Only 2 More Days!

I've been crafting, crafting, pinning and crafting.

I'll be back Thursday with my 25 Days of "I Pinned It, I Did It!"

I really hope you'll join me, I'm really having a fun time and I hope you will too!

See you all Thursday!
Andrea

I'm "pinning" up a storm!

Well, over the last few weeks, what with having a sick little guy (again!), I've been on Pintrest... A LOT!

So, I've decided to do a special 25 Day's of Pintrest!

25 Days of Pintrest will start on December 1st, where I'll be showcasing my spin on a project that I found on Pintrest!  Yay!  Some might be duplicates, some might be a loose interpretation...

SOOOO....

I am taking off from blogging until the 1st so I can focus on making some of these projects and tutorials that go along with them!  I'll include tutorials when I think that they're warranted and a supply list and where you can get everything that you need!

I am so excited!  I hope you are too!  See you on Thursday!
Andrea

Kusudama Flower Tutorial

Hello! 

I'm sorry I'm a little late in getting this tutorial together... Adam woke up sick after his nap yesterday and so we've spent a lot of time cuddling and wiping sniffles!



{Kusudama Fever courtesy of Paper Crave}

 On Sunday, after my 12 Day's of Christmas Class, I taught a make-n-take on Kusudama flower folding, which is an ancient Japanese paper folding model that was used for medicinal purposes but that is now more decorative.  A member of the Page's From the Heart Design Team, Michelle McClure, made a beautiful candlestick with these as decoration for her November project and I fell in love with them!  I learned how to make them a few weekends ago at the Page's From the Heart Holiday Cheer event and have fallen in love with their beauty and ease.

Here is my flower...

And here is a step by step guide on creating them - but first my disclaimer!  I have no origami know-how and I'm sure that my "terms" are completely wrong, I'm just putting it in a way that makes sense to me and hopefully it'll be helpful to you too!

All you need is a square piece of paper and quick drying glue.  I used my trusty Scrappy Glue, but a glue gun works great.  The larger your square, the larger your flower will be.  I used a 4"x4" square for the tutorial.

Fold your paper in half, so that you now have a triangle instead of a square.

Take the bottom right corner and take it up to the top corner.  Fold.

Take the bottom, left corner and take it up to the top corner.  Fold.  You now have a square again.

Take the LONG CENTER fold and it back and have it meet the side of the outside fold.  This fold will create a "v" on the right side.

Do the same on the left side.  Someone said it looks like a tulip now... I hope you have a tulip now!

Take the right "v" and unfold it.  Stick your index finger in the opening at the top while gently applying pressure with your thumb and push down on the outside fold.

 This will open the "v" and create a "kite".

Do the same on the left side.

Fold down the top right corner so that your fold is even with your top line of your triangle.

Do the same on the left side.

Fold your right side back in on the same center fold from your "kite".

Do the same on the left side.  You now have a square again.

Put glue on the right side "wing", you don't want to overdo it, but you want it hold.

Bring the two side "wings" together and hold.

This is what your petal looks like from the top. 

Make 5 petals total.

To assemble your flower, we'll be gluing 2 petals together at a time.  Put a line of glue towards the center of the flower.

Glue one petal to the other, set aside to dry.  If you lay them on their back, they'll start to form naturally.

Glue 2 sets of 2 petals and your have 1 petal left over.

Glue your 2 sets of petals together, so you have 4 petals together.

Put glue on the last remaining petal and insert into the remaining space to form your flower. 

Here's the flower from the base.  You can manipulate your petals, widen them a little, so that your flower is full and just the way you like it!

I hope this tutorial was beneficial and easy to follow!  If you have any questions, please let me know!

Also, Jen over at Tatertots & Jello is giving away a Silhouette Cameo!  If you've followed my blog, you know how much I love my Silhouette SD and I'm hoping that the Big Man in Red puts a Silhouette Cameo under my tree!  If you don't want to wait for Santa, then head on over to TT&J and enter the Cameo Giveaway!

I hope you have a great Thanksgiving!  I will be back on Friday with a belly full of turkey and stuffing and looking forward to making (and sharing) Christmas projects galore!
Andrea

Gobble Gobble!

I feel bad for Thanksgiving sometimes.  I think that it's easy to rush over it since Christmas is right around the corner... with it's fun music, beautiful lights, presents, cookies, promise of snow and magic! 

This year was our first year participating in a school Thanksgiving, and it was so much fun!  Adam's preschool, Barton House Playschool, had a Thanksgiving Feast for the kids where they did a turkey chase and a feast...

It all started with a turkey...

Errr... a turkey disguised as a chicken...

And some children.

That can run.

Fast.

Don't stop, Mr. Turkey!  He's right behind you!  Yep, that's my boy!  He takes after his Dad...

Silly turkey, I told you not to stop because more children are on their way!

AHHH!  But it's okay, Mr. Turkey, we want CHOCOLATE turkeys!

Our turkey is made from 2 Oreo's, 1 Reese's Miniature Peanut Butter Cup, 1 malt ball, candy corns (or sliced candy peaches into triangles if candy corn is unavailable) chocolate frosting and vanilla frosting.

And you know what else, I'd like my turkey in a boat... because that's how turkey's arrive...

I'm sure they prefer the boat to this...

Poor turkeys but...Yum!  Gobble Gobble!
Andrea



LifeStyle Crafts Hostess Gift Idea

For Page's Die Cutting Club's project this month, I made a little something for the Christmas Tree and a little bag to keep them in and possibly give them away in... if you can bare to part with them! 

I used LifeStyle Crafts 4x4 JOY die, the Matchbox, the Bag, the Tags and the Santa and Mrs. Clause Kissing Silhouettes. 

I used red cardstock for my matchboxes and then covered them in Tim Holtz Crackle Rock Candy so that the matchboxes will be hard and durable. I cut the JOY from WeR's patterned paper and then ran each letter through my Xyron X to get the front sticky and put chunky clear glitter on each letter.  I popped the letters up with pop-up tape.

I made buttons that corresponded with my paper with Ephinany Crafts button makers.  I glued twine under the buttons as hangers.

I die cut the LifeStyle Crafts gift bag from WeR's paper and glued it all together.  I then die cutted the Life Style Crafts tag from red cardstock and glued it to the front of the bag.  I wrapped a green piece of WeR's patterned paper in lime green twine and glued it to the tag.  I die cut the Santa and Mrs. Claus silhouettes from black solid paper and popped them up on the tag.  I covered them with glossy accents.  I then glued a ribbon tied in a bow to the top of the tag. 

I put the matchbox ornaments inside the bag and there you  have it.  A cute, original hostess gift!  You could take apart all of the different elements and you'd have a ton of fun tags and a cute little bag!

Enjoy! 
Andrea

Thankful Tree

I know, I know, my past few posts have been about Christmas and you might be wondering if I forgot about Thanksgiving. 

I didn't, but I sure love Christmas. 

But I'm thankful for so much and I don't every want to forget it! 

So, Adam and I made a Thankful Tree.

I think it's so important to remind ourselves how blessed we are, and what better way then a hands-on project that we can display in our home, that our children can take part in and that is constantly reminding us.

I used scraps of WeR's fall paperline and punched different shapes.  I used a 3 in. scalloped circle punch, a 1.5 in. scalloped circle punch, a tag punch and a label punch.  I punched as many as I could of each and put them in a pile.

Adam and I then talked about what being "thankful" means.  We grabbed a pen and our punched out shapes and started writing down everything that we could think of, each thing, person or place that we were thankful for went on a different shape.

I helped him write his and he came up with some good ones!  He was even thankful for the punches and pens that we were using for this project!  Such a funny little boy.

After we finished writing, I grabbed my distress Ink and my dauber and let Adam ink the edges.  I was actually using this as a way to keep him interested while I punched holes in all of our shapes and tied brown bakers twine to each tag/shape so we could hang them.

We then went to our "tree"m which is a branch that's been screwed into a wooden box/base.  My husband put it together for me as part of my Anniversary present and I LOVE it and want to use it all the time!

We hung up all of our thankful "leaves" on the tree and put it on our side board in the dinning room.  I've punched some additional shapes and keep those in a bowl close to the tree with a pen and more twine and we add more thankful "leaves" every day. 

Some of Adam's "Thankful Leaves" have the following on them:
Rango (his first leaf)
Bernard (stuffed bear that he's had since birth)
Aidan
GiGi (Great Grandma Grace)
Toys
Trash Trucks
Clouds
Preschool
Bubbles and Papa
Grammy and Uncle Dan
Cousin's Lucas and Julia, James and Nora
Friends
Legos
Books
Pens
Punches
 Mommy and Daddy (we were an after thought...)

It's so great to spend this time with Adam, learning about what he's thankful for and reminding myself about what I'm thankful for.

Have a day full of thanks,
Andrea