Card Display

Hi. Welcome to my blog. It's late. But, I made my Christmas card display today, and I love it so much I couldn't wait to blog about it. Aaaand...I'm going to attempt a tutorial. I'm pretty sure you could figure this out on your own...it's super easy. But I've always wanted to do a tutorial, so I am. I doubt I'm the first one to ever do this, but I haven't seen it around the blog-o-sphere. So if you've done it, let me know. I'd love to give credit where credit is due. :)



Okay. First, I gathered a cheapy Walmart yard stick (50 cents in the paint department...woohoo!), paint, patterned paper, mini clothespins, some tulle, black ink pad, and mod podge.



I painted the yardstick with Ceramcoat Tomato Red. Then I gave it another coat. And another. (I didn't take a picture of this part, because I'm new at this whole tutorial thing, and I was impatient, and...I just didn't.) After 3 coats, the numbers and words were still showing through. So I decided to paint it black (2 more coats), then do the red on top of that (2 more coats). With that much paint, the stick started to bend and warp, but after it dried for 2 or 3 hours it went back to straight. I like the way it turned out.

Next, I applied some mod podge to one side of a clothespin and stuck it on the wrong side of the paper. (tip...the heavier the paper, the easier this part is.)





Cut around the clothespin to make it easier to trim the excess off. I took my Cutter Bee craft knife and trimmed the paper to the edge of the clothespin.







When I mod podge paper to wood, I like to sand the edges especially if I'm going to ink the edges, which I did.





I took some tulle and tied it around the top and added a button to the middle. Then I tied tulle around each of the clothespins. I took 12 of the clothespins and arranged them on the yardstick before I glue-gunned (that's a real word, right?) them all on. I glued a little loop of wire on the back so I could hang it up. It's the perfect size to hang on the skinny end of the wall that separated my stairs and kitchen.













So, what do you think? I like it. I hope the two year old will leave it alone. And I hope I get some more Christmas cards to display, soon! (that was a hint. if you don't have my address, let me know.) ;-) Thanks for looking!

Linking up to a few parties....

Lil' Luna - Sorry lil' luna...couldn't get the button to work.

Nativity Parade

Welcome to my Nativity parade. (Make believe I'm throwing candy at you, like in a real parade.) The Nativity is one of my favorite things about Christmas. Love it. There are so many different kinds out there. Cultural ones. Fancy pants ones. Homemade ones. Love them all...so much that I collect them. Unfortunately, I have too many Nativities and not enough places to put them. Here are the ones I chose to display this year.

I love my Willow Tree Nativity. In fact, the Joseph and Mary with baby figurines are displayed at my house year round.


Here is another Willow Tree...a plaque given to my by my Mother-in-law.


I don't know why, but I think snowmen Nativities are so cute. I found the plate in West Yellowstone.




The stuffed snowmen were given to me (thanks Sharla!) several years ago. Love them. And so do the kids, which is great. They can't break them!!


I think we found this one at Fred Meyers...long time ago.


I made this one a few years back. It's still one of my favorites.


Love the snow globe Nativities. So fun and different!








This Nativity is called Pure of Heart. I love the skinny, long legs of the cow and donkey. We found this one on clearance at Deseret Book.


Here are a couple of my Nativity tree ornaments. Someday I would love to have a Nativity themed tree.




Here are a few more traditional Nativities. This is one we got at ZCMI. They had the best deals on some really fun nativities.


My husband got this one for my birthday a few years ago...from Hallmark, I think.


These last two we got at Walmart. The white one is the first one we ever bought.




Hope you enjoyed this little peek at our Nativities. Merry Christmas!!

Linking up the the Nativity Parade at Crap I've Made. Go Check It out!

Chicken Feeders

Here is my go-to gift idea for teacher and neighbor gifts. So easy, and can be customized how ever you want.



You take mason jar, stuff it with m&ms, skittles, hot tamales, tiny tootsie rolls, or whatever yummy treat you want, then screw on the poultry feeder. I got my poultry feeders at Cal Ranch, a local agricultural store. They come in the galvanized metal, and also different colored plastics. Then you decorate them up however you want. Add vinyl, ribbon, stickers, paint. Put a monogram on it. Whatever floats your boat. You can use different sizes of jars, small or large (as long as the mouth of the jar fits the mouth of the feeder.). So simple, and so fun!





Link up to Someday Crafts Categorically Crafting. Go check out that linky party for oodles of neighbor gift ideas!

Charlie Brown Tree.

Have you seen the blog THRIVE? Chances are you have because I'm usually the last one to see the cool new blogs. (at least I thinks it's new...well, it's new to me.) Anyway, the idea behind it is to choose to thrive, regardless of your circumstances. And since the crafty blogger, Nike (pronounced 'Neeka'...so cool) finds herself in a less than ideal economic situation, she has adapted the 'rock-what-you've-got" attitude when it comes to creating beautiful things for her home. Seriously. She is amazing. And I totally love this idea, because we are also finding ourselves in a less than ideal economic situation. And I love to make things, just like Nike. So her blog is a BIG source of inspiration. Like this....



Wow. Can you believe she made that out of an oatmeal carton? She's good. I love this. And I love the branches. But, I didn't have any of the stuff she used, so I had to come up with my own branchy kind of decoration. So here is what I did.

I took this empty spaghetti sauce jar...



and cut a piece of burlap to wrap around it...



then I mod podged that puppy on the jar.



I used a glue gun to add some twine to the top and bottom of the jar. Then some ribbon to cover the very top of the jar, and add some color.





I had an idea of what I wanted to put in the jar. I had seen these lighted stick bundles at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. They were so cool. They were $19.99, which was about $19 out of my price range. I thought 'I can make something like that!'. Turns out, I can't make something like that. I tried though. I had a big bundle of sticks I bought last year at our local craft store. (really? who buys sticks!? me.) So I broke them in half, arranged them in the jar, and attempted to cover them in one of my 5 foot long, 20 count mini light sets that I got on clearance for 75 cents last year. It wasn't pretty. I didn't take a picture, because I was embarrassed. Have you ever had an idea that in your mind is totally fabulous, but when you tried to recreate what you saw in your mind, the two images looked nothing alike? That's what happened here. So I had to come up with something else. I found some mini glittered ball ornaments I got at the dollar store last year, and tied them to the branches.




I didn't totally love the result, but I didn't hate it. In fact, it's growing on me. And I didn't have to spend a dime on it. Just used stuff I already have. That part makes me happy. It's my version of a Charlie Brown tree. Can't get more Charlie Brown that sticks in a jar, right?





At one point, I added some pine tree picks, but I think I like it better without those. What do you think?

oh christmas tree...

I love Christmas. I love decorating for Christmas. My dream is to one day decorate my ENTIRE house for the Christmas holiday, right down to the towels in the bathrooms and the comforters on the beds. It may never happen, but a girl has to have a dream, right?



So, in the meantime, I made this cute tree. I love it. I really really loved it until I downloaded the pictures I took and noticed that the flash on my cheap-o camera felt the need to highlight all the spots where the fabric didn't completely cover the styrofoam. Stupid camera. But, in real life it's not even noticable, so I still really love it.



See, I even took a picture without the flash....can't even see the flaws, right?



(wow, that's a horrible picture....)
If you see the flaws, just don't tell me. I prefer to live in denile. :)