I was prepared for Christmas this year…or so I thought. I was lucky enough to get most of my shopping done by the end of November, visiting local shops before COVID came roaring back and made it uncomfortable to be in busy places again. I was feeling good about the gift plans I had. Suddenly, here we are, halfway through December and I am realizing I need to get my butt in gear with some of the homemade gifts I am giving this year!

Our original Christmas plans have fallen through, and we won’t be heading to Ks parents for Christmas this year. We will follow the rules and have a nice quiet Christmas at home. One of my early gift plans had been to do a family silhouette plaque for all of his siblings families and send them out. We don’t usually exchange gifts unless we are spending Christmas together, but this year felt like we needed it. That plan has fallen through thanks to time sneaking up on me and not being able to get them done in time to be shipped to everyone. So onto plan B.

K’s parents are hard to buy for. Well, his dad is hard to buy for. I can usually find something for his mom. The fantastic thing about them though, is they love homemade gifts. K’s mom is a master level crafter and we always receive an absolutely stunning calendar every year. One that she scrapbooks and painstakingly assembles for hours upon hours. We treasure that gift. A few years ago, I started making her a calendar every year. She deserved to receive one in return. Mine are nowhere near as detailed, intricate or designed as hers, but they are improving year after year. Her favourite part about last years calendar is the month of December I did an advent of photos. She gets to open a little door each day of December to see a fun photo. If you haven’t guessed it yet…I apparently have a thing for advent calendars!

Anyways, I didn’t feel that a plaque depicting their family would be the right choice for them. Yes, they would have liked it and displayed it, but it doesn’t really fit their decor or style of house. So I came up with plan B. So I’m on Plan B of plan B. Hahaha. I decided to send their whole family to them for Christmas. I decided to use the silhouettes I had created and make some Christmas baubles out of them.

First thing I did was did a quick design on the computer of the basic bauble shape and the silhouette framed in the centre. The baubles are 3” in diameter which is about average for a bauble. They match the size of the baubles on our tree anyway. Once I had them how I wanted, I printed them off and headed out to the shop.

Next, I grabbed some scrap plywood from the advent builds and some carbon paper and traced my designs onto the wood.

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Once they were traced, I used my scroll saw to cut out the baubles.

My scroll saw skills are still developing, so I had a little sanding to round out a few little spots. I also decided that I didn’t like the height of the top of the bauble, so I used the sander to bring that down by half and then rounded it back out.

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Once sanded, I drilled a hole for a nice piece of twine to go in. I drilled from front and back to have a nice clean hole with no splinters. Another tip is you can put your piece onto another piece of wood and drill through to the other piece of wood. That also helps with stopping the splintering. I find plywood seems to do that when drilling through.

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For the next part, I decided to head inside and setup at my dining room table, which seems to have become craft central. We turned on a Christmas movie and I worked on the silhouettes. I decided to wood burn them onto the baubles. My original plan had been to scroll them out, but the pressure of getting short on time got to me.

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The silhouettes turned out great, but there was too much undecorated space above and below, so I did a little free-hand design to add more of a Christmas bauble look.

They turned out fun and whimsical. I’m looking forward to sending them their family for Christmas. It is no replacement for their actual family, but for this year, I hope it brings them some joy on Christmas morning.