Ghetto craftiness at it's finest **Updated**

I couldn't afford the primer & paint for my shelf project, but I did manage to squeeze out the little bit of $ it cost to make 5 homemade gifts.

Basically the deal was this: I re-posted a status that said that I would make homemade gifts for the first 5 people to comment. Only 4 people commented, but my uncle "liked" my status, so I included him in there for good measure. After completing the first project, I was unstoppable & wound up finishing all 5 gifts over the course of a few days. Since 3 people have yet to receive theirs, and b/c I want them to see it in person before seeing it on the internets, I'm not going to talk about those ones just yet.

The first gift I delivered was for my friend, Unique, who proved to be the hardest to come up w/ an idea for. Not b/c she's difficult, but b/c we don't spend a lot of time together & I really wanted to be sure to make gifts that meant something or reflected everyone's personalities. I didn't want to pump out 5 random & thoughtless little crafty things & pass them out indiscriminately. At first, I was going to make her a canvas w/ her last name on it, some fancy little woopdy-doos & then write "Est. 2007" on it. Instead, I stumbled across something on pinterest that seemed much more fitting. At the risk of pointing out how much my knock-off version pales in comparison to the real deal, here is a photo of my inspiration for Unique's gift:

And here is my version:

Not quite as cute, obviously, but I never said I was Martha Stewart! I used photoshop to add the crown, swirlies, and writing, then stuck little gems in strategic places. Finally, I glued lace around the outside edge. The lace is from a collection of old lace & buttons my Granny gave me. The piece of lace that I used fit the canvas PERFECTLY; I didn't have to trim it at all. I took that as a sign. :)

The 2nd gift I delivered was one I made for my cousin Dena. Since I come from a mondo-huge family, I don't know all my relatives' personalities very well. I do know that we're all a little quirky & whimsical, so I found this idea on pinterest & decided it was the perfect gift for Dena:

I used a smaller canvas, didn't frame it, and used lighter colored flowers that I thought were much cuter than the brownish ones used in the pinterest version. Here is my interpretation:

This was the funnest of the gifts b/c I got to use hot glue & a hair dryer.

With those creative juices flowing, I decided to make another little homemade doo-dad. This one wasn't for anyone I know. It was for a family member of a friend of my friend Caroline. I knew I wanted to make a card, but I didn't know how I wanted to decorate it. Until I saw this photo on pinterest:

Again, my version is not nearly as cute, but I think it turned out pretty darn good:

I put a little note inside that said "Congratulations on your new little sweet pea."

I'll share the rest of the gifts I made after they're delivered. Two of them went in the mail yesterday & the other one I will give to my friend, Chrissie, the next time I see her. I feel really good about finishing all of my crafty endeavors, even if I'm not very confident in my ability to make them look cute. I just keep telling myself that if the recipients don't actually like them, they'll at least lie to me & say that they do, which will make me feel better. And I can be proud of the fact that I made sure to put serious thought into each one & made them with love.

**Update**
Thanks to the swiftness of our US Postal Service, one of the gifts was already delivered, so I can post it. This one was the first gift I finished & I was pretty happy w/ how it turned out. Since it was wood, I was able to print the words out on a piece of paper, then trace the letters w/ a pen on the paper so I could follow the grooves on the wood to make it look nice. Cuz goodness knows if I had to do my own writing, it would be all lopsided & sloppy. But first, my inspiration:

And now for my version:

Yet again I'm seeing these & remembering why I keep my day job. *lol*

**UPDATED AGAIN**
My friend Chrissie stopped by last night & picked up her homemade gift. This was the inspiration, which I found on one of her pinterest boards.

With some really good input from my buddy-in-law, Mike, this is the final product:

I used Chrissie's fb page as a guide to her favorite movies for the quotes. (Although I did sneak in a quote from the Worst Day Since Yesterday web show we were in.)

Only one more gift to go & that's just waiting on the USPS. It should arrive to it's destination anyday & when it does, I'll post the final update. :)