Michi Photostory

I was not feeling well for the last several days and these handmade gift tags were my final project. After I made this, I got sick so I stopped crafting. I am wondering why I got sick when I was just at home, wala naman nanghawa sa akin. I still have a cough and colds and hopefully mawala na rin in the next few days.

Every Valentine’s Day, I always give chocolates to my son or something sweet. Most of the time, I will just add a card or gift tag because the majority of the chocolates have their own packaging. But this year, I made an effort to make my own packaging using the Heart Shape Box that I found on Cricut Design Space. 

It is time to clean my phone gallery again so I am sharing the craft projects that I did last October. 

I am done with my Washi Tape Projects so my next goal is to make a craft project using “Red and Yellow” which are both Bee Happy Craft colors. When I read the theme, the first thing that pops into my head is the colors of McDonald’s so I decided to make a “Bee Happy Meal”. I created my own menu and I make sure that the food has a touch of yellow and red. I browsed Pinterest for ideas and templates.

My mom is an expert when it comes to crochet, so we always have potholder, handmade doll, and other crochet projects. I always see her crocheting since I was a kid but in my mind, this is not something for me. It looks so complicated so I have no plans of trying it.

But during our summer vacation in Norway, out of the blue, I asked my mom to teach me how to crochet. Of course, she taught me the basic stitches which are single crochet and slip stitch. Then my son told me that his classmate knows how to make a bracelet. Waah! Mas nachallenge ako, if a 10-year old girl can do this, mas kaya ko ito. So I told my son, I can also make a bracelet for you so I made a simple chain bracelet. Lol.

1. Cellphone Holder 

But of course, I challenged myself to make my first crochet project. I don’t want a potholder because I have a lot of potholders from my mom so I make a cellphone holder for my son. Every day, I crochet several rows and I realized that it is not easy to crochet kasi masakit sa kamay. So now, I will never look at a crochet potholder the same way again. I know that it takes time, effort, and love just to finish a crochet project.


After a week, I was able to finish my crochet cellphone holder. I know some people can do this in one sitting but it took me a long time because there are times that I have to undo it and repeat because my project was not straight. But I’m proud of my first project and I’m happy because my son was using it. He can put his cellphone and power bank inside the cellphone holder.

2. Handmade Dolls 

My mom always makes a handmade doll, if you are a regular reader of this blog, you've already seen some of her works, but you if you miss it, check it here and here. I also took some photos of her handmade dolls. My mom made these for displays, gift for family or friends and sometimes she sells it too.




Looking at these handmade dolls, feeling ko hindi kaya ng power ko and I’m not sure if I can finish it during our summer vacation. But of course, nothing is impossible when you believe. So for my second project, I will make a handmade doll so I can give this to my husband on his birthday.


My mom has a lot of crochet books and magazines so I just choose the pattern that I like. The pattern was in Norwegian language so my mom assisted and guided me until I finished the project. My first handmade doll was not perfect because I can only make square or rectangle, pagpabilog na medyo mahirap pa sa akin. But after finishing my first handmade doll, I decided to repeat the project para may kapartner.


I just crochet part by part of the doll and after that, I joined them. I’m so happy that I finished these handmade dolls in one month. The blue handmade doll looks good na compared to my first one. Sometimes, I still can’t believe na gawa ko ito. These were my birthday gift to my husband and he was surprised when he opened his gift last month. He knew that I have crochet project pero hindi niya ineexpect na ito yung ginagawa ko. I will make another one if I have the yarn para family of three na.

I don’t change our Christmas tree theme every year because ornaments and decorations are expensive and we live in a small house so changing decors every year will not help us. Where will I store all the decors after Christmas?

The less you have and do, the more you will FREE 

So for the last few years, I just added one or more ornaments and reuse the old decors. If there is stuff that I won’t use anymore, I give it away. For the last 3 years, we’ve been making handmade decorations on our Christmas tree. So far, we made Christmas angels, paper ornaments, salt dough ornaments and gingerbread ornaments. 



It is really nice to see those DIY ornaments every year because it is not just a decor, we made it and there is a story behind it. It is a good way of keeping our memories alive. 



Last Saturday, we made another Christmas Ornaments using Polymer Clay. It is our Day 17 Advent Calendar activity. We’ve made Salt Dough Ornaments last year but it did not last so this year I decided to use polymer clay. 

I bought polymer clay last month at National Bookstore but there are only two available colors, green and yellow and I chose green. I only bought one clay so we can try it, the polymer is not cheap too, P95. For the tools, we use my son’s clay tools that I bought in Daiso Japan, old Christmas tree Cookie Cutter, and Oven Toaster. 

Since it will be our first time to use polymer clay, we just chose an easy design which is Christmas Tree and we put our family fingerprint to add a personal touch. 



For baking time, I just refer to the instructions at the back of the polymer clay packaging. We use sharpie pens to color the fingerprint.

We’re so happy with our first polymer clay Christmas ornaments. We will definitely do this again, more practice pa. Aside from NBS, do you know where I can buy polymer clay here in the Philippines?   

Update: December 2017


We did not do any Advent Calendar activity this year. Last year, we made ornaments using polymer clay so this year, my son wanted to make a new ornament. So when I visited a bookstore, I bought red polymer clay. He was bugging me to do it right away but I told him, sa Christmas break na lang so he has something to do. 

So during the holiday break, we made new polymer clay ornaments. We did not hang this anymore kasi few days nalang Christmas na. hehehe! But I will include this in our Christmas tree next year. I made the wreath and watermelon. 

Ever since I changed my Christmas tree theme last 2012, I did not change it anymore. I’m very much satisfied with our Christmas ornaments so I don’t have any reasons not to reuse it. I just buy or make our own Christmas ornaments to add more decorations to our Christmas tree. 


Read: DIY Christmas Angel Ornaments
DIY Paper Christmas Ornaments

Last year we made salt dough ornaments but they did not last, maybe because of the moisture or I did not store them properly so I threw them away. Anyway, I have a brown felt cloth at home na pakalat-kalat lang so I decided to make another ornament. Of course, I asked permission from my son because he owns the felt cloth. He got it from one of his activities at Edsa Shangri-la Cubs Trainings. 

Read: DIY Salt Dough Ornaments

My son allowed me to use it so I was able to make gingerbread ornaments. I did not buy any materials so I just use whatever I see at our home. I looked for gingerbread pattern, printed and traced it on the brown felt cloth. 


From the scrap felt cloth, I was able to make four gingerbreads then I patiently sewed them. My son helped me in stuffing the ornaments and I decorated them.


We’re so happy with our handmade gingerbread ornaments and it is now hanging on our Christmas tree.  Indeed, you can save money on upcycling stuff at home. 

Felt cloth (freebies from EDSA Shang)
Ribbon (Red Ribbon)

Read: DIY Christmas Wreath

My mom discovered her creativity skill when she went to Norway and one of her hobbies is making handmade doll. She also sells handmade dolls in Norway. Part of her pasalubong to her grandchildren is handmade doll. 

My son loves this doll and he even named it “Kaka”. I don’t know where he got the name but after one day, I’ve got the answer to my question. “Kaka” for kakatayin. Look what happened to this doll. #poordoll