Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow-Day Six

Since we really haven't had the snow that I want for Christmas, I thought we could decorate the tree in "snow flakes". Pretty paper snow flakes! Paper snow flakes have been used to decorate our homes windows for years. I think as soon as my kids could fold paper, we have made paper snow flakes. When the first snow hits, over hot chocolate after building the first seasons snow man, paper snow flakes were made (okay so maybe not that Norman Rockwell style, but it sounds lovely doesn't it.) Regardless of how less than perfect the scenario is when we make them, paper snowflakes are a beautiful edition to our tree.

Instructions:
1. As many sheets of paper you want. Just keep them square.
2. Fold and fold and fold again.
3. Glue and hang with ribbon.
See that is not hard right.....right.....okay here are some pictures:

 

 

Once you have all your snow flakes cut, you can string ribbon and hang them from your tree, or glue them to make them more three dimensional. Like this:

And then you end up with these:

I should warn you, be prepared for a mess because once you start cutting, little paper triangles go everywhere :)

So here is how it looked on our tree....

 They don't look like traditional snowflakes, but I like them better.

 I bet you could never tell that a elementary age girl made this "heart" snowflake...love her creativity :)

Origami....or oriwrinkley.....Day Five

I had grand visions of beautifully folded Christmas paper in the shape of cranes, giraffes, swans, and frogs adorning our tree. The reality is, while my Christmas paper is beautiful, and I can fold it to make munchies, it is way too thick to fold for origami. So we luckily had 5-6 sheets (6x6) of bright, bold primary colors and were able to get our origami groove on. Check out these really helpful YouTube videos:

Crane

Swan 

Giraffe 

Frog 

I tried the giraffe I really did, I gave up after 20 minutes but if you do it and get it, send me a link, a pic or just a heads up to your success because I would love to see or hear about it!

Our results:

Got the Munchies?-Day Four

After a very long 4 days of sickness I now have the energy to blog. Who knew that strep throat, sinus infection, and bronchitis could be so exhausting...HA this girl now knows!
My kids really missed doing the decorations and truth be told, I did too. So here it is, our day 4.... You know those hand thingys that you made in grade school that you put the names of colors on the outside flaps, spell it out and pick a number on the inside flap, count out the number, pick another number and lift the flap to reveal a message to read....I know they have a name. I don't know what it is. So my youngest daughter started calling them munchies and that is what they are known as at my house.
I was just playing around with my youngest and started folding one out of scrapbook paper. It looked so cute and I didn't think anything of it until she turned it upside down. Then the crafty side of brain started to tingle and a new paper ornament idea was born.

 I am sure these pictures will help jog your memory of how to make them. Really simple and I would suggest finding scrapbook paper that has designs on both sides. I hung it up side down and liked having a dual design.

 I am posting these pics and thinking, Red- R-E-D, pick a number....5...1-2-3-4-5....pick another number, 7...You are Cute...grade school memories......

 Don't forget to flip it over, my younger kids always forgot this step and didn't understand why there were no tabs for them to slide their fingers in.....

 Almost done....don't you love picture help, I do, I am awful at reading instructions and I could type in Wally Walrus Writes a Riddle in here and you may not even know it.....

 Almost done.....anyone remember MASH papers....this tree project sure has the old school notes, games and paper projects falling out of the wood work....

I fold it along the "crease" just to break it in a little. Makes it easier to slide your fingers in...

 Now slide your thumb and forefinger from one hand on one side, and slide your thumb and forefinger with other hand on the other side....clear as mud right?

 Ignore the mess, I was still decorating, and well I rarely set up shots, I just click and you get to see my nonexistent photo set up skills at work....

Did you ever make yours with boys names that you had a crush on....those were so "scandalous"

Whew that was a lot of picture....still with me? Now just turn then upside down, punch a small hole in the center and loop a ribbon through and tie it off. Ta DA! You now have a munchie ornament.

 If you missed our 12 days of handmade ornaments, here are links back to the beginning....
Grade School Paper Chains-Day Three
Mother Nature Deserves Sparkle-Day Two
It All Starts With a Tree- Day One

Grade School Paper Chains-Day Three

Day three of our handmade Christmas started off clear and bright. It was time to make garland for our beautiful tree, and I went old school.....actually clear back to elementary school.

Remember those chains we used to make in grade school with green and red construction paper. They usually helped track the time to Christmas. I remember tearing a ring off each day until Christmas. I loved paper chains and my kids really haven't brought any home in the last few years so I decided that was going to be our garland project.
I bought a 12x12 scrapbooking notebook that had a Christmas design, took it to my local copy center and had them cut 6 sets of 1 inch strips. I then laid my strips out in a pleasing order and started stapling.

Once you get a huge long chain you can either wrap it around your tree as one long piece or go the extra step of unstapling and reattaching to make 6-8 solid rings.

It's really simple. I just wrapped the chain around the tree, took my staple remover and removed the staple. I kept the undone strip and attached it to the two rings on the row.

I honestly didn't know how much chain I would need so I rotated from doing a row at around the bottom and then a row around the top just to make sure I had enough chain. I love the way it turned out, so simple and whimsical.

Even upside down works :) I noticed this after I had it done it around the tree but I believe it adds "character" and my husband says I am the only one who will notice....

Is this bringing back any childhood memories for you?

I love the way it looks when the lights are off and the twinkling lights accentuate the shadows and colors of each link.....yes I know I am getting mushy eyed too....

 

And yes this is the final masterpiece, I ended up with extra chain so I just wrapped it around my banister and called it a day.....day three to be more precise....

Mother Nature Deserves Sparkle-Day Two

Day two of our handmade Christmas was solely dedicated to secrets. I love pine cones. And this time of year they smell so good soaked in cinnamon...so I picked up a bag at our local craft store and brought them home. I was going to pour them into my wooden bowl, add a few cranberries, and some tree sprigs and make a nice center piece for our coffee table. But my youngest daughter said "our Christmas tree is a pine tree right Mom", "Yes dear it is", "Well then it needs pine cones" And I am happy to report she was right.

We took some ornament hooks and hot glued them to the bottom of the pine cones. I wanted the pointy end down. The fun thing with a bag of pine cones is that they come with 2-3 varieties of pine tree cones, which adds some whimsy and fun to your tree.
Once the glue had dried and the hooks were secure we reached way back into the branches and hung the cones. You can't see them unless you really look for them, but it's fun to have the surprise of seeing them at different angles and lights. We played spot the pine cone 2-3 times and tried to count them all. I know I had 30 pine cones that went on the tree but I still haven't found them all yet.

The pine cones were an added bonus to our day two because my "planned" ornament was all thanks to Pinterest. I seized on the idea of 1 inch mirror tiles for ornaments. One to help reflect the lights and two to add just a surprise hint of sparkle. I didn't photograph this because I was gone when my sweet oldest daughter decided to glue them together but it is rather simple. Lay one tile with the mirror face down, put a dollop of hot glue on the back, enough glue that your ornament hook and another mirror will stick together. Layer back of mirror tile, ornament hook, back of another mirror tile. Let dry. Simple, easy, and sparkleific!

Now reach back into the tree, behind the lights, and hang them up. You may not see a big difference but sit back and have someone wiggle the tree slightly. All of sudden lights will move and if you are anything like me, your heart will skip a beat.

It All Starts with a Tree

If someone would have told me 5 years ago that having my oldest son, destroy, lose or ruin all the ornaments I had been collecting for my kids for years would be a great thing, I may have stuck my tongue out at them. But it's true....we have a much more crafty Christmas as a family. And my kids still talk about the last five Christmas' more than they did the previous five.

It starts with a tree, and not just any ole tree but a tree that I spy at the tree lot that "speaks" to me, one that when I look at all it's branch glory and lil gaps inspires me with ideas. I found such a tree this year and I was inspired by nature, sparkle and just family fun...images of my family around the table laughing, singing, ok being honest a little fighting filled my head...so we bought her and brought her home.
This year we are making handmade ornaments, throwing in some sparkle and mother nature too....follow along for the next 12 days to see how we take "just a tree" to Christmas magic. It all starts with a tree and a lot of lights...

Punk Tinkerbell

Simple, easy and if you are like me, the traditional version of costumes just aren't unique enough. This took me a total of 2.5 hours to put together because the wings I had to re-wrap with tulle. The skirt was 45 mins from start to finish.
Here is a list of fabric for the skirt:
1yd light green tulle
1 yd dark green netting
1 yd light green cotton fabric
1 yd dark green cotton fabric
1 package satin blanket binding, I chose an actual tinker bell tape, but it's your choice
1 inch elastic measured to desired length

Cut each fabric into 3" strips with a rotary tool. With the cotton fabrics I angle cut the bottom but that is not required.

Next alternate your dark green cotton fabric and light green cotton fabric through your machine using your zig zag stitch. This will hold your pieces together so you aren't constantly stopping and starting on the satin binding. If you do cut your strips at an angle be sure to make sure you follow the same design at the bottom for a more cohesive look. 

Once you have your cotton strips sewn together grab your tulle and netting. I didn't angle cut these strips at all, I honestly put the skirt on, made my daughter rotate a round and I just bunched and cut, for a ragged look. But angle cut would have been cute too.
Now here is where my picture taking stopped because of a dead camera battery, sorry.

Now take your tulle and netting and bunch it at the top to about one inch in width, overlap your cotton fabric as directed above as close to the middle as you can guess, no need to be precise. And then just secure the tulle/netting with another zig zag stitch.  This will be the inside of the skirt.

Once you get all your strips sewn together, take your satin binding and secure it over cotton fabric with pins. It will basically be used like you were binding a blanket. Just overlap the fabric,tulle/netting with BOTH sides of the satin binding  and secure it with pins. Here is a quick tutorial on youtube on how to sew with satin blanket binding.
Sew down the satin binding but keep the ends open.
Measure the length of the elastic you will need, leaving one inch on both ends to "overlap and close".
Run your elastic through the casing and gather skirt as you go. Once you get your elastic pulled through, overlap both ends by an inch and secure with zig zag stitch back and forth. Next just pull the satin tape around to cover the sewn elastic and wallah you have a skirt/tutu. :)



Now the wings. If you are lucky enough to have tinker bell wings to buy, I say just do that. But if you don't pick up a cheap pair and strip them back to the wire and sleeve elastic only. I bought an extra 2 yards of green tulle for this but depending on wing size you may need more. I also bought 2 yards of green feather boa to wrap around the outside, just to hid the glue.

Cut your tulle into 6 inch strips. Heat your glue gun and just layer. I bunched it up so it went down to an inch and just wrapped and glued the wings on the same side. Glued on the outside, wrap in and around the inside and back out to the outside and secure with more glue. If you look close you can see my wings started out orange (under the green feathers) but that will all be hidden. Once you have wrapped the wings in tulle or if you were lucky enough to find green wings, secure the feather boas with hot glue....now here is the key, glue the side of the wings, not the top of bottom, to hide the glue with the feathers.

You can see the glue along the wire edge on the unfeathered side. Take your time and go slow. This is not hard, but make sure you have the glue on the side....to hid it from both directions. I wrapped the center of the wings (where they meet) with my left over dark green netting and I found a green spiky gift bow and secured it to the middle of the wings to finish off the center piece.

Now add some fancy make up and you are done. :)