Decorating for Christmas

I love decorating for Christmas. And I love looking around at all the awesome decorating on Pinterest and blogland. So many great ideas!   

Here is a peek into some of my Christmas decorating this year. As you can tell, I love anything that is vintage or has a vintage feel to it. And I love collecting old scales.

And Buddy the Elf even came to see us this year.

I have lots of fun plans for him every night. ;)

I found 101 ideas here.

A&J

Merry Christmas

This years Christmas card.

I'm that person that has to make you smile when you open our card.  Cheesier the better.  So, this year.....I dreamed big...

My BIG ambitions were to stack them.  The little sister sitting on top of big sisters shoulders, lights wrapped around them, and holding a star on top like a Christmas tree.  All the while Big sister holding the reindeer doggy.  Sounds simple right.  Apparently, I dreamed too BIG.  After several failed attempts, we wound up with this.  All sitting SAFELY in a chair.  It still made me smile so I hope it makes you smile too.

On a side note...I wanted to send our card to the shelter where we adopted this cute little reindeer doggy, but my husband thinks they may consider this torture.  :) 



A&J

Free Printable Scripture Word Art

Found this awesome printable here.

I was able to change up the color a bit to match my color theme and use it on my Christmas cards this year!

Love how it turned out!

{Of course you could always just print it as is and frame it to use for your Christmas decorating!}

On the Christmas Card: Papers found here and here. Elements from various kits at my favorite digital scrapbooking shop here.

A&J

Christmas Gift Tags

Below are some gift tags I made for all my packages this year.

Feel free to download here, cut out and enjoy!

{Sized for 8.5 x 11 paper, 300 dpi}

A&J

Advent Calendar/ Christmas Countdown

We haven't ever had an advent calendar in our house. Only because I haven't really seen one that I just fell in love with.   I saw so many ideas found from blog land at Tatertots and Jello. Wow the creative bar just gets higher and higher!

This below is my take on the advent calendar. It was mentioned to me by someone as a tradition they did with their kids every Christmas and it was something that their kids remembered even after they were grown and out of the house. 

The idea is that you have 24 books to read with your child or children. One for each day up till Christmas, with the final book read on the Christmas eve being "The Night Before Christmas" of course. They can be all Christmas books or even special books that your family likes to read. They can be books you already have or add a few new ones each year.  Because really, most of the fun for the kids is getting to open a present each day....

{It's also good incentive to get the kids in the jammies and ready for bed each night!} 

And if you haven't started yet this year, don't worry just start today with less books. 

It's just a tool to countdown to Christmas!

Need some cute tags to add to your books?

You can download the # tags I've used here.

Linked up here @ Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap Up Party.

A&J

Glittery Stuff....

After watching Miss Mustard Seed's glitter tutorial, I knew I had to try out the German glass glitter she talked about. 

I happened to find a small bottle of light blue German glass glitter at a local shop and snatched it up. When I got home I did a little glitter comparison. I had on hand some glitter paint, regular glitter, and my new glass glitter. OH MY GOODNESS..... the glass glitter is amazing!!!

The beauty of it is truly something you have to see in person. It simply catches the light in the most perfect way. And have you ever touched something with regular glitter only to have glitter all over you for the rest of the day?? This glitter does not do that.

The only drawback... it can be a little pricey. {Although I think it's well worth the extra you pay for it}

I just received a few ounces of silver that I had ordered

and I've got a slew of things that I'm ready to create with it!
Here are a few little things I've made so far....

 

So pretty! LOVE this stuff....
And just in time for decorating for Christmas!

A&J

Music Sheet Bows

While I had the music sheets and hot glue out I figured I'd try to make some of these bows for my upcoming Christmas wrapping. I've seen them made with old book pages and even old magazines.

I know there's many different ways to make bows like this, but here's a quick tutorial of how I made mine:

First cut some 3/4 inch strips from some sheet music.

You will need:

3 ~ 8.5 inch strips, 3 ~ 7 inch strips & 1 3 inch strip.

I twisted them around to make these shapes and hot glued them into place.

{note: you could also use double stick tape, glue dots, staples or whatever you have on hand}

Start assembling by taking the 3 larger ones and gluing them into a shape like this:

Continue with the second row and then the 1 smaller loop in the middle.

I chose some simple kraft brown paper and some twine to go with my bow.

And there you have it, simple and unique wrapping for the holidays or any occasion!

A&J

Music Sheet Christmas Tree Tutorial

Today I made one of these cute little music sheet trees.

Here's a little tutorial to make one of your very own.

It's very simple really.....

What you will need is a styrofoam cone, some sheet music, scissors and a hot glue gun.

 

First off, I cut the music in 2 inch strips.

 Then took the strips and curled them a bit. 

{I used the end of a wooden spoon and that seemed to work well}

Then I cut slits all alog the bottom about halfway up.

Take these pieces and hot glue them around the cone.

One row at a time.

Keep going till you get to the top!

It's really that easy....

Although I think it may need something at the top.
I haven't thought of anything yet.
What do you think?
Any ideas??

Need some free sheet music for the project??
I have a page here you can download and print (8.5x11).
It looks best on some sort of antique or ivory finish paper to make it look a little vintage. Enjoy!

Linked up at Funky Junk's SNS
and at Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap Up Party
and Under The Table and Dreaming Sunday Showcase Party.

A&J

Christmas Scavenger Hunt

A totally fun idea for the kiddos to add to the excitement of Christmas is to create your own scavenger hunt. This year, we are going to have one on Christmas Eve. I've created several cute clues like this one.

Of course I had to make it super easy because my participants are itty bitty.

I'm going to have them running all over the house for clues. The last one will lead them to one present that they can open that night. It's going to be matching Christmas pjs and a couple of Christmas books.

Kids are so much fun. I can't wait!

A&J

Zoo Membership for Gift

Need another gift idea. Give the gift of a membership to your local zoo. This is great for families and especially new parents that haven't figured out yet how many times they will be going to the zoo.

Just make a cute tag.

And tie it to a cute little guy like this one.

Something for the whole family to enjoy.

A&J

Christmas Reindeer Chow

One of my favorite treats with some Christmas color.

Reindeer Chow (aka Puppy Chow when it's not Christmas time) is one of my favorite snacks and is so good you won't be able to stop eating it. I have made the traditional recipe and just added red and green M&M's. This is an easy and great idea to make up and hand out to friends and/or neighbors.

Here's the recipe:

1 stick of butter
1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
8 cups Crispix cereal
2 cups powdered sugar
Christmas M&M's

Melt butter, chocolate chips and peanut butter in the microwave. When melted, pour over Crispix; mix well. Put powdered sugar in large brown paper bag and add the Crispix. Shake until well coated. Add more powdered sugar if needed and shake some more. Add M&M's and you're done!

A&J