Holiday Burlap Wreath

After making my first burlap wreath a month or so ago, I've been wanting to make one for Christmas for my sister-in-law. There are so many lovely burlap wreaths on pinterest. It's a little tricky finding the right balance for accents on these burlap wreaths though. I picked up some lovely accents from Michael's on their black Friday sale. My sister gave me some great advice. I'm thinking of making a few more as gifts this year if I can get my rear in gear!

Holiday Paper Crafting Class for girls

I have missed paper crafting so much! So I decided to organize a holiday paper crafting class for girls. I kept the projects fun and simple. The girls were eager to learn and create. They were so sweet. I got some really cute comments from the girls.  "Are we going to do more of these?" and "You should do a youtube channel!" Haha...so cute. To make the class go as smooth as possible, I prepped, cut and scored as much as I could.

I gave each girl a small craft bag from Michael's for all the projects. In the bag, each girl received a snack bag with 12 Hershey's kisses, 3 Ghirardelli chocolate squares, and a clear box size for their cards. Here are the five projects we did:

• 4x6 notebook cover: light blue cardstock, stamped snow scene
• 4" square mini pizza box: santa red, 1 1/8" belt, 2" square silver glitter cardstock. Tutorial from Scor-pal here We filled the box with white scrunchy
• 4 gift tags with a 3" square box w/lid
• 2 Merry and bright Christmas cards
• Ghirardelli treat box Tutorial from SplitCoastStampers here

Turning over a new wreath

I spontaneously made a wreath for my front door last week. I actually bought a wreath from Pier1 and even on sale, they're kind of pricey and a bit lacking. So I looked around my house and found a silk arrangement that was calling out to be repurposed. I wish I had a before picture. But here is the after. I love peonies and vibrant fall color! I think I may have started something I can't stop.

 

So then a few more sprang forth!

And more on the way!

 

Christmas Tree Party Invitation

My quilt group is having our annual Christmas party this week. I made the invitations for our party with the help of my friend Tina. You can catch some of Tina's cute projects at Needles-n-Notions. I found this cute idea when I was looking for ideas for gift tags to teach at my Relief Society craft night at church. I found this little Christmas tree idea from here and then I remembered that I made a tutorial on paper flowers a while ago. My tutorial shows you how to fold a circle to make the tree. Check out Abigail's Paper Flower tutorial right here to see how it's done.  I found the darling little gold glitter star brads from Michael's. I used Stampin' Up!'s Be of Good Cheer DSP for the tree. It has several sheets of nice green paper. Tina also helped me with cutting out all the circles on her cricut. Since she was cutting from 12" x 12" sheets of paper, the circles were just shy of 3" in diameter.  I love, love, love SU!'s new In Color gumball green. I used the 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon in gumball green and the red gingham is some old retired SU! ribbon. I was sad to see that gingham ribbon go. I'm hoping to get around to making a post on the gift tags that I ended up teaching but I'm currently working on a tutorial for a doll sleeping bag. I've been totally consumed with American Girl clothing patterns and tutorials. I'm making a sleeping bag and pillow for my friend who is going to give me a wii game that my boys want for Christmas. Oh, the joys of bartering! So, we shall see what gets done first!

November Card Swap

We had some darling Christmas cards at our Card Swap last month. The first time I participated in a November card swap , I made a fall card and quickly felt out of place because everyone makes a Christmas card. I learned my lesson and even though we didn't need to say it, November was to be a Christmas themed card. It's always fun to see what everyone comes up with and it gets you into the holiday spirit earlier in the season. This time, I decided to make my card using SU!'s Delightful Decorations stamp set, Contempo Christmas stamp set, ornament punch and the Be of Good Cheer DSP. I'm really bad about buying stuff and not using it right away. What can I say? I guess I'm a sucker for cuteness and an optimist at the same time!

Fabric Covered Composition Notebook Journal

I'm always on the lookout for good birthday gifts for friends. I came across this darling idea and had to give it a go. They're so simple and sweet. I ended up following two different tutorials to get the look and fit I wanted. Here's one, http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/projects-ideas/bags-pillows/covered-journals_1.html and the other http://www.stitchedincolor.com/2012/08/tutorial-journal-covers.html.  Here's another tutorial I thought was pretty cute http://smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.com/2011/09/fabric-covered-composition-notebook.html.

It's so fun to give a special friend a special something that you made personally. And a journal cover is something they can use again and again.

 

On projects like this when I'm trying out someone else's tutorial, I typically end up giving my first prototype to my daughter. My daughter calls it her "writers workshop" book. They have writers workshop in kindergarten and she loves to write stories. So now she has something to enjoy writing in at home. This project could easily be made as a doodle book for a child or a sketch book for a quilter. You can use the graph paper notebooks which you can find at Staples. Here's a picture of her book. Recognize the fabric? It's the same fabric I used for the scripture bag in a previous post. It's not the best quality but I got it on the clearance rack on the Stampin' Up! website. Pictured above are the Candy Cane Christmas Designer fabric and the darling Sweet Stitches Designer fabric. Each fabric pack comes with three coordinating fat quarters for only $0.99!  Normally, their fabric packs sell for much more.  Check it out! http://www.stampinup.com/home/

LDS Scripture Bag Tutorial

 A few months ago, one of my good friend's daughter was baptized and I wanted to make a special something for her. This is not a very good picture of the scripture bag I gave her but it's the only one I had.

 I made another last week for another good friend and here's how it turned out. The turquoise bag is for a mini quad and the other two for a standard size quad. Here's the tutorial I followed: http://mycottoncreations.blogspot.com/2012/04/little-lds-scripture-tote-tutorial.html
I ended up adjusting the height of the bag because it seemed a little too tall. But the tutorial is awesome and very clear.