Crafts

Sparkly Ornament Advent Calendar

3 · Nov 7, 2013 · 8 Comments

Well ho ho ho hello there! I'm so happy to be back here again this month! I'm stepping away from my usual food posts, and instead I've got a little Christmas project to share with you. I know, Christmas feels very far away, but it's not really, especially if you want to make your own advent calendar which needs to be ready for December 1!

Every year we have advent calendars for the kids and they love the countdown to the big day (secrets be told, I do too)! I've always just bought those candy or picture advent calendars, but this year I wanted to do something a little different and make my own. I was inspired by this advent calendar that I saw on Bower Power blog a couple of years ago, so when I received a box of ornaments in the mail recently, I knew they would make an amazing advent calendar.

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The idea with this advent calendar is that there is a unique ornament for each day leading up to Christmas that the kids can hang on our tree.

Here's How To:

Materials:

A picture frame
A piece of cork board to fit the frame
Paper or fabric to cover the cork board
25 paper key tags (you can find these in any office supply store)
25 silver push pins
25 ornaments
number stamps & silver stamping ink
Large ribbon for hanging the frame.

Instructions:

First choose a frame for your calendar, then string through a 2 1/2 foot long ribbon for hanging.
Then cut a piece of cork board to fit the frame, and wrap it in paper or fabric. I liked this sparkly wrapping paper, as it was very forgiving when I needed to move around the push pins…it hid tiny holes well.
Place the covered cork board firmly into the frame.
Chose 25 different ornaments to hang in the frame.
To mark each day, you can use paper key tags, and stamp them with the number of the day.
Now it's time to hang the ornaments! First lay out the ornaments approximately where you would like to hang them.
Use a push pin to first hang the date tag, then the ornament.

That's it! SO simple!

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Here's what mine looks like all done! Sparkly, fun & festive!

The fun part of making your own advent calendar is you can tailor it to your own Christmas decor. Have fun with colours, textures and different kinds of ornaments!

Here are some ideas for your calendar:

Use a picture frame that you can hang on your wall each season.
Or put heavy duty magnets on the back of the frame so that you can hang it on your fridge.
Keep the background on the frame neutral so you can change the ornaments every year. I just used silver sparkly wrapping paper.

Instead of tree ornaments you can hang:

Little envelopes with Christmas messages.
Or put a little note in an envelope that has a seasonal activity to do for that day: things like skating, make hot chocolate, go for a walk, bake cookies…
You can hang little bags filled with candy.
Fill envelopes or little boxes with tiny treasures like money, earrings, erasers…fun little dollar store items.

I hope I inspired you to make an advent calendar of your own!

Thank you so much for reading today! Have a wonderful day!

Feel free to stop on by anytime! I'd love to have you!

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Printable Thanksgiving Bread Wraps + 12 More Thanksgiving Printables

10 · Nov 6, 2013 · 9 Comments

Free Printable Thanksgiving Bread Wraps // Well hello November! Can you believe we are already here… It’s time for Thanksgiving! It’s also time for this months Printable Club. We have 12 fabulous Thanksgiving printables for you…

Aren’t they all so fun?! I created a “Today I am grateful for You!” bread wrap. This time of year we are all busting out our baking pans and making all kinds of lovely quick breads like pumpkin bread and banana bread and sharing them with friends and neighbors. I thought it would be fun to create a nice wrap for those scrumptious gifts that we all love to share. Even if you aren’t much of a baker, you can find some tasty breads at your local market and repackage them with this wrap and look like a rock star!

All you have to do is download the file from the Box.com box below and then print out as many sheets as you want. Cut them how ever you like and wrap your bread with them. I actually wrapped my bread in some parchment paper first and then the bread wrap because the wrap didn’t make it all the way around the bread. With the parchment you have something to affix the wrap to and it looks great.

You can even go a step further if you like… I printed mine on printable canvas from Silhouette. This stuff is super cool and you don’t need to have a Silhouette machine to use it. It goes right through your printer and then is self-adhesive as well. Perfect for this kind of stuff. Then your friends will REALLY think you are a rock star because who knows how to print on fabric? Um, YOU DO! Here’s the file for you to download…

But wait, there’s more… Wow, I’m starting to sound like an infomercial. I have 11 more super talented friends who are sharing their Thanksgiving printables with all of us as well! Click on their links below to see all of their amazing creations!

1 // The Dating Divas – Give your hubby this cute, personalized candy bar wrapper to show your gratitude for him!
2 // Somewhat Simple – Count Your Blessings Tree | Includes everything you need to create a beautiful display of all the things you’re grateful for.
3 // Whipperberry – Printable bread wrapper to show your friends and family how grateful you are for them.
4 // Crafting Chicks – Thanksgiving planning pages to create the best, most organized and most purposeful Thanksgiving yet!
5 // Tatertots & Jello – Thanksgiving centerpiece idea and activity.
6 // L’il Luna – Free Thanksgiving Coloring Pages perfect for the kids while the adults are busy cooking!
7 // My Sister’s Suitcase – Keep the kids busy coloring this Printable Thanksgiving Placemat – full of games, jokes, and puzzles!
8 // I Heart Nap Time – Give Thanksgiving leftovers the respect they deserve with these easy to use ‘leftovers’ printables!
9 // The 36th Avenue – Timeless “Bee” Thankful Printable and Thankful Tags. Available in two colors.
10 // Paging Supermom – “Thankful for Everything” chocolate wrapper coordinates with a collection of FREE Thanksgiving dinner decor!
11 // The TomKat Studio – Give thanks with these stylish notecards and gift tags!
12 // The Idea Room – Printable Happy Thanksgiving Gift Tags for Thanksgiving or Hostess Gifts.

DIY Thanksgiving Garland

0 · Oct 28, 2013 · 10 Comments

DIY Thanksgiving Garland //

Hi Whipperberry readers! Haley here, from Life Is Sweet. I can't resist festive garlands, and this year I made a few! I'm enjoying them on our mantle, but any of these would be great on bookshelves, windows, railings, or just up on the wall. Two embraced the feeling of autumn and one embraced the wonderful holiday coming up next month, Thanksgiving! Jenn said it perfectly in her post of her fabulous Thanksgiving Centerpiece–it's a beautiful time of year dedicated to expressing gratitude for blessings, surrounding yourself with loved ones, and making and enjoying great food!

The first two garlands I'm sharing how to make are pretty simple. The leaf garland just calls for needle+thread along with leaves bought from the craft store (I've tried displaying real fallen leaves but they shriveled and lost their color within a couple days). The second one calls for needle+string and pompoms. I happened to find my pom balls at a thrift store (cheers to pre-loved nick-nacks!) but you can order felt poms in an array of colors from Hello Maypole. Then string away!

The "Give Thanks" garland takes a little more work, but is still very doable and you can create whatever message you'd like!

SUPPLIES:

Black cardstock

Scissors

White color pencil

Pencil

Rope/String

Paper hole-punch

Pencil sharpener (not pictured)

Ruler (or Colorbök Scrapbook paper pack has a ruler on the back)

You'll first want to decide the shape and size you want your garland pieces to be–pentagons, triangles, rectangles, circles, etc. Mine are pentagon-shaped that measured out to be 7.5 inches tall and 5.5 inches wide.

For a pentagon shape you cut off two corners–the two short sides of mine measured 2.75 inches and 2.5 inches. Then use that pentagon to trace the rest of the pieces you need–I got two out of each 12×12 inch sheet.

I used a pencil to lightly sketch out the letters (after typing out "GIVE THANKS" in a Word document and chose the two fonts I liked: Snell Roundhand Black and Baskerville Old Face). But stencils would be another great way to get the letters on the garland. You'll then use the white colored pencil to fill in the letters. I loved how it gave it a fun chalk look, without the mess and I was able to be more precise. Now is when the pencil sharpener will come in handy.

You'll use a hole punch to put holes in the top corners of your garland pieces. I used a three-hole punch, and the spacing worked great for me to punch two at a time. Then string them up!

I hung/displayed all three garlands using good ol' scotch tape and, because my mantel is white, colored the tape with a white Painters marker (purchased at Walmart) so it's a bit camouflaged. 😉

Thanks again Heather for having me!

xo, Haley

Thanksgiving Centerpiece

0 · Oct 22, 2013 · 17 Comments

Thanksgiving Centerpiece // Hi all! It's Jenn from My Fabuless Life. Can you believe that Thanksgiving is already around the corner?! The older I get, the more I LOVE Thanksgiving. I love that it gives us a whole month to focus on our blessings, gather with family, and of course, an excuse to throw diet cares out the window and and EAT!!

I loved all of the "Thankful Trees" I saw floating around the blog world last year, so this year, I wanted to create my own. We'll call it the "deconstructed," sparkly version.

I started by cutting out my letters on my Cricut on some mat paper (like for matting pictures). You can pick it up in packages of 20 at Hobby Lobby, and it's super cheap. It's quickly becoming one of my new favorite crafting tools because there are about a million and uses for it.

After I cut out my letters, I just coated them with a layer of Mod Podge, and then glitter. For the sticks, I used some fun paper straws from Target, and for the base, just a stick from the yard.

I drilled holes in the stick and placed the straws in.

Since I wanted the text to be kind of fun and crazy, I hot-glued the letters on at different heights before I trimmed the straws.

Then I trimmed them up and set them on my table.

I wrote down things we were thankful for on some kraft paper (you can see my four year old's on the left–my favorite) and glued them to a few more of the straws. This is my favorite part of this project, because it's a great way to teach my little one about blessings and being grateful, and the responses are priceless–as you can see. You could easily save these in a scrapbook and look back over them each year too, making for some great memories.

Crafts

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