Homespun :: Baby Blessing Pockets

Please note:  These pockets contain baby blessings written by and used with permission from Kelli Shockey

Homespun :: Baby Blessing Book

Please note:  These book contains baby blessings written by and used with permission from Kelli Shockey

I have had the opportunity lately to make some baby blessing keepsakes for some of the women in my Mom's group. The blessings, which were written by somebody else, are just sweet little prayers for the new arrival - it covers almost everything! I've done the keepsake a few different ways - a few times I did a decorative pocket with the matted blessings tucked inside and then other times, just matted each blessing on some nice paper. This time, I wanted to bring out the big guns: Chipboard Coasters.

I have been wanting to make a Chipboard Coaster book for awhile, but I never get around to it. So here was my opportunity.

The thing I love about doing stuff like this is there are NO RULES! I've seen tutorials on how to do it - but if you know me, you know I'm a CRAFTING REBEL! I rebel against the tutorial...I go my own way.

Each page of the book has kind of a different look, different colors - I'm all over the place. I wanted kind of a distressed look, so I sanded things, painted, stamped, deckle cut, etc. The topper was I modge podged each coaster. I can't help myself with the podge...if I could, I would podge everything. I love the podge. My favorite part is peeling it off my fingers. Anyway - had a small moment of trepidation with the podge on this project....halfway through I wish that I hadn't gone to the podge, but in the end I think it worked ok.

The book is kept together with some twine, which is reinforced with.....you guessed it....a little podge. It's probably not as good as all those tutorial books that are out there, but hey - it's handmade with love. I hope the recipient is blessed.

Welcome to this world, little Jordan!

Homespun :: Flip a verse book

Someone I know is turning another year older...and, unfortunately for her it happens a few days after Christmas. As if that wasn't enough, it's 1 day before the birthday of her eldest child. Bummer.

Well, I can't change those circumstances but I thought I'd try to smooth things over a bit with a home-made gift. So I buried myself away in my craft room and the following emerged:

My friend loves to receive scripture - I think more than anything else. So instead of just sticking to our traditional one birthday blessing, I came up with 38 of them! And what better way to feature 38 scriptures than in a sweet little home-made book.

Each page features different textured or patterned paper and some of them have a little bonus feature like the one above. Or this one below:

Because I ran out of twine (which is what I typically use to bind something of this nature) I scoured my bins and found some nice pliable wire. Because wire is somewhat boring on its own, I threw on a few beads. I thought that was a nice accent.

Now I don't know about you, but 4 days after Christmas, I'm TIRED of looking at rolls of wrapping paper. So...I took a blank bag and stamped a tree on it. I also purchased a CD for my friend, which I wrapped in an inside out grocery bag. I stamped that as I did the bag and now they coordinate!

I hope my friend loves this gift as much as I loved making it for her.

Homespun :: Christmas S'more Jar

Well it's that time of year again in case you've been under a rock...you know, ho ho ho and jingle bells and all that. I really love Christmas - it's a time of family, fellowship and celebrating the birth of Jesus. Plus, there's always better food around than usual and time off from school and work. What's not to love about that? I have no problem with gift giving and receiving, but over the years I have been soured at the consumerism of this country - especially around Christmas time. It has made me not want to participate. Every year it gets worse - this year I saw Christmas decor out before Halloween! I hear the message loud on clear - let's completely skip Thanksgiving - a holiday where we STOP and give THANKS for what we HAVE (read between the lines: no buying stuff!) and move right on into the season of buying. I find it funny...no, down right hysterical that the media is telling me day after day that we are in a recession, the economy is tanking. Yet the mall parking lot is packed and there are people coming out of stores with lots of bags looking for their SUV's. There are no bread lines at the mall, people.

See now I've gone and done it...I wanted to do this precious little post about Abby and I doing our sweet handmade Christmas crafts and my soap box found its way out next to my keyboard again. Sorry 'bout that.

On with the show, shall we?



So what I was GOING to say was...it's that time of year again. The time of year when we need to give a gift to the teacher in our life. Although this is Abby's first year of real school, it's her 3rd year of having a teacher at Christmas. We've been around the block a few times. So we like to do little handmade thingies that are inexpensive but show thought and love...this year is no exception.

You can ask my Mom (in fact she could probably produce a picture that tells the same story). I have always been a handmade Christmas gift kind of girl. When I was young, I would use my own money and buy a ton of candy. I would parse the candy out into little baggies and tie them up with ribbon curly cues. Then, I would put little name tags on them and put them in a basket and take them to school to pass out to my friends. The bags were always well received.


This year, Abby and I did "S'mores in a Jar". We filled mason jars with a graham cracker/brown sugar mixture, marshmallows and chocolate chips (Publix had a wonderful sale on Ghirardelli chips - perfect timing!). Then, we kinda "do up" the mason jars with some fun tags and an ornament. For the tag I did a simple piece of white stock paper covered with a fun design from "My Mind's Eye" (one of my faves). I embossed a gold Christmas and added a star brad. Inside we have the directions on how to make the s'mores bars as well as a little message from the kitchen of Club Amaro. Add a little raffia, a mini clothes pin and a fun ornament from the dollar bin at Michael's and WAA LAAAA!