Happy Mother's Day!

This past weekend was the most glorious of holidays...Mother's Day.  It's fast becoming my favorite holiday.  Why, you ask?  Well, it's a day dedicated to - me!  Seriously, it's just a nice day to celebrate Mother's that, if you have one's like mine (both biological and inherited), deserve this one day out of the year to be praised and recognized for all they do.  P & G has a couple of commercials out there that are titled 'Thank You Mom'.  Both are geared towards Mom's raising Olympian children...makes me cry every time, only because I know my two kids will also be Olympians - :).  I just love these and think everyone should watch them - it's a total of 4 minutes to watch both...and the Olive Garden commercial before the P & G commercial is an added bonus.  We all know their soup and salad is pretty stellar so this commercial just stresses that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V-20Qe4M8Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57e4t-fhXDs

I really do love giving gifts.  I should make a profession purchasing gifts for other people to give.  It's just fun.  Well, I'm also a HUGE fan of making gifts.  Not only is it a great reason to get together with people to have a craft day (yes, I do have a few friends that do this with me every now and again), but it's also thoughtful...well, depending on if you make a gift someone will like...sorry, over analyzing.  This Mother's Day I wanted to make something and I originally started one DIY gift only to not really like the outcome.  I haven't given up on it, but I was in a time crunch so I chose something else.  I decided to make a mini sewing kit out of a Mason Jar.  Guess what?!?  This was completely an original idea that I had that was in no way lifted off of Pinterest.  I lie.  But, another Pinterest idea executed for the books!!!  Here's the supplies:

1 squat Mason Jar (mine are from Walmart, I purchased them ages ago for $7 for a box of 12)
Mason Jar lid
Remnant fabric - preferably a cotton NOT something heavy duty, trust me, it won't work
Glue gun (and glue, of course)
Stuffing (I purchased some quilt batting at Walmart in a roll for $3.27 - it's going to last me a decade)
Washi Tape (my love)
Label Maker  (my second love)
Sewing kit (I found one at Walmart for $1 - it included 12 small spools of thread and threading needles)
Scissor and tape measure kit (Walmart again!!!  They were REALLY nice little scissors and a round tape measure that retracts-$5.97)
Pins with heads
Safety pins

And now...pictures for your enjoyment:

The Supplies

I had this super cute hot pink fabric with white polka dots on it from...the remnant bin at the local fabric store.  So I used that, found something that was round a a bit bigger than the lid.  Traced it and then cut out the circles.

SNIFFFFF!!! Do you smell that?  That's the scent of my burning flesh from the glue gun.  Never fails.  Here is where I just grabbed and bunched and glued it all the way around, leaving about half undone.  Then I stuffed it with some of the batting.  After that, I glued the rest to seal her up!

And so that it wasn't so ugly to look at when you took the lid off, I cut a piece of felt and glued it onto the bottom of the lid AFTER I bunched, glued and stuffed it.  I used the unused lid as a template for circle size.

I COMPLETELY forgot to take a picture of this (probably because I was trying to keep my mind off my third degree burns), but on the inside of the screw top part of the lid, I put hot glue in it right before I pushed the padded lid part into it.  It helps the lid to stay closed and makes it so the two lid pieces don't separate.

Sigh.  My Washi Tape.  I could hug it.  BUT, brace yourselves...I found yet ANOTHER use for the beloved tape!!!  I just folded over some extra wide tape, put a strip of narrower tape through the middle (for added support) and then pushed some pins through it.

I then filled the jar itself with some safety pins, the pins with heads in Washi Tape, the scissors, tape measure, thread pins and thread.

And with the help of MORE Washi Tape, I made this label on the jar.  Here you can see the pin cushion lid that has been made.  I also put some pins in the top for show.

And here are the final products!!!  Both Mother's liked them.  My Mom is taking hers to work.  Not sure what my MIL is going to do with hers, but I suggested putting it in her car or taking it to her home away from home (vacation spot).  So many possibilities with this.  You could also put in a few generic buttons, bigger spools of thread (white, gray and black will get ANYONE by in a pickle), a seam ripper...endless.

While I really wanted to post this last week, I knew my Mom's would read this and it would spoil the surprise.  BUT, I think this gift would be perfect for a bunch of things:

• Birthday
• Graduation (I'm thinking of making one for my cousin that's graduating from high school...hey, you never know when a button will fly off, or something will get a hole - and it's never too early to learn something new)
• Teacher
• Daycare provider
• Wedding
• Just because...those are the best kind of gifts.

Whatever the intended giving idea is for, I think this would be awesome.  I'm looking forward to making more.  I estimate this entire project cost me $9 each to make.  The most expensive part was the scissors and tape measure, but the set was a must and so stinking cute!!!  Gift giving on a budget can be fun - especially if you're willing to make it.

 

Since I'm so far behind on posting today, I won't be proofreading so enjoy the mistakes!!!

 

I hope that every one of my readers that are Mom's had a most fantastic Mother's Day!!!  Thanks for reading and I hope you have a marvelous rest of the week!!!  Until Friday...