Gifts for Secret Santa Exchange

Hello!

We're back to the school routine over here, as of yesterday, and I'm trying my best to get back into the swing of things. It doesn't help that I'm a bit (a lot) sleep-deprived due to getting sucked into yet another dystopian trilogy. Oh, how I love to read with my little Kindle, but I need to stop staying up so late!

I've been going through all my photos from the holiday season and realized I made quite a few gifts this year! I will start by showing you what I made for a handmade Secret Santa gift exchange with a group of mama friends.

In this exchange, we all provide some helpful tips and personal information about our tastes and wishes to help guide our Secret Santa. Among other info, my gift recipient said she would love a new scarf and small jewelry, and adored the smell of lavender. I focused on those points as I made my gifts:


- A pair of earrings

I made these with sterling silver and jade beads (at least I think they are jade, salvaged from a former bracelet) from my stash. It was fun to make jewelry again, it had been a while. There was a time in my twenties when I made new pieces almost every day!




- An infinity scarf

This scarf features voile by Anna Maria Horner on one side and double cotton gauze in a light shade of coordinating chartreuse on the other side (Angel, do you recognize the style, I made yours at the same time!). I actually made quite a few infinity scarves for Christmas this year and will share more tomorrow.




- Lavender dryer bags

These are so easy! I use reusable cotton tea bags, fill them with drier lavender and zigzag-stitch them shut. I then create a little pocket out of pretty fabric and stuff the tea bag in it, then top-stitch them closed. You can throw one of these in the dryer with your wet clothes and your laundry will come out smelling lovely! Multiple uses for each bag until the scent disappears.






- Scrappy Stocking Ornaments

I used my own tutorial to make some little ornaments for her! I kind of like this non-traditional color scheme, what do you think?




I also threw in some homemade cookies. And that was it! I hope my recipient enjoyed her Secret Santa gifts!!

I myself received some pretty cool handmade Secret Santa gifts, including a large button trivet similar to this one on MAKE. I love it!


Did you guys participate in any handmade exchanges this holiday season? What did you make? What did you receive?!

New Year's Giveaway!

Happy New Year!!

I hope you're all well on this first day of the year. I'm so excited to get back to the blog with a huge giveaway!!

My entire family has been sick since the beginning of Christmas break, so our holidays have been extremely low-key. This means, however, that I had time to clean up, organize and purge. I went through my entire fabric stash a few days ago and decided to be ruthless. I filled an entire garbage bag with miscellaneous fabrics I hadn't used or thought of using in over a year. The bag is going to my teenage neighbor who is currently learning how to sew!




When purging, I also took out several cuts of designer fabrics, and decided to give them away! See above, these are all gorgeous prints and I hope they will go to someone who loves them as much as I do!! Since I was planning a big giveaway, I also decided to throw in some books! Lark Crafts generously sends us books to review on a regular basis and I have so many, it's time to share!

B is for Bookmarks

Hello Angel,

I hope you're feeling better! Things are so busy here, preparing for Christmas, shipping orders from my shop, etc, that I haven't had a chance to breathe deep and fully process the tragedy in Newtown, CT.

There are so many wonderful, eloquent, thoughtful essays and articles out there about it that I don't feel the need to add more to the mix. Let it be said though, that I have not cried so much and so uncontrollably in a long time, probably since I was severely depressed a decade ago. This horrible event seems to be affecting everyone more deeply than previous similar occurrences. Probably because of the shattered innocence. My personal processing mechanism is to focus on the productive and the positive (which is why you've seen "regular" posts around here) so I've been trucking along, trying to deal as best as I can.




My lovely friend Rachael told me about ABC's Of Love: 26 Ways To Pass It On, a blog project she is working on along with other crafty friends, to encourage all of us to find simple ways to share love within our families and communities. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to channel some of my sorrow for the victims and their loved ones into a productive and positive endeavor. I decided to contribute B for Bookmarks, and share a simple project I worked on with a class of kindergartners on Friday, weirdly enough, at the exact same time I found out about the Newtown massacre.

The curriculum in Ben's kindergarten class is project-based. Their current project is "Fabrics around the world". They've talked about different fabrics, their texture and purpose. Because of my "expertise", I was invited by the teacher to do a little presentation and a project. We focused on quilts, patchwork and the amazing possibilities of fabric scraps! I had prepped a little project the previous day, and we made fabric bookmarks with the kids. They could either keep their bookmark for themselves, or give it as a gift -- and they unanimously chose gift-giving. So sweet!

Here are the 2 bookmarks I made beforehand and brought as examples:

December Sponsors: Christmas Shopping!

Happy Sunday!

In this last stretch before Christmas, there is still time to get awesome gifts for the crafty person in your life (or spend that Christmas cash on some crafty goodness for yourself!). Please welcome back our lovely sponsors for December: Drygoods Design Online, Fat Quarter Shop, Felt on the Fly and Sew Well Maide, !

Here are some gift ideas from these wonderful businesses. We hope you'll check out what they have to offer and consider them for your holiday shopping!


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My gift selections at Drygoods Design would include a fat quarter bundle of Notting Hill by Joel Dewberry, a few yards of that amazing metallic gold linen, a couple of Orla Kiely plant pots, and a gift certificate for good measure!




For you Seattle locals, how about some classes at the brand new make*do*mend studio? I had the pleasure of touring the space last week and it is absolutely fabulous!


You can find Keli and Drygoods Design Online here:
Shop -- Blog -- Facebook -- Twitter -- Pinterest

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Craft Fair Tips From a First-Timer

Hi Angel,

I am sorry to hear you're sick. I hope it's a quick bug! We're staying in this weekend, for the most part. The kids both have a cold and it's sleeting outside, so we're painting ornaments, making a gingerbread house and will probably bake Christmas cookies tomorrow. After the horror of yesterday, I just want to snuggle my babies this weekend.

Let's focus on something positive, shall we? As you know, I participated in my first craft fair here in Seattle last weekend, the Holiday Arts + Crafts Open House, and thought I would share photos and tips from my experience! It went so well, I was super happy.




Do some research and prepare

First off, if it's your first time doing a craft fair, do some research and prepare! I am so thankful you reminded me of that, Angel. I looked up the tips you had mentioned on Lupin Handmade and from there, read more via this list of links on Handmadeology. Extremely helpful! I made lists, I made plans, and felt empowered.

My Latest Burlap Art

Hi there!

I'm emerging from craft fair prep to say hello for a bit! I have been creating a lot of burlap art lately and realized I haven't shared any photos in a long time.

This is a bit of an easy post for me, but hopefully you will enjoy looking at photos of my latest creations! ;) I've branched out a little for some of them, it's been fun. (You can read more details about that on my other blog here.)

Here they are:














These last two are in my shop on Etsy, just click on the photo to get to the listing.

I will be participating in the Holiday Arts + Crafts Open House at Red Square Yoga in Seattle, WA this coming Saturday afternoon (December 8, 12:30-6:30PM). I would LOVE to see you there if you're local (I'm so nervous, it's my first craft fair ever!!). There should be lots of beautiful handmade gifts for sale. Here's the flyer.




For timely updates on my business-y projects, you can "like" the Jenny Bartoy ~ Handmade Designs page on Facebook here. It takes me a while to share recent projects on Stumbles & Stitches sometimes.


What are you working on these days? Ornaments, gifts, decorations? Do you have tips for success at craft fairs? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

I've Been Knitting!

Hi Angel,

I'm thinking about you this week and I hope you can feel some big virtual hugs coming from Washington. I know you've had a lot on your plate emotionally and otherwise, and I wish I could be there in person to relieve you a bit and provide some concrete support. Sigh. I look forward to 2013, as we will hopefully see each other then!

November and December are always so busy with all the year-end preparations and festivities. Having a small handmade business has added to the stress. Sometimes I feel like just throwing it all away and focusing on my family and relaxing instead. And other times, I remember that you have to work hard to get somewhere with, well, anything, and I power through another stressful but hopefully productive creative day. I am trying to crank out a lot of stuff for that Holiday Arts + Crafts Open House in Seattle and honestly, it's kicking my butt.

Anyway... I recently was going through my pictures and realized I never shared all the projects I've been knitting in recent months! That's right. After the frustrating half-fiasco of the fingerless gloves, I took a break from knitting but started up again to make a blanket for a special baby in early summer.