handmade Christmas 2014

 My list of handmade Christmas presents this year has several that still need to be crossed off.  I just couldn't find the time to sneak and make this year.

But my favorite gift was these ninja peg people for Diego.

There are red belts and black belts and their little expressions are each different no matter how hard I tried to make them all the same.  I peeked in on Diego at one point Christmas afternoon, and he was playing away with them.  

He loves this snow mask I made for him.  I believe he feels like a ninja in it.  The pattern is very simple and can be found at Make It-Love It, if you'd like to give it a try.

Joaquin made his brother a bean bag toss game and Isabela made him some slime.  We all think Diego is the easiest to make gifts for because he just loves everything!

Isabela's gift wasn't made by me, but by a creative mom on Etsy.  Two bracelets...one says Divergent and the other says Dauntless...what she'd like to be if she was in the Divergent series.

Joaquin and Juan Pablo got some t-shirts I freezer paper stenciled.  I told the kids about the idea to make JP one that said COACH.  He's been Diego's coach at soccer for several seasons, and he's been helping Joaquin's travel team in the off-season by holding weekly trainings.  The kids came up with Joaquin's shirt after that.  Joaquin said, "I want one that says PLAYER!"  And I'm thinking, 'he doesn't even know what the word player means, and what kind of mom would I be if I made him a shirt like that'?

It turns out, I didn't know what the word 'player' means: soccer player, of course!

Juan Pablo really helped me out with these shirts.  I don't have a craft knife and was simply using scissors to cut the freezer paper.  He came along with a box cutter and patiently finished cutting out the design.  That's why they turned out so good.  Then I told him about the Silhouette machine that can cut all kinds of designs for you.  (Good gift idea for me!)  And later, we got caught up looking at screen printing t-shirt videos on youtube.  People are so creative!

And this was the first gift I started this year and never finished.  We have a wooden train track that never gets played with, and I thought if I fancied it up, who could resist?  It didn't work.  Still no one plays with it.

Carmen just kept pulling the tracks apart.

I may still finish it and give it away.

Sweet Isabela made her own pattern for a stuffed animal for Carmen, and sewed it all herself.  Carmen was a little scared of it, but I think it's growing on her.  

She also made a puff ball bookmark for Joaquin and gave it to him with the new Wimpy Kid book.  Great choice for this book lover!

I still have a long list of gifts to make...a stuffed whale for Diego, pj pants for Carmen and Isabela, a rag doll for Carmen....maybe by next Christmas.  Joaquin finally got his totem pole pillow I'd been promising him since last Christmas.  He opened it on Christmas Eve and LOVED it!

And so the tradition continues.