Anyway! On to the meat and potatoes of this update. I want to bring this blog back to its roots with this one, and make an update on some of the crafts I've completed recently.
Since I stopped working, my husband and I have been a little bit more careful with our gift giving, and the past two years we hand made our Christmas gifts. The year before last I baked biscotti, which went over well (although I forgot my sister is allergic to almonds ... sorry), but this past Christmas I wanted to step it up a notch and make something permanent. When we brought out son up north to visit relatives last year, I had seen my mother-in-law do some decoupage, and it looked super fun. I had made my sister a decoupaged box for her birthday, so I figured I would do something similar for Christmas.
After much hemming and hawing (and wandering around the craft store), I decided to do magnets. They are small enough to be easy to make, are nominally useful, and wouldn't be a big knickknack for the recipients to deal with storing or displaying.
I used sheets of foam as the backing, and to make various foreground images stand out. The pictures were cut out of fashion magazines. For all of the magnets, the base is wrapped with images to hide the foam, but the foam is visible on the sides of the raised images. The magnets came as a roll with a paper backing and built in adhesive. These were okay, but refused to be flattened even after being pressed under books. I had to resort to super glue to get them to stop separating from the picture. In the future, I would use the magnets that come in little sheets instead.
For: My Brother
This one is the first one I made, and I'm afraid it shows in the wrinkly paper and foam peaking out from behind the letters. Overall, though, I have to say I like it. The image (which I will credit if I can find the photographer) is just the strangest, coolest picture, and totally appropriate for my brother. The text, "PQMR" is kind of an inside joke. I figured a weird picture and some nonsense deserved a background made a few different types of leopard print. Overall, it's not the most perfect magnet, but interesting.
For: My Dad
This is a set of magnets on a piece of cardboard to make wrapping it easier. I used origami paper for the background because I couldn't find an image in the magazines that looked nice, and I think the geometric pattern is more masculine anyway. This one was hard to make because finding interesting looking words and letter is surprisingly difficult. "Everything looks bad if you remember it" is from the Insanity Pepper episode of The Simpsons, and I remember it was a favorite of my father's. So, there you go.
For: My Father-in-Law
Finding this image was a huge score, since my father-in-law likes The Wizard of Oz. For the background I used a scarf, a smear of lipstick, one of those lip balms that looks like an egg, and crushed blush. I like how the different textures in the background work together to make the image pop.
For: My Grandparents-in-Law
This is a combined gift for my husband's maternal grandparents. They have a pretty good collection of "boozy" decorations around their house, including a pillow that reads "Life is too short to drink bad wine". So I thought this would be appropriate. You can also see how I started making magnets that were much too large as I started finding larger images. I think this one measures something like 3" by 4". So it's more a fridge decoration than a functional magnet.
For: My Sister-in-Law
When I asked my husband what I should make for his sister, he said, "Anything with attitude." This is another 3x4 behemoth, and really not for any good reason. I thought it would look crowded if I made the background smaller, but really, I could have put a quarter inch on each side and been fine. The picture is of Naomie Harris from a shoot she did after Skyfall. The background is a variety of sequined clothes. I should have probably used more blue/silver pieces for the background, because I think it looks a little flat. This was definitely a learning experience.
For: My Mother-in-Law
All of the images in this magnet are hair, which I think is neat. I was hoping it would look a bit like wood, and I think to some extent it does. This is the only specifically holiday themed magnet I made - a holly and mistletoe wreath. I will admit that all of my knowledge of Yule comes from the internet, but my much more knowledgeable mother-in-law seemed pleased, so I must not have missed the mark too badly. The one thing I would do differently here is use lighter pieces for the holly leaves, so they pop a little more.
For: My Sister
For: My Paternal Grandma
This was the second magnet I made. For my Dad's mom I wanted something simple and nice. This turned out a little "sweeter" than I wanted. I would also probably move the flower up a bit next time. I think I got the middle of the flower in the middle of the background, but because it is lopsided, it looks a bit off.
For: Bunka (My Maternal Grandma)
I went with the same sort of design for this one as for my other Grandma, but with a little more edge. The background is all leather, which amuses me. I also drew and cut the oval background freehand, which turned out pretty nice, I think.
For: My Mom
This one is my favorite. Like the one for my mother-in-law, all of the pictures are hair. The heart in the middle of the tree say "GMA", for Grandma. The one issue I see with it is that the ground isn't straight, which is aggravating because I did draw guide lines. Other than that, I really couldn't be happier.
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