A few cute and quick Christmas crafts!

Every year I try to make some things for my kids to take to school during Christmas. Normally, I try to do so many different things, I usually end up running around like a mad woman. This year, I just didn't have the energy (or the funds) to make a hundred different things, so I just settled on two.  It also helped that I only had one class to make things for, not two.  **sigh**  They just grow up too fast!

Of course I had to make some M and M tubes.  That has sort-of become my "signature" treat.  They are super-easy to make...well, except for the 1000 M and M's I kept dropping in the floor. (They were thrown away, not added to the tubes) 

  

Next, I made some elf legs using Pixie Stix as the "legs"  They were also super-easy (once I got my Silhouette to cut through the glitter paper).

 

I am also sending this Santa ornament to Jameson's teacher. (Along with a gift card)  This was also super-quick!

And that's it!  That's all I am sending to school.and to be honest, it feels GREAT!  Why have I been torturing myself all these years?

I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed holiday weekend!!

It's the busiest time of year!

Hey friends!  I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season, so far!

I am still around...peeking in here and there, whenever I can.  Things have been incredibly busy around here. This time last week, I had more than FIFTY items to make for customers.  I was stressing out in a major kind of way!  However, I buckled down and as of Sunday night, I only have THREE shirts left to finish!  The vinyl is cut, I'm just waiting on the shirts to get here so I can press them.  My poor machine has steam coming off of it!  HAHA! 

I wanted to post pictures of all of them, but I realized most of them are for Christmas gifts, so I can't show them yet! ;)  Here are a few that I can share, however:

And here is a little something I did for myself:

I'm not quite finished with him, yet.  I'm still thinking about how I want the finished product to look.

**phew**

It makes me tired just looking at these....and this isn't even a quarter of my finished projects!

So my friends, if I'm not around a lot before Christmas, you know what I'm doing!

I hope you all have a wonderful Monday!

Crafty Christmas!

As most of you know, I participated in my very first craft show over the weekend.  I stressed and worried and worked myself to death trying to get everything ready.  In the end, there were several projects that I had worked on that just didn't get finished, but that's OK.  I can use them for other things or for Christmas presents.  It's funny, the things that I have been working on forever didn't sell that well, but the things that were literally spur-of-the moment ideas, got a ton of comments and/or sold well.  I guess that just goes to show that you never know what people will like!

I didn't know until the night before that most of the vendors would be set up outside.  I wasn't too happy about the prospect, but in hindsight, that was the best place to be.  When we got there, the temperature was in the upper 40's (yeah, I know, laugh all you northerners.  HAHA) and I was seriously not liking the idea of being outside.  But, the sun came out and the temperature quickly rose to the 70's.  It could not have been a more beautiful Fall day!

The show was supposed to start at 10:00 am, but we had a steady stream of patrons starting at 9:00!  Thank goodness we got there early and had almost everything set up and ready to go when everyone started stopping by.  I was worried that there wouldn't be much of a turn-out because it was the first time our town decided to do something like that, but was thrilled when tons of people showed up! 

I was also thrilled that a great friend and her family set up right next to me. Our husband's kept each other company and our kids had a blast playing together!  And of course, we talked each other's heads off, too!  LOL 

Now on to some pictures!

These frames were HORRIBLE when I bought them.  They were black with gold crowns and some sort of phrases all over them.  With a little paint and a lot of elbow grease, this is what they ended up looking like.  I know they look a little odd in the photos, but in person, they look much better.  LOL

The tags say 'The bell still rings for those who truly Believe"

These next couple of shadow boxes were the hit of my table.  This was one of the spur-of-the-moment things I made.  (Like literally making these at 11:00 Friday night).  The kids loved to pick them up and shake them....as did a lot of the adults.  HAHA!  I sold all the Christmas ones and I'm hoping I have enough materials to make another one to keep for myself!

I saw this idea on HomeTalk a few weeks ago.  I loved the idea and just had to try it for myself!  These generated a ton of positive comments, but only sold 3.

And these are just a few shirts I made to bring to the show.

Gorgeous fall day!

These next few pictures are of the table display.

Who needs a clothes rack when you have trees?

That snowman frame to the back left is supposed to be standing up, not falling! LOL

This was my friend, Jennifer's table.  She had a TON of awesome things!

And this was one of my very special surprise visitors!  This is Miss Emma!  Emma is the daughter of a teacher at Jameson's school, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor during the summer.  Emma was celebrating Saturday because she just finished her 30th (and LAST) day of radiation on Friday!  It really made my day to see her out and about!

Even though I was dreading this Saturday, it turned out to be one of the best Saturday's yet!  I'm not sure if I will do other craft shows in the future, but if I do, it's going to be hard to top this one!  Crafty Christmas set the bar high for any future shows!

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Don't forget:  You still have until Tuesday night to enter The Outlet Shops of Grand River $50 gift card giveaway!

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I hope you all have a wonderful week!!

It's a Pinterest Christmas!

Every year, I try to make special goody bags for all of the kid's classmates.  I normally fill bags with candy and Dollar Store stuff, but for the past couple of years, I've tried making a few hand-made things.  Thanks to Pinterest, this year's bags are going to be FULL of "custom" goodies!

Here are the things that I have so far:

Hershey's Kisses, complete with fun Christmas stickers on the bottom.

Idea and free printables from Here

I normally try to give each student in Chelsea's class a gift.  But, as new kids of all ages have come in, this year I decided to give money instead.  I saw this idea, and thought it was a fun way to present the money.

 From Here

I had a container of small bells left over from last Christmas, and decided to make a few of these, as well.

It says "The bell still rings for those who truly Believe!"

  These would be super-cute for a Polar Express party!

 From Here

Then, of course, Christmas would not be complete without a little Grinch thrown in.

I honestly had NO idea how many green M&M's it would take to make these.  I think I ended up buying about 7 large bags to finish the project!  Even after the test tube treats, I still have 2 quart-sized Zip-Lock bags filled of red M&M's!

From Here

I'm currently working on these:

(The Rice Crispy treats) from Here

The dipping the treats into the white chocolate was no problem, but I had a horrible experience with the red chocolate.  I accidentally dumped 1/2 of the gel color into the white chocolate, burned my already-burned finger, had a blow-out with my squirt bottle and ended up with red chocolate all over the sink, counters, cookie sheet, floor, cabinets, my pants and my socks.  AND, after squirting the chocolate on the treats, it really ended up looking like ketchup.  LOL  Hopefully once everything is packaged, they will look a little better!

I also will be adding these to the goody bags:

 From Here

And these:

From Here

There are SO many other treats I would love to do, but I just don't have time!

Maybe I need to go ahead and start making treats for NEXT Christmas!

I hope you all have a wonderful and RELAXING Christmas week!!!

I love you all!!!