Homemade Gift Guide

Well, guys, it's official. I've gone completely nuts. I've decided to make all of my Christmas presents this year.

Yep. I'll be working overtime all month, posting here 4-5 days a week, and yet have somehow decided I can totally find time to make all of my presents. Well, while it may be a little over-ambitious, I really love the idea of giving my friends and family handmade gifts and love knowing that I'll put extra love into each and every one.

Today, I'm sharing some of my favorite, gift-worthy projects that I've put together on Ladyface Blog! Hopefully some of these ideas will inspire you to do some homemade and handmade gifting this year!

First on the list, are these pretty color-blocked Painted Cork Coasters. 

These cute coasters are super simple to make, and can be easily customized to feature the recipient's favorite colors. How cute would these look stacked up and wrapped with a little bow?

Next up, is one of my favorite projects I've ever done: String Art Portrait Plaques.

These are super fun, and relatively simple to put together. The ones I created are portraits of my cats, Buddy and Hank, and myself. Using side-view silhouette portraits, you could make one for anyone you know! You could also take the idea and run with it to create a set of initials, a home state, or the image of your choosing. String art is super fun!

Both these Crocheted Bow Hair Pins and these Fabric Bow Hair Pins would make great stocking stuffers! It only takes a few minutes to make each one, so you could make up a whole slew of these to give to  all of the adorable ladies in your life!

If you're still on the hunt for great hair accessories for gifting, this Wire Headband would be a great choice! You can whip them up in no time in all sorts of different colors and patterns, and they look great!

An Embroidered Pendant Necklace would also make a lovely little stocking stuffer. This is actually the first project I ever did on Ladyface Blog and remains one of my favorites. The tutorial shows how to make a gingham embroidered pendant, but I've also whipped them up with a chevron pattern, a honeycomb pattern, or initials. If you've got a knack for embroidery, the possibilities are endless!

You could also whip up a Wire Word Necklace! If you know a lady who can rock a good statement piece, this would make  perfect gift. It's also totally customizable and could easily be made as another word or as the name of the recipient!

And hey! If you're looking for a less time-consuming jewelry option, these Clip-On Earring Pendant Necklaces come together in no time. Since clip-on earrings come in sets of two (duh), it would be darling to give these as a pair of friendship necklaces!

Last, but certainly not least, these Printable Canning Jar Labels are the perfect way to get your home-canned goods ready for gift giving! Print them out on pretty paper, cut them out, add them to your jars and you're ready to go! You could even tie a pretty ribbon around the jar ring to make them really special.

Well, I hope these projects have helped inspire you to do some homemade gift giving this year!

I'm certainly excited to get my homemade gifts together! Wish me luck!

Til next time!

-Becca

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DIY Gem Pocket Sweatshirt with Nicole of Writes Like a Girl

Hello everyone! Today, one of my favorite bloggers, Nicole from Writes Like a Girl, is here to get her craft on with a cute DIY project that's perfect to jazz up your wardrobe for the holiday season! Nicole inspires me daily with her honest writing, adorable personal style, and her support of women everywhere. If you like adorable clothes, feminism, and super awesome people, I know you'll love Nicole and her blog as much as I do. Check out her super cute project here, and then be sure to stop by Writes Like a Girl for more!

Hello lovely ladyfaces! I'm not usually a craft-inclined kind of gal, but Becca's blog inspires me so much. I saw this super cute gem pocket sweatshirt on ASOS the other day and thought, "Hey, I think I could make that!" So here we are...let's get started!

And now, you've got a fantastically sparkly sweatshirt. Get on with ya bad self!

Flavored Salt

Hey guys!

Today I'm excited to talk about Flavored Salt! I know, leave it to me to want to make salt all fancy. Well, making flavored salt is SO easy, that I'm going to share three different versions with you today: Sriracha Salt, Lemon Salt, and Balsamic Salt.

Any of these can be used in many different applications. You could toss them on homemade popcorn, use them as a finishing salt, or straight up cook with them! I'm imagining Sriracha Salt popcorn, truffles finished with Balsmaic Salt, and some tasty chicken seasoned with Lemon Salt. So good, right?

I'm not just excited about sharing this recipe/tutorial because it's delicious, I'm also excited because these flavored salts would make a really lovely homemade gift for the holidays! You could package up one flavor, or you could make people really swoon by giving all three as a set. Put these up in tiny little jars wrapped in ribbon, and boy have you got a gift!

Ok! Let's get started, shall we?

First up, Ingredients! Now, I made small batches of each of these, but it's super easy to scale up if you are making more.

Ingredients:

For Sriracha Salt:
- 1/4 cup kosher salt
- 3 tsp Sriracha

For Lemon Salt:
- 1/4 cup kosher salt
- 1 tsp fresh lemon zest
- 2 tsp lemon juice

For Balsamic Salt:
- 1/4 cup kosher salt
- 2 tsp balsamic vinegar

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment.

2. Add the flavor to the salt and mix until well combined.

3. Spread the salt mixture out on your baking sheet. If you're making all three flavors in the amounts specified, you should be able to fit all three flavors on one sheet. If you're making a ton of each flavor, I would definitely recommend separate baking sheets.

4. Put the baking sheets in the oven, close the door immediately, and turn off the heat. Let sit in the oven for 2-3 hours, or until the salt is dry.

5. Once the salt is removed from the oven, use your hands (or a mortar and pestle if you're fancy!) to separate the clumps, and then put into small jars or airtight containers for storage.

Ta-da!!!! With approximately no effort, you've got yourself a set of delicious flavored salts! Seriously, how pretty do these look in these cute little glass containers?

Whether you're looking for a great homemade gift option, or just a tasty addition to your spice cabinet, I hope you get to try out some Flavored Salt soon!

Til next time!

-Becca

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Datevitation Review and Giveaway! - CLOSED

Hey guys!

Today I'm excited to share a giveaway from one of my lovely sponsors, Datevitation!

Now, if you were anything like me as a kid, you probably loved putting together coupon books as gifts for your family members. Well, Datevitation has taken that idea and run with it to help you create gorgeous coupon books for your loved ones!

The options for the Datevitation coupon books are pretty endless. In fact, you can choose from over 500 different activity ideas and over 100 different covers! I chose to create one for my mom for her birthday, but this would make an amazing holiday gift for a family member, a friend, or a significant other. I loved the different cover image options and had a ton of fun putting mine together.

My favorite part of the whole process was using the Add Your Faces feature! It added a fun, personal touch, that both my mom and I got a big kick out of!

My Datevitation love coupon book arrived in this adorable "Surprise," envelope, which made it perfect for gift giving. My mom ended up completely loving it, and the rest of my family was blown away by how cute it was! I think my mom is the most excited about the computer lesson coupon!

Books normally start at just $25, so it makes for a thoughtful, yet economical gift. As a special treat for Ladyface Blog readers, you can use the code, LADYFACE, to receive $10 off your purchase, plus free shipping (total value of 13.50). That means you can get your loved one a one-of-a-kind, super thoughtful gift for just $15! The cut-off date for guaranteed delivery by Christmas is December 13, so make sure to get your order in soon!

Oh, and did I mention Datevitation is giving away a custom coupon book to one lucky Ladyface Blog reader? Just use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter!

The giveaway runs through December 9th and one lucky winner will be chosen shortly after! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Til next time!

-Becca

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Weekly Wardrobe and a Blog Design Update!

 Glasses: BonLook

Scarf: Homemade by yours truly!

Sweater: J.Crew/Similar

Dress: Anthropologie/Similar

Belt: Anthropologie

Tights: Nordstrom

Shoes: ModCloth

Well, I don't know about you guys, but I had a lovely weekend! A long weekend, in fact, because I had four dreamy days off!

Overall, it was a super solid long weekend. I spent Thanksgiving with my family on Thursday, and got together with them again on Friday to celebrate my mama's birthday. We went and saw Catching Fire together and loved it! Have any of you guys seen it yet?

I also worked on some projects, hung out with some friends, and did some serious blog work this weekend. I got a chance to catch up on quite a few things I'd fallen behind on, including updating my blog design!

I'm really thrilled with the way it all came out! I've been working with my friend and co-worker, Marisol, over the past couple of months and am SO happy I asked for her help with my blog redesign! She's super talented and really made my vision come together with her beautiful graphics and lettering. I love that things now have a cleaner look, but are still really fun and whimsical. I kind of can't believe I got on with the slap-dash look I managed to whip up for as long as I did!

Fun aside, I'm kind of dreading the next few weeks. This week begins the holiday madness at my work, so there's going to be lots and lots of overtime. It will be great to have the extra cash, but man, I know I'm going to be beat by the time Christmas rolls around.

Despite all of that, I'm still really excited about the holidays. I'm definitely getting into full on gifting mode, and also totally impulse bought the most adorable little pink tinsel Christmas tree from Target on Sunday. It was too cute to pass up! The cats seem to be big fans, too, since they keep gnawing on it. Sheesh.

Well, that's all for now! How was your weekend?

Til next time!

-Becca

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