I have my own issues with the commercialization of the holidays but, I really do feel if you craft it, there is more thought and meaning to the gift or the personal accessory.  So it’s okay in my book.

Lavender and Limes has a great little tutorial to make your own coffee cozy that is super easy to make.  She adds a few hand sews a few hearts on it and voila, and seasonal cozy.  Can you see where I’m going with this?  Shamrocks at St Patrick’s Day, eggs and bunnies (ooh, peeps) for Easter, flags for Memorial Day and the 4th of July, Flip Flops for summer… I could keep going on with these.

Lavender and Limes – Coffee Cozy

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I really need to dust off my sewing machine and try this one out!

Geta’s Quilting Studio - Quilted Notebook and Pencil Travel Bag

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My four year old loves spelling things out, especially his name.  (Don’t know where the heck he got that from.  Not from me in the least.)

Happy Together has the directions to make these fabric letters in both capital and lower case.  Make them into a banner or let the kids spell all kinds of things (or both).    The possibility are endless!

In the directions, she shows batting (like for quilts) as the middle of the fabric “sandwich” but later she uses felt.  I love felt and have tons of it on hand.

Happy Together gives you the steps and the templates to make this easy project that is sure to be a hit with the young ones!

Happy Together – Rag Quilt Letters

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Chez Beeper Bebe has a easy and adorable tutorial on how to make these bean bags complete with templates for both the squares and numbers.  The steps are easy to follow and could be done either by hand or by a beginner on a sewing machine.

I plan on raiding my stash of fabric, hitting up the local Jo-Ann’s and get a quarter yard of anything cute (and on the sale rack) and some of the flour sack fabric I got from family, this will make a great gift to all the little kiddies in my family.  Educational and history, who can ask for more!

Chez Beeper Bebe – Counting Bean Bags

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Wellies are those cute rain boots that everyone in England seems to have and now I want a pair…. badly.  And in my defense, Hubby says I need a pair of boots that keep my feet dry.

Stephanie Sabbe has created this (easy) adorable tutorial to make what she calls “Welly Warmers”

The only question is, what color Wellies do I get and how many pairs of warmers can I make?

Sabbespot – Welly Warmers

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I try not to use the plastic bags that you can get at the grocery store when I pick up produce but sometimes its impossible.  I don’t want the kiwis or the limes rolling around in the cart or loose in the bag so I am stuck using these thin and quite annoying bags.  I don’t know how many times I’ve had one sliced open by a sweet potato and had them roll around inside the bag or try to wrangle them in the kitchen.

I’ve seen adorable bags for sale and thought about either purchasing them or trying to make my own but then my Mom made a comment.  “How much to they weigh?” was all she said.  I don’t want to pay a few more cents for the bag that I’ve brought from home, that’s for sure.  Then I found Linda Permann’s post over at CraftStylish on how to make your own bags from mesh fabric.  She can make 3-4 out of half a yard of mesh fabric that ran her $.75 ($1.50 a yard before coupon).

This is such a simple but fantastic idea that I kick myself for not thinking of it first.

CraftStylish – Produce Bags

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The best thing about friends having babies, is getting to give them gifts!  Even the older babies are still so much fun to either buy for or craft for.

With Earth Day coming up next week, I found this post for a “crinkely” baby toy that reuses the plastic wrapper from wipes.  I would have never thought to use this for a toy but it is BRILLIANT!  My kids, plus the dog as well, always loved the noisy, crinkley toys when they were little.

Susan Beal over at Craft Stylish has given us guidance on how to create this toy for your favorite kiddo*.

The best thing is, you don’t have to make an owl if you don’t want to.  I see me sneaking noisy wrappers into all kinds of shapes of stuffed toys for kiddies over the years.  I could even ask my youngest kid’s pre-school teacher to keep the wrappers for me since she goes through so much with the young ones who go there and the many uses for them.

With recycled, or reused, fabric this could be a fun and green craft to do.

Craft Stylish – Baby Toy

*Let the record state, that me giving a child a gift of this sort does not desinate them as my favorite nor do I love one of my own children more then the others.

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Finding this sewing project was so exciting!  My sewing skills are not the most talented, unlike my super sewing co-worker, but I’ll get better with time.  This craft uses cloth place mats and a bit of wide trim and turns them into an expanding file folder!

All the detailed direction to make this fantastic file folder are on Spool’s website with tons of pictures to help you along as you make it.  If you can sew a straight line with a sewing machine you too can make this!  I LOVE IT!!  With the seasons changing, the stores are clearing out their stock to make way for the spring and summer designs so you should get a great deal on four place mats, either identical or of coordinating fabrics or what ever you should find for a great deal.  New seasonal ones would also be so nice as we enter the warmer weather.  I think I saw the summer stuff already out at Wegmans… hmmmmmmm, decisions decisions, decisions.

I wonder if this would work with more than just the four place mats?  I’ll let you know if Spool gets back to me on this.

Spool – Place mat Expanding File Folder

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Don’t Look Now  – Rocket ship Pillow Tutorial

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