Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone spends time with family, and reflects on the true meaning of the season.

Cheri Roared Me

I am so excited, Cheri roared me here!

Christmas Tree

This was big year for changes when it came to our Christmas tree.
First off, we went with a real tree. Jeff & I both were raised with artificial trees, and we continued that when we married. We both wanted to try a real tree, so we did. Now we can say we've done it,and I'm pretty sure we will be going back to our artificial tree.
Besides the messy needles and constant watering, the top of the tree is very crooked, I can't straighten it no matter what I try.

However, it is our first real tree, so it stays for this year.











The other big change are the colored lights. Again Jeff & I grew up with colored lights, but I love the beauty and simplicity of white lights, so we have had white lights. Rileigh has asked for colored lights for the past three years, so this year she got her wish.
Rileigh always puts the star on top of the tree because she does most of the decorating.

This year we also hung lots of ornaments from when I was a child - the kids liked the "new" additions.
Every year the kids get to pick out a new ornament for the tree, so we will do that this weekend.









Linking up with A Glimpse Inside "Show Me Your Tree"

Advent wreath

Cheri's recent post reminded me that so often the true meaning of Christmas is lost on commercial ventures.


To that end, I really want Rileigh & Maddox to understand what Christmas is about (no, not presents).

So we added the good deeds in our Advent calendar. Rileigh & Maddox loved them! They liked seeing what the good deed was, and then that there were more to come. Their gifts to Jesus were really sweet too.

I also made out Advent wreath. "Bear" from work helped me out again, he cut the holes for the candles. I wrapped a green floral styrofoam wreath form (Dollar Tree) with glittery green ribbon (Walmart) using hot glue to tack it down. I only managed to burn myself once on this - yea for me :)

I glued the wrapped wreath to a white paper plate and hot glued a single glass tapered candle holder in the center for the white candle.

To help decorate it, I will add some evergreen cuttings. I hope this will help remind Jeff & I to slow down and think about what the Christmas spirit really means, and help build Rileigh & Maddox's excitement for the true meaning of Christmas.

Decorative candles

Another great idea from Not So Idle Hands

This is a great idea for an easy hostess gift, or giveaway at your Christmas party (that's what I am doing with mine)

You will need white tissue paper, votive candles, a mini hole punch, a heat gun, a pretzel bag, ribbon and decorative paper.

Start with white tissue paper. Stamp some festive images in different colors. The stamped image should fit on the face of the candle.


Cut out the stamped image. I used a circle squeeze punch (the trick to using the punch is to put a piece of paper behind the tissue paper).

Next punch a hole in the middle of the image. Place the image on top of the candle (the wick goes through the hole). Next grab your heat gun. Melt the image into the wax. (Really you are heating up the wax below and the image will dry in the wax.)

After you do 5 candles they fit nicely into a pretzel bag. There are some great tags to put with the candles here, because they are for decorative use only. I mounted the tags on some scalloped circles, punched a hole and used the ribbon to tie the tag to the bag. Viola - a pretty gift!

More subway art

Since the 1st one went well, I decided to make one for the kids.


These pieces of wood are from Walmart - a little more than HL, but they are sturdy and since they will hang in the kids' rooms they need to be. (I did see smaller pieces at Michaels for under $2 - maybe for the next project)


Paint the wood, then cut the words out with vinyl - and use transfer tape to assemble. When you are all done spray with a glossy clear coat.


Pink for Rileigh, light blue for Maddox. The hard part was coming up with the right words. I didn't want to use the same words. I used three different fonts on Rileigh's and 4 colors of vinyl. For Maddox I went with bold print fonts and also 4 colors.

The kids love them! (Yay)

The rest of Mom's cards

The last 3 styles of cards for Mom

This was a very simple card - I like the red & white contrast.
Gina K red paper - it is very vibrant. I'm not a big stamper. I thought it was because I couldn't get the hang of it and it's messy. But the more I read and try, and use better quality inks and stamps the more I keep coming back to try my hand again. I stamped the candy cane and completed it with white embossing powder.

I used SCAL to cut this image. Mounted on blue cardstock. I added a two stars and gold stickled the top one.

Light blue Core'dinations cardstock ran through the Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder and sanded. I cut the blue-grey scalloped circle out with a nestie. I colored the image with Copics and added a little Stickles.