quick ruffle bags

In the two weeks before Christmas we had four birthday parities to go to. They were good ones too; mini golf place, gymnastic place, pottery studio, frozen yogurt place.

One was a boy in Bee's class and we had something in the present box for him, the others were girls and Bee had strong opinions on what to give them.  I set her budget a little lower this time since it's December and frankly, I wanted to spend that money on gifts for family.

Each girl got a small gift that Bee chose and a little lined ruffle bag that I made up using fabric on hand.  My favorite was the purple.  It's made from an old skirt that I loved and tried to remake as another skirt, but failed.  The first is fabric my littlest sister gave me at Thanksgiving.  

 

Bee's favorite is this brown Hawaiian floral.  We seem to have very different taste in fabrics.  It's leftover from a large order of matching coffee cozies.  They were bridal shower favors or something. The ruffle is fabric from my sister at Thanksgiving.  This was a great budget saver and a nice way to use up fabric on hand.  Plus, these bags are so easy and quick to make.  It was a win-win for us.

snowflakes with 6 points

I mentioned making 6 pointed snowflakes the other day. Here's a bit more about that. You may become addicted and just want to cut and cut and cut snowflakes all day though.  Fair warning.

We used origami paper because it's already square and is a very thin paper. We tried other paper with some luck, but origami paper worked the best. Scrapbook paper was a little too thick. Copy paper seemed the next best thing to origami paper.

Here we go.  1.  Start with a square piece of paper.  (I did step 2 before I took a photo, so it has a crease already- ignore)

2.  Fold in half on the diagonal, one corner to the opposite.  Crease.

3.  Bring the two bottom corners up and together.  Don't crease.

4.  Hold those two corners together.

5.  Crease the bottom, just to mark half way. Unfold back to the triangle.

6.  You are folding it into thirds now.  Using the little crease that marked half way along the bottom edge, bring one corner up.  Fold and Crease.

7.  Bring the other point across and fold and crease as well. 

 8. You may need to go back and adjust the first wing-like fold over to get these two folds equal.

9.  Now fold this shape in half again. 

10.  Crease.

11.  Cut off those uneven tails.

12.  make cuts in the folded shape. unfold. 

13.  make a mess.

14.  decorate your house.

We found that if you cut low on one edge and higher on the other, it created a flake with higher 6 points and 6 lower point; a more defined snowflake.

 

15.  Repeat

Merry Christmas to you

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! 

Lou wore his Christmas sweater without bribe.  Be insisted on a shirt on under her dress since it was itchy. 

Bee was insisting on her penguin being in the photos and was grumpy when I said he would sit on the table and watch.

Lou was just a happy camper because he didn't have to go to Sunday school on Christmas Eve.  He got to sit in big church with us.  He was pretty pumped when he found out there would be candles too. 

In case you wanted to be grossed out a little.

Or scared a little.

After church on Christmas Eve, we let the kids open their presents to each other.  Lou was overjoyed with his present from Bee- hot wheel cars.  I don't get it;  he has about 80. Why would he want more?

He got Bee a makeup kit, so of course she was pretty happy too.

We hope you are enjoying your Christmas!  

those clip boards

In the recent big pick, there were five old clipboards. Bee and I had just been talking about picking up some clipboards for her to display her artwork on. She's been quiet the artist lately. I've even unpacked my artist watercolors, chalks and charcoals for her. We set up the easel on her desk and she's been producing art like a mad woman. 

We've done this remake with clipboards before, but we just traced some scrapbook paper and modge podged it on. 

 We hung all five on the wall above her desk (which she keeps pushing closer to her window so she can draw things outside).  You could use these to hang photos or art work or notes, whatever you need displayed.   They hang right under her photo canvas artwork. 

Bee received some Christmas money from my Grandma and what a proud and happy mama I was, she asked me to take her to the art store and she spent almost all her money on more watercolor paper and a nice set of watercolor pencils.  I got out my good watercolor brushes and she's a happy artist.   I was almost as proud as the day she said she wanted to learn to sew!

picking and a whole day of fun

I'm done using the word 'hoarding.'  These items came to me via a really good 'pick.'  After our teacher Christmas party, one of the girls announced that they had cleaned out some Sunday school closets and had craft items to give away.  It all had to go and we should go through it first.  YES!  We were like crazy ladies at 4am on black Friday.   We spent an hour going through it all and calling dibs on things.  I brought home all of this.... 1 large tub mostly full of felt, two cardboard boxes and a smaller tub full of random craft supplies, baby food jars, bells, beads, lacing lanyard, foam balls, sand dollars, shells, glitter, clipboards, die cut paper pieces, origami paper, electric pencil sharpeners, baskets, cigar boxes, clay pots, etc. 

Here's one of my favorite finds.  I've been scouring garage sales for an old-school style pencil sharpener with no luck.  I just found a brand new one!  It's already installed in the basement.

The next morning, the kids and I spent a good while going through all the goodies and then spent the whole day playing with them.  One thing in the lot was a bucket of instant snow. We had to try it right away. 

It starts as a powder and then when you add water, it expands and expands and fluffs up like snow.   It's fluffy and soft and does feel a lot like snow.  If you put it in the fridge for a little bit, it really feels like snow. 

It keeps for weeks, the box says.  We've gotten it out several times and have really enjoyed it so far.  

We even tricked daddy!  He was away on business for a few days and we convinced him that he missed a big- but short lived snowfall.  We saved some snow for him in the freezer. He was tricked.

There was a bag of sand dollars. The kids are always wanting to break open my sand dollars to find the 'doves' inside, but I don't want to break the sand dollars we collected when we lived in Florida, so now they had their chance.

Bee and Lou each broke one in half and collected the 'doves.'  

I guess there are five in each although I told them they would find 7.  Guess I was wrong.

There was a roll of paper, which promptly was unrolled and drawn into a car racetrack and a castle scene. Those go together, right?

There was a pack of origami paper, which we cut into snowflakes.  It took some practice, but we finally figured out the 6 pointed snowflakes.   

Bee, Lou and I must have cut 40 snowflakes.

We hung them on every window and bare wall.

We got better and better the more we made and as we figured out what cuts made the prettiest finished product.

Then we made more and hung more.

We ran out of origami paper and went out and bought more!

 We tried scrapbook paper, but the thickness was bit too much for the six pointed snowflakes.  We made several, but they were harder to cut and the detail was lacking. 

We also did a bunch of beading and stringing bells as well as a project with the clipboards.  This was the most fun that we've had from a 'pick.'