is a lazy susan with ornaments and blocks all over it-- a great way to display some of the ornaments you don't use on your tree! Take a look:

And the other side:

It is one of my favorite Christmas decorations and the girls love it, too. So many fun things to look at.

Well, that about wraps up my Christmas creativity. (sigh) I wish this post was twice as long! All I want for Christmas is more free time!!! ;0)