more christmas crafting

I'm posting a few more pics of my Christmas crafting spree.

This first craft are necklaces that I made for my Activity Girls. I have 22 girls so I needed an inexpensive idea as well as I wanted something somewhat religious to give them. So, I made them 'washer' necklaces. I used metal washers from Home Depot in 2 different sizes and then used a metal stamp set that I found @ harbor freight tools (for only about $8.00) and with a lot of hammering I eventually ended up with 22 of these necklaces. I whacked my hand a lot! My thumb still bears one pretty decent whack. This is a tricky but inexpensive gift to make and I had a lot of fun. Sarah was so intrigued that she made some for her friends. I found the idea here but I didn't follow their instructions exactly. If I were to do these again I would follow these instructions to darken the lettering so it's easy to see. I think I want to experiment some more. With the exception of nearly taking off my thumb it was a lot of fun. I think before I do it again I want to get a small anvil to work on. I used a larger hammer with a flat area to whack against but it was such a small area. I would have worked outside but it's been sooooo cold. You really do need a very hard surface to whack against. I also found another cute 'washer' idea that's not nearly as deadly but it is quite inexpensive. I want to try this one next with all of my 'mistake' washers. Oh, and in case you're wondering what the necklaces say? the small one says CTR and the larger one has their names on it. They actually turned out really clear and quite cute, you just can't see them clearly in this picture. On the Sunday after Christmas I saw that several of my girls were wearing their necklaces.

So, my last little 'crafty' idea....(I did lots of others but I don't know if I want to blog about them...I want to keep some secrets to myself...he, he, he). My favorite part of our holiday season is Johnny and my gift tags. John's not big on love letters or even sweet talk. He's quiet self contained but when he gives me my Christmas gifts he writes silly/sweet little things like 'to my sweetie pie, from your honey bun'...goofy but cute! I always keep his tags (except this year, they disappeared and I grieve)...anywhooo...I made his tags this year using my handy dandy little cricut machine. The one I'm showing you here was almost 5" square so it was a big tag (it was a coat, that didn't fit him, that we returned and got him some clothes...). This is a simple tag but there is something so precious to me about being able to make something for my honey, even if it's just a tag. (oh, and the tag says 'to Johnny Baby from Santa's favorite helper...this is the more PG of the tags....LOVE THAT MAN!!)