I've been featured

again at Going Green Crafters and Artists. 

This time for my "Dr. Suess tree" made from book pages.

Check it out!

Thank you so much Monica!

Blessings

We had a wonderful Christmas! 

Family over for both Christmas Eve and Day.

Laughed lots, ate too much, made a mess opening gifts, played games and visited until my throat was scratchy.

I had to  show you one of the centerpieces from our table. I saw this on Pinterest and loved it. So bright and early Christmas morning I stepped outside to trim some greens from the bushes. I'm sure any neighbors that spotted me though I was nuts. It was 0°F at the time.

Greens in a mason jar...add water and fresh cranberries which are ever so kind to float. 

Drop in a floating candle. Ta-da...

Simple and festive.

 

Bugle Bells

I know I don't usually offer recipes but I am just in love with these. They wouldn't be considered a "work of art" but they definitely look as good as they taste.

Ingredients:
Bugles
almond bark
M&M's

Directions:
Melt almond bark
Dip end of Bugle
place M&M into bark
set on wax paper on other non-stick surface to harden.
That's it!!

Sweet and salty all in one. YUM!!
 

Sew....

I've been brainstorming some more ideas to use up the things I already have on hand and make some Christmas gifts in the process. 

I had a small stash of flannels from a ragtime quilt I made when my oldest was a baby. He's almost 13 now. I should show that quilt sometime. It was my very first one.

Anywho... with the weather turning colder, flannel just seems right. Something to warm the hands or toes in boots.

Maybe a something cozy for your cuppa joe.  We'll see.

 

Cork tree

A few weeks ago at a craft show, I saw a woman selling wine cork Christmas trees. 

I thought..."hey, I have corks...I could make that!"

I changed things up a bit to make it more "mine" and love the result.

I'm thinking I have the start of a tree collection when paired with my Dr. Suess tree. 

 

O Christmas tree

Once again I've been browsing Pinterest

...likely too much...

in an effort to find fun ways to use the book pages that have piled up from previous projects.

I saw the cutest little Christmas tree 

by Jana at Scrapbook Abundance.

(below)

Source: preprostobogastvo.blogspot.com via Halle on Pinterest

I wasn't exactly sure how she put it together so I "winged it" and ended up with this silly little tree.

The funniest thing is that the wire I ran up the middle is very flexible. So the tree wiggles and wobbles at the slightest touch. 

I'm calling it my Dr. Suess tree since it makes me think of something you'd find in Whoville.

 

Bursting out the red and green

 

It's not too early, is it? 

The last paper bag book (previous post) I made had more of a vintage feel. 

For this one, I went with the typical red and green Christmas theme colors. 

It's filled with tags awaiting photos and memories.

I found some fun embellishments in my stash of goodies for the binding as well. 

Beads, bells and trinkets give it fun texture and movement.

I feel like I'm starting to get my mojo back. It must have been lost in the yard...all the raking must have brought her back to me.

 

It's beginning to look like Christmas....

Pinterest FAIL!!!!

The boys were gone all day Sunday so Little J and I made plans to do lots of fun "girl stuff" that we like.
We shopped a bit, visited my mom, went out to eat then came home to get to some crafting.

We planned to make some salt dough and "better than salt dough" ornaments, tags, etc.  Little J loves to both cook and paint so I figured "two birds" right?!?

As you can see we had a bit of an issue with the "better than salt dough" recipe.


I saw the recipe on Pinterest under the most beautifully white and perfect ornaments. Yeah...what the recipe gave me was a goopy mess. I tried to salvage it by using metal cookie cutters as forms while they dried at 175°F in the oven.

Lesson learned... people aren't always careful about what they post.

We did go on to make some salt dough ornaments that actually did turn out.
As you can see they aren't the pristine white I was going for but then again I use unbleached flour so what can I expect!

 

Craft expo

I'm gearing up to participate in my first Craft Expo. I'm very excited!! I'm about 6 weeks out from it but I know how fast time goes. 

Over the weekend I made a bunch of wine charms. Then all I needed was a label. I wanted something wine themed so I went in search of images. Inspiration struck when I walked through our family room. 

Why not use my painting?!? 

A little help from photoshop and my label was complete.

I'm thinking about Christmas as well....

I saw this on Pinterest and knew I wanted to try it. 

Source: blog.craftzine.com via Halle on Pinterest

One of my chandelier bulbs recently burned out so now it has a new blinged out life.      

 

Merry Christmas everyone!

Patchwork Ornament

This came from a small oddly shaped patchwork piece in my stash. It was going to be one of the tissue packs but got buried under other bits and pieces. 

Now I'm glad it did! 

Makes a cute puffy heart ornament.

Snow flakes

This isn't the final placement for my freshly crafted snowflake ornaments...

Our Christmas tree will go up the day after Thanksgiving. It's one of our family traditions.

12 Days of Christmas book

Last night I made the covers to complete the 12 Days of Christmas swap book.  It's bound and will be enjoyed for years to come.

I'm thinking that I'll put it away with the Christmas stuff so each year I can take it out and reminisce.

Christmas afterglow

My blog kind of got away from me this holiday season. Luckily, the Friday Freebie post was scheduled or else that wouldn't have happened either.  We had company both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day...in fact we still have a guest sleeping upstairs.

Lets get caught up with the 12 days of Christmas swap shall we...

On the 10th day of Christmas I opened 10 Lords a Leaping by Penny A.  This was very unique since it opens to reveal,

the Ten Commandments. Penny aged the paper which gave it a really nice look.

The 11th day had me opening the fun fabric bag with my name sewn at the top. Very cute...I'm hanging on to that goodie!

Inside the fabric bag was this great 11 Pipers Piping by Jackie.  Love the tartan. For some weird reason I couldn't get the green cardstock to appear true to color...frustrating.

And finally, on the 12th day of Christmas we have Twelve Drummers Drumming by Rita. What a cute little guy to round out our pages.

I now will need to create covers and bind my book. But first I'll need to thank one more person.

 Another art friend sent me a surprise on Thursday.  Isn't this tree so darling! Kat did a beautiful job with this tree!

Here's a view of the other side. I love it. Thank you Kat!!


Have you stuck with me throughout my rambling? I'd be impressed if you have.

Merry -belated- Christmas.