Frugal Christmas Ideas

Yep, can you believe it? We're at the halfway point in 2012! I can't believe it, and I've been crafting and quilting all year long for the family. It's almost that time of year again! Only 6 more months to go. Lets get creative! :)

I wanted to share some of my ideas with you all. Maybe you can save some money too.

Packages, Boxes, Mailing:
I mail to my family all over the world, and I mail early. I hate standing in line at the post office (a necessary evil, but still).

By nature, I love to recycle and re-purpose. By reusing I'm giving Mother Earth a Christmas gift too. I reuse mailing containers and supplies. I cover up labels with construction paper and a typed address packing taped onto the construction paper. Use kids scissors or scrapbooking scissors to cut the construction paper into zig-zags, waves or other designs. type out all your addresses on the computer, print them off and center them on the construction paper. Then just use clear packing tape to tape your label to the box (over the old label is fine!)

I've been known to wrap gifts in cereal boxes. If you've got something small or flexible, it can most likely fit into a cereal box. Why go out and buy boxes when you've probably got tons in your house already?

If you're looking for a creative way to wrap a gift, try unusual containers. A few years ago I made a quilt for one of my friends, invited her over for pizza and a movie, and had the quilt in a (never used) pizza box from our local pizzeria. I purchased the box from the pizzeria for $1 and it fit a twin size quilt.

I just wanted to share some of my ideas with you - hope they can help! :)

Progress on Mom's Christmas Gift

Making some progress on my mom's Christmas gift.  I figured that if I started it early enough it might actually be done by Christmas.

So, while Netflix was on and I had Magnum PI on, I pressed all the seams open on the back of these blocks.

Moms favorite colors are blues and browns.  Found the pattern in one of the "Easy Quilt" magazines - will look for the specific edition later.

Merry Christmas to all

Merry Christmas to all.. and to all a good night. :)

I hope Santa leaves wonderful presents for everyone under the tree.

174 Days till Christmas

Holy smokes! I just realized that there are only 174 days left until Christmas. Now all I need to do is come up with a Christmas list of what to make for everyone! Oh no!

And I've got a wedding quilt to make by September, and another one for April 2012. I'm going to be one very busy bee.

Christmas list so far:
Mom, Grandma, DD, DH, Cousin, Aunt, Niece, BIL, SIL, MIL, FIL, DBF (dear best friend), great friend and her DH.

Not counting the other 10 people that I work with and we do a secret Santa exchange.

Boomerang 4.0 received from JudyG and Kits Purchased

Ohh this is beautiful. I love it. Received it back from JudyG.



Plus I received F8's from:
Navarre2011
rejenea
ksea
goldendog55

Can't wait to make something for them! I'm inspired by the range of fabrics that I've received.

I also bought 2 kits from Connecting Threads and I've officially fallen in love.

This one is called Starry Splendor from Connecting Threads, and it is so beautiful. I bought it to make for a couple friend of my husband and mine. They live in a log cabin (really!) and this will go perfectly with their decor. This is supposed to be a Christmas 2011 project. I'm not going to mention anything to them in case I can't get it done.

IMAGE FROM: CONNECTING THREADS.


And I also bought this kit. It's on clearance. For $35 the price can't be beat! I'm in love with this quilt, and already started cutting out the fabric to make it.
IMAGE FROM: CONNECTING THREADS

Husbands Food Quilt

The top and back are finally done! My good machine stopped working just as soon as I went to FMQ this baby. So I'm wrapping it up as is, the top and backing with the batting in the packaging and giving it to DH anyway. I know he'll appreciate it anyway.

It turned out a lot bigger than I planned. I originally wanted it to be about 60x60, it's now about 88x88. Whoops.



And this is a close up of it:




And this is the backing: