Christmas (& Beyond) Projects!

I don't know about you guys, but there's something about Christmas that just makes me want to create!  In our family we have a tradition where we make each other one homemade gift.  For now it's just Brandon and me making all the gifts, but I think that next year we'll add Nicholas into the mix and then just draw names for the homemade gifts.  I am pretty excited about what I made for Brandon, but just in the very slight chance that he'll read this post, I'll wait until after Christmas to show what I made.  I am, however, making some fun things for Renae and Nicholas.  Nicholas is finally going to get an I-Spy bag that I've been wanting to make him for a while now.  I think he'll have fun with it.  For Renae I am making some shoes and some hair things.  That's where I need a little help, though!  For her shoes, I am going to make some of these.  

I want to make some cute hair bows to clip onto a headband and to use later on when she actually has hair, but I need some good bow tutorials.  I did find these cute felt flower bows, which I'll make to coordinate with her shoes, I think.  I have a cute flower sizzix die that will work to make a felt flower clippie. 

I also am curious about where to find generic hair clips that I can cover in ribbon.  I've looked at Meijer, Target, and Walmart for some, but haven't found them.  Any ideas? 

Sometime after Christmas I think I'll also make a cookie sheet advent calendar.  They are really cute!  So many fun projects and not enough hands to do them and hold/hold off my kids with!

 Merry Christmas to you all!

Fun decorating project

For a long time I couldn't figure out what to put above the cabinets in my kitchen. A friend of mine, Melanie, came up with this idea (our kitchens are a lot alike), so we worked on this project together. She was able to make 12 inch tiles, because she doesn't have a shelf above her cabinets. She printed larger pictures, added vinyl words and ribbon. Mine are only 6 inch tiles, so I only added pictures. We found the tiles at home depot, then we used mod podge to glue the pictures onto the tiles. It was a lot of fun and a really inexpensive, quick project. I really like how they turned out. I think this would work well for any room, and you could use any cute hanger or easel to display the tiles.

I decided to go ahead and post a picture of one of Melanie's tiles, so you can see how cute it is with the vinyl lettering and ribbon.

Cute Gift Idea

So I found this while I was blog-hopping, and thought it was the cutest gift idea that looks so cheap!  It's a magnetic board that is made out of a cookie sheet!  Ingenious, I know.  Here's the link, go check it out:

http://payperiodprojects.blogspot.com/2008/11/cookie-sheets.html

Cute Christmas kids craft

Will made this in school last year and I LOVE it. I teach Matt's preschool group later this month and I'm going to have the kids make one for their parents. Each snowman is made from putting the child's finger in paint, then stamping it onto the ornament, and finally decorating it like a snowman.

There's a poem attached to the ornament.
It says, "These aren't just five snowmen,
As anyone can see.
I made them with my hand,
Which is a part of me.
Now each year when you trim the tree,
You'll look back and recall...
Christmas of 2007
When my hand was just this small.