Christmas Advent Craft

Guess what I got the other day?!  A fun new Christmas craft!  I actually got two of them because my little sister is going to do one with me! :)

 

 

I found them at Porter's Crafts - I think it's a local craft store, so I'm not sure where you can get these.  They measure about 16.5"x 16" and the little doors are only 1.5" wide. 

 

You can pretty much do anything you want with these, but the craft store had two different ideas on display.

 

The first is a Nativity advent - very pretty!

 

The second is a cute little Santa one using different craft paper and embellishments...

 

This is the one I'm going to make, because I already have a more religious advent with Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem.  Plus, I want to use up some of my cute Christmas paper!! haha :)

 

I also bought the vinyl they had there, because I didn't want to try to make my own.  I will be cutting out my own numbers, though.

 

We are going to make these in a couple weeks when I go to visit my sister, so I will have to update and show you what we ended up with.  I'm so excited!! :)

 

UPDATE:

Here is the one I made - I LOVE how it turned out!  So cute! :)

We bought the vinyl city scene at the craft store, because I was NOT about to try to do my own! haha  I did make my own numbers on my Silhouette though.  So many fun fonts!

I had so many cute paper scraps, it was so fun to use them.  They look so much prettier in person.  (Some of the paper has glitter on it.)  We stuck it all on with Mod Podge, so it's sealed really well.

My favorite part is the roof!  We painted it gray to match the brick paper we used for the chimney.  Then we hung some little Christmas lights along the edge.  Aren't they ADORABLE??!!  :)

 

 

Anyway, it was a lot of fun to make, and now I get to fill it with cute things! 

Girls Camp Stuff

Well, girls camp is coming up next week, and my house looks like a craft store blew up! Haha 

I have 25 t-shirts drying on my deck that the girls and leaders bleached the other night.  I have canvases, paints, brushes, vinyl lettering, bracelet stuff, nail polishes, glitter - you name it - all stacked in a bin ready to go!! Whew!

 

This is the craft we decided to make:

 

Don't mind the colors - it's just kind of a sample to see if they would work.  I'm sure the girls will make them WAY cuter! :)

 

I bought little 6x8 canvases at Michael's, they came in a pack of 5.  Then the girls will put the lettering and temple wherever and however they want.  Make sure to seal the letters first by painting over everything with white.  (It makes the letters look really clean when you pull them off.)

 

Then the girls can paint however they want. I bought a bunch of fun, bright colors.  After everything dries, peel the vinyl off and embellish!  Super easy!

 

We are also making some cute bracelets with colored braiding cord/twine and beads.  I will update with pictures after camp. 

 

UPDATE 6/26/13:  Here are some of the canvases that the girls made...

 

 

And a couple more...

 

 

I love how they are all individual.  They had fun and did a really good job!!

 

 



I am also in charge of the camp awards.  I found a cute list online and made up some cards to go with them that we can fill in at camp. 

 

 

My absolute favorite is the Big Red award - for the girl with the brightest sunburn!! Haha (That's bad, huh?)

 

If you would like to print these out to use, here is the download PDF file.

 

I made them kind of small, because I was using the regular-sized candy bars and didn't want them to overpower the candy.  Hopefully you can make them bigger.  If not, just leave me a comment and I will upload some bigger ones. :)

 

Oh and I purposely made 2 of the Mentos awards, because I am giving those to the youth leaders.  They get to decide who gets each award and I didn't want them to have to do their own.  Make sense?

 

Happy camping to me!! Haha :)

All you need is LOVE...

I made a couple new Valentine's Day signs last weekend.  This first one was a piece of scrap wood I had out in the garage, and I have been wanting to use these Beetles lyrics forever!

I painted the wood black around the edges.  Then I glued on some scrapbook paper with wood glue.  (The sign was bigger than the paper, so you can see the line where I tried to merge the two.)  oh-well. :)

 

I made the lettering on my Silhouette using Bosshole font for the LOVE, and Eutemia I font for the rest.

 

Then, using a sponge dipped in a black stamp pad, I shaded the edges all around.

 

That's it! Super easy - I love it!  I think maybe the wording could have been a little bigger, but I wanted the LOVE to really stand out.

 

 

The next sign I made, I happened to find tucked away in my craft bin.  Who knows how long it had been there??  It's amazing what you can find that you didn't remember you even had! haha

 

I bought this wooden frame at the craft store & letters for the word love. (Obviously, haha) 

 

I added some more scrapbook paper and glued the letters on with Gorilla glue.

 

I was worried that the letters would pull right off the paper, but they seem to be holding up pretty well. I really like these colors, too - very non-traditional.

 

I put this sign up above my kitchen cupboards & the other one will go on the new built-in shelves we're working on. (I can't wait!!) 

 

Until later -

Thanks for stopping by!

Fall/Thanksgiving Decorating Ideas

I was about to take down all my fall decorations, and decided I would take some pictures of a few things I did this year.

I really like decorating for fall because everything looks so earthy, and the colors are perfect in my house! Yay!

Last year I bought a TON of artificial fall flowers at Michael's on clearance, so I needed to figure out what to do with them this year. Haha :)

These two are exactly the same, but I put them in different rooms, so it turned out okay. I just filled a glass container with mixed nuts, and stuck a bunch of flowers in. I think next year I'll put one of these in a metal bucket instead.

 

 

This is a sign I made last year. I got the inspiration for the lettering HERE. I had an old scrap of wood that I painted & then Mod Podged some cute scrapbook paper onto it. Then, I added the vinyl (white contact paper) and the twine. The acorn is actually white contact paper that I sponge-painted the color I wanted - it totally worked!!

(I used the same lettering but added it to a plate for my sister-in-law's birthday.)

I think I actually bought the vinyl for this - then just applied it to a ceramic tile.

 

Well, these are just a few ideas of things I've made for fall. Most of my fall decorations were purchased. Maybe I can find some cute ideas for next year? :)

Neighbor Gifts

These are my neighbor gifts this year.  I just went and got some hand soap, (the green one is a scrub I got at the dollar store) removed the labels and added some contact paper that I cut with my Silhouette.  If you don't have a cutter, you could easily trace and cut a simple shape out of contact paper with scissors.

Then I added ribbon and simple little tags. Sooo easy, and pretty cheap, really. Now, I just need to make about 12 more!



Thanks for stopping by,

Family Ornaments 2011

 
Every year, we give our kids an ornament. Then, when they are all grown up, they will have a box of ornaments that have special meaning to each of them. (And - I will finally get my "beautiful" tree.)

No, I'm just kidding - I love my tree with all the different ornaments all over it. It's so much more fun to look at and talk about.

 
So I got these plain, glass ornaments a couple years ago at Michael's for like $1 each. I bought 3 round ones and 3 snowflake ones. Well, I never did anything with them, and now we have a baby girl! So I decided to do all the boys' round, and my daughter got the snowflake.

All I did was cut out circles and their names in black vinyl. (The snowflake ornament was smaller, so I couldn't do the circle with that one.) Then, I cut out their initials in some speckled contact paper that I got at Wal-Mart. Sorry, you can't see it that well in the picture, but it's really pretty.

Then, I just added the year to the back in black vinyl. I just left the gold ribbon on them that came with the ornaments. I might swap the ribbon out later, but I think it goes really well.


I love them! I think they turned out really great - especially for only $4!