Teacher Gifts for Christmas!

Time to make teacher gifts! Here is a 'before and after' of my project. Before was Wednesday around 5 pm and After is Friday morning around 5 am. I didn't work on this the entire 36 hours but I'm embarrassed and horrified to say that I did spent probably 12 hours on this? I know, pathetic. I blame it on the glitter glue. Read on for the details . . .

My inspiration was the peppermint and white chocolate spoons that I bought at Crate & Barrel at an amazing price. I bought 18 sets and then decided to make cocoa to go with it. Easy right? I found the cute tins in the Target $1 section but switched out their ribbon. Still not too crazy right? Well then my friend Lisa bought me the Joys of The Season Cricut cartridge. I started to make tags which then turned into a hybrid of tag meets ornament. Still EASY but tedious and takes time to cut out the 'layers' and put it all together. THEN, I discovered A La Mode Glitter Glue. That took my craftiness to a whole new level. Elements that were cute became adorable with glitter glue! SO much fun! Here is one that I ended up loving~


It was okay as paper but once I started on the glitter glue, I was LOVING it! You can also see 'bling' like pearls and rhinestones and that too is easy but just takes time. I just kept going and going and adding to it and all of a sudden it was 3 am. So then I thought, eh, who needs sleep? Focus on glitter fun.

Here is what I ended up with after a full night of crafting! I napped after the parties! I made 18 in total. And before you think I'm nuts and wonder if I have 18 kids, no, I just don't know when to stop. I feel like all my kids' teachers are SO wonderful and it's so hard to not include everyone. Even with this, I didn't do the reading team or anyone in the office and I hated not having something for everyone. But there's only so much one can do . . . The initial is their last name, of course . . .

Here are the buckets complete.

Of course I realized though that I still needed an actual tag as well as instructions on how to use their cocoa mix so that was another last minute craft to get together. There is a picture of that double side items in this little collage.

I loved them and hope their teachers did as well!

Christmas House Tour!

Merry Christmas! Here is the wreath that greets you at my front door. Please come in! I had lots of fun making this!

Here is my entry which usually only serves a purpose throughout the year as the center for nerf gun fights but during December, it is our Christmas wonderland. This year, I decided to embrace the bright colors I am drawn to and went WHIMSICAL! I had lots of fun!

This is the tree topper that I made. My 8 year old had fun making the pom pom springs with me. It looks insane here but you can see on a 12' tree that it works!


Here is the black and white portrait display on our stairs, which is where I display my santa hat collection.

This is the post at the bottom of the stairs. It's hard to get the entire stair case as this is a long narrow entry!This is another post ~ there are 4 in all.

In between the posts, I did this just for some added fun! Those are food picks!
And another post!The sole purpose of this table is to play all the great music that I love! I look forward to nothing more to the month of December than playing my Christmas music really loud while I wrap gifts and make candy trees!

These ornaments were done during one of my crafty Christmas nights with my Cricut! My friend Lisa gave the Joys of the Season cartridge to me and it is SO fun!

These cute felt ornaments and from Crate & Barrel. I have 3 sets decorating the garland on my dining room hutch.

The chalkboard which still requires a fun holiday message to be added to it!


Another fun holiday craft! I love candy trees and had lots of fun making this one, though I'm still suffering from some hot glue gun burns from this tedious project!

There are many house tours going on for the Holidays and I have linked up to the ones below! Enjoy checking out other bloggers' homes decorated for Christmas and thanks for stopping by!

Advent Calendar

I saw this in Joanne's after Christmas last year. I yanked the silver plastic knobs out of the holes before I took this picture but most of them were missing. Which is why I got this item with a price tag of $50 for $4! Yes, $4!!!! The challenge was on ~ I wanted to alter it completely and have fun with it!
I painted it with my green wall paint. Then, in order to put new knobs on this, I had to drill all the way through the holes. And then there were some brads I wanted to use and they need to fit into the doors so I had to drill for those as well.
I had to be patient and wait for the large order I placed from Scrapbook.com as I didn't want to mix stuff ~ I wanted everything I used to be from the same line so that my over the top project pulled together well. I ended up buying "We Are Memory Makers" White-Out Christmas Collection.

Many hours later, here it is!


Here's the back

Close up of the side. I used 'frosting' as well ~ the stick on 'bling' that links together and it is so fun and easy to use! Another thing not from the paper line I mentioned would be the knobs. Those are beads. I wired them with a small bead behind the door to attach them.

More close ups of the 'Glitz Frosting' which is the stone like embellishment I used. You may notice that some of the items are outlined in white. That is a huge trick of mine. So that things don't appear cluttered, I use a white gel pen to outline embellishments. It makes them pop and cleans them up too!

The big door is so cute!

More details including a bead

One of the cute little doors!

I love my new advent calendar and hope you enjoyed seeing it!