Christmas Crafts - Part 1

I was going to wait and post the things I have been working on in these weeks leading up to Christmas all in one post. Then I started looking at all the things I have plans for and decided it would be way too overwhelming. So, this is part 1 of my Christmas Crafts blog post. (The presents have been given to their recipients already, so I'm not ruining any surprises).

Today was AJ's last day of school this year and he is now on Winter Break. His teacher had an all day party for them including pizza and cookies, etc. She and I spoke months ago about me coming in and doing a craft project with the kids and like the insane person I am, I decided to do two!!

The projects were both Christmas ornaments and the kids did incredibly well! I will be a much better teacher the next time around, because my verbal directions did not always transfer into them making a similar result. (It was a learning process for all of us!) This first ornament is a "stained glass" ball that is made from a glass ornament, white glue and tissue paper squares.

They may not have been big, but they made a big impact! 

The next one is a wreath made from puzzle pieces. After gluing all the layers the kids then painted it green and added glitter and a ribbon. I tried making a tree as well, it turned out cute, but was definitely way too advanced to try and teach!

I have always given two gifts for Christmas, one for the teacher and one for the class.  For the class gift,  I buy a gross of colorful fun pencils from OTC - I figure at this point in the year some new pencils are definitely needed. AJ's teacher is not big on sugar so coming up with her gift was more challenging. I kept seeing these signs on pinterest but with the subject being Grandpa and knew I had to make a personalized one for Ms. Martinez.

It is made on a wooden plaque and then just painted with acrylic craft paints and rubber stamped flower designs. I love how it turned out and she seemed to get a kick out of it. I had AJ do some re-con at the beginning of the year and found out her favorite color is green (that's also how I found out she doesn't do sugar).

This next one is a gift I made for a gift exchange with our bible fellowship group. Our name is "OinC" and it stands for One in Christ. We all love to eat and so it seems to work for us so we made a pig our mascot. The frame was purchased at Kohls, then I made the beaded dangles which can be detached and used elsewhere. One has a pig charm and one with a cross. The Christmas tree can live there until the person finds another picture they want to display.

Last are two clay crosses. I posted a tutorial HERE and these were done in the same fashion. The first one is for an ornament gift exchange and the second was just a little something for my bible study teacher.

That's it for this post, I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my projects. I have two more that I'm currently in the middle of - but those will have to wait until after Christmas!

Looking forward to sleeping in and a couple of weeks of a more relaxed schedule  - and no homework! (Thanks Ms. M!)

It's A Kid's Christmas Blog Hop

Thanks to Cathy for inviting me to her Kid's Christmas blog hop! This is my first one so I hope I get everything posted right.

There were so many ideas for what I could do for a Kid's Christmas project and decided an advent calendar was perfect. Around our house presents rule - second only to presents is candy... combine the two and you can't go wrong! This advent calendar counts down the 12 days prior to Christmas with a little metal tin that can be filled with sweet treats (a good way to use up that Switch Witch booty), money, or little toys.

The base is a large wooden picture frame. I used paper called HollyDays by CTMH, it's retired now. I don't recall where I purchased the tins from, but they can be found lots of places.

Cover the frame with the HollyDays paper, the tins are then attached with pieces of Velcro so they can be removed. The numbers and letters are all cut out using a cricut. It goes together very quickly once everything has been cut out and layered.

Start on December 13th and count down, pulling the 1 off last when there is only 1 day left until Christmas Day! (Yes, my picture is backwards - it's showing the last 4 days instead of the first 4).

Merry Christmas!! Please continue on with the blog hop by following along to these links:

http://kaylaskraftinkorner.blogspot.com/

http://petalsofcathyslife.blogspot.com/
http://scrappingoodtime.blogspot.com/

Ribbon Trees

Starting to put up Christmas decorations and came across these two trees I made last year.

Brian was deployed in Afghanistan (again) so I decided AJ and I were going to do what we normally would do and spend Christmas with our best friends. Oh, except they were no longer on base, 20 minutes away, but in Texas! So 12 hours of driving with the kid and the dog and we were back home with our friends. I had taken a picture of a tree very similar to this that my bible study teacher had and thankfully my girls were ready to give it a go with me!! A quick shopping trip later and we are up to our eyeballs in ribbon and pins.

We chose non-traditional colors which makes them look like they belong in Whoville. The cones were more expensive than we thought, who knew Styrofoam shapes cost so much - plan to use a coupon! The ribbon on the bottom needs to be wider or plan to use more of it. Start at the bottom, figure out how you want your loop to look and use that to measure the rest of the ribbon cuts. Only cut as much as you think you'll need, otherwise you'll have tons of little pieces of ribbon leftover. I think next time I would probably have some glue ready and dip the small pin in glue before tacking it down, but it seems to be holding up so far. Overlap the next row of loops so they cover the pins. The snowflake on top is glued in with some green glitter glue to finish off the top. Cute!! Now I want to do a button one ....

Just a few things...

Well, now that Thanksgiving is over I have a little time to post a few things that I've been working on.

The very first thing I'll share is my super secret recipe that everyone raved about this last week. I made turtles for AJ's class and also to take to Thanksgiving at our friend's house. It's one of those recipes that isn't even a recipe because it is just THAT easy, but they taste oh-so-good!!

First buy a bag of pretzels, I like the ones called Snaps, they are a little square grid shape and perfect for this. Next, buy a bag of Rolos (or three actually!) If anyone out there knows the manufacture personally, please let them know of a need for these to come bagged but NOT individually wrapped. Until that time, you'll have to unwrap each little golden treasure. Layer like so:

Parchment paper makes this so much easier and less messy. I also did aluminum foil and it worked, but they stuck a bit and were harder to pry up. Top each of these with a pecan half and place in the oven at 300 degrees for 5 minutes.

Once the chocolate is melty and the caramel soft, press down on the warm nut to squish it all together. WA-LA - very addictive little bites.

The next thing I'd been working on is a pennant banner. My friend wanted to make one since she hosts Thanksgiving at her house each year, so I ordered the same paper packet and made one with her. I must say it turned out very cute!!

Here are a few close ups:

We've also been working on a few tags for a swap. I signed up for three spots hoping to coerce my friend into her first swap and it worked! We had to make 10 tags each. The first one is the ones my friend did, they are soooo cute! Love the little snowman.

These next two are the ones I did, I love the colors of the tree one!

Well, that's it for my creativity right now... next in my future is decorating for Christmas! My husband thinks I need to purge a bit.... what do you think??

Through the looking glass

I love glass. I love that it can be recycled.... but it never seems to make it to my recycle bin.

My favorite are fancy vases and mason jars, but in a pinch any glass will do. I have glass all over my kitchen and try to put as much into glass as I can get away with. Thankfully, AJ is a little older now and it isn't such a problem as it used to be. I love finding new ways to re-purpose glass and make it decorative.

These are areas in my kitchen where I've got glass hanging out:

So, yea. I like glass. Here are two sets of the same glass jars that were ready for the recycle bin. Instead I played around. I made this set for a friend for a Thanksgiving swap, this is her picture since it turned out so much better than mine did:

I painted each jar in a different fall color (cheap acrylic craft store paint and a sponge brush) 2 coats and then painted over them again with mod podge - glossy. I used the same mod podge to add some scrapbooking paper backgrounds and then glued on black buttons to spell out T H A N K S. I was thinking they would look good with bare branches, wheat stalks or yellow mums. :0) Oh and they are from left to right - starbucks frap, sliced green deli peppers, salsa, cheez-whiz, cream soda, and starbucks frap.

I was on pinterest and saw some wrapped jars and made these:

They take a little more patience than the paint did. I used double sided tape to hold everything down while I was working and went back over the ends with glue to tack it down. I was thinking of using the black buttons again and this time spelling out W A R M T H . What do you think?

It's that time of year again!

I love Autumn! I love everything about it, even though here in AZ we really don't get that whole "leaves changing colors" thing. Mostly, the weather finally cools down to a more reasonable daytime temperature. I love this time because it highlights some of my favorite things - the colors of fall, soups and fresh bread, pumpkin in anything!, and everyone getting excited for the holidays. One of my favorite things is when I start to plan our family traditions of giving.

There are so many ways to give and show our appreciation for all that God has blessed us with. I always end the season feeling good about what we did, but wishing it could have been more. So, I am hoping to find even more ways this year to bring that Thankful giving spirit into our family. Please let me know what you all do with your families in the spirit of giving. Below are the things we typically do each year, I hope one or two of them are new to you and things you can begin to incorporate into your traditions!

• Starting now, when the sales start up for cooking and baking, I try to buy extra of any staples that go on sale to donate to the food banks. There are tons of opportunities to donate these items and we try to make sure to do any we come across: our school, cub scouts, as admission to events, at church, etc. Look around, there is a box somewhere you go that is waiting to be filled up!

• Pay your kids their allowance in change or $1 bills and have them keep it in the car, then they always are able to put something in the buckets for the Salvation Army. We like to listen for the bell and see how many we can find in a single day running errands, let them put the money in and remind them to say "Merry Christmas"! 

• Compassion International. We have a sponsor son in Bolivia who is only one month older than AJ. We have been sponsoring him since the boys were 4 years old and we always try to do a little extra around Christmas and his Birthday.

• Kiva.org is a wonderful site where you can loan a little money which is combined with others to make a larger interest free loan to someone who is trying to improve their life. I've just made my forth loan and love to get the updates on repayments so I can pray for the person/organization. It's amazing, check it out!

• Operation Christmas Child through Samaritan's Purse. If you have never filled a shoe box for this organization then you are missing a great opportunity! Each year we fill two shoe boxes, one for a boy and one for a girl of AJ's age. He loves shopping for the boy, but I think it's great for him to also have to consider what would make a little girl happy. (Never too early to get guys thinking about making us happy!!) Now, it's even more fun because you can print tracking labels for your boxes and find out what country they are being sent to. We have also received precious thank you letters back from kids that have received our boxes. Collections are going on now, so get on this one quick!

• Our church has an Angel Tree ministry and we pick an ornament to buy a present for a child who has a parent that is currently incarcerated.

• AJ's school also has gives us an opportunity to purchase presents for struggling families in our community. We love looking over the wish lists and then finding kids that have the same likes and interests as AJ. Although, last year he surprised me by wanting to chose ornaments for kids that were much younger than he was, he had a great time shopping for them and remembering what he used to like to play with when he was little. :0)

• Santa's Sack is a favorite tradition started when AJ was 3 years old. That was the first Christmas in our house and Santa left his beautiful velvet bag behind with a note. Santa explained that when he comes back next year he would be happy to collect any toys that AJ no longer plays with or that are a little broken. He would take them with him and fix everything up brand new to have even more toys for those children who might not have as many toys as AJ. So now a few weeks before Christmas we start cleaning in AJ's room and he go through his toys, books and puzzles to fill up Santa's Sack. Once it is filled it is placed right next to the milk, cookies and carrots. The next morning the cookies are just crumbs and the sack is empty and ready to be packed away for next year. (Be sure to have a black trash bag available to move the toys to until they can be donated!)

I'm sure there are many more things that I just can't think of at the moment, I may add comments as more things come to me. Please let me know what are your favorite ways to donate time/money/talents!  I just feel that to avoid the post holiday let-downs I need to remember to do four things: stick to my budget and don't overspend, spend as much time with my loved ones (friends and family) as I can, give from my heart as generously as I can, and honor the meaning of the season and my Savior in all that I do. 

The Mummy Army

I saw these cute little guys posted somewhere and had to make them for AJ's class tomorrow. They are so easy and quick to do, much easier than the cupcakes I had originally planned.

The base is white fudge covered oreos. Perfect since they are already white, saves some major time and mess. Then I melted some white candy coating and filled my decorator bag with a small round tip on it. Place a couple of dots where you want the eyes to go. The eyes are Hershey's Special Dark pieces, you can use most any candies for these, I liked Hershey's because there are no annoying M's to avoid. They are blank on both sides. Then, just go to town making the mummy wrappings with the candy coating. So cute!!!

Happy Halloween!

Are you ready for the Switch Witch?

Who doesn't like trick-o-treating? Who doesn't like having all that candy around?? While we love to trick-o-treat in our neighborhood and look at the spooky decorations, I do not appreciate the amount of candy my son can procure in an hour!!

A few years ago my friend, Breana, let me in on a little secret. This wonderful hag known as The Switch Witch.

Have you heard of her? She has become one of our favorite people at Halloween. It seems that she LOVES candy, so very much and since she doesn't want to spend ALL of her time trick-o-treating, she is willing to bribe little kids to do it for her. Here's the best part, she loves candy so much she is willing to trade it - for TOYS!!

Amazing, isn't she?! So, after a hard night's work of scrounging for candy, AJ sorts through his haul and divides it up between what he wants to keep and what he is willing to give to The Switch Witch. (Some families have the kids give ALL of their candy to her, but that would just not fly in this house!!) It is a fact though, that the more candy you give to her, the better the toy is that she leaves behind.

On November 1st AJ wakes up to the bag of candy missing, a surprise toy that's been left behind, The Good News club at our church receives an anonymous donation, and the dentist isn't nearly as well paid as he has been in the past. Happy Halloween!!

Me as Captain Jack last year

Pinterest Procrastination

Sorry, I've been away for awhile. Not really, I've been here in cyberspace - I've just been on Pinterest! Surely you know about Pinterest!! It is a HUGE procrastination enabler, you look through pictures and "pin" those that you like onto your own labeled bulletin boards. I knew as soon as I found it that it was going to be a problem....

So, after talking to another enabler friend, I decided that I needed to not just "pin" things but actually do something with the awesome ideas I was finding. And I have been!! So here is a sample of what I've been up to lately thanks to Pinterest and my friends. Oh, and if you need another way to waste some time besides facebook and blogs - click on the red Pinterest button on the right and it will get you started. Just don't say I didn't warn you!

Here are some cute monsters, and these are my first two:

Here is a Halloween picture frame, and this is my take on it:

Loved this cool bookmark, and here is one I made for a friend:

These Mario Bros. earrings were awesome, these are the ones my friend and I made:

This is a different set of Mario Bros. earrings, and these are ours:

Finally, this pin showed how to dye buttons, here is the basic process I did:

White buttons going into a dye bath of 2 T. powder Rit Dye and 1 cup hot water. Let sit for 5 minutes or so.

Rinse buttons in water, wash with soap and then lay out to air dry.

Now you'll have to come back to see what I finally end up doing with them!

Clay Cross

This past Sunday we had a gentleman from our church dedicate himself to the Lord on his birthday. Following the church service we had a birthday party for him and I wanted to give him a little something to commemorate his day. I had recently been in our local Hallmark store (which I LOVE!) and saw a small clay cross that was sort of what I wanted - but not quite. So, I decided to make one.

First I started out with some black Fimo clay - the kind you bake in the oven to harden. The hardest part about working with this clay is the first step which is called conditioning. Basically playing with it until it gets warm and soft and easy to mold. Then the next step is to shape it into what you need, in this case a cross.

Next, I wanted some texture. There are a ton of ways to do this and it can be as simple as poking at it with a stick. I wanted something a little classier - but not too feminine. I have a bunch of Fiskars plastic texture plates and used two, one design for the front and one for the back. I placed my clay between the two plates and smooshed it.

Now I needed some color. You can just leave it the color it is, it can also be painted after it's baked. I wanted something a little iridescent that wasn't as girly as glitter. These are fine powders - like eye shadow, that just brush on and then bake into the clay. I also should mention before going further - if you want to hang your cross - be sure to poke the hole into it before baking!!

Then comes the baking. The instructions are on the wrapper of the clay when you purchase it. This one was to bake for 30 minutes is a 230 F degree oven. My oven doesn't show 230 so I just aimed for close enough.  I bake my clay on a tile that I found somewhere and once the buzzer goes off I leave the whole thing in the oven to cool completely.

Doesn't it look pretty now that it's been baked? My favorite part is the embellishing. I have some copper wire that matches the copper color powder I used and I found a variety of beads that match the green and blue colors as well. I wrap the wire around and add beads as I go until I like the looks of it. I use the wire as a hanger as well and secure in a couple of spots with some clear glue (I like E6000 for jewelry and clay).

Now it's all done and ready to wrap and give away! I may need to make a few more of these for Christmas presents, it turned out really pretty. Please let me know if you have an questions I can help with - don't be afraid to try and make something with clay - it's pretty cheap and easy to work with!

After School Snack

Well, we're a month into the school year and I'm already hunting for new lunch ideas and after school snacks. AJ is always starving as soon as he comes home, so there is no doing homework until the belly has been satiated.

One of our favorite snacks is popcorn. I've owned a Whirley-Pop for years now and recommend it to all of my friends and family. Once you've had popcorn made this way, you can't go pack to the microwave style. Not to mention the fact that it is so much cheaper and better for you.

So once you have a Whirley-pop you need some unpopped popcorn, some canola oil and the magic secret ingredient - Uncle Bob's popcorn salt. That's all that's needed for ultimate deliciousness - no butter, no additional salt, nada.

Well .....

Unless you are like AJ and I and like to experiment with your popcorn. Our new favorite popcorn flavor is "fish food". Okay, that's just what we call it around here because that's what it looks like. It's Japanese rice seasoning and is a requirement in this house for rice, most veggies and now popcorn!

Here's the fish food we added, it should be in the Asian section of your grocery store -

If seaweed isn't your thing, check out Uncle Bob's for tons of other popcorn seasonings. We like cheddar, white cheddar, jalapeno, and ranch. (In Tucson they are on the NW corner of Speedway and Columbus otherwise check their website above.) AJ's second favorite popcorn flavor is Taco Seasoning, we buy it in the canister now instead of by the packet.

So, experiment with your kids and try to find some new kind of flavor you can add to your popcorn to make it a bit more interesting. I'm going for curry powder on my next bowl! :0)

Keeping Busy

It's Saturday. I would have liked to sleep in, but that isn't going to be my Saturday mornings for awhile. I signed up to take a few free classes on base to become a little more knowledgeable about using Microsoft office. The classes are from 8am to 5pm pretty much killing my entire Saturday but it's free so I can't really complain. The teacher has a great accent (Spanish) and is fun to listen to and he has a sense of humor which is nice. (Brian would be lost as he probably would not be able to understand a word this guy is saying :0) The classes are for Word, Excel, Publisher and PowerPoint. The first half of the class is beginning and then the afternoon is intermediate.

Well, I'm typing this during my beginning Word class, so you can probably guess as to how interesting I'm finding this. I am self taught so thought I could pick up some cool tips, however I didn't know how much would be covered in the beginning portion - so wasn't comfortable with skipping it.

Yea - I should have skipped it.

The next one is Excel and I will probably be a little slower in that class as I don't use it much. The last class I am taking is Publisher, I'm really excited for that one as I am still going to do the newsletter for AJ's school's PTA. I'm skipping the PowerPoint class entirely in favor of camping with my cute little cub scout. :0)

Oh well, it's funny to listen to the people around me learning how to do things and making discoveries. Hopefully this afternoon will be a little more interesting for me and I'll hear a few nuggets of wisdom. One nice thing is I got a HUGE instruction book that is MINE! Seriously, it's like 300 pages and is put out by Pima Community College and is pretty self explanatory so I could use it much easier than using Microsoft's awful help feature.