Felt Heart Wreath

Although this heart wreath is made out of felt, it almost looks like roses from far away. It was easy and inexpensive to make, although it took some time!

I started with a 12" foam heart from JoAnn's.  I traced the bottom of a soup can to create a circle template, them cut about 200 circles out of red felt.  I folded the fabric to cut more than one a time, but it still took a while!

I then folded the circles in half, then half again, and used a pin to hold the fold and apply the felt circles to the front side of the foam heart.

I strongly suggest investing in one of these thimbles if you are going to be pushing in a lot of pins to make a wreath--totally worth it!

I pinned a pink ribbon to the back so the wreath could be hung. Here it is on my door!

Simple Holiday Cards Cricut Cartridge Tutorial

The Simple Holiday Cards Cricut Cartridge was one of my Black Friday purchases from JoAnn's this year.  Since it comes with no instructions, even online (thanks Cricut!!), I thought I'd share.  It took me about half a day to figure out, but now I think I have it! 

Here are my two biggest questions answered:

1.  What size paper do I use?  It made sense to me to use a sheet of paper cut in half like I would use if I were making a card (8.5"x5.5"), but it didn't say anywhere so I had to guess.  The cartridge is set-up to take a full sheet of paper, cut out the design, then cut out the card.  However, I found that if you position the 8.5"x5.5"paper correctly on the mat, it will cut out the design and you can stop the machine before it starts to cut out the perimeter of the card.

So this leads me to my next question......

2. How do you load the paper for making vertical and horizontal cards?  I had to play around with this a bit to find the exact position, which I then marked on my Cricut mat using a permanent marker. I'm not sure if each Cricut is the same, but this is how I positioned the paper on my mat. Once I had this, all horizontal cards were the same, and all vertical cards were the same.

Positioning for Vertical Cards:

-Lay paper vertical

-From starting position, move paper 3/16" to the left

-Move paper down 7/16"

Positioning for Horizontal Cards:

-Lay paper horizontal

-From starting position, move paper 1/4" to the left

-Move paper down 7/16" 

Once I got it figured out I love the cards it makes, and I think the cartridge has easily paid for itself! I did not have any trouble with it cutting out the small detail, but I did run my Cricut on a low speed.  Here are some of the cards I made using the Simple Holiday Cards Cricut Cartridge:

 

Box of Homemade Cards Gift

A few years ago I made some cards for my mom and mother in law which were a big hit as it saved them from always having to go and buy cards. Whenever I make cards I usually make a few of the same style, as it's just as easy as making one.  I decided to make a box of cards for my mom and mother in law again using the extra cards I make.  After about a year and a half of making cards at craft club, they each got a box of 130+ cards for Christmas!

That's a lot of cards!

The dividers are made out of index cards to distinguish the different occasions.  I printed the titles on colored paper, cut, and glued them to the top of the index cards.

I included this birthday calendar which I printed from here so they can easily keep track of everyone's birthdays.

Here it is all packed up with envelopes and ready to give!

Here are some examples of the different cards I included by occasion.

Baby:

Engagement/Wedding/Bridal Shower/Bachelorette:

Any Occasion:

New Home:

Sympathy:

Holidays:

Thank You:

Boy Birthday:

Girl Birthday:

Balloon Gift Wrap

I have quite a few balloons left over from the Birthday Wreath I made a while back, so I thought it would be fun to use them to embellish a birthday gift! I just tied them to some ribbon to add some color and texture to the wrap.

2014 Calendar

I have been waiting for 2014 to hit just so I could hang my new 2014 Paper Source Calendar!

I bought it back in October because I loved the bright colors and knew that I could use the paper for crafts when I was done with it.  When I discovered that the calendar had built in craft projects on the back side I had to purchase it!

  Here are the designs for each month:

 Some of the projects it includes:

A template on the back-side of the calendar page for one of the projects:

I can't wait for January to be over to make something!

Card Sending Kit

I wanted to give the grandparents a gift that they needed and would actually use. They always send cards for birthdays and other occasions, so I put together this 'Card Sending Kit' for Christmas so they would have supplies for the entire year!

The kit included:

-Boy and girl birthday card packs from the Target one spot

-Pack of all occasion cards (we ordered from the neighbor boy's fundraiser catalog)

-Clear hard case for storing and writing on

-'Birthdays and Anniversaries List' printed from here

-Stickers for the outside of envelopes

-Wax seal with stamp

-Fun Pen

-Postage Stamps

 

Chalkboard Themed Christmas Cards 2013

For this year's Christmas card I decided to be trendy and go with a chalkboard theme! We send out 120+ cards so I'm always looking for ways to keep the cost of our cards low.

PHOTO- 4x6 photos are much less expensive than ordering cards, so we included the greeting in our photo and just had prints made.  We made the chalkboard by purchasing a frame at Goodwill, spray painting it red, cutting a board and spray painting it with chalkboard paint before inserting into the frame.  We went to a lot that was selling Christmas trees to have our photo taken.

LETTER- I made the letter in powerpoint by downloading a chalkboard background and some chalkboard fonts.  We had Black and White copies made at Staples, as it would have burned through a lot of our ink!

NOTE-In some of the cards I included a short note.  To keep with the chalkboard theme, I used a white gel pen to write on black paper.

ENVELOPE-Red envelopes from Target added some color and matched the frame in our photo. I found a chalkboard Christmas greeting on Google Images which I copied into powerpoint, printed on full sheet labels, and cut out with a circle punch.  We printed the labels using the chalkboard fonts from the letter to tie in the theme.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Card Activity

Since I love making crafts, I planned a couple of Christmas themed crafts for our Christmas guests to make while I prepared for our next meal.  I planned crafts that were easy to make, set out all of the supplies, and included an example. One of these crafts was this simple Holiday card that everyone got to make and take home!

Supplies needed:

8.5x11" paper cut in half for card

Christmas paper for ornaments

Large and small circle punches

Glue stick

Pen for drawing ornament string

Christmas Greeting Stamps

Ink Pad

Use circle punches to cut Christmas ornaments out of christmas themed paper.  Glue to card, and use a black pen to draw the string and bow for the ornament. To make the 3D ornament, cut 4 circles and fold each one in half.  Glue back sides together to create the accordion bulb, then glue final two backsides to card.  Use a stamp to stamp a Christmas Greeting.

Veggie Crescent Christmas Wreath Appetizer

This is a very easy and festive Christmas appetizer that's great to bring to any party.  I love it because I make it on the same dish as my Christmas Breakfast Pastry Ring, so when traveling I can easily bring one and make the other dish when I'm there. My platter is this one from Crate and Barrel.

Veggie Crescent Christmas Wreath Appetizer
2 (8 ounce) packages crescent rolls1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened1 cup sour cream1 packed ranch dressing mix1 broccoli (1 small crown chopped into small florets)cherry tomatoes1 sweet red pepper 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Remove the crescent roll dough from its packaging BUT DON'T UNROLL IT. Cut each tube into 1/2" slices and arrange the slices in a circle on ungreased baking sheet.Bake dough wreath for 15-20 minutes or until the dough turns a lovely golden color. Cool completely.

In small bowl, beat the sour cream and cream cheese together until smooth. Mix in ranch seasoning. Refrigerate until ready to spread on wreath.

When ready to assemble, spread the cheese mixture over the baked wreath. Arrange broccoli florets and tomatoes around the wreath to decorate.  Cut the pepper and arrange on wreath to resemble a red bow.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Here is a close-up of the pepper bow:

To easily transport, place a plastic cup in the middle of the wreath and cover with foil.  It will arrive in perfect condition!

Santa Breakfast

When we hosted Christmas last year, everyone slept over so we had a Santa Breakfast before opening gifts! Here are the details:

Muffin Centerpiece with Santa muffin toppers

White linens with red chargers and napkins wrapped in 'Santa's Belt' paper napkin rings

Paper place cards with Santa's Hat stickers

Santa Pancakes (Instructions are here)

The entire gang with their Santa Pancakes. Each Pancake had its own personality so it was fun to see them all together!!