Handmade Christmas 2008

So I always like to give a few handmade items every Christmas.  This year, I was working away on Creed's quilt when we all got sick and it became obvious that I wouldn't be able to finish everything on my To Do list.  I decided to pause work on the quilt for everything else since Creed wouldn't care whether he got a quilt on Christmas or any other day.

So here are a few of the projects that I was able to finish last minute this year.  The first was an I Am A Child Of God print for my friend Mary Ann.  She loved the prints we saw at the Beehive Bazaar, but her daughter's room is all pink and it's not available in pink.  She was also hoping for something a little bigger and wondered if I could make it so I made this 11" x 14" print for her and tried to make it the same but not exactly like the original and then I switched the colors a little bit for my sister.  But guess what?  They are now sold in pink and you can request bigger sizes so I will not be making anymore.  I should have asked for a pink one in a bigger size in the first place, but I felt shy about asking a designer to change their work, especially during the rush before Christmas. At any rate, if you want one, you should go here because they are so great and much higher quality printing than the ones I could whip up myself anyway.
My second project took me ages, but I'm so happy with how it turned out.  My siblings and I draw names for Christmas, and I had Candice.  I had a couple of ideas in mind, but then she saw the wedding invitations that I designed for our cousin and asked for a family portrait in that style.  Her only stipulation was that she would like to have an umbrella in it because she takes photos of all their visitors in New York with umbrellas and plans to decorate a whole wall with them, and she'd like it to say their last name and Brooklyn.  This is what I came up with.  It's doesn't say Brooklyn, but that's my version of the Brooklyn Bridge so hopefully it's still obvious.Lastly, Marissa really wanted a set of stamps like mine, but when Candice tried to order them, she found out no more custom orders were being taken, at least for a while.  I like playing around with carving stamps so I decided to give it a go, only I didn't have Marissa's name so it seemed unfair to just make stamps for her so I ended up making one for each member of my family.  They were not a good as the originals would have been if they were taking orders (my drawing and carving skills are lacking), but they were still fun, and I enjoyed trying to come up with drawings in that style (which is so different than my own) for each member of my family.  Sadly, I didn't even take a picture or stamp my own copies of the whole set.  This is the only photo that I took.I did the drawings on my computer and didn't clean them up because I didn't plan to use them for anything else but my carving pattern, but I have to show you my mom and dad.

And PS- that was the worst font ever for making these stamps!  Good thing I'll never have to make any more!