Thursday, June 7, 2012

Handmade Birthday

This year, MaKenna's birthday was a completely handmade birthday that included gifts from every member of the family.  The boys were up late, well late for them, the night before finishing up their gifts as were mama and daddy.  It was sweet to see them put so much thought into their gifts and how excited they were to create them.  And she loved it all!


I needle felted these quick and simple sheep using a pattern from one of my favorite craft books.  They aren't as cute as they are in the book and I had a hard time getting my proportions right the first time around, but she knew they were sheep and that is all that matters!  After she opened them, she immediately took them over to the barn and put them in.


Her gift from Daddy was a set of playstands.  These were a true labor of love as not only did I make him change something after one stand was complete, but he also got hurt while making them!  They turned out beautiful and have already been played with lots by all of the kids.  He has plans to make the canopies to go with them soon.


A few days before her birthday, when I realized I was not going to finish her strawberry dress in time, I decided to sew her up a quick birthday skirt.  It is the Oliver & S Lazy Day skirt and I can't say enough how easy this was!  I wish I had a better picture of her in it, but this is pretty much what you get when you ask your 3 year old to model for you, ha ha.  I made it a bit long so that she can get a couple of years wear out of it and thankfully, this very clothing picky girl LOVED it.  I have such a hard time keeping her in clothes some days and she did not want to take this skirt off (yay!).

 Blake and I painted some wooden spools bought at a craft store with water colors.  A simple, fun easy way to make a threading game.  She loves to thread buttons and beads and this was simple and perfect for her.  It was cute to see her open them up and immediately start threading them (there was also a shoe lace included).

Blake's gift for Kenna was this Princess plaque.  Daddy cut the shape he drew and then Blake did everything else including the woodburning.  A perfect gift for a little girl who insists we call her princess!

Jacob really wanted to needlefelt her a princess, but settled on painting her a peg princess.  I had to explain to him that 9:00p the night before her birthday was NOT a good time to start a needlefelting project!

And Parker used some scraps from the playstand project to make her a table for the barn.  Looks like there is room for more peg visitors :-)

What a fun few days we all had and now we are looking forward to our next projects...presents for Daddy for Father's Day and some small woodworking projects planned for the summer.

edited to link up with Nicole!

4 comments:

  1. Tanya, this is all so wonderful! What perfect gifts for a little girl turning three- and all handmade and filled with love! What a gift to the boys too, to be able to make a gift for someone they love. :) Happy, Happy Birthday!!!

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    1. Aww, Thanks Mel! It is fun seeing how excited they get when not only planning, but also in the gift making as well! She is one lucky girl!

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  2. I love your gifts! I have a "princess" turning 3 next month, and she has 4 older brothers, too...and a big sister who is oldest of all...

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  3. these gifts are all so perfect and filled with love!! Thanks for joining us again on KCCO!

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