Christmas Decor

Well,  it's time to start putting away the Christmas decor and move into winter decor.  

 Before I start to put it away I thought I would share a few photos of my decor.

The Peace on Earth framed picture is one that we made at one of my creative classes I offer.   The mason jar is also one of the projects we have made.

Does anyone else out there collect Rae Dunn?  

I found the "Home for the Holidays" truck canister this year.

Absolutely LOVE the red little truck!

Above is the deer head that I mounted onto the wood pallet I made in an earlier post.   Just loved how it turned out!

Below is one of our Christmas trees, this one is called a pencil tree.  Nice and tall and slender.   

These are the beatle bugs that I made a few posts back.

The reindeer pillow I made from sacks that I bought at Home Goods.  You can see how to do that in a post post of mine.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care......

and what wonderful Christmas we had!!

White Christmas!

Hoping you all had a wonderful Christmas!

We had a beautiful white Christmas here in our neighborhood, which made it sooo magical!

                                                                                                             

This card was inspired by my walk around the neighborhood Christmas morning.   Couldn't be more beautiful.

This stamp set is called Sheltering Tree, very versatile.

Handlettered Paper bags

Happy Christmas eve!

Do you stil have treats to pack up?

Here's a fun way to make some handlettered printed bags.

My fellow bloggers Kristi and Kelli over at Lolly Jane have created these downloadable creations for you by just getting some brown paper lunch sacks and your printer and there you have it!

A very Merry Christmas to each and everyone of you!

Hoping your Christmas day brings lots of love and time spent with your families..... priceless....

Volkswagon Beetle Bug Ornaments

Now here's a fun quick diy project for you to try.

I purchased a few of the volkswagon matchbook cars and some of the bottle brush trees and hot glued them to the roof of the "bugs"

and tied red baker's twine around them in a bow.

Super inexpensive and look how cute they turned out!

I put mine in a glass globe with some more tree and fake snow. 

I found my bottle brush trees at our local Ben Franklin craft store.

Krumcake

Peace, love and joy to you all!

Hope you all are getting many things accomplished this week preparing for Christmas.   Sharing with you the photo of my two girls that I used for our Christmas card this year.  

One of our traditions for Christmas is making scandinavian cookies and treats.  We love to have Smorkage, Kringle, Fattigmann cookie and Krumcake.   Pronounced {kroom-kai-kuh}

This picture above is of Krumcake. 

 I dust them with powdered sugar once I have made them.  

 They remind me of a crispy ultra thin crepe.

Another favorite of ours is potatoe Lefsa. 

 We like ours sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.

What are your holiday traditions?

String Art Wood ornaments

How are all your preparations going for Christmas?

It's coming quick!  One week to get done.

We made these cute wood disk ornaments this past weekend.  

You can find them at any of your local craft stores or cut your own!

I use wire nails for this project. and the size is 5/8"

I didn't use a pattern or anything, but if you need one you will either print out a line are object that you are making or hand draw one on a piece of paper.   Lay the paper over your piece of wood and start to hammer your nails into the wood around the image. Once your done just rip the paper away.

I use embroidery thread for my string art projects.  It's nice and heavy and you can find many different shades of colors.

Pick a nail to start at and tie a knot to start and start wrapping your thread around all the nails.  There is no pattern, you just work around the tree (or image) first then move through the center. 

Make sure wherever you started that you finish there so that you can tie off where you started.

You can also make string art on larger pieces of wood. 

 I posted ones we made in October HERE 

Give it a try!

Gingerbread Cookie Faces

On thursday I was suppose to visit the Ronald McDonald house to craft with the kids.  Unfortunately, earlier in the week I came down with a nasty cold.  And....  you never want to head to the house sick so that you don't put the kiddos at risk of illness.

My sweet friend Kirstin was able to take my project and craft with them. 

  This is the project I wanted to share with you. 

These are pre-packaged gingerbread cookies made by Little Debbie

By just adding a bow in the girl's head or a bow tie for the boy they became the cutest little gingerbread boy and girls. 

I had them use a white uni-glo pen and black sharpies to create the faces.  The cheeks are large self-adhesive gems from the Dollar Tree. 

You get 24 for a $1.00

These are the cookies by Little Debbie, 12 in a package for $1.79

Any of your supermarkets or Targets or Walmart, etc.  carry these.

Here they are all package up.

Peppermint Bark

Package up some sweets for some friends or coworkers or family with this yummy belgian chocolate peppermint bark. 

  The holiday wouldn't be complete without a festive treat!

You can find them at your Costco in the bakery department.

They come in a box of 24 for $12.99.

 The round chocolate disks are a good size, around 4".

My friend Jodi packaged some up for me a few weeks ago and I thought, what a great idea!   Thanks Jodi!

So, I decided to add a tag using a safety pin to attach it to.

I used 4"x 6" cello bags to package them.

Once packaged it yields 12 packages of two chocolate peppermint disks. 

And here's what they look like before packaged.  Belgian chocolate disks with white chocolate and peppermint candy.

So Yummy!!!

Starbuck's Christmas Ideas

Sunday was my annual Christmas luncheon that I have hosted for years with my girlfriend's of 25 years.  We had a few missing this year, but were still able to have a blast!

Above are the projects they made.  Since they are all teenagers and young adults now, Starbuck's projects were the perfect plan for their crafts.

These are the cards they made, the stamp set is called Coffee Cafe, the Starbuck's logos I googled and printed off and punched out with circle punches.

These are mini 4oz. coffee cups that we filled with Hershey kisses.

You can find them online at Webstaurant.com

We made these ornaments by using green glass ornaments from Michael's and using the Starbuck's hot cozies.  They are just hot glued and we added gold twine and  a hook.

The cookie straws are the actual ones sold at Starbucks. 

 I just cut a 2 1/2" x 4" piece of cardstock and punched 3/4" circle punch at the top and bottom to insert the cookie through.  

The girls are all getting so grown up!

The Mama's!

Check out their faces!  I had these super hilarious face cards that you can change your smile and mouth with.  They are reversible and have all kinds of mouths!  So fun!

Since the girls are all getting so much older I decided to make these Starbuck's cup gifts for them.  I filled them with a pair of fuzzy socks, a lip gloss, christmas candies and of course a Starbuck's gift card.