Craftyness for Christmas!

So this Christmas, my teenage daughters and I bonded and had fun doing some crafts together for Christmas gifts.  So I will start with my big project which totally involved all three of us and lots of patience.  So let me start with a little history of why.

 

In 2014 my wonderful empty nesters of In-laws decided to become foster parents.  God put 4 little children into their lives overnight.  They are a challenge and a lot of work.  Their ages ranged from 3months old to 7yrs. old, and they come from a horrific background of abuse.  We have all as a family, pitched in and helped them out whenever we can and have truly loved on them as if they were our own.  Well, there is a chance that they may be leaving our family soon, after having them for nearly 9 months.  So I wanted to make something of a "keepsake" of these children for my in -laws.  All I could think of doing was, salt dough handprints and putting them into a shadow box frame with some kind of quote on the glass, in vinyl.  So we "borrowed" each child for a few hours to let them put their handprint into the dough, then once they were baked, we let them paint them up the way they wanted (except the baby of course).  The amazing part was that none of the kids squealed at all for almost 2 weeks before Christmas.  It was a total surprise for my in-laws!  Their was not a dry eye in the room, and even now I still tear up a bit, remembering their reaction to it.  The kids were very proud of their handprints too.  The quote says: "You've held our hands for a little while, but our hearts forever..."  So here is a few pictures of the work we put into this wonderful project for some AMAZING in-laws!

                      

                      

I think they liked it!

 

Now onto our other projects!

My oldest daughter is very close to her cousins and has a great relationship with them all, but one of them just recently got married very quickly due to her fiancé being deployed.  I posted about their wedding day in a previous post here: Wedding Bells.  My niece greatly misses her husband and only gets to talk to him maybe once a week.  So we wanted to make something extra special for her and her special day.  So she decided to make her coasters that we decoupaged some wedding pictures to some tiles and sealed them with a clear coat and put adhesive felt on the back to protect the table surfaces.  We also, made a monogram for 2 of them on my Cricut Explore, with vinyl and did the same of sealing them too.  They turned out beautiful!  My niece cried when she saw the pictures and so did we.  This Christmas was full of sentimental gifts for many!  Check them out!

Aren't they beautiful!

 

Anyways, next she wanted to make the same thing for one of her other cousins that she is really close to, also!  But she kept it simple, yet they turned out so beautiful too!  We just decoupaged some pretty paper to the tiles and then did her monogram on 2 and then her name on the other 2 with my Cricut Explore.  I really liked them so much, I wanted to keep them, except that none our names are Kimberly!  That would be a little weird!  LOL

Anyways, here they are!

Aren't they adorable!

 

Okay the next project she did was for another cousin that she is very close to, also!  I know, I know, how many can she possibly have that she is really close to?  Well, there is just the three.  So this is the last of these!  LOL  She went a little different route on this one, a very fun and creative one.  This particular cousin is always posting private messages back and forth and sharing funny little videos on Instagram.  The three are all from one side of my family and they are more like best friends than cousins.  Anyways, she came up with the idea to make up a frame to look like Instagram and they even have their own cute little hash tag!  So here is her adorable frame that she painted up and then I made their hash tag up on my Cricut Explore in vinyl.  I think it also, turned out so cute!  She did a fantastic job!

 

Here it is with the my daughter on the left and two of her cousins!  Didn't it turn out so cute!

 

We did several other little projects, but I think you get the point that we were very busy, and had a wonderful Christmas with everyone!

Again, thanks for stopping in and seeing what we did this year for Christmas.  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that your New Year will be filled with many blessings!