Sunday, January 13, 2008

Holiday Take-down & Handmade Gifts

I hate taking down holiday decorations. Last year I held off (held on?) until March and had pick the bazillion needles out of our Grover/shag carpet by hand. So today, I'm starting to pack it up. One of my favorite additions this year was this bubble-gum pink tree from Barnes & Noble. Some women love diamonds. Some prefer the sparkle of a pink plastic tree.
Our first winter in Providence will be remembered as our first year hosting Christmas (& New Years Eve!). I tire just thinking about it but would jump to do it again. This holiday I also endulged in hand-making a few gifts, decorations, and wrapping details. I feel fortunate for this 'playtime'--it made realize that I need to set time aside regularly for photos & craftiness 'cause it makes me so darn happy.

One of my hand-made projects this year was an address box (above & below). I've completed three and might do a few more. The idea originated a few months ago when I stumbled onto Ugly Kitty's Etsy shop and was inspired by her handmade Address File Box (and the fact that she could sell them for $65 a pop). I thought I'd try to make one myself. Mine are not as compact and the boxes are not as sweet, but they turned out well. Mr-I'm-too-cool-for-crafts even stained them for me, so we could give them as gifts 'from us'. I cut out the cards from old scrapbook paper (and used Ugly Kitty's magazine subscription insert idea for a few of the cards), used a corner rounder to trim the corners and chalk inks to ink some of the edges, stamped on the lines, and added colored stamps for decoration. The boxes are cheap wooden treasure chests from Michaels (disassembled and stained/sealed by Chris). I bought a pack of the dividers from Staples, cut them down to size, and then used rub-on letters on the tabs (I prefer Ugly Kitty's colored tabs). The final product was inexpensive to make, but incredibly time consuming...and yet, I'm hooked.

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