one present down...almost...

You know those people that are really hard to shop for? My brother PJ is not one of those people. There are a TON of things that I could buy for him. He's one of those that are hard to MAKE for. And to make it worse, his birthday is just a couple days before Christmas, so all of the gift-figuring-out happens at one time!

But I still want to make him things so I do my best. For his birthday, I made this little collection of items today. It's the first thing that I actually have done. Well, almost...as you'll see.




The idea started with, "Hey! Maybe PJ would like a stamp that he could use on his comic books that he makes!" So I pulled out the stamp carving items for the first time in a while, and made a little block stamp.



Then I thought a bookmark would be a nice idea, as he reads a lot (whether he likes it or not!) So I used the stamp I made on some fabric, then sewed it to felt. You can't see it, but the bookmark isn't completely sewn because I ran out of thread about 2" shy of finishing it. So now I need to buy more black thread.



And because PJ draws and goes through notebooks faster than I do, I covered a composition book with contact paper and added some decoration from contrasting contact paper.

I think he'll like these, but I do wonder if I should add a little felt mustache for him to wear. What do you think? Cool or not cool for an eleven-year-old?