New Years crafts

This year my family and I will be staying in a cabin over New Years and I always try to make a big deal about every holiday and New Years at the cabin will not be an exception! I'm making some crafts to decorate the cabin and I've got games and things planned to make the night exciting! I made this "disco ball" to be our version of the Times Square ball that drops at midnight! I covered it with glue and sprinkled silver glitter all over it. It was a pain because I'd have to let part of it dry so I could do the other side. Then I took blue glitter glue and wrote 2010 on it and had to pierce the styrofoam with a metal rod so I could hang some metal wire through it to hang it up.

Then I used my paper punch and cut out all these shapes, stamped the letters, inked the edges and pierced the paper so I could add a star brad and some elastic string so that I could hang them up at the cabin. I'm so excited!! We're going to have a blast!

Another blanket!

Here's the blanket I made my sister and her hubby! It was hard not to keep it for myself because I love the colors of it! :) Merry Christmas!!

Blanket

I made this blanket for my favorite sister-in-law for Christmas! Now, yes, she is techniqually my ONLY sister-in-law but nonetheless, she'd be my favorite no matter what! The funny thing is we have opposite views on politics and religion and life and stuff but we still have a great friendship/relationship! I love when she comes over to visit and she loves my kiddos and we've shared similar experiences with being a stepmom and all that it entails so it's been nice having someone to talk to when either of us is frustrated! She's super sweet and we can always count on her if we need her! I love you Jessie!!! Thanks for being such an important and great part of our lives!

I just wanted to take a minute and wish everyone out in Blogland, a VERY Merry CHRISTmas! I pray that everyone takes some time to reflect on why exactly we celebrate this amazing event...the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ! I pray for amazing time spent with family, love surrounding you and many amazing moments shared with those closest and most important to you! God bless you (although He's blessed us all more than we deserve with the freedom to just accept Jesus and be given the best gift of all...an eternity spent in Heaven rather than being condemned to spend eternity in Hell) today, tomorrow and in 2010!!

Reindeer cups

My son & I made these reindeer cups today! So cute and fun! My daughter LOVES them!

I GOT MY CRICUT EXPRESSION!!

I am one happy lady this evening!!

(Don't mind the red face, I just got back from a 3.5 mile walk with my sister!)

I have the BEST husband in the entire UNIVERSE!!! For awhile now I've been eye-balling the Cricuts and talking to my hubby about whether I should get one or not (space issues) and if I was to get one, wondering which one I wanted the most. He's been looking online and in stores with me and I decided that if I was going to spend the money on one I wanted to get the Expression because it's capable of doing the biggest projects. I didn't want to buy the smaller one and decide down the road I wanted the bigger one and end up paying even more. Then I saw on Black Friday that they had colored ones and I have had my eyes on the red one. Never in a million years did I think my hubby would drop that kind of money on one of those, especially this time of year when sales aren't as big at his work. My poor husband has the worst luck at trying to surprise me with anything! I don't purposely go out looking to ruin his surprises, it just seriously happens by shear accident! One year he hid something UNDER the dresser and I happened to decide to rearrange our bedroom and that's how I found it! How was he to know his crazy wife would move his dresser?? LOL He's bought cards for me and was stock piling them in his drawer and I happened to go through it to throw out old stuff and organize and I found them! He has the worst luck! So tonight the credit card bill came and I normally don't look at the charges section because we haven't used our credit cards for quite awhile but there was an error on the last bill so I was checking to see if it had been fixed and happend to see that he made a big purchase to an ebay seller and with the amount I just knew it had to be my Cricut! I looked over at him and he instantly knew what I had found! Poor poor guy! He got up, got his shoes on and headed down to his work where he'd been stashing it! I told him that I was sorry for ruining his surprise but not to feel bad, to me it doesn't matter whether the surprise is on Christmas or on a Tuesday, it means a lot to me that he put the effort into finding the exact thing I wanted and attempted to surprise me at Christmas! I'm soooooooooo excited! Mind you, I've never even used a Cricut so I have no idea exactly how to use it (other than a general idea from what I've seen on the 5-million infomercials I've watched of the Cricuts) so tomorrow I'm going to clear off my crafting space and start playing around with it!

Here it is in the box:


This Serenade cartridge came in the box with it and this is the one I'm most excited about! It's got butterflies (my fave), birdcages/houses, trees, flowers, swirls...all the good stuff!


This Plantin SchoolBook cartridge was also in the box originally:


The next two cartridges had been added as a bundle purchase with the Cricut and previous 2 cartridges (so I got 4 total)! The Tinker bell & Friends (which is perfect because I have stickers of them stuck on my daughters wall and they are also Christmas ornaments we bought for her this year) and the Storybook cartridge:

Minivan Express

Over at my other blog:
Desiring To Be A Domestic Diva (click on the name to take you there), I've posted some info about the Minivan Express! I know a lot of you crafty ladies out there are Moms or Grandmas and think you'll get a kick out of this idea! It's the newest tradition we're starting in our family! :)

Christmas Ornaments

So awhile back I showed some clear ornaments that I'd bought and put rub-ons around the outside to decorate it and I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do to the inside. I thought about using some of our CTMH papers and cutting thin strips and folding them accordian style in the inside to give it more color but then I got to thinking that would take forever! LOL With all the other crafts and things I've got going on I couldn't add one more lengthy project to the mix. Maybe next year I'll give it a whirl! My co-mom (that's what I call my stepson's mom) and I exchange gifts for our children and for each other every year and this year she made some really cute ornaments for Tatym & Keegan (my kiddie pies). Here they are:



Aren't they cute?! Then I remembered that I actually have a few packages of tinsel that I've had for years and years and it would look cute in the ornaments that I'd been needing to finish! Thank you Marly for the idea! So, here are my finished ornaments! I'm going to be wrapping them up and taking them to our church's womens' night out party Thursday night. We're having an ornament exchange! Remember that if you click on the picture it will enlarge it so you can see the details better! The ornaments say Peace and Faith. I had Love and Joy but they broke! *sniffle* I better go snatch up some more packages and make some more!

Reindeer Cards

For those that don't know, I'm a homeschooling mom and we're involved in a christian homeschool co-op that meets the first 3 Fridays of each month and has field trips the last week of each month. All moms (and some dads) have 2 teaching jobs, either lead teaching or assisting along with an administrative job. My teaching job is lead teaching the hands-on PreK/K class and I LOVE it! PreK'ers are my FAVORITE age group! They are just too stinkin cute and I love, love, love arts & crafts which most of them love to do also! Anyways, our co-op takes a break in December after our Christmas party and then does swimming lessons in January and then meets back up for classes in February! It's a long break and I'm gonna miss my PreK/K'ers so I decided to make them each a Christmas card and mail it to them so they get to feel extra special getting their very own card from the mail! I made 16 of these cards and my wrist hurts but it's all worth it! They are a great group of kiddos!!

Making some head-way!

Tonight I managed to cut out all 24 stocking shapes for the advent (see previous post). I've decided that since my sewing machine hates me and I'm not willing to take the time to make up with it, I'm going to hand sew each little stocking. I'm just folding over the edges so it looks a little nicer (notice, I said "little" nicer because yes, I'm the sewer so it still looks like a kindergartener made it). *SIDE NOTE* I notice that to write sew-er it is spelled the same as sewer, ya know, the place where poo and pee go. It's weird to me that they would be spelled the same so I think from now on I will use the dash between sew and er! LOL I'm a nut job! Ok, back to the subject...I managed to get three of the stockings sewed up and then I pinned them onto the base of the advent. Still deciding whether I want to have a couples therapy session with my sewing machine and try to see if we can improve our relationship or if I'm just going to shove it back in my closet and pull out my new BFF, the ironing fabric adhesive. We'll see how I'm feeling once I've sewn up the 21 remaining stockings! :) Here's a pic from my work tonight:

I wish I knew how to sew!

I have always been envious of the ladies that can sew and that make really neat things! I never took Home Ec in school and my mom never showed me how to sew. I mean, I've sewn buttons back onto pants or shirts and I've repaired holes in our couch cushions and blankets but it's never anything fabulous. I can't even sew a stinkin straight line with a sewing machine and it drives me nuts. I'll admit, I'm not very patient when it comes to much of anything. When I start a project I want to finish it and finish it SOON! I think that's why I don't end up very happy with a lot of my cards or scrapbooking projects because I rush through them just so I can get them done. I have a hard time starting something and not finishing it or setting it down for another time. For some reason it just drives me crazy! So, with that said, don't ask me why I still feel the need to attempt to sew things! I get this bright idea in my head to make something and shortly after starting I realize that I'm just torturing myself but yet again, I can't stop once I've started a project! I'm a freak! LOL!! So yesterday I posted a picture of the advent that my MIL had bought for my hubby back in like 1984 at a craft fair and that I was going to attempt to make some of my own.
Here is the pic of the original:


I found this pretty sparkly Christmas material at JoAnns and quickly snatched it up.


I chose this green with white polka dots for the edges.


Now THIS is my new best friend! I started out hand sewing around the outside of the base fabric and quickly (or not so quickly) realized that that way would take FOR-EV-ER! It seriously took me 2 hours to measure out the batting, measure out the fabric and then hand sew about 5 inches. I ended up having to put it down because I had to go somewhere and busted out my sewing machine today to attempt to finish it. After busting the thread a good million and one times I have now resorted to using this:


So now I've gotten the base done and the border around it and I don't have time to finish it today (it's torture). My son is really excited about it so that's making all this work, worth it!

Gotta love Christmas countdowns!

Last year I decorated this to use for our countdown to Christmas. Each box is pretty much only big enough to hold one piece of candy like a Hershey's Kiss or something but my son LOVED it!



This is a one that my MIL had bought in the early 80's at a craft fair. For some reason my stepson's mom ended up with it and had been using it for the past 8 years or so (my hubby didn't know she had it) but out of the blue she asked if we wanted it back so now it's at our house. I thought it was super cute and although I don't sew but maybe once every million years I'm going to attempt to recreate it and make one for each of my kiddos! Shouldn't be too hard *fingers crossed & knock on wood* to figure it out! :)

I LOVE craft fairs!

Yesterday I made the 2 hour drive over to this big craft fair with my kiddos and talk about being in heaven!!! I'd never been to this particular craft fair and was blown away by just the size of it! It was held at the fairgrounds and took up 4 HUGE buildings, wall-to-wall! Praise the Lord my kids were super good (until the end when my 17 month old daughter decided to have a meltdown). We spent about 2 1/2 hours walking around and I kept trying to take mental notes of all the projects I wanted to attempt to recreate on my own. I wanted desperately to whip out my camera and just take pictures but figured that would be pretty rude! I did take out my notebook and take some notes of things so that maybe it would jog my memory when I got home and I could visualize what I wanted to do. Seeing the booths made me want to have my own booth...maybe in a few years when my kiddos are older! I could totally make a lot of that stuff and even more things that no one else had! The funny thing is to see how many booths were so similar! I can't even count how many booths had the dish towels with the crochet tops that you can loop around the fridge door handle of the stove handle or the no-sew blankets (which I love to make and give as gifts too) or all the beaded jewelry booths! So many!!! I was given strict orders from my hubby that I was to "be good" which coming from him means that I wasn't to spend any money. I figured I could buy a few things but told myself I wasn't to spend more than $80 which is how much cash I had on me. I'm happy to report that I only spent about $50 on crafts. My son was rewarded with a pop gun for being such a big help to me and for being so good. He also got a water balloon yo-yo thing. Here are pictures of my other purchases:
This is my favorite find of the day!! And yes, I totally had one of those "I can make that myself" moments but since I don't have a Cricut (YET) I went ahead and bought it ($10) and it will look great in my scrapping area!


These are some leggings I bought for my daughter. I don't sew very well or really, hardly ever at all so I thought it was ok to spend the $8. They look so cute on her!!


These are so stinking cute! I'm sure almost everyone has seen these before. You put the candy in the clear cup and seal it up and it's an ornament! I got the Santa, Snowman, Gingerbread Man and the Ornament, each for $2.99 and will attempt to recreate them for next year!


This is another favorite and yes, another one of those "hey, I can make that myself" purchases. I just couldn't help myself!! It was $12.50 and it will go nicely in my living room, right above my fireplace!

Secret

So I'm working on a few scrapbooking projects and for some reason it's killing me that I can't post pics yet! LOL I don't want the people I'm making them for to see any of the pages until it's completely done so I'm holding off on posting pictures until I'm done! One of the scrapbooks is almost done. I have about 5 pages left to do and it will be all finished! YAY! I thought it would take me a lot longer to do it but thankfully the other night I hosted a scrapathon that lasted 7 hours so I was able to get 7 pages done and then last night after the kids went to bed I was able to get 4 more pages done. The scrapathon was a huge success! I reserved a party room at one of our local pizza places and invited a bunch of friends to come along and bring any sort of projects they were working on. Some friends brought scrapbooking projects, one brought a needlework project, one brought a calendar scrapbook project, 1 made the magnetic cookie sheet projects and 3 actually brought their Christmas presents and wrapping paper and spent the evening wrapping all their presents! I'm pretty sure I'm going to make this a monthly gathering because it was so much fun and we all got so much done and were able to listen to music, chat, snack on some goodies and check out what each other were working on!

Here's a sneak peek at the scrapbook I've been working on! Don't mind the poor picture quality, my camera batteries were about to die and the lighting was awful in our dining room!

More Tukey Day Cards

Ok so I just have to brag for a second about what a great hubby I have!! The other night we had just laid the kids down for the night and Josh asks me if he can make a card with me! I thought he was joking but he said if I'd help him do it then he'd love to make a card with me! Now, he didn't do this because he's just been dying to get his hands on all my cool crafting stuff, no, he did it because he wanted to spend time with me doing something I enjoy doing!! Isn't he awesome?! He actually did a good job and even chose what papers he wanted, they way he wanted it to look and put it all together on his own from picking the papers to applying adhesive to sponging ink around the edges and applying ribbon for finishing touches!! I love him! So, here is his handy work:


Not too stinkin bad for his first (and very likely, his last LOL) card! To return the favor I sat down with him for about 10-15 minutes and played his video game with him! I figured it was only fair and it was nice that we were both able to take the time to step into each other's hobby world! :)

The deadline quickly caught up to me on the day that I had to have 15 cards made to put in each Thanksgiving dinner food baskets so Saturday night I was scrambling to get 10 more cards made. There was a big ol' storm going on outside and as I heard the wind just whipping around and knocking things over I just prayed like crazy that the power wouldn't go out! Not sure how my cards would look having to put them together by candlelight! LOL The Lord helped me out and kept the power on and here are the 10 cards I made that night.

Thanksgiving Cards

Our church is doing a "Turkey Trot" where we deliver food baskets to families for Thanksgiving and I was asked by my dear friend Alisha to help make cards to put with the baskets! Of course I said yes and after our long walk tonight I came home and got these 4 cards made up! I was a little worried at first because I don't have any specific Thanksgiving stamp sets but thankfully I had a few non-CTMH autumn/Thanksgiving paper packs in my stash so that was a huge plus!!






Man, we're getting hit with a big ol' storm tonight! The wind is whipping around and I hear the rain barrelling down...I LOVE IT!!! Thank the Lord the rain held off until after we finished our 3+ mile walk tonight!

A simple Christmas card

Another Christmas card to add to the mix! :)

Christmas cards & a birthday card

I'm frantically busting out Christmas cards and thankfully last night I had a few hours after the kiddos went to bed to work on some cards! I made 4 Christmas cards and was making a 5th one but decided that the colors weren't "christmasy" enough for my liking so I turned it into a birthday card!







Now I've found I have a bit of an issue! I like to send out a family newsletter along with a family picture but I made most of my cards 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 so trying to cram in extra stuff isn't going to look so nice! Oh well, maybe I can condense the newsletter or something! :) I'll figure it out!