Tis the Season!

It's December...let the holiday crafting begin!  Hooray!

What better way to kick of the Christmas season than with a homemade Advent calendar?  I finished this baby about 30 minutes ago, giving me an hour to spare before I need to leave to pick Bailey up from preschool.  Yep, that's right.  I'm proud to say that I have perfected the fine art of procrastination.  I do some of my best work under pressure.  :)

 At first I had planned to only have the countdown cards as part of the calendar, but then I came across this foam countdown tree at Target for only $5.  I attached the tree to a piece of foam board (also from Target - $3) with hot glue.  Even though the foam ornaments were sticky-backed, they got a shot of hot glue too. 

The tree has a cute little peg that you move along the string of lights as you count down the days until Christmas.  Bailey will get a kick out of it.

Each colorful card is simply a piece of sturdy cardstock from my stash with scrapbook sticker numbers on the front and a cute sticker on the back.  As we count down a day, we'll turn the card around to display the sticker.  I hot glued four strands of Christmas ribbon from my hairbow-making supplies across the bottom of the board and used tiny binder clips to attach the cards. 

Each card contains a slip of paper with a fun holiday activity written on it.  I wanted the flexibility of being able to switch around the activities as needed and to use the calendar again in the future.

Our list of activities includes...
writing a letter to Santa
choosing a new ornament for the tree
going to a performance of the Nutcracker ballet 
making a gingerbread house
buying gifts for the Angel Tree and DFW Pug Rescue
reading a Christmas book
drinking hot chocolate while watching a Christmas movie
learning a new Christmas song
baking a treat for your teacher
having a picnic in front of the Christmas tree
making reindeer food
baking cookies for Santa
making a snowman pizza
visiting Santa's Village

When Bailey gets home from school today, she'll open the first card and discover that tonight after dinner, we get to go shopping for new ornaments.  I can't wait to see what she chooses for herself, and she'll most likely have a hand in choosing Jake's too!

Happy holidays!

Boo! Wreath - Part Deux

My younger sister recently moved back to Texas after living in California for a few years.  I decided she needed a feathery Halloween wreath just like mine for the front door of her new house.  Jake and I made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby and found a wire wreath form, a black feather boa, a small wooden Boo! sign, and a package of glittery purple spiders.  This time around I used small pieces of black pipe cleaners to twist-tie the boa to the wreath form.  They blend right into the feathers and you can't even see them.  I used a few dabs of hot glue to attach the Boo!, the spiders, and a few of the glittery black bats leftover from my wreath.  I thought about attaching a big black gingham bow at the top, but couldn't get it to look right, so this wreath is ribbon-less.    

I'm still finding tiny black feathers all over my kitchen, including inside my toaster!  But my sister loved the wreath and it looks great on her front door, so this one goes down as a crafty success.

A Craft Fail

Homemade maracas seemed like a good idea.  Fill a leftover plastic Easter egg with dried lentils, hot glue it closed, and voila...instant noise-maker!  Instead, I ended up with my fingers hot glued to a pink plastic egg.  Craft fail!  Although I'm pretty sure I made quite a bit of noise when it happened, so that part of the plan was a success. 

Since I can't leave you hanging, I'll leave you with this...

It's hard to believe this little guy is almost one year old.  Where does the time go?

Hair Bows

Yesterday's ribbon rainbow was cut, stitched, and hot glued into hair bows this week.  A teacher at my daughter's school asked me to make five matching sets of hair bows to match five outfits for her soon-to-be adopted daughter.

This is what I came up with...

Now, I've only seen the outfits in photos, but I think these hair bows will match perfectly and look great.  I hope the little girl loves them!

Bulletin Board Update

This is my sewing space...

It's a mess and could really use some organization and personality.  Over the next few weeks I hope to give this area a little extra TLC.  I have lofty ambitions for a shiny new (hopefully sturdier) sewing table, clear bins for fabric that I can organize by color, and a shelf with a rod underneath for ribbon storage.  And maybe even a few cute decorations on the walls.  But for right now I'll settle for a a new bulletin board for the wall behind the sewing machine.  I am a notorious note-taker and list-maker, so I need a place to organize all of my random post-its, coupons, and any other very important miscellaneous stuff that needs a home, like my pug puppet.  Do I need a pug puppet?  Probably not, but it's one of my favorite things I've ever made and it makes me smile.  :)

Now on to the crafting!  I started out with this plain old bulletin board that I purchased from Target for around $10.  Boring!

I gave it two coats of aqua spray paint that I had leftover from a previous project.  The I used my handy dandy hot glue gun to attach a piece of cute pink fabric to the cork board.

Much better indeed!  Bright and cheery to match the rest of the room, my kids' playroom.  I think pug puppet likes his new home! 

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go make a few more lists to add to my new bulletin board.  :)