DIY Presents for the Kiddies....

As a rule, I don't usually plan on making gifts for people... while I don't have a ton of money, I have even less time and usually it just works better to buy something than wrestle with my feeble attempts at crafting. However, thanks to Pinterest and my own misguided confidence I decided to attempt a few (not all, silly) DIY gifts.

A few months ago, I saw a DIY Christmas tree shirt posted on Pinterest (which I cannot find for the life of me, since apparently I didn't repin it at the time) but I have had it on the back burner for a while now to try for my little people (Emily, Leslie, and Steven). Finally I got around to buying the stuff, fired up the hot glue gun, and went at it Saturday afternoon. (This was AFTER I perused a few tutorials that all called for sewing which I don't do so the glue gun was option number only.) 

I got the little spools of $1 ribbon from Target and the black shirts from Walmart for less than $4.

I just eyeballed the length of the ribbon before arranging it into a tree shape. Oh, the glittery buttons were from Walmart too ($1.97 for about 10 of them in various sizes... I used the largest size.) Oh, and if you use a lighter to singe the ends of the ribbons, it helps keep it from fraying. Neato, huh? I actually managed not to set them on fire. =)

Baby Steven's is masculine... no glitter here! =)

The three of them together! I really like how they turned out!

I went with black shirts because I knew that the munchkins would ruin white in about .4 seconds but after a few minutes I started to regret the choice of black to because it draws in lint like a magnet. Maybe red or green would have been a better choice? Oh well... hindsight and all that. 

I actually enjoyed this project and it cost less than $5 per kid so that's not bad... they sell on Etsy for a lot more than that! Of course, those are made by skilled seamstresses who don't have to stop every few minutes to blow on their singed fingers due to their inept use of a glue gun. They'd look a lot better if you can sew (how cute would your cherubs be in these, Grace? =) but even if I only get one good use out of these I guess it'll be okay. Now if I can only get all three kids in the shirts, smiling, and with no snot or crumbs anywhere.

 Perhaps that's wishful thinking? I believe it is. (Though constraining them in makeshift cages formed from laundry baskets helps.)

Any Christmas crafts out there that you're itching to try? 

(Auntie) Ash