Time for Giving...... Gifts with Heart!

I love to create all types of crafts, sometimes they are based on the season we are in, or just something pretty that I can give to someone, for  a birthday or just because.  I went to an art center that is near my home about two weeks ago on a Saturday evening, it as a ladies DIY night, now I've never attended this type of event before and figured it might be fun to craft along other ladies, since at home I usually craft alone most of the time.   It was fun, there were about ten ladies in including the instructor.   So the set up was a craft on your own, there were 5 tables for 5 craft projects and one table that had all these hot glue guns ready for us to use.   The projects were simple, we were told how to do each project, simple and easy was the idea, and it was.   There were a couple of people that had never done this before, but the projects were easy.  I had fun, I got to craft along with other people and made some nice items that will make great gifts for the coming holidays.

 Here you can see two pumpkins I made using fabric, we were instructed to use hot glue to create these pumpkins but I decided to use a needle and thread and do a running stitch to gather the fabric, I did use hot glue to close it up after the stuffing was added, and we had all sort of things to use for the stem, from corks, to tree branches and brown paper that had been rolled to make it look like stem, we also had buttons and moss and lots of other stuff.  It was all up to us how we decorated them,  I thought I would add some leaves by cutting a piece of fabric and some burlap and well below you can see how my cute little pumpkins came out, now all I have to do is decide who will get these for Thanksgiving. 

I had seen a picture of pumpkins made out of metal lids, we had a huge box to chose from, some were silver, others gold and some were very rusted.  I chose to use gold and no rust.  I counted up 20 metal lids and gathers some cord, I folded the cord about 4 to 5 times, then ran the cord through the center of all the lids, making sure they were all facing the same direction, once they were all strung, I pulled the cord together as tight as possible, make a few knots, cut the extra cord, and then just had to add the stem and create some leaves and my pumpkin was done. 

I ran out of time so I took the materials to make a table runner from a piece of burlap home.  I took out some fabric paints and decided to make it very simple, I hand drew some leaves using fabric paint and glitter paints and on the other side I just used some black fabric paint for write the word "Family".  I'm not sure if I want to do more, I think simple is the key here, and was thinking this runner might be part of the pumpkins gift, all three items seem to look good together.

I did make the other two projects but didn't take photos of them, one was a fabric necklace made using marbles and the other a scarf.  I will be keeping these.  

It was a fun experience, I will be looking forwards to future events that involve crafting along with others, and I will be making a lot more gifts to give out for Christmas, everyone in the family looks forwards to what I make for them, it feels good that people appreciate all your hard work, I love making handmade gifts for family and friends.

For more ideas go visit the Designer Crafts Connection