Can you believe it!?! It is only 12 weeks until Santa comes and the rush is on. I’ve set a goal for myself that I will try to hand make as many of my gifts as possible. Not only may it be less expensive, and I get to use some of my talents, but it also will be more customizable to each person that I want to give a gift.

So, what am I doing?

Crochet – scarves, bracelets, etc.
Jewelry – stringing some beads into necklaces
Sewing – making tea towel aprons, pillows, etc.
Paper crafts – think stationary, cards, etc.
Pottery / ceramics – painting some fun pieces of pottery to give as gifts

In the last couple of months, I’ve had a class in sewing for a machine and learned to use a sewing machine. Over the weekend, I found a place to let me use the pottery wheel and also to paint some pre-formed ceramics for a reasonable price. They’ll fire it and glaze it, and after a couple of weeks, you get it back – perfect for gift giving and/or keeping for myself.

Luckily my Christmas gift list isn’t too long, and in 12 weeks, theoretically, if I plan everything right, I should have enough time to complete what I want to.

I want to point a few great sites that I’m using for inspiration –

Crochet me – Fabulous site with lots of free and paid crochet patterns. They have a great magazine for crochet called Interweave crochet that I’m subscribed to and have learned some new stitches from.

Ravelry – They’re a knitting and crochet community and they have several project ideas and free patterns that are available for everything from hats and scarves to afghans, sweaters, and more.

Craftsy – what can I say other than I love this site. I’m not a “single item” crafter. I’m more of a Jill-of-all-trades where I find that one piece of something can influence another of the many projects that I have going or would like to try. This site has a little bit of the crochet/knitting, but also has sewing projects, paper crafts, jewelry, and so on.

Crafts Beautiful – this is a magazine that gives away free crafting items (who doesn’t love that) once a month. They have a little bit of everything – and while I don’t always like everything, it really gets my creative juices flowing. The latest magazine that I bought had a bunch of Christmas themed papers – perfect for the holiday cards.

Pinterest – photos galore. Everything from beginning to end from colors to jokes, to patterns that are linked from what others have done.

CreateForLess – repository for lots of craft supplies that are reasonably priced. They also have craft ideas, and they tend to keep me within budget on whatever I want.

Wish me luck, and expect more posts with some of the finished projects coming soon.