A Christmas past project....

Here's a great project I have made in several different forms over the years. It's always a hit, even with older kids.... :) Free files by following the link at the end of the page.

The original post is copied here:

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!

 Go to the original post for the file freebies.....
 Here

How many pictures do you have to take, until you get the right one??

OK so I read once that the number of photos you must take to get a good group shoot is a function of the number in the group....It was a real formula something like n! So, for 5 people it would be 120 photos. No wonder I can't see to get a good pic of my three. It must be an even larger number if you factor in ages...LOL.

This brings me to the point of the whole post.....my disaster pictures from years past that I actually cherish for the fun memories. Like they say, "you're gonna miss this"

The first year we tried for the three girls...2007

 It gets a bit better......

 Until the baby spit up and we jut decided to go with what we had.

I tried to let them get it out of their system so I did end up with a good one eventually.

This was a great year..... 2008

Clearly the littlest one doesn't like to wait around.

 This wasn't working either, 2009,......

 But she loves her sisters.

 

 I did end up with a good few individual ones. :)

 

 And finally 2010, I just waited till the traditional morning shot.

 It wasn't much help to try a different day, first thing in the AM....

 The oldest isn't enjoying the whole experience, and as far as the middle one....She wasn't too keen on her little sister getting so cozy, LOL

 So we will try again this year and I am sure it will be a super fun time as usual....with lots of great memories as usual.

Good luck preserving your holiday memories....all of them!

Leftover Turkey.....

I don't know about you but I had a ton of leftover turkey. Including the crafty type!

Love the nice fat bodies of these guys. It looks funky when you cut it out but goes together pretty easily...

 I used the Gobble Gratitude and Squirrel It Away sets from Lettering Delights to make some paper acorns and fun turkeys for display, and of course play. B and G each helped me put together one. Though the body was pretty tricky and I had to do that part. I used Sotch liquid fast dry glue....absolutely necessary here since the bodies are really likely to pull apart. The edges are all inked but it is sorta hard to tell. The Turkey set comes as a print and cut which I broke apart and just cut from paper using my MTC software and my Zing. The other set is a cut set....with cute 3D acorns and some suspicious squirrels.

Cute napkin rings...

Squirrel!!!

The girls enjoyed playing with the squirrels but the box style one from the set didn't make it to Thanksgiving day!

I hope you enjoyed the Thanskgiving Day and are gearing up for a blessed Christmas season. I was so grateful to have a realatively uneventful holiday, only set the smoke alarms off once and one nosebleed for G. LOL

But it was a good day. I was with my family and got to chat and share with friends so a very good day!

Thanks Coach!

This cut file was from My Creative Time LLC...oops that's My Time Made Easy LLC!
they have some great files...check them out!

Both my daughters play field hockey, and my youngest just finished up a great season.....the made it to the first round of the finals, but lost in the semi finals after a 1-1 tie, and overtime, and two more 2 tie breakers. It was a real victory for a team made up of more than half newbies! They were all disappointed after getting so far in the Hockey Fest but they surely weren't disappointed in their coach. 

The girls were so lucky to have a great coach. She was able to motivate them to want to win without getting too carried away. She made the game fun and had all the girls eager to practice and learn. Amazingly she taught them so much of the great basic skills! At the end of the season, the families pooled our resources to present her with a gift card to her favorite restaurant. I of course was happy to make a holder for her since that's what I do!

The gift card pops up when the box is opened!!!

A Crafty Tooth Fairy...

It hardly seems possible, but my littlest daughter has already lost her first tooth! It seems like just yesterday that she got her first tooth in that sweet little smile.

The tooth fairy was amazingly generous to my daughter G since her mom freaked out when she lost her first tooth. I have an excuse, I promise. It was soon after she had bumped her mouth and I thought it wasn't supposed to be out yet. So after I scared her so badly it seemed best to make it a very special event.

Both older girls got a little bracelet from an online shop and got a little mini seed pearl for each tooth. It was cute with crystals and all but it was so expensive for the size and quality I decided to try something different.

For B I got a faux Pandora style bracelet pretty cheap online for a small one. And then searched all around for beads and charms that are much cheaper then Pandora but just as pretty. The plan is to give one per tooth after the initial set.

In addition, I was able to use the super cute set of printables for a letter and tooth box. Lettering Delights has a set that was just perfect! I also was able to use the flat gift bag for just the right thing to leave under her pillow...

This is the super cute tooth box from Lettering Delights with an extra print and cut tooth on top. The cards were easy to import into MTC and print and cut...one for each tooth and a few for opposes...

Of course I had to add some ribbon! :)

 The big storm was the first night and I didn't have all he charms, so I had to leave the box for her first then leave a note card for her tooth for another night.

This was the first note from the first tooth fairy....

Sonic Amy Rose Costume

This was a whole lot of work for this years costume! Somehow my daughter volunteered herself to dress as a Sonic character and show our hedgehog at the local conservation area...long story! But since she was going to wear this for an extended period, I wanted it to be good!

In some pictures Amy Rose is wearing all pink and red in others. But I was able to find a dress to alter at the local Good Will store. So our was pink! LOL

It started with a prom dress and an old dress up costume...

This hoop skirt was inside an old dress that has a broken zipper...

and I made it into a slip that fits short on my oldest and skims the floor on my youngest!

I started to take the dress apart before I took this picture....the top didn't have a white trim...I was just trying to conserve the fabric liner...

I made a pattern for the top and cut it out of the dresses bottom portion...

 It is certainly still a costume level of sewing but fun that I could do it!

Of course we made her hammer from paper using my Zing and MTC to create the end pieces to glue the whole thing together...

The MTC software will wrap the tab shape around the circle....then I cut a small hole in one of the red papers we wrapped around....it was about 10 inches around...and 12 inches wide. My daughter really enjoyed it!

Not to be outdone, my little ones want to show their costumes too! Kitty cats going to a party! These costumes were just what they wanted....I offered to make better ones. Promise.

Boo! gift crafts...

Our Halloween cat decided to get into the shot...LOL

Each year our neighbors sponsor a "Boo" exchange. It's becoming more popular so you've probably heard of it. In our neighborhood we keep it a secret, and ring and run...The little ones love it! And of course I have to try to make it a bit crafty....

There are three little girls and one boy in the family we Boo'ed so I put each of their "monograms" on their goodies since I know how the kids like to claim their own treats.

witches broom treat bags!

For the girls, I saw a "witches broom" idea on Martha Stewart's blog...it is simply two paper bags with the outer bag cut down to the base in strips. Then for the one boy in the family I put together a "warlocks cauldron". The rat held a little note that says:

Three little witches
and one warlock too

went out to play
and make some brew

but a storm came by
and the wind it blew

so they left their things
just for you!

OK so not the but "poetry" but we were in the beginnings of a hurricane LOL. And of course they got their own countdown to Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!!

How many days to Halloween? *UPDATED*

Halloween is just around the corner and if you have a little one like mine, I have to give the countdown daily. My B lives form holiday to holiday with birthdays sprinkled in...so I had to devise something I could make to handle all this counting down!

 This was my first attempt and as you can see the boxes fit snug within the outer box....I ahd to fix it bx adjusting the file, but that was OK since I needed another for our other Halloween tradition of "BOOing" our neighbors. For the first calendar I made new boxes and then a new outer box a bit bigger for the second one.

I was able to make print and cut patterned papers with the Chillingsworth Manor digital paper collection from an Echo Park Digital kit I got from JessicaSprague.com. They have a Wednesday deal each week that makes it digital addictive!

For each of the back pieces I used different sets of SVG's. The top one was from LetteringDelights.com. Using the Simple shapes set from the vinyl decorations...LOL

 This one was made using the same difgital kit for the papers and then using SVG's from SVGcuts.com. I think the white contrasts too much and I need to soften it a bit with some inking or something, suggestions welcome!

This file needs some improvement and I also hope to come up with more styles for all year long...Believe me I will need a calendar for each event/holiday!!

Have a happy Halloween and check back for some more crafts soon!

UPDATE:

I was so grateful when I got the perfect solution in my comments, so I went ahead and put a moon behind the bat for a better look to the second calendar....love it! I used some shimmer spray and it looks really good IRL! Thanks CIndy@Scrap-obssesed.blogspot.com!

She has some really fun project there too and you should all check out her blog! I was so glad I did!

Halloween Crafts.....finally

I finally can post some of the projects I've made for Halloween, mostly vinyl since it was already out from the previous project, and it's fast and easy...

 These candles were made into pumpkin faces last year I believe but they are back as a haunted house scene this year. I used a Lettering Delights simple shapes set that is on sale until Nov 1st for 3$ I believe....

 Some more of these simple shapes since my oldest loves this project....

And her special candle....

All my three girls participated in putting this vinyl decoration together...it is right over the small table where they craft and even eat together.

Over several days, they added different elements. It was funny how much they knew about putting up vinyl from watching me. My 5 yo was a hoot!

My next two projects will be in their own post....Happy Halloween!

Monogram with vinyl on frame...

This is stunning IRL, you gotta make/have one!

OK so the title of this project doesn't even come close to describing the beautiful look of the finished product. I have to say I was seeing these vinyl on glass ideas for a while and then I had the good fortune to read a few posts on the MTC forum(thanks so much ladies) where they posted just this very idea. SO, when a friend needed a quick and inexpensive gift for a family wedding, I sorta steered her to this. What? I know you do it too. ;)

She is awesome at finding just the right thing and on sale so I sent her out to find a "floating frame" I was thinking of a wall hanging one but she found one at the local Ross's that had an easel back. This presented a really cool creative opportunity.

I was able to dry emboss a 5X7 piece of cardstock in the wedding colors and place it within the frame. It was a repetitive swirl that made it easy to put it through twice and get the whole 5X7 in two passes...

Next, the monogram and design went on top of the glass and creates a cool floating effect.... I used my Zing and MTC software to cut the "regal" font. I think it's one of the TTF installed automatically. I don't know why but it was just there....and everyone on the MTC forum has a version of the font that is cleaned up(meaning fixed so it cuts well) since several members shared their files. Very kind of them all but I ended up making a few alterations too. I split the H, put in the lines and added some text, and cleaned a bit more. Then Ta Da!

There is about a half inch between the top and then a second two pieces of glass. Let me tell you it is a nice effect. Go make one!

Cold stuff....

Of course I picked the coldest day yet of this fall to share this project with you...It's an old one I whipped up super quick for a birthday gift, in August.

 Cute Huh? It's an ice cream cone and a gift card holder! G's friend loves ice cream and chocolate in particular, so even though we didn't get her a gift certificate to the local ice cream place that we frequent, I did get her a cone. :) This is a file from SVGcuts.com and it goes together very easily. If you think you might have trouble, their website provides really good assembly videos. But the files themselves are always some of the best designs and easiest to cut and put together. They just work....

My "sprinkles"

Did you notice the cute sprinkles on top of the cone? And the shiny red cherry? I decided to break out one of my old supplies and used my Xyron to sticky both sides of the cherry so it would stick in place and so I could glitter the whole surface. It goes in once to coat the "back" then I send it through again to sticky the front while it's still on the paper. Then it super easy to coat with glitter....you end up with a glittery sticker. I used my Martha Stewart collection of fine glitter. SO pretty, I am sure you'll see more of it this fall and winter.

After the cherry I decided to use the little bits form my slot hole punch to make sprinkles. It's one of those simple one hand punches. And it was full of old scrap pieces I always forget to empty out, so I just tipped it into the Xyron and crossed my fingers. What came out was a bit gooey and clummpy but hey, don't sprinkles always look like that? ;) I was pretty happy with the outcome and ran out the door since of course I made this last minute.

Next I'll catch up one some fall stuff....promise. :)