I remember when my kids were little I really wanted them to WANT to draw, color, play with clay and just want to be crafty WITH me. It took my son a lot longer to catch the "craftying fever" but my daughter was always drawing, coloring, crafting, knitting...just being overall creative. But now I complain about all their crafty pursuits...but not too much.
In fact, this month my kids both participated in the Legacy Jr. High Annual Art Show.
My daughter who is in 8th grade created this painting with acrylics of her most favorite topic, sharks!
My son who is in 9th grade also participated in the art show. He was even fine with me taking a photo of him at the even (not normal).
He did this pencil sketch of a World War II air assault. Not only did most of his peers vote this among their favorite, but it also made it on the flyer they created to advertise the Legacy Jr. High Art Show.
He created a similar painting with acrylics for his World Geography class term project...this took him a while to do, but we like the way it looked when it was framed.
Funny thing is, I was complaining one day to my husband that my 15 year old son kept leaving his "art messes" everywhere he sat down. An no place is sacred, he does his art thing on the couch, the table, the living room the family room. But of course my hubby told me that he comes by this "naturally".
What is he talking about, I'm not messy....I'm creative!!
My very hip, cool mom just celebrated her 64th birthday. She's my rock, my mentor and my "reality check" for all these years. I remembered clear back to Jr. High school when my so-called friends decided not to be my friends any more, my Mom was the only girl that would hang with me. We've enjoyed trips together, skiing together and we even took some College classes together (a while back). We've gone to the Park City Arts Festival for so many years I don't even remember the last year I missed going with her. One thing though though that we tend to do a little different is the way we CRAFT. She likes knitting (beautiful afgans), cross-stitching (published samples even) and her recent obsession is beading!
However, I will admit I thought she was only "collecting" beads for the past year...but guess what, she isn't. She is actually making us all jewelry and working on her own beautiful creations. This GORGEOUS green bracelet was something she "threw together one day." And I will admit, she's my crafting idol. She might not play with paper, but she sure rocks beads!
So just remember, "my mom is craftier then your mom!"
We wanted to wish you a very Merry Christmas! We are so thankful for the friends and family that have touched our lives this past year for the good. Thank you for your kindness, love and support. We are blessed to remember our dear Saviour that we celebrate his birth tomorrow. And let's face it, we're just plain thankful for a few days off of work!!
Oh and I still have a few Christmas cards sitting here awaiting some postage...you'll get them, but they will be late. This is the photo we enclosed in our cards this year. It was taken on our trip to Seattle to visit Kirk's little sister and her awesome family. It's not the best picture, but it was one of our favorite memories from this past year!
A friend of mine stopped by one day to show me this idea she called "Christmas Subway Art" that she found on a blog (sorry we have no idea what blog), but she wanted me to spice it up a bit more with some fun fonts, etc. So after a few minutes of playing around in Illustrator we ended up with this awesome piece. She told me she was going to frame it and give it as a gift to neighbors and friends. What a great holiday idea and very inexpensive....so I spent my Saturday making some of these for friends (be surprised when you get yours).
I took it a step further and pulled out my Cricut - Christmas Village cartridge and cut out the scene you see behind the wordart. I added glitter to the baby Jesus (because he should be sparkly don't you think) and the star. I popped up both the star, baby Jesus and Mary to give it a little depth.
So here's a picture of it in an 8x10 frame. I found a bunch of frames on clearance and Joanns and didn't mind they were the wrong color...a little spray paint goes a long way. You can see the cricut cutouts behind without the Christmas Subway Art....but don't worry, I'll fix that before I wrap them up.
Don't you love how "Inn Crowd" and "Stable Few" really pop?? Wondering how I made the wordart float above the cutouts? Easy....I printed them off on a TRANSPARENCY. I actually placed the transparency sheet right over the glass. I was afraid if I put it under the glass that it would not lay flat because of the pieces I popped up.
Since I love to share what I create, here's two free downloads for you if you'd like to make one for yourself. I think it would be just as beautiful without the cutouts behind it. But if you are a Cricut user and have a Gypsy and the Christmas Village cart and want my gypsy file, just drop me an email and I'll send that off to you.
By the way, I think this would be a super easy gift idea for the person that has everything or someone you have to whip up a gift for at the last minute. Merry Christmas!!
I got this idea when I stopped by Teresa Collins home one day and she was showing me her Countdown to Christmas Tag holder that she would featuring when she introduced her 25 Days Countdown on her blog. Anyway, her friend Lara said she picked up the frame super cheap at Taipan, painted it black, attached eye hooks and ran wire back and forth through it. I LOVED it and couldn't wait to make one for myself. Every holiday season I end up hanging all my cards and photos I receive on the "wall" of all places and I don't really like it there. So I knew I would be whipping up my very own simple frame holiday card holder super quick before all my cards started arriving.
Here's what I did:
1. Took a trip to Taipan and rummaged through their clearance and/or scratch and dent frame area until I found a frame I liked that would fit in the spot I wanted it. Luckily I planned on painting it so the color of the frame the the picture in it didn't matter. I scored what use to be a $50+ framed piece of art of only $10 the day I stopped by...score!
2. I took some small eye hooks and screwed them in on both sides of the frame. I'd suggest measure it out and marking it. Another quick tip...I pounded a small nail in first to create the hole, which made screwing the eye hook in much easier. I eventually needed a pair of pliers to screw them in all the way....thanks to my chubby fingers.
3. Next I took some black craft wire and ran threaded in on eye hook twisting it in place and trimming off the excess and then stringing it across to the eye hook opposite and doing the same.
Here's what it looks like when you have the wire in place. I actually added another wire about a 1/2" from the top of the frame after I put cards on it...that way there wasn't this weird open space at the top of the frame...but it's not show in this photo.
4. Take a can of black spray paint and paint your frame. Don't worry about getting paint on the frame and eye hooks...actually looks better if you do. Then hang it where you want and you're done. I had some small green clips I bought at Walmart that I used to hook cards on...or you could just fold the cards over the wire, but that takes up a lot of space.
Best part is I plan to put this in my craft room or leave in my living room and hang snap shots and other memorabilia on it and leave it up all year round.
I've been doing a little blog hopping and came across some darling ideas worthy of sharing with you. Especially if you're still trying to come up with those last minute gifts or decoration ideas. These simple and inexpensive Christmas gift and decor ideas are among my favorites I've come across recently.
First, I loved this darling idea over on Stephanie Ackerman's blog and she's so sweet you can even download a PDF of the tag. But how cute are these simple lunch sacks filled with cookies or whatever you want. I tell you, ribbon totally makes a gift!!
. Shanty2Chic is a new blog I stumbled across and I LOVE it...they offer up all types of crafty inspiration for bargain prices. This darling photo holder looks like the ones I've seen at those darling boutiques for $20-25, but when you check out how they made it you'll be shocked how inexpensive an idea this is.
And never have paper beads seems so beautiful...I saw these on a Nichole Heady's blog and she even explains how she made them. Beading is so hot now, why not take it up a notch and make your own beads.
Honestly I love wreaths and I can never find the right one for different spots in my house...but this one caught my eye over at Crafty Texas Girls blog. It's made from coffee filters!!
Last one that I loved were this rosette ornaments I saw on the 20 Something Blog. You've seen them on cards, scrapbook layouts and various home decor ideas, but how cute for Christmas tree ornaments. She offers up an easy tutorial for all to follow, check her blog out.
These are the 4x6 photos calendars I've done for the past four or five years. After I print them and give them with a magnet photo holder I offer up all my friends a link to print the years after that. These are printable at Walmart. I'll post a link to Walgreens shortly!! Enjoy!
About a month ago I was asked to create a fun Cottage Christmas kit for the Northridge Publishing fans. Then with the help of the talented Kristine McKay I shot a video showing off what was included in the kit and the projects you'll get when you purchase the kit. I'm excited to do more project like this in the near future for Northridge and some other fan favorites!! I'll keep you posted. You can read more about the kit on Northridge's blog.
Now as many of you know I did a segment on Neighbor Gifts featuring Imaginisce's Cottage Christmas collection last week. I wanted to share some back stage photos and a video of the segment for those of you that missed it (like my mom). Be sure to scroll down to find out the winners from last week!!
Waiting to run and set up the table for my segment.
My Peeps in the Audience: Emma, Amy, Jen & Tya
I heard from the producer the day before that my most favorite ELMO would be on the show the same day as me. Oh how excited I was...I couldn't wait to get Elmo's autograph! I even brought my TMX Tickle Me Elmo and a sharpie so he could autograph a foot! And no lie, I actually had a dream of Elmo helping me assemble neighbor gifts....BUT what I hoped for was not what I ended up with. Apparently there was some traveling music show in town featuring Elmo and his friends. Instead of my idol, Elmo showing up we got a couple of dancers in suits instead. And they were too busy for photos afterwards...so bummed!
I was excited I got to do the segment with Marti...she's isn't super tall like the other hosts and I don't think she was wearing 5" heels like the other girls do. When they do, I look way too short next to them, but Marti and I looked fine together.
Marti LOVED the i-rock tool!
Here's the video of the segment:
Here's the 3 Winners from last week's blog giveaway. Each of these lucky winners will receive the Holiday Traditions 6x6 album kit and an i-rock tool!! Congrats to Cindylu2u, perezmom, Lesabe. Thank you for leaving a comment!
I am very excited to be invited to do a segment on Good Things Utah on Wednesday for Imaginisce. I'll be featuring ideas for Simple Christmas Neighbor Gifts. Best part is that you can make these with very little effort and all of them feature the Gingerbread Village border paper...
Christmas Fudge Gift Idea
This has been one of my favorites over the years and couldn't resist sharing these with everyone. It's super simple and only requires those large candy bars, like a Hershey's bar or Symphony bar. Wrap it with some Cottage Christmas paper and print out the poem (download your copy below).
love the shiny "sticker glass" on this project
Download a copy of this poem to reprint for your neighbor gifts. Christmas Fudge Poem
Bucket of Popcorn
My families favorite thing ever are those big buckets of popcorn for Christmas. But when I saw these fun clear paint buckets at Ben Franklin (or Roberts...can't remember) I had to put caramel corn in it and dress it up a little. Again, I've only used a strip of the border paper, added a ruffle and center fan folded flower piece and voila, a darling gift for a friend or neighbor!
I'm going to post a tutorial on how to recreate this fun embellishment next week on my blog...come back and visit to learn how easy these are to recreate!
Love making these lolli flowers and the ruffled ribbon was the perfect finishing touch under the cardstock sticker!
Washer and Dryer Gift Idea
A good friend of mine, Andrea McAllister gave this darling gift out to her neighbors last year and I had to copy it! In fact, I started shopping for clearance dish clothes and hand towels I could use for this. But it's the darling poem that makes this gift rock. Scroll down to download a copy of the poem to reprint!!
I used my i-rock tool to add a little BLING to my projects!
Fillable Paint Bucket Instructions
This project was the one that we showed and assembled on air. The directions are on the Good Things Utah website, but here's the information for my readers as well. I'll post the GTU video as soon as it is available.
Trim one 12” and one 6” piece of the the gingerbread house border strips and adhere together to make a long strip. You will need two sheets of this paper to create a strip long enough to wrap around the paint bucket.
Trim two 1 x 12” and two 1 x 6” strips of the Swirly Snowflakes paper with scallop scissors or punch along one edge
Adhere one 6” and one 12” strip of the red scallop border strip together and then adhere to the bottom edge of gingerbread village border strip.
Adhere a second 6” and 12” strip of the red scallop border together that will be used along the bottom edge of the paint bucket.
Add some bling! Use the i-rock tool and mirror glam rocks to heat set a gem to each scallop.
Adhere gingerbread strip along top edge of bucket and red scallop border along bottom of paint bucket.
Place “holiday Wishes” sticker stacker to top of bucket.
Use i-rock to embellish sticker.
Add Glitz Snowflake to sticker stacker.
Tie tulle and Holiday Garland ribbon to handle of paint bucket as shown.
Add candy cane or small ornament to complete!
Hot Cocoa Gift Idea
Hot cocoa is a big hit at our house during the winter and we never have enough of it. How easy is it to take your scraps of paper and wrap the containers. I then tied some of my bakers twine around the container and strung Holiday Wishes Chipboard Stickers and a candy cane to the front. Note: You'll want to peal the adhesive backing off the chipboard stickers and punch a hole through the top!
Cookie Box Gift Idea
Fill a plain box with treats you purchased or made and wrap it with one of the paper border strips, add a little bling with your i-rock tool and embellish with rub-ons and stickers.
About the Box: I was at Roberts Craft the other day and came across these yummy treat boxes in the "scrapbook" section. They're new from TPC Studio and love them!! They are plain (this one shown is about 6 1/2" square and would fit four cupcakes very easily! There was also a larger and smaller size I believe. In addition to that they had templates, chinese food boxes, food liners....I was so excited I had to incorporate something into my segment. I tried finding a link on their website to the products, but no luck, they did have a small post about it on their blog and I found out it's part of their "So Delish" Collection.
GIVEAWAY:
Now no blog post is complete without a fun giveaway! As a thank you for stopping by and reading through this very long post, we'd like giveaway a 3Holiday Traditional 6x6 Mini Album KITS with an i-rock tools (you need one to complete the album)! This giveaway of course is sponsored by Imaginisce and this is how you can enter!
1. Go check out the 12 Days of Christmas posts on the Imaginisce Blog and let us know what you've like the most!
2. Follow my blog (and leave a little comment LOVE)
3. Follow Imaginisce's blog
Enter a comment for each thing you complete! We'll announce the winner on Monday, December 9th.