christmas crafting

i love making homemade gifts. 

though the holidays are a very busy time of year, i always enjoy the excuse to try out some of the creative ideas i browse on pinterest.

we especially have a tradition about ornaments.  

every year we create something special to give to family and close friends.  

this was a tradition that was started with my family when i was a child, and i enjoyed it so much that we have decided to continue it with our children. 

these button wreathes were our 2012 ornament.

you can check out our rustic tree ornaments from 2011 

or our handprint snowmen from 2010 if you are looking for some ideas of your own!

this was a particularly fun project for my two year old to help with.  he enjoyed stringing the buttons onto the wire, and also sorting the colors, or even just moving them from one container to another.  i did find buttons all over the dining room for weeks however......

for the complete tutorial, you can visit martha stewart's link.  

i understand that this would have been more fun to read last month, when you were planning for the holidays, but honestly, i gave these to people who read my blog and i didn't want to ruin the surprise!  ;)

i also crafted these christmas trees, and though they were inspired by pinterest, i actually combined a couple of different projects into one.

mod podge is my favorite crafting tool.  

and, yeap, i got it everywhere doing this project.  

i loved the rustic feel of how these burlap trees turned out so much that i made an extra one to keep for myself.

should i actually be admitting that?!