21 December 2010

Creating Christmas gifts with my kids

Last year I began a new tradition of helping my children make gifts for each other.  You can see what they made in 2009 HERE and HERE.  Wanting to keep things a little more simple, I suggested we try freezer paper stenciling t-shirts for each other.  I found t-shirts for the older three at Michaels for $2.50 each.  We got Baby's at Wal-Mart.  I helped them look online for inspiration.  My older daughter and son wanted to make an Iron Man themed for shirt for their younger brother.  (You've seen his Iron Man affinity HERE and HERE).  We found this image,
 and I helped them trace and cut the design on freezer paper.  The children did the painting.


For Big Brother, the younger two wanted to make a Star Wars shirt.  Since the lettering was pretty intricate, I made the stencil, and they painted it.



For Big Sis, the boys looked at a couple different store websites for inspiration.  They found a t-shirt at Crazy 8 they liked.  We copied the image (sorry the resolution wasn't great),


and I created an applique and freezer paper stencil.


Here is my younger boy painting.


For Baby, I showed the kids some ideas, and they fell in love with Traci's owl applique.  I cut out all the pieces, and the older two took turns helping me to sew the appliques on.  At this point, my youngest boy was done with helping.



Here are the results...forgive the wrinkles.  I've been keeping them tucked away in a bag in my closet. 





Each shirt turned out great.  Best part, the children each had a lot of input on both design and putting everything together.  They are wrapping them up today, and are excited to see each others' reactions.

Sharing with:

Blue Cricket Design, and Someday Crafts.

12 happy thoughts:

Amanda said...

Very neat gifts!

Lyndee @ A Recovering Craft Hoarder said...

Wow! They did such an awesome job. I should get my kids to do this.

Erin said...

great idea having the kids help. i will def. do that next year!

Lori said...

Wow are these ever cool! I love that your kids all had input and helped make them together.

I'm also thinking my Iron Man obsessed nephew might like that Iron Man t-shirt... I won't see them until January so I'm sure I have time to pull that off for him, so thank you for the idea!

Valerie said...

I love that you have them make gifts for each other, very cool tradition! And each of the shirts looks very professional... I bet your kids are proud to give them. :)

Unknown said...

How sweet for the kids to make things for each other! Great idea!

Jess@craftiness is not optional said...

Ohhh how precious! that is such a good way to teach them about giving-and what a fun and perfect custom gift to make that they can help with!

Sarah @ Modern Country Style said...

You are officially Best Mummy Of The Year! I think I would lose patience... :-( ...but I'm so impressed that you dsid all this with them. They look so lovely.

Merry Christmas!

Sarahx

KJ@letsgoflyakite said...

I am so impressed with the results, great efforts and so satisfying for both the artist and recipient! This is such an inspiring post and a wonderful family tradition. Christmas blessings to you!

Tiffany said...

hmmm, my favs, it's a tossup between starwars and the dog. great job.

Gwen @ Gwenny Penny said...

What a nice idea. I would definitely love to have my girls make each other gifts when they get a little older.

Unknown said...

They are all adorable. So nice that the kids were involved in selecting the designs.

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