Christmas Already?

In case you don't know me well, I love Christmas.  And crafting.  And crafting for Christmas.  Basically it is an excuse to make fun things and give them away to people I love, two of my favorite things.

You might think that having a toddler around would curtail this little hobby, but I could as soon give up air, or ice cream, as I could give up crafting.  I simply had to streamline a little and make it a year-long process.  Sounds insane, I know.  But it really isn't that bad!  Especially if you wake up dreaming of crafting and spend too much time on Pinterest like me.

Since people seemed shocked by my slightly obsessive hobby, I thought I'd write this post to give some insight into my Christmas organization.

Step 1: Make a list of the people you plan to give gifts to.  I keep mine in a Google Spreadsheet so I can access it from anywhere. 

• Column 1: Person's Name.  
• Column 2: Gift Idea #1
• Column 3: Gift Idea #2
• Etc.
• Column 6: Future Ideas(See Step 3)

Once you've make your list, you can easily copy it from one year to the next, adding and subtracting people as necessary.

Step 2: Keep your eyes and ears open.  If my husband mentions in April that he'd love a Red Ryder BB Gun, I run home and put it on my list.  If I'm passing through a store or on a website and see something my father would like, I run home and put it on the list. 

Step 3: Reduce. About mid-year, give or take a month, I start to look over my list with a critical eye.  I think about how much time each project will take and make sure I only have one or two time-consuming projects and the rest are simple.  Time consuming to me means something that cannot be completed in one 2-3 hour nap period.  Any rejected ideas are simply moved to the future ideas column and saved for next Christmas.

Step 4: Repetition.  Now that I have a bunch of feasible ideas, I start thinking about which ones can be repeated.  Example: My mother-in-law would like this idea I have for my mom if I simply use a different color.  It is usually easier to make 2 or 3 of the same thing than a bunch of different projects so I double up wherever I can. 

Step 5: Fill in the holes.  There are usually a few people that you can't accommodate using the repetition step.  You know, the picky ones that have everything.  I actively seek out ideas of these people by searching online and complete the list.  Sorry, this is just explaining how I do it.  I can't actually give you ideas for all those difficult people.

Step 6: Project List.  Working from my "people" spreadsheet, I make another spreadsheet of projects and what it will take to make them.

• Column 1: Project Name
• Column 2: Quantity
• Column 3: Goal Completion Date (See Step 8)
• Column 4: Supply #1
• Column 5: Quantity
• Column 6: Supply #2
• Column 7: Quantity
• Etc.
• Column 16: Source (example: website of original idea)

This year I decided to increase the quantity of some of my more practical projects and keep one for myself.  Might as well, eh?

Step 7: Shopping List. Copy and pasting from my project supply spreadsheet I grouped and gathered all my supplies together into one master shopping list.  Then I sorted by store.  Printed list.  Put in purse.  Now whenever I go to one of those stores I can check for sales to save money or I can buy it all at once to save time.  Depends on which one you have less of.

For fun, here is a sneak peek at my shopping list for this year.  I've blacked out a few things that might reveal too much.  But you can have fun guessing with the rest.

Step 8: Schedule. Think about which projects are time consuming or or questionable quality and should be started first.  Perhaps some are perishable and need to be done close to Christmas.  Fill in your goal completion date or month.

Note that steps 3 through 8 only take a couple days for me, mom days at that!  It is just the little bump in the road between being open to ideas and making them.

Voila!  Organized and ready to craft at a moment's notice!

Blog Change

This blog used to be a secret spot where a few friends and I could post ideas about crafts we want to make and our results. I kept it secret because I didn't want to offend people by "pirating" their craft ideas. Now that Pinterest exists and people are blatantly bookmarking sites with the sole purpose of pirating the idea, it doesn't seem necessary to keep this blog a secret. Pinterest is also an easier means of bookmarking my craft inspirations, so I'm going to re-purpose this blog to focus on the crafting process, modifications I make to existing designs, and why.

Spice Racks

This seemed like such a simple idea, but it caused me so many problems!
Anna told me about a project where you cover canvas with cute fabric and turn it into a magnetic spice rack. I ordered tins online and was able to get them for about 50 cents a piece, compared to the 2 dollars you often see in stores.
The problem was finding magnets strong enough. I finally found some at Fred Myer, though it cost $2.50 for 6 magnets and I had to glue one to the bottom of the tin and one to the back of the canvas. (Watch your polarity!)
But I think it turned out cute anyway. I printed some labels for common spices and put them in a bag on the back so the tins could be labeled appropriately.

Record Clocks

I've been playing with different ideas for clocks since this seems like one of the more unique and easy to make gift ideas. All you need is have is a hole and a way to hang it, and you can turn anything into a clock! I've seen CDs, Mac n Cheese boxes, etc.

I decided to do a few record clocks. The record hole is slightly too small to fit even the smallest clock piece I found, so I made it a tiny bit larger with a pair of scissors. I attached it to the record cover with Velcro and sewed picture hooks into the album cover with wire. The only problem I came across is that the record leaned down. So I took a foam block and glued it to the clock piece to help the record stick out level.
Nothing is directly attached to the record, so all you have to do is unscrew the clock piece if you wanted to play it. I don't think I enlarged the hole enough to cause a problem.

Latch Hook

I found a latch hook of a sheep dog that I worked on in high school while cleaning out my craft supplies. I turned it into a pillow for my in-laws since they love sheep dogs. They have a lot of neat designs for latch hooks at Michael's. This is a nice alternative to cross stitch with a sort of similar pointillism look.
Now Meghann has an alternative napping companion. :)

Tea Cups

Anna, Nicole and I saw this idea at a craft fair...oh...a year and a half ago. I have been on the look out for cute tea cups ever since. The tea cups are all thrift store finds. This makes them unique and less expensive, but I was surprised to find they are still pretty pricey - $2 to $7 each with the average around $5.

On a pole in the yard with bird seed:
The pole is made of metal that my dad cut for me. We thought it was copper and would be easy to cut, but it turns out there was a steel center. Yikes! So I need to find an alternative for next time. There is a little copper cap on the bottom so you can take the tea cup off for washing and refilling.

I also modified the design for people without yards. On a hanging chain with a plant:The chain is just a bulk cut from the local hardware store, attached with epoxy and a key ring to hang from. It was hard to center the three chains and get them to stay in place while the epoxy dried. But I'm sure it was easier than cutting those poles!

Chalk Board

Cleaning out your craft supplies inspires lots of need ideas. Here is a chalk board I made yesterday without buying any new supplies. Now I have a place to make a list of current projects since I've got about a million different things in process right now.