Cobblestones & Ivy: gift ideas

Showing posts with label gift ideas. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

rice heating pads

What do you do when it looks like this outside?

It had just started snowing and the snowflakes were HUGE, and after it came down like this all day there were several inches of it on the ground. Sounds like a good day to stay home and craft! And since it was so cold, my mind was on ways to try and stay warm.

This is not a new idea, but it's something I made for the first time. My Valentine gets cold easily (we're the reverse of most couples when it comes to body temperature, I don't get cold that easily and he likes to keep the heat at 80), so for Valentine's Day I decided to make him some of those rice filled fleece heating pad things. I don't know what they're called, so that's my technical term :)

I wanted to make a few different sizes so they could be used for different purposes, and this is what I ended up with. I think the 2 bigger sizes would work well for taking to bed at night or just for having by your feet watching TV, and the 2 small ones are for coat pockets.

To give you an idea how big they are...

So basically, cut 2 pieces of fleece in whatever size you want and sew them together leaving an opening to turn it right side out. Use that opening to fill them with rice, and then stitch it shut! It's that easy, and I know he's going to love them on Valentine's Day!

Monday, January 9, 2012

chevron pattern crocheted blanket

This is a blanket I made for my sister for Christmas. I love to crochet and had done lots of blankets, scarves, and hats before but this one was new for me because I had never done a chevron pattern. I watched this video on YouTube and I was off! It took a few rows to really get used to it but after that it was really pretty easy and I LOVE how it turned out. So much that I might have to do one I can keep for myself.

Here's a close up so you can see the colors and the stitches a little bit better. It's just double crochets, and the yarn colors are Red Hart soft white, Red Hart coffee, Vanna's Choice charcoal grey, and Vanna's Choice silver heather.

And while we're talking about crocheting, here are a few other things I've done. I've made several different hat patterns but this one is by far my favorite. (It's a free Lion Brand pattern and you can find it here if you're interested.) Sorry it's kind of hard to see the details in the picture. This is me in China a few months ago and the picture was of the building behind me, not the hat :)

This is the same pattern, but on this one I put a bow instead of a flower. Obviously it's on the other side of my head and you can't see it in this picture. What you can see is the nasty fish head I was pretending to eat (this is also in China)

Same one but in this shot you can also see the matching scarf I made to go with the hat (still China)

And please ignore the awful lighting in this one. My friend and I look horrible, but look! It's the hat again in purple. And yes, that's still China. I wore a lot of hats in China :)

These next 3 pictures are just some close ups of some other hat styles I've done and some flowers.

You might say I'm hooked on crochet :)

Linked to

Randee's Organized Chaos

Thursday, January 5, 2012

button monograms

I wasn't going to do a top 10 or best of post since I just started my blog in October, but I just looked at my stats and there are 3 projects I've done that have gotten so much attention that I decided to highlight them again. Based on page views, here are your favorites of 2011:

#3 ruffle shirt

#2 button snowflake

#1 (by far) glass block snowman

Thanks for all of your sweet comments on these!

Now on to the button monograms. I made these for Christmas gifts and they were fun and easy, but most importantly they were very well received!

I made this one for my mom. The M is for our last name, but I guess it could be for mom too :)

A close up of some of the buttons and the pretty paper. Since the frame is fairly simple, I decided to use a variety of different buttons and ended up going with a metallic sort of look.

This one was for a friend whose first and last names start with A

Since this frame is more ornate, I decided to go with simpler buttons. You can see here that I stacked some of them to add a little bit of texture.

A frame, a piece of scrapbook paper, some buttons, and hot glue are all you need to make a personalized gift that anyone would love!

Linked to

The Shabby Nest

30 Handmade Days

Thrifty Decor Chick

The Shabby Creek Cottage

My Romantic Home

Not JUST a Housewife

Thursday, December 1, 2011

apothecary jar with changeable filler

A few days ago when I showed you some of my Christmas decorations I showed you this lantern filled with ornaments. My sister gave it to me last year for Christmas and I love it. I love being able to change it easily for the different holidays and seasons.

Before the ornaments it had these pumpkins and gourds in it for fall. See? It's cute no matter what it's filled with.

I needed to think of a birthday gift for a friend a couple of months ago and I like giving gifts that are either something I have and love or something I would love to have, so I decided to do something along the same lines. I remembered seeing these fabric covered styrofoam balls on Landee See Landee Do here and here and I knew they would be the perfect filler (even the same lantern in the first one!):

I covered a bunch of styrofoam balls in some cute fabric I had from a quilt I made a few years ago, and then instead of buying the same lantern that I have (IKEA is far away) I found this apothecary jar that I am so in love with. It's 20 inches tall and the instant I saw it I had millions of ideas flooding through my mind.

Look how cute it turned out!

It looks kind of springy with all the pastels, but I figure she's set for spring and since there are a few different colors she can use all or some of them at a time depending on the holiday or season. (For Valentine's Day she can mix the pink balls in with some pink and red hearts, for example.)

She loved it and it was such a fun gift to give!

Have you ever bought a gift for someone and loved it so much that you kept it for yourself and bought them something else? No? Just me? One year I did that with a purse I bought for my sister for Christmas. I confess. If the apothecary jar I gave my friend looks familiar, it's because I fought the urge to do the same thing again by just going back and buying another one for myself. Far less selfish :)

Right now it's filled with bells!

Is there something you love that would make a good gift this Christmas?

Linked to

The Shabby Creek Cottage

Between U & Me

Monday, October 31, 2011

candy dish

I have been inspired by all the things other people have made out of dollar or thrift store candlesticks and jars, so of course I had to copy them and make one of my own! My thrift store didn't have any good jars when I went though, so I bought a bowl instead and made a candy dish!

The bowl and candlestick were $1 each at DI (which by the way is comparable to Walmart on a Saturday. I almost suffocated) and the wood base was $1.27 with a 20% coupon at Jo Ann. The E-6000 was $3.99 with the coupon, but I only used a little bit and have tons left over for other projects. The spray paint I already had.

So first I glued the candlestick to the base. And almost died from inhaling the E-6000. That stuff is brutal. The rest of this little project was completed outside.

I forgot to take a picture, but I spray painted the bottom part before I glued the bowl on.

When I got to this point I decided it needed something to fill in some of the space on the wood base, so I added some beads.

Easy!

I love the simplicity of something like this. So far I have had different kinds of candy in it, but after the holidays I might fill it with something other than candy. Something like this would also be a cute gift idea. The possibilities are endless!

Linked to

What's in the Gunny Sack?