I remember when I was a kid that I had an awesome felt Advent Calendar to use every year during the month of December. My grandma made it for her kids when they were young and it was passed down to me. Sadly, I have no idea where the calendar ended up (I sure wish I knew). I was thinking to myself that it would be fun to have one for my kids to use every year....and maybe pass it down to their kids. So I got to work!I Google-searched 24 images of items I wanted for the calendar and printed them out on paper, then cut them out and used them as templates for the ornaments.I made 2-3 ornaments each week during the summer and really tried to add as much detail as possible to the ornaments to make them extra special. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. What do you think???I made a stocking for each one of the kidsSanta, Christmas bag, Cardinal (for my grandma), Candy CaneChristmas Tree, Hot Cocoa, Gift, BellGingerbread Man, Ice Skate, Baby Jesus, HollyPoinsettia, Snowflake, Light, … [Read more...]
Holiday Soap
Ever notice how the price of hand soap is more when it's put in a festive container? Solution-------- do it yourself! Here is what you will need: Hand soap Stickers Carefully peel off the manufacture labels from the hand soap (and shhhhh, don't tell them you are doing this) Remove and excess goop left behind and simply place stickers on the bottles. My kids think these are fancy shmancy soaps from the store...little do they know it cost me all of $2.00 (soap and stickers). *a little edit for ya- I also like to add a few drops of my favorite essential oil-peppermint to make them smell festive!* … [Read more...]
Make your own ornaments
Something my mom and I used to do a lot when I was younger (and pre-kids) was paint Christmas ornaments. It's really simple to do and MUCH cheaper than some of those fancy shmancy ones you can purchase. Here is what you need: GLASS ornaments (trust me the plastic ones don't work) Acrylic paint Add a few drops of paint to the inside of each ornament Roll the ornaments carefully around to get the paint to cover the entire inside Allow each ornament to dry upside down and the excess paint to drip out You can stop there and hang them or you can glue pretty ribbon to the tops of the ornaments...it's really up to you! … [Read more...]
Origami Wreath
I was blog hopping the other day (yup, I'm a rabbit) and saw some really neat tutorials for Origami projects. One that really struck me was a tutorial for an Origami Wreath. I just happened to have a bunch of Christmas themed 12" x 12" paper laying around and I thought I would try to make a wreath with my oldest boy. I had to play around quite a bit because the tutorial was in Japanese (I think) and the measurements were in metric, but I think you could say our wreath was a success! (He...OK, I, didn't want to stop making them!) Here is what you will need to make an Origami Wreath of your own: 12 sheets of colorful paper (pattern and print of your choice) a ruler 1. Carefully mark each sheet of paper on the back side. One line should run horizontal 5 inches from the bottom of the paper, 2 other lines should run vertical about 5.4 inches from each side. Like so... 2. Fold two of the corners down to the lines as demonstrated in the photo. 3. Fold the … [Read more...]
Candy Cane Vase
My oldest (5yrs) and I really love candy canes. If I am being 100% honest with you (and I always am) I purchase boxes and boxes and boxes of candy canes every time this time of year comes around. I love to eat them and decorate with them (and he does too!) This year we made a fun and really easy festive vase for our table out of candy canes. Here is what you will need: a glass vase (either square, rectangle or circle- a vase with a neck doesn't really work for this) some holiday ribbon candy canes low-temp glue gun Gage how much space the candy canes will take up and use the remaining amount to fill in with ribbon. I used ribbon around the base of the vase. We kept our candy canes wrapped to avoid sticky fingers (and sneaky licks). Using a low temp glue gun apply a ribbon of glue to the candy cane (not the vase- it will harden before you have a chance to apply the candy cane). Once you have covered the vase with the desired candy canes attach a bow around … [Read more...]
Christmas Tree Handprints
This is one of my all time favorite projects I have done with my kids. It just so happens to be an all time favorite Christmas present too! It's really easy and turns out just adorably! Here is what you will need: 1 piece of white paper (large) (or a canvas-which is what I used- you can get them for pretty cheap) Green, yellow and brown paint 1 kid willing to get ooey and gooey Paint your child's hand with the green paint- make one row of 4 hand prints Next paint your child's hand again and make a row of 3 hand prints Then make a row of 2 hand prints on top of that Lastly, 1 hand print on the very top Use the brown paint to make a stump and the yellow to make a star on the top. (Have your child autograph the tree with the year to mark the date) These make GREAT presents and they are always adored by grandparents. While making the tree I thought to myself....hmmm, what if I traced a circle really lightly in pencil and did the same thing? Ta-da! A pretty and … [Read more...]
