Crafting in the car and other Holiday Fun!

I think he's my favorite project!More below....

OK so I tend to get a bit rushed during the Holidays, and this year is no exception. This year I have three girl in three different schools! So, I had to finish the goodie bags for my littlest one in the car while she went into her preschool class...it was only putting things in bags and tying on tags but this just might be the closest I've come to not finishing! SO here I am finally to share some of my Christmas crafts with everyone...enjoy, maybe next year I'll be ahead?

I did manage to snap a quick pic of the goodie bags LOL. These are the best thing since white paper lunch bags, clearly! Just maybe my new love...Inside are some cool tic tac toe mini games and some cute tissues B picked out. Both from the dollar section at Target. But the best thing of all you'll see in my next picture. Candy cane spoons! Everyone I gave them to, young and old went crazy fro them. I got them way ahead of time in mass quantities(we're talking free shipping) way ahead of Christmas since I knew they were a must have. Loving Oriental Trading Company this year!

So this is what I did with them....a mug with a coco package and a small baggie of mini marshmallows. If you look closely some of the mugs have snowman shaped ones from WalMart. The girls said the French Vanilla taste wasn't so good so I tried to give them mostly to adults though.

I am sharing the SVG file for this paper mug below....

We made coco cups for all the girls specials teachers(music, art, etc.) and the main teachers all got a mini bucket of extras too. I made a set of hand-warmers(same as last year but with real organic lavender oil) and a set of aloe infused spa socks as a cupcake...are you feeling the warm fuzzies yet?

Somehow K was recognized as the girl who gave out hand-warmers last year as gifts so her new teachers for this year got their own lavender and vanilla infused ones...the men got vanilla, and the one teacher who she had last year got another set his since wife took his. :) Sorry somehow no pics of those. Check last years post for some info if you'd like.

I make "the savages" help out. It's for their teachers, and then they are proud to deliver the gifts.

 I like to work in stations with an assembly line approach so I took over the dining room and the girls all helped, but somehow it was as hectic as last year and the year before. Then as I was finishing the last few items I had an epiphany...in just two years my little one will need gifts for her specials teachers on top oof the two preschool ones this year...and they'll likely have to be different since she'll be at the elementary school with G. Well, luckily K will have all new teachers so it's hand-warmers part three! :)

But here's my favorite project of all so far....a few ornaments. I helped my daughter make a set of ornaments for our Girl Scout gift exchange. She made a set of Ravens ornaments and a Monogram one in the girls favorite color. They were a hit! Because we have an odd number of girls I exchanged with one of the girls and made a Ravens one, a monogram one and also this little snowman. He wasn't a complete success at first but after a happy accident he turned out sooo cute!

These are plastic ornaments swirled with Glitter it glue then we put in Martha Stewart's glitters. After that I cut out images and lettering from white vinyl using MTC to import and SVG. I should have used the wrap function in the program but instead snipped the image a bit to make it fit...next year huh?

For my little Ravens fan friends..

I need to make more of these!He swings around so nicely.

Now for this guy.  He was a disaster at first! I initially used MTC to print, then cut his image from a plastic sheet that was supposed to work in the inkjet printer.(Image from Lettering Delights) I punched a small hole in his hat and used white thread to make a hanger for him. After I bent him and put him through the top of the ornament he popped back into shape as planned, so I used a glue dot on the inside of the top to get him to hang just right.....He looked fine at first. Actually he looked awesome. Then when he was unwrapped and all of his ink had come off! So, back to the drawing board. I ended up doing a print and cut on paper with another image flipped for on the back. I then just took the plastic part out and adhered the paper snowman to the plastic. This allowed me to bend it to fit into the opening but then it popped right back into shape after it was inside! I really want to make more of these!!

OK so here is my oh so simple mug file... I sized it so that the bottom was just shy of 3". It is way far from perfect. To make the mugs I folded the tabs in and started from the one right at the edge. Next I followed the curve just taping the tabs down to the circle using ATG tape and ending up overlapping the last and first tab a bit on the inside of the mug. Next I placed the second circle on the bottom of the mug to cover the tabs and give it some stability. The overlap f the paper is also to give it some strength. I used fairly ugly and plain Astrobrights cover stock left over from another project.

Here's a few step by step pics...I glued the handle together then spread the tabs to put them on the mug with Scotch quick dry glue. For next year I am thinking of making a slit to fit the tabs through.

SVG for mug on 4Shared
MTC for mug on 4Shared



*Or maybe these are my favorite project...hmmm decisions decisions...

Christmas Tumbler

Hi everyone, my little ones (all of them, even the 13 yo) loved these "tumblers" so much over Easter I thought they might like some new ones...for Christmas. I first saw the idea for these very old style toys on Family Fun.com. A website that always inspires me. It takes nearly no time at all and they create so much fun! I have created an SVG file, a SUT2 file and a .cut file for everyone which I will attempt to share at the bottom of the page.

These little things tumble end over end "magically" :)

After cutting out the file on your machine score these folds...a heavier cardstock tends to hold up better.

This adhesive is called "scoretape" but I also like Scotch quick dry adhesive. If this is your first time to my blog. let me tell you how much I love scoretape...well maybe not or you won't come back...LOL "Red tape" also works well but be sure your double sided tape doesn't extend beyond the and keep the marbles from rolling freely.

OK so you can use whatever you want for your ramp, even an ironing board or an even longer cushion but it does need a bit of friction so it wont just slide down anticlimactically without flipping...really sad when that happens... also it can be a fun challenge to get it balanced on edge (without bending the paper). 


Please note that I am just a mom and comments (nice ones) keep me sane. I ask you to please not share this file, instead refer them to my site. Also please do not create this for profit, including contests, without my permission. Instead, contact me ahead of time if you want to use my file. Thanks and enjoy!
SVG on 4Shared
SCUT2 on 4 Shared
CUT on 4Shared (uses Plantin Schoolbook)

New Advent Calendars

 Why new? Well because four advent calenders just simply isn't enough. LOL. And I was eager to try the wonderful deign from SVGcuts.com. I was able to do these using my Cricut Expression  and even though it was a bit time consuming it went very well. I made three...and each one got easier. If you visit the site you can see that they offer a video for projects to show exactly how their trickier projects got together. The tips were so helpful!

Here are the three in the hallway at the top of the steps

 My two older daughters got traditional Christmas colors cut from the DCWV stack from my stash. Little B got her traditional mostly pink one using the Jingle paper pack from Close To My Heart.

 This si what the inside boxes look like. There is about an inch of depth and each box varied in size. I had fun finding little trinkets and candies to fill it in. It was just right for chap sticks and small items but the last opening fir a small angel ornament for the last night.

She was so excited she wanted to model it for everyone. :)

*Note: This is a rewrite of my original post which got accidentally deleted. :( Sorry to say this isn't as good a tale as the original but I still wanted to share this with my readers.