Thanksgiving is just a few days away and that means that Christmas is right around the corner! 'Tis the time to start thinking about The Elf on The Shelf and advent calendars. Just like The Elf, calendars can be as boring or creative as you want them to be. I've done some searching for ideas for my family and found these nine unique advent calendars... This DIY Paper Ornaments Advent Calendar by Sweet T Makes Three fascinates me. I can't decide if it would be more fun for my girls to make the ornaments or to open them! Hang these as a garland if you don't have a tree yet. How cute is this DIY Christmas Bulb Advent Calendar by The House That Lars Built?! Even if you don't make these bulbs as a calendar, you can make them to hang on your tree or just around the house. What I love about this Magnetic Bottle Cap Christmas Advent Calendar by Third Stop On The Right is that there are no gifts needed. It's just a simple count down to Christmas. How can you go … [Read more...]
How To Make A Pasta Angel
A few years ago as I was helping a friend go through some of her grandmother's belongings I came across a cute angel made of pasta sitting in the china cabinet. I took a photo and thought it would be fun for my girls to make. I had forgotten about the pasta angel until I was cleaning photos from my computer a couple days ago. Needless to say, I went out and bought what I needed to make these adorable Christmas decorations. Here's what I bought/already had: Paint brush White acrylic paint Glue* Wooden beads** Small ring pasta Rigatoni noodles Elbow macaroni Farfalle pasta (bow-tie pasta) Glitter Medium shell noodles** *Regular school glue works just fine but takes a while to dry. You can use a hot glue gun to speed up time but I do not recommend a hot glue gun for little kids. **Wooden beads and medium shells can be exchanged for each other as seen in the first photo above. 1) Start by gluing the wooden bead or the medium shell noodle to the … [Read more...]
How To Make Peppermint Ornaments
Hey everyone, It's Lindsi popping in again to say "hi" and to share with you these awesome peppermint ornaments I made with my kids. I saw these originally made with crushed candy canes but thought it would look much prettier with peppermint candies. As you know, my family loves making crafts with the candies. Remember the candy wreath we made? You won't believe how easy these ornaments are to make! You'll need just a few things: Peppermint candies Metal cookie cutters Cookie sheet Parchment paper Non-stick Cooking spray (such as Pam®) Toothpick Oven 1) Start by unwrapping all your candies. This is the hardest and most tedious part. Go ahead and preheat your oven to 350° F while you're unwrapping the candies. 2) Next, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Then spray the cookie cutters with non-stick cooking spray to prevent sticking to the cutters. 3) Place your cookie cutters on the parchment paper lined cookie sheet and fill them with the … [Read more...]
Christmas Pajama Tradition
Do you have any traditions that came out of nowhere? We do! We have an annual Christmas Pajama photo tradition. It was a tradition that I started in 2006 and I had no idea it would become a yearly thing. In 2006 our first child was born and I thought it would be cute to take a photo of him under the tree in some Christmas PJs. I love that photo! The next year my son was busy climbing into things. I caught him climbing into a box that I had wrapped to store some fun presents for our families. He had taken all the gifts out of the box and I caught a photo of him inside the box. Not realizing he had on some cute Christmas PJs again the tradition was born. Each year we added more photos.....and more kids....he he he! This year I went all out and got hats to match the PJs. Yep, I'm THAT mom! Christmas PJs AND Santa Slippers! Come on....the cuteness is overwhelming! This was the year we had just moved into our new home. I was about 33 weeks pregnant with my youngest...we had been in … [Read more...]
Popsicle Stick Soldier Ornament
Yup, it's more make your own Christmas ornaments time again. Over the past few weeks, you may have read about all the popsicle stick ornaments we've been making. Today we make a popsicle stick soldier ornament. I realized as I went to write this post that I only have one photo of Nutty making this adorable ornament. We made so many ornaments at the same time that I forgot which ones I took photos of and which ones I didn't. Oh well... As with the other ornaments we've made, you can pretty much figure out how to make the soldier just by looking at the photo. However, if you need actual directions on how to make it, they can be found in the original post from which I pinned the idea (scroll down to #6). Nutty is 7 so she needed a little help with the finer painting (ie. the face) but otherwise she loved making the popsicle stick soldier and she says it's her favorite ornament she's made. Does your child have a favorite ornament that they've made? … [Read more...]
Popsicle Stick Snowflake Ornaments
Christmas is closer than you think. In fact, Lindsi has already started decorating her house! I personally believe in waiting until after Thanksgiving, but Lindsi is a little more zealous than I am. The girls and I did, however, start getting into the Christmas spirit last week by making some ornaments for our tree. The first of many I will be sharing with you is the popsicle stick snowflake ornament. To be honest, we made a few ornaments and I took pictures in the process of making most of them except this one. Nutty made it so fast, I didn't get a chance! To make your own, you'll need: 4 wooden craft sticks (popsicle sticks) wood glue (Elmer's glue will work fine too) blue paint glitter jewels fishing line or ribbon 1) Start by gluing two popsicle sticks in the middle, 90 degrees apart. 2) Repeat with two more popsicle sticks. 3) Glue the two sets together so that they line up with "spokes" 45 degrees apart. 4) When dry, paint and decorate … [Read more...]
