Blacksburg Belle

  • Home
  • New? Start Here!
  • FAQ
  • Shop
    • Courses
    • Get My Book
    • Sunday Society
  • Speaking
  • About
  • Connect
  • Blog

A Handmade Christmas, Part 1

- December 28, 2012 | by April -

HomemadeGifts3

This year, I set out to make as many of our gifts as possible. My theme of a handmade Christmas made everyone feel warm and fuzzy, and my parents said it was one of their most favorite holidays of all time. Today, I’m sharing pictures of the handmade presents.

Above, there’s a pic of the pumpkin cookies we made for all the dogs in the family. Between us and our parents, there are nine of them! We bought the jars from Walmart, I made the labels, and my husband made the actual cookies.

I squealed when I stumbled upon this tutorial for “polaroid” coasters and I immediately decided to add it to my handmade gift list:

HomemadeGifts2

HomemadeGifts1

I was inspired to make some peppermint foot scrub {tutorial found here}, lemon cupcake body scrub, and brown sugar lip scrub for all the ladies in the family:

HomemadeGifts4

HomemadeGifts5

HomemadeGifts6

These mugs stole my heart and it was such a simple DIY that I created some at the last minute for the coffee and tea lovers in the family:

HomemadeGifts7

And, I saved my favorite for last. I picked out pictures that I knew certain people would love, got them printed off at Staples and then transferred them onto canvas. I loooooooooved the way they turned out:

HomemadeGifts8

HomemadeGifts10

HomemadeGifts9

What about you? Did you end up making any Christmas gifts this year?

15 Comments · Filed Under: Creativity, DIY, Handmade, Holiday

Comments

  1. Kathleen Lange Klik says

    December 28, 2012 at 9:37 am

    What fantastic gifts! Looks and sounds like you had a wonderful Christmas, sharing your creativity with your family. I would love to hand make all of my gifts…maybe some year! Thanks for the links to the tutorials.

    Reply
    • April says

      December 28, 2012 at 9:53 am

      Thanks Kathleen! I love giving handmade gifts. I think it makes the other person feel extra special. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Vanessa says

    December 28, 2012 at 1:43 pm

    Wow!! Everything you made is AWESOME!!! Lately my boyfriend is into making wine and raw crackers (an odd mix! I know 🙂 and I like inventing tea blends. So we decided to make gift baskets full of edibles, Port wine, 2 kinds of raw crackers and handmade tea bags http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2011/09/loose-leaf-tea-make-your-own-tea-bags-.html
    And I’m still working on some presents for my friends that I will be seeing on New Years Eve, jewelry and paintings 🙂 Thanks for the inspiration…just pinned a bunch of your pics on Pinterest!! 🙂

    Reply
  3. Sage says

    December 29, 2012 at 12:45 am

    Great ideas. You must have been working on these homemade presents all month. But we already know you’re super productive. I love the photos on canvas, especially since you made them black and white.

    Reply
    • April says

      January 4, 2013 at 5:00 pm

      I did work on them off and on a lot during December…but it was fun.

      Reply
  4. Ruth says

    December 30, 2012 at 9:25 pm

    What awesome gifts!! You never cease to inspire me. I love the Polaroid coasters, and I’m actually very curious as to how you transferred photos onto canvas? What an amazing effect!

    Reply
    • April says

      January 4, 2013 at 5:01 pm

      Thanks Ruth! I’ll share the canvas transfers as a DIY soon. 🙂

      Reply
  5. Laila @OnlyLaila says

    December 31, 2012 at 11:21 am

    Those are awesome gifts to give year round. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • April says

      January 4, 2013 at 5:01 pm

      Thanks!

      Reply
  6. tabassum says

    January 2, 2013 at 5:47 am

    I thought that this year I would make our holiday Eid this coming August ( we don’t celebrate Xmas) handmade. It’s always more warm+fuzzy when gifts and decorations come from the heart. I’m already getting a jump on it now. Will you be posting DIY blog posts for these?

    Reply
    • April says

      January 4, 2013 at 5:01 pm

      Some I will, but I’ve linked to the tutorials for the projects I found on the web.

      Reply
  7. Dana says

    January 4, 2013 at 4:57 pm

    These are all amazing!! LOVE the pumpkin dog cookies! Would love to make some of those for my dog loving friends next Christmas! 🙂

    Reply
    • April says

      January 4, 2013 at 5:02 pm

      Thanks Dana! Our dogs looooooove the pumpkin cookies!

      Reply
  8. Jacky says

    July 31, 2013 at 6:21 pm

    Hi April

    I would love the recipe for the pumpkin cookies … would you care to share it with us? Thank you!

    Reply
    • April says

      August 2, 2013 at 3:20 pm

      Hey Jacky! It’s not my recipe to share. I got it out of The Organic Dog Biscuit Cookbook. I highly recommend that book–we use it all the time! 🙂

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Blogging for Business

Get in Touch

Get a FREE Copy Here

Follow April on Twitter Follow April on Facebook Follow April on Pinterest Follow April on Youtube Follow April on Instagram
Get Weekly Inspiration to Design a Business You Love
read our privacy policy

Get in Touch
Get in Touch

Blacksburg Belle. All Rights Reserved.© 2021 · Designed by Amanda Creek Creative On the Genesis Framework

Get Weekly Inspiration to Design a Business You Love
read our privacy policy
We use cookies on this website. Read our cookie policy here.