Believe Ornament Decoration

I made these last year with my sister. . .We used the flat, round glass ornaments from a craft store. I cut out the snowflake and the letters with my Cricut out of vinyl.

Then we filled the ornaments partially with red and green styrofoam beads. I hung them from my screen door curtain rod with ribbon at different heights to add a different look.

M.I.A. for a few weeks

I'm scheduled for a c-section for my baby girl in 4 days and our new house hasn't closed on the loan yet. STRESSING OUT!

It was supposed to close Oct. 30th so we could paint and do some repairs before moving in and having the baby, but it's been in underwriting for about 3 weeks and they keep telling us "next week" it will close. I don't believe them anymore. But we had already given our notice to our apartment manager and they've re-rented our apartment, so we will be homeless starting Dec. 5th - the same day I come home with the new baby from the hospital.

So we have to put almost all our stuff in storage and move in with my in-laws. I'm not looking forward to this - I want to be in my own home with my own things when I come home with a new baby - not living out of suit cases for a few weeks and being cramed in where there's room for us. Plus, I'm a big one on privacy, so that's not going to be fun either to try and nurse the baby or heal from the surgery in someone else's home - and they have a dog - and I don't like dogs (paper route days as a child and I don't trust them - they can attack anyone at anytime without reason) :(

Anyway, the reason I was posting was to say that I have a few posts scheduled for the next week or so, but then after that, I will be MIA from blogger until our house closes and I can unpack and am healed from having the baby.

Christmas Advent Mini Muffin Tin

I saw this idea back in September while I was looking for different Super Saturday craft ideas. We didn't end up using this as one of our crafts (it would have taken way too long), but I made one anyway (since I made it in September, I've been dying to post it, but I wanted to wait till it was closer to Christmas).

I bought the mini muffin tin at Wal-Mart for $4.50 and the rest was all stuff I had lying around. Since this is a muffin tin, I'll be putting little candies behind each number for my kid(s) to have as they count down the days.
I did mine a little different than Tami did in her post. I used my Cricut to cut the numbers out on white cardstock and adhered them to the paper - I didn't want that much white and I didn't really like the simple ink printed look.

I cut out the squares of red/green cardstock (and used my corner rounder punch to round the corners) and then cut out circles - sadly, I don't have a circle punch, so I had to cut these out by hand :( Then I mod podged the papers and numbers together. Once that was dry, I added embelishments to random squares with ribbon, brads, eyelets and little paper punched shapes.

Final touch, add the magnet squares to each corner on the back.

Santa's Belly Ornament

I work in the Young Women's group at our church (for the girls 12-18 years old), and this week we had a Christmas Craft Night for our Activity. Each of the leaders came up with a different craft to teach the girls.

Here's mine - Santa's Belly Ornament

To make this, you'll need:

• square glass ornaments
• black paint
• white puffy paint
• strips of red cardstock (mine are about 1/4"x4")

Coil the strips of paper around something thin - I wrapped mine around the end of a paint brush handle.

After making each coil, put them in the ornament - I didn't count how many I coiled, but once you've filled it up, you're good :)

Then, paint a black stripe around the center of the ornament (santa's belt). Once that's dry, use the puffy paint to draw a square (belt buckle) around the belt.

Finish it off with ribbon to hang it up.

Framed Family Tree Fan

I've been working on this project for about 9 months (took long breaks from it). I knew I had some family history charts somewhere, so I spent a long time looking for my old college packets from a course I took. Then I finally decided to give up and ask my Grandmas for the 4 generations out. They both have an extensive amount of info collected, so I knew they would have it. But between playing phone tag and "out of town for the summer" road blocks, this project was kept at bay.

But at last, it's done.
I used the template from our good friend Martha Stewart. She says to write it calligraphy . . . but I'm not that talented. According to my sister, I have boy handwriting :(

So I used Photoshop and made the template the background and then typed my text in layers and shaped them to fit the arcs.

To add a little extra, I used cardstock and ribbon to add detail, along with putting my name and birthdate in a circle backed with cardstock as well. I'm still not sure if I like the green on the sides, so that may come out after I've had time to stare at it for a while.

It's hard to tell, but I have this in a floating frame. Anytime I try to take a picture of a frame on a wall, I get the flash glare - so it's on the floor, photographed at an angle. I guess I could have taken the top glass piece out to photograph without a glare, but it has about 15 clips on the back to secure the frame and I didn't want to break another nail trying to open and close them again.

Baby Shower Gift Set

I made a baby shower gift set last week . . .

Side Fasten Bib - my own pattern. Download the pattern here, and the instructions are linked from this post. The red square on the top, right of the bib is the velcro attachment (which doesn't show when it's being worn)

Rounded Burp Cloths - my own pattern. Download the pattern here, and get the tutorial from this post.

On the bib and the burp cloths, I used wonder under to attach the strip of brown fabric and the red fabric dots to the base piece before I sewed the backs on. It's hard to see in the pictures, but the red dots are different sizes - they get smaller from left to right.

Pacifier Clip - instructions in the previous post.

Tie Onesie - I used the pattern & instructions from Trey & Lucy. I've also used the pattern from Crap I've Made too. They are my 2 favorite patterns out there, but they are different sizes. One I like using better for new born/infants and the other better for toddlers because of the length difference. But that's just my personal taste.

Here's my son wearing the one I made him to wear to church on Father's Day.

Pacifier Clips

I had a pacifier clip for my son that I got at Target. I never liked it because it wasn't cute and it always felt too short. So I decided to make some of my own.

The snap end snaps to the pacifier, and the clip end clips to the baby's clothes.
First, I found ribbon I liked (the double sided ribbon looks the best in the end). I didn't want them too long otherwise it becomes a choking hazard, so I cut the ribbon to the length I felt was functional, but safe at the same time (the length ends up shorter than you cut since both ends fold in).
On one end, I attached a suspender clip (I actually bought some suspenders at the thrift store that looked brand new and cut off the clips to use) It was only about 75 cents for 4 of them compared to the $2+ for a set of 2 at Jo-Anns.

I looped one end through the slot and then folded the ribbon under and stitched near the clip to secure it.

The other end was a bit trickier. I used my Mom's "Snap Setter" to attach these - combined with the muscles of my husband to hammer them together. I tried, but aparantly, I am not strong enough. Her snap kit came with instructions on which pieces to pair together. But I also folded the end of the ribbon in before attaching the snaps so it was a cleaner edge.

The spacing between the 2 sets will depend on the pacifier you use. I use the Avent ones that have a really thin ring/handle thing. Other brands have a thicker handle, so you would want the spacing to fit the brand you use.

Autumn Wood Sign

I went over to vote for my favorite of the 10 Harvest Crafts creations at So You Think You're Crafty and liked several of them. I don't remember which one I ended up voting for, but #1 was something that caught my eye. I instantly thought "I have everything to make that already." The winning craft of the challenge will post a tutorial, but I didn't want to wait and wasn't sure if #1 would win this week's challenge. So I decided to try and make it on my own yesterday. The crafts are anonymous for voting purposes, so I don't know whose idea was to give them credit.

So here's my version of the "Count Your Blessings" board. My husband owns a cabinet business and saves some of the drawer fronts for me when he tears down people's old kitchens before installing their new ones. So before he takes it all to the dump, he brings me home some pieces from time to time. Here was the drawer front before I got my hands on it . . . ugly and in need of some TLC.

So, after a little paint, mod podge, paper, felt shapes and vinyl lettering, this board was transformed.

Nutter Butter Cookie Creations

I've seen these ghosts on several different blogs. So not really a person to give credit to . . . But I loved making and eating these guys. All you need to make the ghosts is Nutter Butter cookies, almond bark, and mini chocolate chips. Melt the almond bark, dip the cookie in and then put on the eyes and mouth.

Last year for a Christmas party, I made these reindeer - found the idea in a Family Fun Magazine. These guys were a bit easier than the ghosts. All you need is the Nutter Butters, pretzels, choc. chips, red M&Ms and frosting. Dab some frosting on each piece to assemble to the cookie.