Believe it or not, but Fall has become the season for weddings versus the Spring and with weddings comes bridal showers.
For anyone who has even contemplated hosting a bridal shower the idea of hosting a bridal shower may seem overwhelming and daunting at best. That's why so many nowadays are held out at restaurants with a professional handling all the arrangements.
However, with a little planning and organization hosting a bridal shower can end up being fun for the whole family, for all the participants and a wonderful event for all to remember. And, it doesn't have to be held out at a fancy, expensive restaurant.
In a previous post on my
Linda's Blog I eluded to the fact that my sister and sisters-in-law and I had hosted a bridal shower for our oldest niece several years ago.
Instead of a bridal shower out at a restaurant we decided on a more traditional, small, folksy, family & friends bridal shower - like we used to remember going to when we were growing up. We decided that, "Hey, we can do this if we all work together! It'll be fun!" We decided that we would cook all the food and make all the decorations, prizes, centerpieces, and bridal shower favors. Small, folksy and intimate like bridal showers and baby showers, for that matter, used to be.
Since I was in charge of the bridal shower and had taken pictures and kept all the documentation and preparation notes on the bridal shower I decided that I should put that to good use and post about this on my
Linda's Blog. It's been in my to do pile for quite awhile as I have been meaning to post about it for quite some time.
Well, this morning I decided to create the blog post and in doing so realized that my post was getting rather lengthy. Since it was so long and detailed I thought it might be better served if it was in a .PDF file.
So, I created a Linda's How-Do-I FREE e-book for everyone entitled "How To Host A Folksy, Family & Friends Bridal Shower?"
I hope you enjoy my free e-book and would love to hear if it inspired you to try hosting a folksy, family & friends bridal shower yourself.
Please CLICK HERE or click on the picture above to download our free e-book from our Linda Walsh Originals E-Patterns website.
I am very partial to handmade gifts, especially those that have been made by my family and friends. Given that I’m in
the Grandmother phase of my life right now I’m especially partial to handmade gifts from my grandchildren. Whether it is a card or an ornament I love them and cherish them all. In fact, nothing pleases me more than receiving a handmade card or gift from my family and friends
at the holidays.
With these economic times when money is scarce for so many people my thoughts turn to the different times in my life when money was scarce
for me and the handmade gifts that I created and gave at the holidays.
If you are a reader of my Linda's Blog (http://lindawalshoriginals.blogspot.com) you know that I come from a family of crafters and that when I was growing up at the holidays we always had a Christmas crafting project to do.
One year it was a church scene created out of Styrofoam that my Dad and I created. My Dad painstakingly cut the Styrofoam to form a cone steeple and painstakingly cut the windows so they were a half circle at the top and had window panes. We added colored plastic to the inside of the windows and used a lighted angel inside the church so the colored glass would shine through. Then we added candle carolers, candle trees, and snowflake sprinkled felt for snow for the outside of the church. We used this scene as one of our Christmas displays until the foam finally fell apart. I loved that scene and especially loved working with my Dad on it.
Another year I decided to knit large stockings for everyone in the family. I knit their names in the top and each had their own special knit decoration on it. The stockings were knit with red, green, and white yarn and were about 24” long. We used those, too, until they finally fell apart.
Another year when I was in my twenties I decided to make all the gifts for my family and friends as money was tight that year. So, I decided to make handmade Christmas ornaments for my friends with their names embroidered on them and other handmade gifts for my family. Some members of my family got dolls (of course) and some got quilts, etc. My friends each got several ornaments of different types with their names on them. Some were trees, candy canes, snowmen, stockings, etc.
When my twin granddaughters were young they made their Grandfather and I handmade paper ornaments with their mother. They cut the ornaments out of construction paper and glued glitter all over the front of them. Then they added our names and their names to the back of the ornaments. A hole was created in the top of each and a piece of yarn was used as a hanger. They are some of my favorite ornaments and we still put them on our Christmas tree every year.
In fact, our Christmas tree is only decorated with handmade ornaments. You’ll find ornaments my grandchildren made or ones I’ve made over the years (and there are many of those) on our tree. Some are made of paper, some are cloth, and some are floral decorations I’ve made.
Others might be beaded ornaments my Mother and I made one year or wooden clothespin reindeer that I made 30+ years ago. I even have foam toy
soldiers that I made from a kit over 35 years ago. Plus, I have wooden ornaments that I painted from a kit I bought close to 30 years ago.
You might also find beaded ornaments a friend of mine made, terra cotta floral and terra cotta cloth ornaments I made, porcelain Santa heads my sister made, a knitted wreath from my Grandmother, or a felt cardinal made by a friend that sits on a branch with an old fashion silver hair clip. There might be silver icicles or wooden dolls.
You just never know what you may find. What you can count on is that each and every ornament is remembered and loved and painstaking preserved so that we have it for the next holiday season.
So, I thought I would share some easy and fast cloth, paper, and E-Printable ornament ideas with you. Maybe they will entice you to make your own handmade ornaments this year that you’ll cherish and painstakingly preserve for years and years to come.
The same basic outline was used for most of the ornaments whether you are making them out of construction paper, coloring them on heavier stock paper, printing them out on heavy card stock for E-Printables, or making them out of cloth. They can be as easy to make as you want or some of the cloth ones can be more elaborate just by adding beads or other decorations. That, of course, is up to you. We’re providing instructions for the basics. The rest is up to you and your creativity.
Adult supervision is required if you are making these ornaments with young children as some of the ornaments require the use of scissors, Elmer’s glue, hot glue, small decorations, and needle & thread.
Our E-Book is broken down into 4 sections as follows: Section #1—Instructions and Supplies Needed, Section #2—BASIC SHAPES and DETAILS for construction paper cut-out ornaments or for coloring ornaments on heavier stock paper, Section #3—COLORED E-PRINTABLES for creating e-printable ornaments on heavy card stock, and Section #4—E-PATTERN PIECES for felt cloth ornaments that you can decorate as elaborately or as simply as you want.
Please follow the instructions within each of the sections as to how to make the construction paper ornaments, colored ornaments on heavier stock paper, colored e-printables, and felt cloth ornaments.
The ornaments in Section #2 and #3 will be hung using DMC Embroidery floss. The cloth ornaments in Section #4 will be using DMC embroidery floss for a hanger and for embroidering the recipient’s names.
Please CLICK HERE or click on the picture above to download our free e-book from our Linda Walsh Originals E-Patterns website.