Reusable Cotton-ball Santa Countdown

I got a Christmas project done today, technically two days into December, but better late than never, right...?

I saw this idea for a cute Christmas Countdown on the Crafts Unleashed blog. Where she shares her cute printable.  In typical fashion, I used her idea as a springboard, and took a left turn and came up with my own design. 

 I had all the materials on hand, so this project cost nothing. 

Excellent!

Here's how to make your own:

MATERIALS NEEDED:

1. Print off Santa pages.

2. Red, Black, skin colored, and blue paint

3. Glue

4. Glue gun/sticks

5. Velcro stickers

6. Canvas board

7. Cottonballs

8. Thick cardboard

STEP ONE: Print off the Santa pages and paint in the red hat, black eyes, and skin colored nose. 

At first I was careful to paint into the line, then I was like, "Hey, I'm cutting this all out, I don't need to be that careful."

STEP TWO: Using the cut out beard piece as the pattern, use it to trace around a circle on the canvas board. 

STEP THREE:  Paint on the canvas the skin-colored paint.  On the top-half is needed.  Blend in rosy checks, if desired.

STEP FOUR: Paint the rest of the canvas blue.  

I colored it all blue, then added dark blue and blended it in the bottom.  Then I added a little white and blended it in at the top. 

STEP FIVE: Paint in snowflakes.

Here's a look at how I did that. 

 

STEP SIX: Glue the beard in place. Then add the mustache, nose, eye pieces, and two hat pieces.  Glue everything in place.

STEP SEVEN: Using very thick cardboard, trace out 25 circles and cut them out.

STEP EIGHT: Hot glue Velcro pieces in place on the beard. I did them next to the numbers. (I used sticky Velcro, but they don't ever seem to quite stick as well, so the extra hot glue should ensure everything stays put.)

Hot glue cotton-balls onto cardboard circles.  Once cooled, hot glue the Velcro on the back of the cardboard.

STEP NINE: I made a tiny pom-pom out of gold yard, and glued it to a little squared cardboard, then glued it in place at the end of Santa's hat. 

ALL DONE! 

And from here I can't decide if I want to start at the top and go from 1 to 25.  

Or start at the bottom and countdown from 25 to 1.

Decisions, decisions.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and a Ho-Ho-HO! 

23 days to go!

Pear Tree Greeting Cards

This year I'm excited to share my collaboration with Pear Tree for my Christmas cards this year.  

Their cards are absolutely unique and so adorable!

 They really have so many awesome, original cards it's really hard to pick just one favorite.

And going on right now is their Cyber Weekend SALE!

They've got an excellent sale going on, but it ends today!  So act fast!

Here's a preview of some of my favorite Christmas Cards

Holly Jolly Reindeer

Photo Tag 

Reindeer Games

Great Big Greeting

Framed Vertical Photo

Sweet Mistletoe Message

Our Christmas cards are ordered and on their way.  I can't wait to check them out!  And of course, I'll be sure to share them on here to.

Happy Holidays!  And good luck, picking out that perfect card!

Easy to do Scriptionary-- YW Mutual Idea

 

This week for Mutual our activity is Scriptionary.  I kind of toyed around with the idea of making a gameboard or making this a bit more complicated. Then, of course, I came to my senses and made a fun, quick game of it.

Using these Scriptionary cards from Mormon Share.  

The whole thing probably took me ten minutes to put together.  

Here's what you need to make your own easy Scriptionary Game:

1. Scriptionary cards (strips)

2. 7 Paper bags

3. 1 die

4. Chalk/chalkboard

STEP ONE: On 6 bags write out the Titles: "Person or People" "Place" "Event" "Ordinance" "Song Title or Saying" and "Thing (s)". Then draw out six different sides of the die on each bag.  Or, you could just write the numbers 1-6.

STEP TWO: Print off the scriptionary strips, cut them out and place them in their coordinating bag. 

I did change just a few of the strips to suit my needs, I changed the temple one, to our local temple.  I changed the Prophet, to our current Prophet. And I did not use the one, stand alone,"action" strip.

The seventh bag is for the discarded strips, once you're done, so they don't get re-mixed back in.

GAME PLAY:

Divide your girls into two teams.

One at a time, each girl rolls the die and picks a strip from the bag.

She has 90 seconds to draw what's written on the board.

If her team does not guess in time, the other team gets one chance to guess.

Team with the highest score at the end, WINS!

Semi-homemade Halloween 2015

Each year I do the semi-homemade Halloween look.  It suits me quite well.  I do it mostly, because I enjoy it.  I really do want to sew things, but I have no problem, buying things to speed up the process. 

It really wasn't until this year that I realized how much $$ I was saving.  I decided to take my kids into a Halloween store just to look around and it was there that I discovered that typically each costume costs about $30 each.  Really?  That's crazy.  I can't believe people spend that much each year.

I actually had a goal, and stuck to it, thank you very much, of spending $30 total for all four children.  It was perfect.  Here's a breakdown of what I made and what I bought.

My youngest wanted to be Princess Elsa.  Her Nana has just bought her a play Elsa dress, so that made this costume very simple.  I sewed her some long sleeves.  

Then, following my own cape pattern, made her this very simple cape.  The bottom piece of the cape is sparkly Elsa-ish fabric I got from JoAnns, I just serged around all the edges with a rolled hem.  After it's purchase, I immediately regretted it, when it started shedding sparkles everywhere!  And I decided to make it nice and long so it would flow and look regal.  That turned out to be a big pain, too.  Dragging on the ground, it gets quite dirty and can easily be stepped on by the older siblings. So I ended up needing to pin it up. 

Live and learn, but it did look cute!

This girl wanted to be a Spooky Skeleton!

She had a couple requests, a red beating heart, and bone weapons, so she could fight.  She also did not want to look too spooky, so no fake bone/teeth on her mouth.  She was quite opinionated.

I bought her black shirt and black pants, then added the bones with fabric paint and freezer paper.

Check out the full tutorial HERE!

I insisted on the bone on her head, to make her a little cute bone head.

She's fierce.

This boy has been promising me for years that he would be Batman, but ultimately always changes his mind. This year, he finally committed. I made his cape when he was three, and by age seven, it was started to get a little snug on his neck. 

I started with purchased black sweats and a black shirt.  Added a real simple bat logo with Heat 'n Bond.  It was a little hard to see on black, so I added a little bit of white fabric paint in the back, before sealing it so the bat would Pop.

 

I made his gauntlet gloves and made him a simple utility belt to hold everything together.

This boy wanted to be Harry Potter...again.  After having read all the boys through, twice, it was an easy choice for him.  We could even reuse his glasses, from when he was one.

His outfit was pretty easy to put together.  Church shirt, Dad's tie, church pants and shoes.  We made a wand together, out of a stick from out backyard.  All that was left was the cloak and scarf.

About two weeks before Halloween, I told him, "You don't really want a scarf, right?  It's going to be a Ton of work."  Ultimately, he decided, yes, he really did want a scarf.  So I went to my stash and started working at nights on his crocheted scarf.  The color is a little more purple than I would have chosen, but, hey, it's what I had on hand.  It worked out pretty well.  We won't even talk about the 7+ hours it took me to complete it...

For the Cloak I followed Delia's tutorial found here. I switched it up a bit, since I wanted to have the inside red, but other than that, I stayed pretty true to it.  Also I added my own Gryffindor Patch.

 

And that was it!  Happy Halloween, everyone! 

How to Make a No-Sew Gryffindor Patch

 

My oldest son is going to be Harry Potter this year. 

 For those with a keen memory, you might remember that he was Harry Potter when he was one and a half years old. 

 Ahh, he was so cute!

The first robe and patch I made him was cute, though I knew I could do a little better this time around.

For a more authentic look, I checked Google for a great looking Gryffindor Crest and found this one.

Upon looking at it, it got the wheels spinning and I knew I could make this out of felt and have it look really good.

Here's how to make your own!

Materials Needed

1. Red, Yellow, Black, and Gray thick felt pieces, off the bolt works best

2. Heat'n Bond Ultra Hold Iron on

3. Printed off Gryffindor paper

4. Sharpie

5. Hot glue gun (optional)

STEP ONE: Print off your Gryffindor crest patch.

I did mine in black and white and referred to the actual picture on my I-pad for the color references.

STEP TWO: Gather felt materials and apply Heat'n Bond, as directions indicate.

STEP THREE: Cut crest out and trace outline onto heat'n bond paper.

STEP FOUR: Cut out each piece, turn them backwards and trace them onto the heat'n bond paper. 

Make sure it's backwards, so you have the pieces going in the right direction when you cut them out later.

 Make sure you label each piece so you remember where it goes.

For example, "RM = Right Middle" "LT= Left Top"

STEP FIVE: Cut out each piece, one at a time. 

Peal off Heat'n Bond paper.  Apply felt, bond side down, in place.  Iron down for 20 seconds.

STEP SIX:  Continue repeating step five, building from bottom to top.  

Do not iron, until everything is in place, exactly where you want it.

STEP SEVEN: Looking at the real image, add in all the details with a Sharpie

Your Gryffindor Patch is All done!

Once completed, add it to your robe, iron in place.  Because my patch had been ironed so many times, it didn't quite seem as strong, so I added a little hot glue, to keep everything in place.

For the full Harry Potter look, check this out!