Erica's handmade Christmas gifts.

My Christmas gift to the Sapp family (but mostly for Courtney LOL).

I know I'm about a month late with posting this but I didn't want to post anything until after my gifts were delivered, which happened to be at dinner tonight. Luckily, none of these projects are holiday themed so you can make and gift them for any occasion. Let's change the title to "Erica's handmade everyday gifts." LOL
       Now that I'm writing this, I think I was late with posting my handmade gifts last year, too. I guess my new tradition will be to post Christmas gift DIY projects in January.

For my coworkers.

I chose three easy and inexpensive projects for my gifts this year. I was super swamped with pillows, craft shows and custom orders so I needed Christmas DIYs that weren't too involved.
     ...And my unrewarding day job was super stressful and extra terrible this year so I had zero holiday cheer >.> Blame it on changes in management and job duties/responsibilities. *rolls eyes*

Cookies & Street Fighter mugs for Wes' two best friends.

I think every craft/DIY blogger has a segment about Dollar Tree projects. It's like a transformation story...
       "buy these seemingly un-craftlike things from the Dollar Tree, read my creative project blog, and turn them into awesome projects that look totally classy and not like they are from the Dollar Tree."
       I personally love the Dollar Tree (household items and office supplies for only $1!!!) and reading about these cheap projects. They are so fun and simple! I have so so many saved from Pinterest on my to-do list but I've never really done any of them. For my projects tonight, I have one classic and two that I think are originals (I could have been inspired by an existing project but I feel like I mostly made it up on the fly.)
       We're  going to borrow a page from Sesame Street's book and use the number three as our theme... three projects, done in three steps, using three (okay, maybe a few more) materials. Let's go!

For Courtney, Rachel, Tashara, Audra, Jessa & Brendon

Framed artwork tutorial:
       Materials needed- cheap picture frames--we'll just be painting over them, a calendar (I used an old one from 2014), paint & paint brushes

1. Remove the backs and glass from the frame. Clean the glass with Windex to get rid of finger prints. I hate how frames and artwork get so dirty and smudgy at the store! Ugh!

2. Paint the frames. I am really proud of the colors I mixed. I think this is the best purple I've ever made!

       I wanted them to look rustic/vintage so I only used one coat of paint. The original color of the frame was still a little visible so it looks "worn." I normally do two coats of paint on everything, though.

3. Measure & cut the artwork (calendar pages, in this case) to fit the frames and place them back into the frames. A friend of mine got this calendar for me & Wes for our first Christmas together. I really liked the Keep Calm and Carry On poster at the time.

       I had some fun dessert stickers from an old Halloween costume that I ended up gluing onto the frames (not shown in this picture but they're on the first picture). It made the finished project more whimsical--my coworker, Brendon, loves whimsy. (LOL...inside joke...)

So... I was totally just kidding about the three projects tonight. I do really have three crafts to blog about but I don't have enough time for them all tonight. Plus, you've read enough for one night, right? And for some dang-gum reason, my blog formatting aligned to 'center' without my input & I don't like it!! Typing any more is just going to drive me crazy! I've already teased what the other two projects are with my pictures but you'll just have to wait until next week for the tutorials.

TO BE CONTINUED...