Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Merry Christmas, Mom!

I'm basically broke this year, so I decided to make presents for my family.  I'm working on a special sister-style hair clip, which I hope will turn out!  But I was having a hard time coming up with ideas for my parents (always the most difficult when it comes to gifts!).

Anyway, while I was looking for something in the Christmas closet (yes, my mom has one of those), I found this:

And I knew what I had to do.

It's the Christmas book my mom made back when I was a wee tot.  Back when my dad was finishing school, my mom made these books as Christmas presents.  The book contains the Christmas story, complete with song, quotes from the Bible, and pictures:  

Everything is written with a typewriter, including a detailed Table of Contents:

We've read from this book every Christmas Eve that I can remember.  It's a tradition that's really important to my family and this book is really important for us, too.  

A few years ago, my mom started mentioning her desire to re-do the book and "get rid of the ruffly 80s crap" on the front.  She's not had the time to makeover the Christmas book - she's got a lot of things going!  So, when I pulled this beloved pastel purple book out of the Christmas closet, I knew what my gift to my parents would be: a Christmas book makeover!

I went upstairs to the craft room (my mom has one of those, too) and dug through the supplies, searching for anything Christmas related.  Here's what I found:
Add Image
I had a general idea of where I wanted to go (cover the book with the muslin, make some sort of picture frame with the shiny red stuff), so I got to tearing off the "ruffly 80s crap":

When I pulled the picture frame off the front, I discovered the original directions to this project:

I thought that was pretty great.

I re-typed all of the text in an old-timey font and printed out new copies of the songs.  I replaced a few of the pictures, too:

Then I got glue-gunnin' and covered the book in the creamy muslin.  I decided to use some black fabric for the frame and accent it with the red shiny stuff.  Once that was on, it didn't feel finished, so I added some grosgrain ribbon along the top and bottom.  It gave it a bound-book feel, which I really liked.
All in all, I'm really happy about how it turned out.  I hope my parents love it!  Merry Christmas, Mommy!

0 comments: