Our Christmas Card 2013 - Part 2

Christmas Card 2013 - Part 2 

A few months back while looking around for card inspiration I found this photo prop idea from Sara-Anne Photograpy.

Ain't this cute!

We have a similar Little Tikes car we found on our local Freecycle back in the spring.  It is missing a door but you can't complain about free, right?  Ours had a yellow top though and yellow doesn't really say "Christmas" so I decided the little coupe needed a paint job.

After spray painting the top white, the red didn't really 'pop' so that got spray painted, too.  Then I hounded Hubz to find us a tree for the top.  At first, he came back with a limb.  Literally.  

A limb.

Dude.

Back to the woods he went and came back with a decent baby tree for the project.  Yes, a tree was harmed in the making of this picture.  Don't tell.

Once everything was painted and the tree had been found, I asked Hubz to take Bean out one afternoon and snap some pictures.  

Ladies, let me just give you some advice here.  Never ask your husband to be in charge of getting the Christmas card picture.  Never.  It's not a good idea to leave them in charge of something so important.  If you do, you might wind up with something like this.

Not what I was going for.

I decided I should take over then and Bean enjoyed her second photo shoot, too.  After settling on the image I wanted, I used Picmonkey.com to add some Christmas cheer to it.

This is the picture used for the inside of our cards.  Merry Merry!

       

Our Christmas Card 2013 - Part 1

Christmas Card 2013

I started back in October trying to figure out what I wanted to do for our Christmas cards this year. There is always the inner debate over handmaking cards, which I love to do, and doing just a photo card. Usually I combine both which is what I decided to do this year as well.

I found this digital stamp from Whimsy and Stars Studio. It's called Holly.

I had never used a digi stamp before but really enjoyed coloring them all - at least up until number 35 or so.  Then it became a little less fun.

Here is the "recipe" I used to make this card:
Whimsy and Stars Studio Holly digi stamp
Bic Mark-It Markers
Crayola colored pencils
Stampin' Up cardstock in Really Red, Old Olive and Whisper White.
Stampin' Up Rhinestones
Stampin' Up Sizzlit (retired) and Stampin' Up brads (retired)
Happy Holidays wood stamp found in clearance bin at Michael's

This is the front of the card.  I will post the inside of the card next.

 

Pintested, Pinkie Approved: Santa Wreath

Santa Wreath

 I found this beautiful pin from BabyRabies.com. She made a Santa wreath using a wreath form, Santa hat, and tulle.

That's it.

Since there were only 3 items needed, I thought this might be a Pinterest project that I wouldn't fail on. Here's mine.

I would have liked my hat to stand up a little more so I need to either try stuffing it with newspaper or possibly readjusting the ribbon hanger. 

There were two fails on this project. One was another duel with the glue gun from hell and my fingers when I attached the Santa hat.  Bean now knows a coupla three new words that she isn't allowed use.  The second fail is I have decided to make some of these for gifts and I am still tying on that d*(&(*&P)* tulle. 

Okay, now she knows a fourth word she can't use.

Peppermint Candy Cane Playdough Gifts

Peppermint Candy Cane Playdough

We made some peppermint candy cane playdough gifts for Bean's classmates. I followed this recipe shared byCribWithAView.com.

Making play dough is relatively easy and almost pain free.  It can get a bit messy especially when once again someone forgets to add the red food coloring into the batch or tries to add it in later and then shoves their hands right in to start kneading.  If you happen to do that, do not be alarmed by the sight of your hands later on.  Those really are not third degree burns.  It's  just food coloring and it will eventually wear off.

I used the Avery.com Design and Print Online site to make these really cute labels.  If you would like to use these, click here for a free printable.


We used Glad containers and added the labels to the top.

One down, 87,934 more to go!

Christmas Lunchbox Notes

Christmas Lunchbox Notes

I love putting notes in Bean's lunchbox each day. I tried my hand at making a Christmas set myself. This was my first attempt but hopefully they are useable. I print mine out on cardstock. I will update this post with the kits I used.

Just click here to download the lunchbox notes.