Tooting my own horn

My sister sent me a couple of photos of a project I helped her with recently and it turned out so cute I just had to share. But first, I just want to say how much fun it is to work with my sisters on projects. Who would have thought that moving overseas would help us stay better connected!

On to show and tell. Remember the magnet toy I made for my niece for Christmas? Apparently it was a big hit with one of my niece's friends who recently had a birthday. So my sister asked me if I could use some photos of the girl and her family and photoshop them into photos of Disney princesses (and princes, for the guys). Thanks to Flickr and the generous folks who use a Creative Commons license on their photos, I was able to find some great photos of Disney characters. And while it looks a little unusual to have a kid's face on a grown-up's body, I think they turned out really cute. My sister found the background photos (also on Flickr and licensed under Creative Commons licenses) and printed the images on magnetic paper.

Without further ado, here are the photos:




The magnets were created from altering the following photos:

• Aladdin and Jasmine - flickr.com/photos/truello/2843750009/ by truello
• Aurora - flickr.com/photos/jeffchristiansen/2620465785/ by JeffChristiansen
• Cinderella and Prince Charming - flickr.com/photos/thomwatson/3199625483/ by thomwatson
• Snow White - flickr.com/photos/armadillo444/2056683114/ by armadillo444
• Belle - flickr.com/photos/armadillo444/2060325911/ by armadillo444
• Ariel - flickr.com/photos/armadillo444/2055976939/ by armadillo444
• Cinderella Castle - www.flickr.com/photos/expressmonorail/2689632910/ by Express Monorail (Joe)

And while I'm showing off some of the stuff I've made, here are some links to photos of the gifts I made for family for Christmas. I didn't posted them earlier because half of my side of the family just received their gifts today. (And I can't blame the postal service for this -- it was all my fault.)

• After a long wait, my younger sister received pajama pants and an applique shirt. Her husband received a magnetic poetry-style magnet set with LOLCats words. Both he and his friend love LOLCats, so I decorated an extra container and sent my sister the file of words so she could make a magnet set for his friend. I hear it was a big hit, but I forgot to take a photo.
• I also made a magnetic poetry-style set for my dad. It's hard to come up with good handmade gifts for guys, but I thought this would be good to keep at the office. Everyone likes little distractions at the office, right? For all of the magnet sets, I bought candy tins and found an appropriate CC photo on Flickr to create a label.
• My mom and older sister both received purses. (Mom's purse - Amber's purse.) I sent matching purses to my nieces as well, even though they received their Christmas gifts on time.
• I asked my sister for gift ideas for her husband and she said that all he has time to do is sleep and work, so he got a pillowcase. I used iron transfers to create blocks with photos of the family and then sewed it together.
  

Somehow I managed to ship the gifts to my in-laws without taking any photos. I was trying to get them to the U.S. as close to Christmas as possible (they arrived a few days late). I made my MIL an apron that I loved so much I was tempted to keep for myself. (I have since bought fabric to make one for myself.) And both of my SILs received the hippo pj pants (one red, one green). I planned on making them matching shorty robes, but ran out of time. I think I still have enough fabric though, so maybe one day. My BIL received a journal made from an old German book I bought at the Naschmarkt. I gutted the book and added hand-torn blank pages. My FIL received permission to give me a hard time the entire year. :) Like I said, finding handmade gift ideas for guys is difficult.

That's it for show and tell. At least for today.