Christmas Love Day 3 --- Handmade Gifts: Photo Charms

Happy Saturday! Hope you are having a SUPAH BLESSED weekend so far. I am doing Post-Colonial Literature and Language Acquisition homework and a TOOOON of much needed HOUSE CLEANING. Doesn’t that sound FAB! Ha ha ha ha! I’m also reviewing a new Oil of Olay product this weekend. It’s so funny which product it is…and I am cracking up at how to present it in a SERIOUS way and not in a FUNNY way! I have a hard time being serious about the subject I’m writing about…so we’ll see what it ends up as!

Here’s my BEFORE shot that I’ll use for the post…LOL!!!


I’m so sad it’s not a MIRACLE WRINKLE potion. Ha ha ha ha! I can’t wait to share it with you though! I’m SOOO BLESSED to have another FUN REVIEW to do! Love it!! And even more exciting news…I’ll be having another $50 Visa gift card giveaway to accompany it courtesy of Blogher! Whooop whoooop! More dinero to give to you ---my AWESOME BLOSSOM readers!

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Okay so let’s talk Christmas goodies. Jax is gone for the weekend with his Dad but I still have some projects I made that I want to feature today and tomorrow. For today I wanted to share a handmade gift idea that was really easy and had BIG meaning.

It wasn’t a Christmas gift but these could definitely be made for gifts. It’s a little bit of a tear jerker so get ready…as my Best Friend and I say…get ready for MeeMaw tears.

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As you know…this year I lost a very precious friend in a boating accident. We have spent this year learning how to live without her and how to live a life after losing someone like that.

My Best Friend and her family have had a very hard time with it, and this is the first holiday season for their family to face…without their sweet Erin. Not only is it the first holiday season without her… but it is was also her first birthday without Erin. There’s such big holes in such a joyous season when you have lost someone you love.

To capture a little bit of Erin’s spirit for Lorie to keep with her daily during the holidays, I made her a birthday gift….a little photo charm with Erin’s picture. She can use it as a necklace charm, a photo frame to put somewhere where she will see it daily and she can use it anywhere. Anywhere she needs to feel close to Erin.



I used a simple charm from Hobby Lobby and printed the images to fit. I decorated it with a few embellishments and attached it with twine to a piece of scrap book paper to give to her.



It was a simple gift….with BIG LOVE. If you or someone you know is going through the same thing….this is something that is so meaningful to capture their loved ones love and spirit for them.



You could add beads and make it a necklace or add ribbon and it could be hung as a little picture. There are unlimited possibilities for this little craftie!

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Okay lovelies…I’m off to tackle laundry and homework!!!
Love and hugs!!

XoXo

Christmas Love Day Two: Homemade Gifts–DIY Advent Calendar, Paintings and Pet rocks

We are having VERY COLD weather today in West Texas and it is super perfect for a warm cup of coffee and a little crafties. I told you yesterday I would show you my Christmas activity countdown Advent calendar….

This is it:

It’s very simple. I found it HERE.

I printed it and glued it to a piece of poster board. Then I used ribbon and  burlap to jazz it up a teeny bit. Then, I wrote in all our activities for the month with a pen. Easie peasie!!



Today we are making homemade gifts for my brother’s Christmas package that my Mom will be mailing today. He’s serving in the Army in Afghanistan and we want to make sure he gets his Christmas goodies in time for Christmas.

Jaxon painted him a picture…..



And we have a few rocks he also painted that we made into PET ROCKS! Too cute!!!


First Jaxon painted our rocks with all kinds of paint and glitter paint. He has sooooo much fun painting rocks. He wants to paint every rock he sees now.



Then I hot-glued googlie eyes on and added a few feathers for a snazzy hair-doo on one.



I originally wanted to make these into pet rock turkeys, but with my random health issue that popped up we didn’t have time to get them done. Next year we so are! What divine timing though…it turned out perfect for a gift for our Uncle Josh!! He will love it too…these rocks are from a hiking trip we did with him when he was home on leave this Summer…so they are even more SUPER SPECIAL.




You could do SOOOO many things with these. I left them in as much as the original state Jaxon painted them…but I can’t wait to try them again as he gets older to see what he creates!




These are a cute, frugal and sentimental gift the any one would love. They can be used as paper weight at the office, a decoration and a reminder of your LOVE!
I love that these are virtually free too…if you have paint…and rocks…you are SET!

Happy gift-making!

Love and blessings!

P.S. Don’t forget to leave a comment on THIS post about Head & Shoulders to win a $50 Visa gift card courtesy of BlogHer!