Mini-Book and Holder

Well, I just returned home from my 16 hour Black Friday trip!  Getting up at 4:45am + 6 hours driving + 10 hours shopping = one tired girl!  I did come across some good bargains but I didn't get quite as much crossed off my shopping list as I had hoped.  I will definitely have to hit the stores a few more times!  Did anyone else get some great deals???

Before I head up to bed, I thought I would share my latest project with you - a Christmas mini-album and display holder.

  
I love scrapbooking but time does not always allow me to create pages for all of the activities that we do (I won't tell you how far behind I am!).  I often end up creating mini-albums so I can cover a month (or season) of events at one time.  The problem is that once I had compete my albums, I'm quite sure what to do with them.  So... I decided to come up with a display holder that I could easily change out each month.  Here are my supplies:

I had most items left over from other projects.  I purchased the large ball from Michaels.  I also ended up having to add a square piece of wood (from the remnants of the kids old playhouse) to the bottom of the cube to add some more weight.  I tippy display holder does not work out so well!

HOW TO

• Paint all of the wooden pieces black.  Lightly distress the edges with sandpaper. 
• Drill a hole the size of the dowel in the center of the wooden ball.
• Glue all of your pieces together.  I really had to clamp down the ball to the candle stick as there wasn't a lot of surface for gluing.  Once the glue is dry, you may need to touch up a few spots with paint where the glue shows through.
• Add a ribbon or other decorative touches.  I chose to keep mine simple and the ribbon can easily be changed out with the seasons or to coordinate with the mini-album.

I would like to get a small little ball to attach to the end of the dowel to finish it off a bit more but I will have to wait until I can make it to Michaels.

For my mini-albums, I find that 6x6 sizes are the easiest to work with.  The standard 4X6 photos can easily be added with a little room for jouranlling or embellishment or two wallet sizes also fit nicely on a page.  If you pick a coordinating paper line, these mini-albums can go together quite quickly.  It usually takes me longer to pick and order the photos than it does to actually create the album!  I created this album from last year's Christmas photos.  Here are some brief instructions:

• Cut 2 6x6 pieces of chipboard (or a cardboard box) for the front and back cover.  Decorate as you would like.
• Cut 6x6 squares from thick cardstock to use as your pages.  Add photos and jounalling.
• Punch 2 holes in the top of your chipboard and cardstock for the D-rings (these are available at any office supply store).
• Add the D-rings and you hang your album on your cute little display!

Have a great weekend!!

I am linking up with Funky Junk, A Little Lovely, Along for the Ride, The Shabby Nest, Child Made, I Heart Naptime, Paper Issues, Under the Table and Dreaming, Support Blog for Moms of Boys, CRAFT, Craft-O-Maniac, Me Making Do, Skip To My Lou, Polly Want a Crafter, Coastal Charm, The DIY Showoff, Somewhat Simple, Night Owl Crafting, Paisley Passions, House of Hepworths, The Shabby Nest, Chic On a Shoestring, Fun to Craft, Along for the Ride, Scrappy Gifts, Tatertots and Jello, Sew Chatty, Tip Junkie, and Young and Crafty.

The Stylish Blogger Award

Another cold one today!  Snow is in the forecast for tomorrow.  I am hoping for a snow day so I can stay home from work and get caught up on my "To Do" list!  There is no Thanksgiving Feast for us Canadians tomorrow so we should at least get a day off work, right? 

Last week I was honoured to receive the Stylish Blogger Award from Purple Paisley Pinwheels.  With all of the craziness around here, I am just getting around to saying a big thank-you!



So here are the rules for the award:

• Thank and link back to the person who presented the award to you. (Thank-you again Purple Paisley Pinwheels!)
• Share seven things about yourself.
• Pay it forward to 15 recently discovered great bloggers. (In the interest of time I had to shorten this down to 5!)
• Contact those bloggers and tell them about your award.

Okay, so here are 7 things about me:

1. I apparently have a really hard time figuring out what to write about myself.
2. I have to play boggle or do a seduko on my phone every night before I go to bed.  It helps me clear my mind so I can fall asleep.
3. I can't wait to go and see the new Harry Potter movie.  It is very rare that I enjoy the movie as much as the book but I have loved watching this series.
4. Christmas is my all time favorite holiday. 
5. I much prefer the heat to the cold.  Give me a nice sunny beach anyday!
6. I am a too much of a perfectionist.  This is generally not a good thing and everything always ends up taking me at least twice as long as it should.
7. I always pictured myself having little girls. Of course, I ended up having two boys and now can't imagine having anything else!

I am supposed to pass on this award to 15 blogs that I have recently discovered but I am running short on time and will have to narrow it down to 5!  I am constantly amazed at all of the fabulous blogs that I stumble upon but here are a few of my more recent finds:

• Ain't She Crazy
• What's for Lunch at Our House (If you are looking for fun lunch ideas for your kids this is a great place to go!)
• Echoes of Laughter
• Coastal Charm
• The Diary of Dave's Wife.  (You'll have to read her story as to how she became Dave's Wife)

Well, still no snow here so I better be off to bed.  Looks like it will be a work day tomorrow!  I wish a fabulous Thanksgiving to everyone south of the border.  I will be coming down on Friday to join you all for some Black Friday Shopping!!!

Yarn Christmas Tree

For those of you who didn't get over to my Walking in a Toddler Wonderland guest posting, here is my little yarn tree tutorial.  I had a bunch of yarn left over from my yarn wreath so why not make a tree to go with it?

MATERIALS:

• A styrofaom or cardboard cone.  I ended up switching from this foam one (pictured above) to a cupboard one that actaully came right to a point at the top as it was easier to cover with the yarn.
• red yarn
• small amount of brown yarn (twine would also work)
• glue (I like Quick Grip)
• a piece of tape
• buttons
• jingle bells
• ribbon and candle stand (optional)

HOW TO:

1. Place a small amount of glue around the top portion of your tree and then begin wrapping your yarn around the tree.  You will only need to use the glue right at the beginning to anchor the yarn down and then again at the bottom of the tree.  Continue to wrap the yarn around the tree until you reach the bottom.  Try to make sure that the end of the yarn is on the same side of the tree as you started.  This will be the back of the tree.  Secure again with glue. 
2. Take your brown yarn (or twine) and anchor it down on the inside of the tree.  I used tape.

3. Wrap the brown yarn diagnolly up the tree. Secure at the top with glue.
4. Take 3 bells and tie them together with a piece of twine. Glue to the top of the tree.
5. Glue on the buttons (I kind of liked it without the buttons too!)
6. If you would like, find a pillar candle holder to fit your tree and dress it up with some ribbon.   

I hope you are all having some fun with the Christmas crafting! To all my American friends, I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

I have linked up with These Creative Juices, I Heart Naptime, Night Owl Crafting, Fun To Craft, Paisley Passions, Young and Crafty, A Little Lovely, Funky Junk, Along for the Ride, The Shabby Nest, Under the Table and Dreaming, Support Blog for Moms of Boys, CRAFT, Craft-O-Maniac, Skip To My Lou, Me Making Do, Polly Want a Crafter, The DIY Showoff, Somewhat Simple, Tatertots and Jello, Tip Junkie, Sew Chatty, and Sugar Bee Craft Edition.

Paint Can Packaging

Wow!  It is FREEZING here tonight!  I think we are definitely in for some more snow!  With all this cold weather, Christmas must be just around the corner.  Yipee!!!

If you are looking for a unique way to package some of those Christmas gifts, grab a paint can and some scrapbook paper and look what you can create!

MATERIALS

• Paint cans.  Although these are available at many craft stores, they are much cheaper to purchase through a paint store directly.  Mine were $2.50 each.
• Scrapbook paper
• Jingle Bells
• Ribbon
• Glue (double sided tape is also helpful)
• Modge podge
• Snowman or reindeer (or whatever else you would like!) paper piecing pattern.  If you would like a copy of mine, just let me know and I can email them to you (or if someone knows how I could upload the pattern on to here, that would be great too!).  There are also some cute patterns at Scrapbooks Etc. that you can find here.

DIRECTIONS

• To cover the paint can, I used 2 different colours of patterned scrapbook paper.  My paint can was approximately 8 1/4 inches high.  For the bottom half of the paint can, I cut 2 pieces of paper that were roughly 4 1/2 inches x 10 1/2 inches.  For the top half, I cute 2 pieces roughly 4 x 10 1/2 inches to allow for a little bit of overlap. 
• Start at the top of the paint can and place the first strip of paper around the can so that the ends of the paper roughly line up with the part of the paint can where the handle attaches.  You will need to cut out a section on each end of your paper to account for the round bit.  (This is the only tricky part!).  If you are making multiple paint cans, you just need to do this step once to make a good template.  You can then use this first piece as your template and trace onto all of your subsequent pieces.

• Once your have your pieces cut, paint a generous amount of modge podge onto the paint can and glue down your pieces.  I always use a little roller over the paper to really secure it down.  If you don't have a roller, make sure you take a few minutes to really press down the paper and get all of the bubbles out.

• Once you have all 4 pieces of paper glued down with the modge podge, put a piece of ribbon around the can to cover where the two pieces of paper overlap.  Have the ribbon seam end where you are going to place your paper piecing pattern so it will be covered up.  You can either glue the ribbon down or use double sided tape (which I found much easier!).
• Next you will need to find or create something to put on your paint can.  I made a couple of paper piecing patterns of a reindeer and a snowman (just let me know if you would like a copy!)  Cut out all of the pieces from your pattern and trace it onto whatever colour cardstock you would like.  Glue all the pieces together. 
• For the Reindeer, draw on some eyes and a mouth.  I used a little chalk on the cheeks to make them a little rosy.  I also outlined all of my paper pieces in a fine black pen just to make them stand out a bit more.  To finish him off, I tied three bells to a piece of yarn to use over his collar ( I just taped the ends of the yarn to the back of the reindeer).  Glue him on (with lots of glue!!) to the can.

• For the snowman, I also outlined all of the paper pieces with fine black ink.  Draw on an eye and his mouth and glue him down to the can.  Punch a hole in the tag and add a ribbon and a couple of jingle bells.  Glue down the tag onto the snowman's hand.  I had a couple of felt snowflakes that I also added to the can for some extra decoration.

• Depending on what you are going to be putting in your can, you may want to decorate the lid, add some ribbon to the handle, or just add some tissue paper.

Although the directions, seem really long, they are really quite easy to do.  If you are making a few of them at a time, it does tend to go quicker!  I love how they look and the lucky recipient can always use them afterwards for decoration or storage.  I think they make a great kitchen caddy!

Again, if anyone is interested in the paper piecing patterns, I am happy to share.  Sorry I couldn't figure out how to upload them on here but email should work!

This post is linked up with these gret blogs: Funky Junk, I Heart Naptime, Tidy Mom, Young and Crafty, ChildMade, Under the Table and Dreaming, Fingerprints on the Fridge, The Shabby Nest, Me Making Do, CRAFT, Craft-O-Maniac, Skip To My Lou, Sugar Bee Craft Edition, These Creative Juices, Night Owl Crafting, Fun to Craft, Paisley Passions, Paper Issues, Scrappy Gifts, Tip Junkie, and Tattertots and Jello.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Walking in a Toddler Wonderland

Happy Friday everyone!!  We had our first snowfall of the year last night (well, a couple of centimeters anyways!) and I am just getting my son ready to go out and play in the snow.  He is soooo excited!! 

And I am very excited today too as I am guest positing over at Family and Life in Las Vagas for their Walking in a Toddler Wonderland.  Head on over and check out my tutorial!  They are also having lots of fun giveaways for your toddlers!

I'll be back later this afternoon with a cute way to package your Christmas gifts!  Have a great day!!

Candy Cane Reindeer

Time around here has been very short this past week (and for the next week to come!) so my next few posts will be quick, easy projects.  Sometimes uncomplicated is good!!

I saw these Reindeer Candy Canes in Scrapbooks Etc. and thought they would be a fun project.  I am working on creating a bunch for my son's class at school.  (For those of you that are laughing at me, December will be here very soon!!) I think they would also be really cute as present toppers.

MATERIALS

• candy canes
• brown yarn
• google eyes
• small buttons or pompoms for the nose
• ribbon
• bells
• glue

TO DO

• Put two candy canes together and wrap them up with the yarn.  I made them a little thicker in the middle for those big reindeer tummies!  Tuck the end in when you are finished.
• Tie a ribbon around the "neck" and add a bell. 
• Glue on your eyes and nose.

Can't get a whole lot easier than that!  I think they look cute so I am off to the store to pick up some more candy canes.  Have a great night!

I have linked up with Uncommon, These Creative Juices, Skip To My Lou, Night Owl Crafting, Someday Crafts, House of Hepworths, Child Made, Paisley Passions, Somewhat Simple, Tattertots and Jello, Tidy Mom, Funky Junk, Under the Table and Dreaming, Fingerprints on the Fridge, The Shabby Nest, Me Making Do, CRAFT, Craft-O-Maniac, Skip To My Lou, Red Ted Art, Sugar Bee Craft Edition, My Delicious Ambiguity, Tip Junkie, These Creative Juices, and I Heart Naptime.

And the Winner Is...

The winner of the Scentsy giveaway (calculated from Random.org) was number 4, Jennifer (no, not me!).  Congratulations!!!  Jennifer, I have emailed you.  Please get back to me with your address so I can send off your warmer and bars.  Thank-you to everyone that entered!!!  I appreciate each and every one of you!

Favorite Advent Calendars

Advent calendars are such a fun way to celebrate December.  I thought I would share some of my favorites that I have seen around blogland.

I love this shoe holder idea from Eighteen25.  Nice big pockets to hold those treats!  They even provide a free countdown download for you.

How cute and easy are these little gum advents from My Little Mochi?

These sweet bags from It is What It Is put a little twist on the traditional advent calendar.  AND there is a free printable as well!

I have seen a few of these muffin tin advents around.  This cute one is from What Allie's Making Now.

I am also loving this rustic advent from Pottery Barn.



And here is my finished canvas advent.  You can go here for more details on how to make it.

I hope this gives you some inspiration to create an advent calendar of your own.  I'll post what we are doing for our 25 days tomorrow if you are looking for some ideas! 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Christmas Advent Calendar

I try to do something Christmas related with the kids every day in December.  It doesn't always have to be big, but just something special that we can do together.  I wanted to create an advent calendar to hold little notes for them that would explain the daily activity (I can then add these notes to my December daily album!).  There are so many cute ideas for advent calendars out there.  It was hard to decide what to do!

On one of my many shopping trips, I found this Making Memories advent calendar kit at a local scrapbook store. 

I loved all of the different papers and envelope shapes but didn't really like the banner style that it was designed as.

Inspired by a canvas calendar that I had seen at another scrapbook store (Treasury of Memories), I bought a 24x24 canvas to mount all of the envelopes on.  I am quite happy with how it turned out!

Like all of the projects that I have been doing lately, this should have been a fairly quick project.  That being said, it ended up taking FOREVER!!!  When it comes to projects, I am not particularly patient, and I have had huge issues with actually finishing projects lately. 

MATERIALS

• 24x24 canvas
• cream and red paint
• painter's tape if you would like to do edging on the front of the canvas
• Making Memories Advent Calendar or other numbered envelopes
• glue (i.e. Quick Grip) or other strong glue to adhere the envelopes to the canvas.  (I just used regular scrapbooking glue when making the envelopes).

HOW TO
WARNING: This is a rather long set of instructions.  Learn from my mistakes, and it should not take multiple days to complete!

Day 1 - I started off by painting the canvas cream.  This should be a very easy task but I had a very curious cat that was not happy about his lack of attention.  Grey hair and cream paint do not mix well.  Had lots of fun picking off hair and re-painting. Time for a break.

Day 2 - I wanted to paint the border of the canvas red.  I don't know if it is just me, but I find red a very difficult colour to work with.  I just can't seem to get the right shade.  Three different paint colours later (and four coats of that paint!) it was done.  Break.

Day 3 - I layed out all of the envelopes on the canvas and figured out where I wanted everything to go.  I inked the edges of all of the envelopes and embellishments ( I have to ink everything!) and glued the numbers on.  About half way through gluing the envelopes to the canvas, I ran out of my Quick Grip glue.  I must say that I LOVE this glue.  It pretty much glues anything and, as the name says, bonds very quickly.  Well, I ended up using some other glue to finish up but it definitely did not work as well.  Lots of time spent pressing and holding things down to dry.  Okay, time for a break.

Day 4 - Will this project ever be finished????  After my envelopes were glued on, I thought that the canvas looked too plain and decided to paint a red border around the edge on the front of the canvas (I had just painted the sides on Day 2).  For some reason, my brain did not think back to my red problem two days earlier.  I tried to free hand the edging but this did not work well for multiple coats.  I will not go in to how long this took me but I ended up using painter's tape (which I should have done to begin with) for a thin outline around the front of the canvas.  Break time.

Day 5 - By this point, I really just wanted this project DONE.  All that was left to do was the vinyl.  As excited as I was to receive my Silhouette last week, I have not really used it yet for two reasons:

1. I have spent all of my free time painting canvases.
2. I really, really hate reading manuals. 

Well, I am happy to report that this was the easiest part of the whole process.  There a few things that I would have done differently, but not bad for a first try.  Vinyl applied.  Project done!!! (Well, I still might add something to the vinyl but done for now!)

UPDATE: I really wasn't liking the space between the letter for the vinyl so I moved the 25 days part down and added a flourish.  Much better!

If you would like to try your own Advent Calendar, keep your cats out of sight, use painter's tape for the edging (and paint all the red at one time!), and make sure you have some good glue.  It should then be a fairly easy project to whip up! 

Check back later and I will be posting some of my other favorite advent calenders from around blogland as well as activity ideas for what to put in them. 

I have linked up with The CSI Project, Uncommon, Scrappy Gifts, A Little Lovely, I Heart Naptime, Along for the Ride, Young and Crafty, Funky Junk, Under the Table and Dreaming, CRAFT, Me Making Do, These Creative Juices, Polly Want a Crafter, Support Blog for Moms of Boys, Skip To My Lou, Craft-O-Maniac, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Night Owl Crafting, Someday Crafts, House of Hepworths, Child Made, Paisley Passions, Somewhat Simple, Paper Issues, and Tatertots and Jello.   Head on over and check them out!

Have a great weekend!



Christmas Memories Album

I was reading a copy of Scrapbooks Etc. a while ago, and loved  the A Month of Memories article that Ali Edwards wrote about creating an album to document all of the magical moments that December brings.  It definitely needed to be added to my (ever growing!) "To Do" list.

For our family, the official "Christmas Season" begins on December 1st and is filled with decorating, parties,  visits with Santa, and a variety of family traditions.  A December daily album is a place to capture all of these moments.  I plan on adding some pictures but my main focus will be on the journalling.  Sometimes it is the simple stories that really make the holidays special but often these are the ones that we forget to document.  Like reading the Polar Express together with some hot chocolate...Or sitting around the tree listening to Christmas music after we decorate it...watching the Grinch That Stole Christmas on T.V,...bringing out those favorite Christmas ornaments.

As I was out looking for things to create my album, I came across a kit from Treasury of Memories that had everything I needed!  Treasury of Memories was my absolute favorite scrapbooking store until they shut down about a year ago.  A few times per year though, they will open up their warehouse and I always try to be there! 

So here is my partially put together album. 

Soooo cute, eh?  The inside is filled with a variety of chipboard or paper pages, various envelopes (you can put a picture on the outside and then slip the journalling in the envelope), some little brown paper bags, and tags. 

I have deliberately not put any numbers on the pages as I am sure I will change them around depending on what I am jornalling on for that particular day.  I have some vinyl numbers or some paper numbers cut from Teresa Collins paper to add for the dates.  Here's the last page where I did add the date (since I won't be changing that page!)

My hope (and I am sometimes overly optimistic!!) is that I will be able to complete a page per day so that it is completed by Christmas.  Really, all I will need to add is the journalling, some pictures, and a few more embellishments to make it mine!

I can't wait to get started on it! I will post the finish project once everything is completed after Christmas.

If you are wanting to start your own album, I would definitely recommend using these metal notebook rings (or whatever they are called) to bind your album.  I have created books like this before and they get rather thick quite quickly once you start adding all the embellishments!  

I am just finishing up another Christmas mini-book that I have been working on (and a really cute display holder to go with it!)  I will have more detailed instructions on how to make a mini-album so check back in a day or two!