that IS ironic and very cool!

What a fantastic stocking mpoulsom!

While glamping this summer, my husband took note when I noticed some naturally shed birch bark lying along the paths and remarked that I should collect a little.

We left our glampsite and delivered him to his camping buddies where he spent the rest of that week, and he returned with a shopping bag full of collected bark.

So many ideas, and so little time, but I bought some gel medium to see if I can successfully transfer my best photo from our trip onto a piece of bark and shadow box frame it for him.

I also just did this year's somewhat uninspired cartoon for our family card, but a bit late to pursue alternatives...

They're usually a bit more lively.

And a few more I no longer have saved on the new computer but live on in cyber space:
http://www.cafepress.com/+barnhartgallery-christmas+greeting_cards

Only our Barnhardt could find a way to put rocks in a box and make it charming. Bet your hubby tells you that you rock, too! Love all those cards!
Mpoulsom, those are incredible keepsakes!!

I'm with your mother, Regina. I don't really want anything either :)
I used to make homemade gifts--food and knitting and Christmas crackers--but it's not happening now :) I want it to be February already!!!!

To Regina: I am 70+ and do not really want presents either. The best present I received this year was the surprise visit from my youngest son . He flew 8 hrs to bring bagels for breakfast.
Take your mom out for lunch, dinner or a show.

Here I am again. The bagels my youngest son brought where for breakfast on my birthday. We only have croissants here. Booo-ooo

I gave several painting to non profit orginations of my choice for fund raising auctions. For friends, baking a medly of decadent small cakes, gift wrapped in re-cycled old decorative tins.

LOL; Santa had a design dilemma and felt his wallpaper was too dark, so I just repapered his living room -- before and after:

I have made a horsehair necklace for my mother-in-law made out of the tail of one of the horses she bred. A bracelet for my sister made from reclaimed materials and lots of colourful beads. My favourite is a shadow box decorated with used shell casings. I wish I had had enough of the calibre casings used by the intended receiver but all I had was those from my husbands gun. I have already wrapped everything and hadn't even thought to take a picture of it, silly me. I am always trying to think of something to make my mother but can't think of something I can pull off that would be really special for her. I will keep checking back here hoping someone will present their craft items so I can borrow the idea :)

Thank you 119129. I settled on getting a copy of a characature we had done of our boys this summer and individual photos of each. I got pretty coordinating frames in the right sizes so she can display them in a grouping. I wasn't crafty at all...maybe I'll still get inspired, but at least I have something she will treasure to give.

Making scented bath salts for some of my gal friends.

And here's a close-up of the reverse side of the tag.

I made a pouf/ottoman for my sister. Didn't cost a penny as I was able to use fabric that I had on hand! Most of the fabrics are old upholstry fabric memos. I stuffed it with heavy fabric scraps that were not needed anymore. Hope she likes it!

Instead of Christmas cards for our neighbors I make candied pecans, inserted into cute holiday goody bags and delivered to each neighbor.

çok güzel tebrikler.

Homemade vanilla - we started these in February and just bottled 12 2-oz bottles. We will make these again - will start at the first of the year and probably brew up double this year - it was fun and I have been looking for something that is going to be used and not a sweet with so many people trying to lose weight or with diabetes.

I also make homemade chocolate chip cookies, fudge, and pumpkin oatmeal bread for gifts to co-workers and friends. This year I am making a muffler for my husband - it's going to be a little homemade looking since I haven't knitted in a while!

Photo is of vanilla brewing.

Instructions:
http://www.suzannedulin.com/lilbakergirl/how-to-make-vanilla-extract/

i've made many gifts over the years.
this year i only made 2, but last year, when i was unemployed, i made everyone's gifts.

My granddaughter asked for "soft" clothes for her American Girl dolls - all four of them. I have sewn many outfits over the years so I decided to try knitting sweaters this year. Here are the results. The fabrics shown will be made into soft pull-on pants for the "twins" and toddler dolls. The Bitty Baby bunting stands on its own. It was fun searching for simple and quick patterns that I could embellish any way I wanted. Lots of scrap yarn in my stash so I only had to buy the pretty self-striping pastel for the bunting. I know Alexa and her babies will love the new clothes.

Last year I made one of these for everyone in the family. We had suffered a sad loss and I wanted to brighten things up by giving them rainbows.

All of my 4 children live in the northern US now and are driving down to Florida for Christmas. We had their larger gifts delivered and I've made the rest of their gifts. Usually I also give them a painting but they have their cars full so this year it's small items. The girls and I will bake for the stockings and other gifts.

I made arm knitted cowl scarves for gifts this year

kjit, those are nice. That is what my girls wanted this year. Mine are crocheted. cmw1700, your outfits for the dolls are fantastic. I would put those on my grandchildren any day!

aha!!! several of you MUST be on Ravelry!!!! :)

Yes, and what a treasure that site is, mousemaker!

Regina - how about a memory picture? Bits and pieces of favourite events - a photo, admission ticket, comment, material from a dress, etc? Her wedding day, your birthday, etc

I spend a lot of time on there :)

I bake about 60 loaves of banana bread around Christmastime for friends and family. Everyone has come to expect the bread and they started asking where it was a week ago. Lol! I do love the smell of my kitchen this time of year.

A couple of years ago, I embroidered some Nativity scenes onto burlap and made them into pillows...but I don't seem to have enough time to do that lately, so I bake, I bake, and I bake. :)

I am a illustrator and usually illustrate my own Christmas cards.
Sometimes I bake cookies as well. This year I am recouping and my family and friends will have to wait for next year. Merry Christmas to all.. Bless everyone!

For my BFF, whose laundry room I painted earlier this year, I made café curtains using some leftover toile I had from sewing my shower curtain and window valance! She previewed the fabric, and loved it, and is looking forward to getting the curtains. Other friends are getting spritz cookies, cranberry walnut fudge and pumpkin cranberry walnut mini Bundt breads--so many do NOT have the time or the inclination to make goodies, and the sweets always go over very well! I am on a fairly limited budget, but since I can bake or sew things, they make dandy presents.

Building my wife a mobile crafting cart. She has all her crafting supplies in baskets in our closet and it is very unorganized, so I wanted to make her something she could use to store all the supplies. It needed to be a decent size, have multiple shelves and storage areas, a place to keep ribbon, a drawer for writing utensils and other hand held utensils, a work surface and it should be mobile. Thus, I came up with a design similar to a kitchen cart which has a 20" x 32" top and an additional fold up portion for an expanded workspace, the body is split with half being a closed cabinet and half open shelves, there are dowl rods on the side to hold ribbon spools, a handle bar for pushing and pulling the cart around and 4 casters. All-in-all, this should greatly help her organization and accessibility when crafting!

This isn't handmade - yet - but I'm giving my husband a large topiary frame of a sitting dog, he loves doing topiaries so eventually this will become handmade!

cmkj, you're a good husband. ^.^-b

yoboseiyo, why thank you!

It is not hand made, but for people who don't want anything, you can donate money in their name to a cause they might care about.

I did that for a couple who literally has everything. I donated a pair of chickens and a fuel-efficient portable cooking stove through a charity called Oxfam America. I'm going to decorate a box to put their cards in.

Kjit, these cowl scarves look easy and something my daughters would love. Would you share the instructions?

Instead of needles you knit on your arms. Cast on 10 stitches and keeping yarn to front, you knit them back and forth from one arm to the other. I believe there is a you tube video on arm knitting (as there is a you tube video for everything) :D It is really simple and fast. You will need a thick yarn and it was doubled. Try to keep it a light weight because it bulks up. I knit about 40 rows. It really depends on how long you would like it. Then I sewed the 2 ends together.

What do you do if the phone rings, LOL...

@cmw1700-ohh sooo cute hehe, love them!

Barnhart!! that's why Bluetooth was invented!!

I see my dentist for that. I suppose it's better to absent mindedly answer the phone while finger knitting than while ironing...

I saw the cute ornament I am going to make with my kids. You take clear glass ornaments and open them . You put broken crayons in and turn the blow dryer on and heat them up and turn the ball. They say use lighter colors not black etc. they will look bad. Cute, fun thing to do with your kids.

For my elderly neighbors, I'm making apricot nut cups, a delicious cookie. They no longer bake and I want to send them Christmas Love. I do that best through food.

When my elderly grandmother could no longer get out during the winter, I gave her a decorative box filled with an assortment of greeting cards and stamps along with a pretty calendar with the special birthday and anniversaries of her loved ones written on the appropriate dates. She liked the gift so much, she asked me to do the same thing the next year.

My husband and I made this puppet theater from an old cabinet we got real cheap at an auction. It is a Christmas present for our six year old grand daughter. She can set the clock for show times...and change the weather...clouds, sun, moon, snowflakes, all hang via Velcro.

She is going to love this!

carol, i love your puppet theater! what a great idea!

I may be a little late to this show, but this year, I made holiday pillow cases for my family. It was fun picking out the holiday fabric and contrasting cuff and trim fabric. I ended up making more than 2 dozen pairs of pillow cases. However, I suggest that if you decide to do this for next Christmas, you start early. I didn't start til after December 5 or 6th and it was a rush to get everything done in time to get them mailed!
I also made gift plates with 4 kinds of biscotti and Swedish Peppakakor Gnomes and a small bag of locally roasted coffee to give to my neighbors and friends. I used plates that I picked up at the local dollar store to put them on, and cellophane gift plate bag wrap from the dollar store to wrap them in. They turned out awesome, and everyone seemed to really like them. The biscotti is a nice treat, and is not really perceived as a "Sweet", plus it holds for a long time, unlike some cookies or breads.