Making candles was one of those things I had always wanted to try. So a few weeks prior to Christmas I gave it a go…and of course I absolutely loved it.

I gifted most of them to close friends and family for Christmas. 


I used these free printables here to decorate the jars with as well as some fabric scraps and twine.

Now that all my handmade Christmas gifts have been given I can share a few of them. I made about 75% of what we gifted to others but unfortunately I only took pictures of a few of them. This cute little Tiny Box Zippy from Michael Ann Made was made for a friend of mine who asked me to help her put together a little sewing kit. She admitted to me one day that she was searching high and low for a needle to mend something with and could not find one anywhere in her house…gasp! After that, I knew a sewing kit was a must for her. The pattern itself was so easy to follow. The only change I made was by adding some extra fusible fleece on top of the interfacing. It did give the pouch the extra stability I was hoping for but it also made sewing the bias tape on a bit challenging. It is doable but I did have to unpick stitches a few times. 
I even made a little matching pin cushion to go along with the kit. The fun part was filling the sewing kit with some sewing essentials. 

 One of our favorite things to do over the summer is to find caterpillars and watch them hatch into moths or butterflies. Of course one of our favorites is always the Monarch Butterfly. No matter how many times we have watched them go from a tiny little caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly it is always so amazing. 

Recently I had the opportunity to participate in  JoAnn Fabric and Craft Stores We Made It Campaign by Jennifer Garner. The We Made It Campaign by Jennifer Garner is a collection of more than 100 creative kits and projects designed to promote imaginative exploration among children ages 4 to 11.  JoAnn Fabrics and Craft Stores along with Jennifer designed each of these products. You can tell that they put a lot of thought and quality into each and every one one of the kits. When I first saw the products I was thrilled to see that they were not only fun for the kids to do but also well put together. These are the types of crafts that are going to last for years to come! I was sent the The String Art Photo Frames to work on with my kids. The kit comes complete with everything you will need to complete the project.We started out by staining our frames as well as the tiny clothespins. I really wanted the frames to match the decor in my house a little better since I knew they would be hanging for a long time. Plus this also gave us more time to work on the project together. My kids are huge crafters! We craft daily in our house.
We used a Minwax stain and sealer on the frames and then let them dry over night. The next day we set up a blanket outside on the front porch and started crafting.Each of my kids took their time threading the needle and then pulling the thread through each hole. It was fun watching them  decide which hole they wanted to go into next. My youngest wanted to thread through every single hole…and that she did. The kids needed a little assistance with tying the thread as well as pulling it through the holes at times. I was actually surprised that the craft took us more time to make then I first had thought. I figured they would be done in no time but we ended up spending a few hours working on them. I love crafts that take more then a few minutes to complete. My kids have really good attention spans when it comes to crafting. I guess they get that from their Momma,  Once the frames were finished I thought it would be fun to use them to display a few mementos and photos from some of our favorite trips. The kids absolutely loved this idea! So together we picked out our favorite pictures and a few small light weight mementos that could easily hang on the strings.  I love that we now have a cute way to display all of those fun little mementos that we have collected from our favorite trips. JoAnn Fabric and Craft Stores is currently holding a sweepstakes that started June 21st on Instagram. Just simply share a photo of a We Made It craft that you have done with your kids or share some of your crafting advice with everyone. Tag your photos with the #wemadeitsweepstakes and #joann hastags. You can find out more information on the sweepstakes here.

Thank you JoAnn Fabric and Craft Stores and Jennifer for allowing me to participate!