"Hand" Painted Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas!!  I hope everyone had as great of a day as we did! :)  Seeing the smile on Anniston's face was PRICELESS!  She was sooooo excited that she began shaking.  It was super cute! :)  Were your children as excited as Annie??  I cannot wait to hear all of the stories! 


Speaking of cute.....and yes, I know Christmas is over, but this would be a great gift for next year!!!  A "HAND" Made Christmas Tree.  I found this on Pinterest (of course) and thought it was too cute to not do!  We made one for Anniston's teachers at school.  I went in and got each of the children's hand prints... turned out fabulous!

To start, gather all of your supplies...

* 16x20 Canvas (bought at Hobby Lobby in packs of 2)

* Kelly Green Acrylic Paint (large bottle)

* Brown Acrylic Paint (small bottle)

* Metallic Gold Acrylic Paint (small bottle)

* Various Colors of Acrylic Paint for the lights (small bottles)

* Foam brush (not shown)

* Gold Glitter

* Foam Star Stamp

* Paper plate

* Your Child :)

To begin, trace the tree stump with a pencil onto the bottom/center of the canvas.  Put a decent amount of the green paint on a paper plate.  Choose one of your child's hand (I used the right hand) and begin painting the green paint on the hand.  I advice painting it on, rather than letting them dip it in the paint, to help with the mess.  Begin placing the painted hand onto the bottom of the canvas (right above the stump).  Put as many hand prints on the bottom as you can.  In our case, we did 5 hands.  Next, move up to the next row, placing only 4 hands.  Then 3 ... Then 2....and lastly, the top hand print for the top of the tree.

The kids LOVE doing this art project!!!  They will have so much fun...and what kid doesn't like to get messy??? :)

Once all the hands have been placed on the canvas, you can begin painting the stump with your brown paint.

Once ALL of the paint has dried, you can apply the gold star.  Brush the gold metallic paint onto the foam star stamp.  (I also used a paint brush to add extra paint to the star ... I couldn't get the stamp to work properly).  Once the star is dry, outline it with glue and sprinkle the glitter on the glue.  Tap off any excess glitter.

Now use your child's thumb to paint on the "lights" ... and you are finished!!!

Do this on multiple canvases to give to parents, grandparents, etc!  I gave one to my mother and Dan's mother.  They LOVED it!!!!  Happy "Hand" Painting your Christmas Tree!!!

Message In An Ornament...

This is one of my all-time favorite projects I found on Pinterest!!!  I have decided to name it "Message in an Ornament" ... similar to "Message in a Bottle!"  Pretty funny, huh?  :)  The first ornament I created was for my brother and his wife.  I took their wedding invitation and placed it inside the ornament. It turned out SOOOO cute.  Unfortunately, I was not a blogger yet, so I did not take pictures of the different steps it took to create the ornament.  Here is the ornament... I love how the words and colors/textures of the invitation are displayed in the ornament!!!  

BUT...you are in luck! :)  I helped a good friend make a "Message in an Ornament" today and brought my camera along :)  These are SUPER easy to make and are a fabulous (not to mention thoughtful!) gift for family, friends and loved ones.  I PROMISE you CAN make this ornament!!!!!!!

To get started, you will need the following items:

- A large, clear glass ornament (I found mine at Hobby Lobby).

- The invitation (or any special wording).

- Filler for the ornament (fake snow, sand/seashells, gems, rhinestones, etc)

- 1-3 different sized charms

- Ribbon to match the "theme" of the event (I use 2-3 different types of ribbon).

- Scissors

Get your crafty-self ready!!  Here we go....

1) Gather your supplies.  In this ornament, we placed the vows written by the bride and the groom (what a great idea!!!!).  The were married on the beach, so we used sand and seashells as a filler in the ornament (that is sand already placed inside the ornament).  Go ahead and place your filler into the ornament.  You can always add more later.

2) Take the invitation or writing piece and carefully cut it into strips.  I used one line of wording per strip.  If there are parts of the invitation that have no words, I continue cutting it into strips and use the blank pieces .

3) Use a thick marker (like a sharpie) and wrap each strip individually around the marker, in a spiral direction.  Make sure the words are showing out, not in :-) Hold the paper on the marker for about 15 seconds so it will "hold" the spiral shape.

Strip of paper carefully wrapped around the marker.

Notice the spiral shape!

4) Place each spiraled strip of paper into the ornament.  Be careful...the opening of the ornament may be sharp!! :)

 5) Once all of the strips of paper are inside the ornament, place the cap back on and shake the ornament to fluff up the paper.  You can also use a thin pencil to place inside to move around the strips of paper.  I like to make sure key words from the invitation are showing. :)


6) Now comes the fun part....choosing your ribbon and charms!  Be creative here.  This particular wedding used the colors ivory and gold, so I bought the ribbon accordingly.  I like to buy different sizes of ribbon to add texture.  I used a thin gold ribbon and a shear ivory ribbon in this ornament.   Once you choose your ribbon, tie it through the loop at the top of the ornament (where the hook goes).  I also had some twine laying around, so I tied it on the loop too.  My friend got some really cute charms to use.... they were wedding bands.  PERFECT!  I tied these on with fishing line.

And you are finished!!!!!  Here are a few other pictures...

I would LOVE to hear about your "Message in an Ornament" creations!!!  Please let me know if you found any other creative ideas to include on your ornament!!  Thanks for reading :)

Gingerbread House Decorating Party!

What a fun day with all of our friends!!  Gingerbread House Decorating turned out to be a huge success!  Thank you to everyone who made this experience possible!!!  I highly recommend each of you to host a party for your children and friends!  Thank you to HOUSEography for the idea (which of course I found on Pinterest!!) and to SteelePix Photography for the fabulous photos!!!  Here is what we did....


1) The Houses:  I bought each child a pre-constructed gingerbread house at Walmart for only $7!!  In the box came icing, candy and the house.  I glued each house onto a 10 inch square silver cake board for the "yard".  These were PERFECT and provided a sturdy base for each house. Soooo cute! :)

2) The Tables:  I covered each table with a disposable plastic table cover.  These were purchased at Walmart for $0.99 each!  What a deal!  I also found green plastic bowls (4 count) for $0.50 and put various types of candy, marshmallows, and coconut in them to use for the decorations.  These were placed down the center of the tables for easy access. :)  Here is a shortened list of some of the candy I used...


* Skittles, Candy Canes (small and large), Coconut (for "snow"), Gumdrops, M&M's, Marshmallows (white and multi-color), Twizzlers, Mike & Ikes, etc!


Each child was also given a plastic knife to use to spread icing on the house.


I also made each child an apron to wear while decorating their house.  I found these super-cute iron-on gingerbread man appliques to apply to each apron.  I bought an assortment of red and green aprons.  I placed the aprons at each "station."

3) Decorations:  Thanks to Pinterest, I found an EASY way to make pom-poms to hang from the chandeliers.  I hung one at each table to create a festive look.  

4) Awards:  I created awards for each child to receive at the end of party, along with a goodie bag filled with a christmas straw, santa stickers, gummies, candy canes and christmas stamps.    These bags and the fillers where also purchased at Walmart (can you tell I love Walmart??).  As I read out each award, I handed the children their certificate and the goodie bag.  Here are the categories I included...


     * Cutest House
     * Best Use of Candy
     * Best Creativity
     * Coziest House
     * Fanciest House
     * Most Beautiful House
     * Most Christmas Spirit
     * Most Colorful House
     * Most Decorated House
     * Most Imaginative House
     * Most Sparkly House
     * Most Stylish House
     * Sweetest House

I cannot wait to do this again next year!  We made fabulous memories that I will cherish for years to come!! 


Merry Christmas!