A couple of years ago somebody gave me Reindeer Dust (reindeer food) for the boys to put out on Christmas Eve.  Basically, it’s just oatmeal, glitter and sequins.  The boys were so excited when they sprinkled it outside for the reindeer and they even checked in the morning to make sure that the reindeer had eaten it.  Good deal my Husband had gone outside after the boys went to bed and swept it up!

I decided to make some of the Reindeer Dust for the boys to give out at their school Christmas parties this year.  It was simple enough to make it but I wanted a cute tag for each bag so I turned to Pinterest, of course.  I found a Pin here which explains how to make the Reindeer Dust.  I used this Pin for the printable tags.

For this project I used the following:

Oatmeal

Glitter

Sequins

Resealable plastic bags (I purchased a pack of 100 for about a two dollars or so at the local craft store in the jewelry section)

Card stock for the tags

Red and white striped bakers twine

Single hole puncher

I mixed the oatmeal, glitter and sequins in a bowl. I just sort of estimated how much glitter and sequins I would need.  I had either 4 or 6 small pouches of sequin stars (44 cents each) and then I purchased two containers of glitter.  I put in all of the sequins and added some glitter and mixed it with a spoon.  I ended up adding a bit more glitter but there is no set amount, it’s just how much glitter you like to see in there.

I then put a scoop or two in each bag and sealed the bag closed.  I printed off the gift tags, cut them out and hole-punched one corner.  I also put a hole punch in each bag in the spot where I wanted to attach the tag.  Please be careful when doing this.  You need to place the hole in the plastic bag above the seal of the bag.  If you put the hole below the seal of the bag your Reindeer Dust will leak out.  I then cut a piece of baker’s twine and used it to attach the tag to the bag.

Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find my pictures of this tutorial.  If I can find them, I will update this post with them.  In the meantime, you can see the reindeer dust in the picture above.  It is in the bottom left hand corner of the picture right below the candy cane.

The Reindeer Dust was a huge hit at the class Christmas parties.  Before we left for school, however, the boys both made sure that we had enough of our own Reindeer Dust at home so that we could also feed Santa’s reindeer.  On Christmas Eve Gabriel sprinkled all of the Reindeer Dust by our front door.  We had spent Christmas Eve at my Mom’s house and both boys fell asleep in their new pajamas on the way home.  When we arrived home Gabriel woke up a bit and then fought the sleep and woke up completely just so that he could make sure that the Reindeer Dust was sprinkled outside and that Santa had milk and cookies by the fireplace.  Poor little Matthew just slept through that part.  They were very excited though to see that everything had been eaten by Christmas morning and that Santa had enjoyed his snack!

Thank you for spending the 12 Days of A Pinterest Christmas with Firehouse Crafts!  Please keep stopping by for more craft ideas throughout the months ahead!

Happy Crafting!

This is the third year that we have had an Elf on the Shelf.  The first year the boys were a bit small but Gabriel liked him.  Last year they definately got more into it and this year it seems like they actually made friends with the Elf.  The first year I named him Ralph the Elf and the boys were happy with that the last two years.  This year, however, they decided to name him themselves.  They decided that his name should be Stinkerbutt.  I told them that wasn’t appropriate.  They then settled for Stinker so we now had Stinker the Elf staying with us.

Stinker is a very mischevious little elf.  He is always getting into something when the boys are sleeping.  In order to make things more interesting this year I decided to turn to some of the Pins that I had on my Pinterest board for some ideas.  This Pin had some cute ideas along with this Pin.  If you forget to move your Elf you can always go to this Pin for some great ideas to explain why the Elf didn’t move during the night.

I particularly liked the idea where you leave a note next to the Elf for your kids from the Elf.  The note includes some seeds (tic tacs) that should be planted in a bowl of sugar.  In a couple of days something will grow.  You then put some Christmas cookies on sticks one night and put them in the sugar so that the kids think that they “grew” the cookies.  Here is the Pin which explains it in greater detail.  I thought that this idea was so cute but, unfortunately, I ended up not doing it this year.  I will try again for next year!  In the meaintime, Stinker the Elf had some great hiding spots.  Here are a few of them!

I came across a couple of Pins for welcoming your Elf and saying goodbye to your Elf.  This Pin gives Santa stationary that you can download and this Pin gives you a great little letter from the Elf and Santa .  It is addressed to your children and explains what the Elf is doing at your house.  I took the basic form of the letter and modified it for my kids.  I put the letter on the kitchen table along with a bag containing a couple of Christmas treats for the boys and the Elf book.

I also found a great Pin for saying goodbye to your Elf.  I modified that one too for my kids and they loved it!  The letter explains that Santa lifts the Elf’s magic for a few minutes after the child is done reading the letter.  During those few minutes the child can touch the Elf and kiss him goodbye without the Elf losing his magic.  Once the Elf is put back up in the tree the magic returns.  My boys were so excited about that at first but then they both became a bit nervous.  They decided that Mom should take the Elf off of the tree and then they each held him super gently and kissed him goodbye.  It was so heartwarming!  Neither one actually closed his hand around the Elf.  I’ve never seen them be quite that gentle with anything.  They truly believed in that Elf!  After I put him back in the tree my 5 year old was asking why Stinker had to leave.  He was so sad that he actually started crying!  I felt so bad for him.  He asked if Stinker could please come back for a visit or two during the year and I said I’m sure that would be fine.

The next morning (We kept our Elf out until January 5) on January 6 Stinker had flown back to the North Pole but he left each boy a little something under the tree.  They each received a Pez candy dispenser kit and jingle bells on a train doorknob hanger.  They were very excited but still missed Stinker very much.

We are looking forward to seeing you again next year, Stinker!

I saw this idea here at Liv Life on Pinterest.  It seems quite popular and I have actually seen a lot of these showing up a Christmas parties.  Here are the supplies that we used:

Chocolate wafers – two bags

Crushed Peppermint (You could just crush candy canes)

Regular sized marshmallows

Mini candy canes

Celephane gift bags (if you are not using the stirs right away)

Gift tags (optional)

We started out by melting the chocolate wafers in the microwave according to the package directions.  We then took the mini candy canes out of their wrappers and pushed one candy cane into each marshmallow.  Once we did that we dipped the marshmallow into the chocolate and, while the chocolate was still soft/warm on the marshmallow, we rolled the chocolate covered marshmallow in the crushed peppermint.  We placed them on a sheet of waxpaper on a cookie sheet and put them in the refrigerator for a few minutes to let the chocolate harden.

Once the chocolate was hardened we placed them each in a celephane bag and tied it with baker’s twine and attached a gift tag.

This was a great project to do with my boys.  It was simple enough that they were able to help me with it…they also enjoyed taste testing everything too!!  We added gift tags to ours as we were going to hand them out as random acts of kindness.  We started out at our doctor’s office.  We were going to stop in and hand them out but my youngest developed a sinus infection so we had to go to the doctor’s anyhow so we decided to take the hot chocolate stirs with us too and do it all in one trip.  The nurses just loved them and the kids loved handing them out!  They gave them to all of the nurses and the doctors.

We then took them, on another day, to the restaurant where we eat breakfast on Sundays.  It is a small family owned restaurant and they have watched the boys grow up.  The boys took their bags in on a Sunday morning and handed out their hot chocolate stirs after breakfast.  It was so heartwarming to watch!  They actually went around to all of the waitresses and the owner and handed them out.  When they saw that they had more left (yes, we made a lot…about 75 of them!) they decided to hand them out to the other patrons!  It was so cute to watch!  They would go up to the tables and hand them out and people were so gracious.  Gabriel sort of tossed them up onto some of the tables and startled a few people but they were all laughing about it.  You could see the people at the other booths watching and waiting for theirs.  It really was very heartwarming.

Growing up I remember my grandpa and his grandpa friends would always hand out crisp new $1 and $2 bills at Christmas randomly to the kids in the neighborhood.  It brought me to tears when one of the elderly men sitting with a his friends at the booth behind us pulled out a bank envelope and gave the boys each a crisp new $2 bill!  I hadn’t seen somebody do that in years.  My Grandfather passed in 2004 so it has definately been awhile.  I thought I was going to cry!  Then there was another elderly couple a couple of booths over who gave the boys each a $1 bill.  I know that the boys and I did not expect money for our gifts but I also remember as a child how the grandpas liked to hand out money like that at Christmas so we did let the boys take it for their piggy banks.  I think that the grandpa’s feelings would have been hurt if we didn’t let the boys take it.

I never thought that making these simple hot chocolate stirs could make so many people so happy.  I guess that it is the little things that count!

Happy Crafting!!

I found an adorable Pin on Pinterest for reindeer ornaments.  You can find the tutorial here on Our Life.

I used small clear ornaments that I found at our local craft store.  I liked them because they were small but I didn’t notice until the boys and I started to work on them that they had flat bottoms.  Here, they were ornament place card holders.  I just didn’t pay that much attention since they were in the ornament section.  In the long run, they ended up being great.  They were just the size that I wanted and, since they had a flat bottom, it was very easy to stand them up to dry.  I just used brown acrylic paint from the craft store.  I think I paid fifty cents for the bottle!

I started out by letting each boy dip their thumb into the paint.  I then had them press their thumbs on paper first since they like to use a lot of paint.  I then had them press their thumbs onto the ornament.  I had them do it twice for each reindeer.  I had them do one thumbprint with their thumbs horizontal and then a vertical one right in front of, and touching against, the horizontal one.  Once the paint dried overnight I used a black Sharpie fine point marker and added antlers, legs and eyes.  I used a red Sharpie for the nose and to write their name and the year on the ornament.  I then filled each  ornament with some of that craft store shredded paper that can be used in gift baskets.  I didn’t use the actual shredde paper but I used the shimmery kind.  The shimmery kind was very difficult to work with and to get into the ornament so I think that I would use the shredded paper next time.

I used some of the ornaments to attach to their teacher’s gifts and then gave some to family.  I used my red and white baker’s twine as a hanger for each ornament.  It was a fun and quick little project to do with the kids.  Everyone seemed to really enjoy the ornaments!

Happy Crafting!

I was so excited to make this magic ball of yarn.  I originally saw a Pin for it on Pinterest here at The Pieceful Ewe.  I only  have a few close friends and family that knit so they are able to benefit from great projects like this!

For Christmas I decided to make my friend this magic ball of yarn.  I picked up items at various stores to put inside of the yarn.  She likes that yarn which makes those lacy scarves so I purchased some of that yarn to hide the gifts in.  Of course, I forgot to save the label or write down the yarn name.

This is the yarn and the items that I hid in it.

I began by wrapping the yarn around the tape measure and then placed items on the yarn and continued to wrap around them.  I slipped a twist tie through the stitch markers and attached them to the yarn with the twist tie.

When I was done with wrapping the yarn I printed a little tag to attach to the yarn explaining what it contained.  Here is what I wrote on it:

MAGIC BALL OF YARN

This is a magic ball of yarn.  Within this ball of yarn are six little knitting gifts.  In order to claim your gifts you have to knit the scarf.  No cheating!  Do not unravel the ball of yarn to find your gifts…unless you really want to…but the fun is in the knitting

I cut it out with scissors that left a pretty edge on the paper, I hole punched one corner and tied it with red and white baker’s twine to the yarn.

The picture came out pretty dark but the above picture is the dark purple yarn with the note attached.  I did not include a pattern because this is the yarn that is lacey and there is only one way to knit it (that I know of!).  My friend enjoys knitting these so there was no need to attach a pattern.  However, if you are using regular stranded yarn you may want to include some type of a pattern for a scarf, infinity scarf, hat, etc.

This was a very simple item to make and it was a whole lot of fun looking for and buying the gifts to hide inside.  When my friend finishes the scarf I will see if she will let me post a picture of it.

Happy Knitting!

I have been wanting to make an Advent calendar for awhile now but I wasn’t sure where to begin.  Thanks to Pinterest I found my inspiration.  I found a couple of Advent calendars that I really liked but they were not exactly what I was looking for.  In the end, I combined what I liked about the Advent calendars and made one that I really liked.

I wanted something that the boys could use from year to year and that they would really enjoy.  I have been trying some felt projects lately and the advent calendar tutorials that I used were made completely out of felt.  I really liked the end product but this project took way longer than I had anticipated!  It was definately worth it but I should have started it much earlier.  I did cut a couple of corners because I was running out of time but it still turned out beautiful.

I found my Pinterest inspirations here at While Wearing Heels and here at Shannon Makes Stuff.  They both have templates and some great ideas.

I started out by making a template for my Christmas tree.  I did this freehand and it turned out surprisingly well as I am not great at drawing.  I drew it on a piece of muslin that I had so that I could keep it as a pattern.  You could probably draw half the tree and just place it on the green felt on the fold and cut it out.  However, I ended up just laying my entire piece of muslin on the floor and drawing the entire tree.  I needed that visual to see how it was all coming together.

Once I had my pattern I folded it in half and I placed it on the fold of my green felt and cut it out.  My tree pattern had a flat top because my piece of muslin was not quite long enough.  I just estimated that part when I cut out the felt but, even still, the top of my tree still had a flat spot.  I had decided to put an angel on the top of the tree and her skirt hid the flat part so all was good.

Fold the pattern and place it on the fold of the green felt.

You can see where I needed to make an adjustment on the top of my tree because my pattern was too short.

Felt tree after I cut it out from the pattern.

Now that my tree was finished I set it aside.  The next job was to begin the ornaments.  This was really a trial and error thing.  I cut out 25 white ornaments and 25 colored ornaments.  I sewed one colored ornament to one white ornament.  Eventually, the colored side will have the number and the white side will have the design.  I left the top opened so that I could put a treat in each ornament for the boys.  I just left the tip of the ornament opened and that really was not enough room.  I would suggest leaving a little larger of an opening so that it’s not so hard to get the treat in and out of the ornament.

This opening was really not large enough and it was difficult to fill with treat.

I originally sewed each ornament together individually but they were not turning out very neatly.  I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist so I was not real happy with the ornaments so I decided to start again.  What I ended up doing was tracing 6 ornaments on a sheet of white felt and pinning the white felt to a sheet of colored felt.  I then stitched on the traced line of each ornament and ended up with 6 stitched ornaments on two sheets of felt. (NOTE: I ENDED UP USING WHITE THREAD AS MY TOP THREAD AND THEN A COLORED THREAD IN MY BOBBIN TO MATCH THE COLORED FELT.  THAT WAY THE THREAD MATCHED EACH LAYER OF FELT INSTEAD OF HAVING THE WHITE THREAD SHOWING ON THE COLORED FELT.)

Traced ornaments

Stitched ornaments. I left the top open so that I could put treats in them for each day. You may want to leave a larger opening than I did.

I used a tracing pen that I purchased from the fabric store that is supposed to be easily removed with a damp cloth…supposed to be!  I took a damp cloth and blotted it on the blue color from the fabric marker and it removed the blue color beautifully.  I left the felt sitting on the ironing board overnight to dry (I may have used a bit too much water on the damp washcloth) and when I went to check on it in the morning the blue line was still gone but it was replaced with blue smudges along the edge of the ornaments!  I then took a less damp cloth and very lightly blotted out the blue smudges.  I had to do it a couple of times and while most of the blue did not show back through there was still a little bit that did.  You will have to experiment with what works best for you in terms of tracing the pattern.

You can see the blue smudging on the bottom of the ornament.

Once I finished with removing as much as the blue smudges as I could I cut out each ornament close to the seams.  I then cut a small slit in the top of the ornament so that I would be able to slip a length of red and white striped baker’s twine through it for hanging.

The next step that I did was to glue numbers to the front/colored side of each ornament.  I ended up using those number shaped plastic refrigerator magnets as my templates and they were just the right size.

Used these refrigerator number magnets as templates.

I traced them right onto my glitter felt, cut them out and then used my hot glue gun to attach them to each ornament.  Prior to applying the numbers (or any of the decorations) to the felt ornaments, I took my Sharpie marker and stuck it inside the opening to separate the two layers of ornaments.  I was afraid that the two layers would get stuck together if the hot glue leaked through the top layer.  Once I glued the number onto the ornament I just slid the Sharpie marker around to make sure that the two layers were not touching and then I set the ornament off to the side to dry.

Numbers traced onto glitter felt.

The next step was probably the hardest and most time consuming for me…decorating each ornament for each day.  From my Pinterest inspiration found at Shannon Makes Stuff, the original instructions called for a different decoration for each day.  She also provided a story to read along with the advent calendar for each day.  The story would explain the significance of that day’s decoration.  I, however, ended up not doing that.  The original tutorial was beautiful and she gave you all of the templates.  I tried to do them all but I just don’t have the patience to work with such tiny pieces of felt and glue.  After awhile I decided to just choose several of the decorations and use each one a couple of times.  Even though I didn’t do the story portion the boys were still very excited to see the deocorations that I did choose.

I cut out all of the felt first and then glued the pieces together.  I then glued the final piece to the ornament in the same way that I did for the numbers above.  Here are the ornament decorations that I used:

Once all of the ornaments were finished I strung a length of red and white striped baker’s twine through the cut that I had made in the top of the ornament and tied the string in a loop.  I used this loop as the hanger for the ornament.

The next step was to add the buttons to my tree so that I could hang the ornaments on them.  In the original tutorial she used hooks from a hook and eye set which I thought was a great idea and probably easier than what I did.  All she had to do was hang the ornament from the slit cut into the top onto the hook and she was done.  I, however,  liked the look of the buttons and the baker’s twine so I opted to do it that way.

First, I laid out all of my ornaments on my tree and then used my black Sharpie marker to mark on the tree where each ornament needed to be attached.  I then sewed on a button on that spot.  I used a variety of buttons that I had on hand in my stash.

I marked the spots on the tree where the ornaments would be hanging.

Buttons sewn on the tree.

Once all of the buttons were sewn on I placed the tree, the angel and the tree trunk (the angel and tree trunk were cut from templates from the original tutorial) onto a large piece of white felt that I was going to be using as the background.  I then pinned everything in place.  I sewed on the tree trunk first, then the tree and then the angel.  I folded the felt over an inch or so and sewed it in place so that I could use it as a casing for the dowel rod.  My Husband cut a notch on either side of the dowel rod and then I used a red cording and tied it to the dowl rod inside the notches.  The final project ended up being larger than I thought so it really only fit, barely, on the back of our front door.

Front of tree prior to advent.

This is what the advent calendar will look like once all of the ornaments are turned over.

I really like this advent calendar but you will definately need to allow yourself enough time to finish the entire thing.  I just didn’t have enough time or patience before Advent started to work with those tiny pieces of felt, so I just wasn’t going to have enough time to do the entire calendar just like the original tutorial.  The biggest corner I cut was not using all of the ornament decorations.  Part of me wishes that I would have just followed the tutorial exactly but, since I was pressed for time, I am alright with only having used a few of the decorations and then repeating them on more than one ornament.

For next year I was thinking of making some felt presents to stick on the background under the tree for Christmas morning.  I was also thinking of making some stars to stick onto the background to make the tree look like it has the night sky behind it.

We shall see what next year brings!  I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and has a Happy New Year!!

Merry early Christmas to everyone!  Is everyone ready for Christmas yet?  I’m almost ready.  I still have one more gift to make and a couple of more to buy.  Yes, I have to buy a couple of gifts.  I did not make my goal of one handmade gift per person…well, not exactly.  There just didn’t seem to be enough time in the day to get it all done.  I did find a loophole though.  I am making gift bags!  I think that should technically count as a handmade gift since the gift will be in a handmade bag…what do you think

Anyhow, I have decided to post 12 projects that I have made during the Christmas season.  I will begin posting these projects right after Christmas.  I am really happy with the projects that I have made.  Check back to see posts on projects such as:

Advent Calendar

Magic Ball of Yarn

Reindeer Thumbprint Ornaments

Spa Kit

Raggedy Ann Doll

Teacher Gift Bags

Home Organizer/Binder

No-Sew Fleece Blanket

Smash Journals

Hot Chocolate Stirrers

Elf on the Shelf

Reindeer Dust

I really enjoyed making all of the projects and I am looking forward to sharing them with you.  The tutorials and inspirations came almost entirely from Pinterest.  Please check back after Christmas for the 12 Days of a Pinterest Christmas!

Merry Christmas

Wow!  What a busy summer this has been!  I definately need to get back into blogging and posting here.  I have really missed it and am hoping to be posting some new projects soon.

With both boys in school this morning I seem to have all of this extra ambition since I have some uninterrupted time to get organized.  This ambition has lead me to my next project…My Christmas Pinterest Challenge!  I plan on making at least one gift for each of the people on my gift-giving list and I will make the gift using tutorials and ideas that I have found on Pinterest!  I have so many pins that I want to start going through them and trying some of them.  I have made handmade Christmas gifts in the past and everyone seems to like them.  This year I am going to look through my Pinterest boards and find a special gift for each person on my list.

I think that I am going to have a lot of fun with this project!  I will post some of the projects that I’m working on but I will not include the gift recipients name as some of the gift recipients read my blog (Hi Candice!).  I will post all of my completed projects after Christmas.

So, who wants to do My Christmas Pinterest Challenge with me?!!

The boys have been asking to decorate the Easter eggs so we decided to do that today.  I don’t know about other kids but my boys always seem to be ten steps ahead of me!  I barely had my coat off when we got home from preschool and Gabriel had already gotten the pot out of the cupboard.  I start to fill it with water and see that he has climbed onto the counter to get the egg decorating supplies out of the cupboard.  I get him down off of the counter and return to the water and he gets the egg coloring box open.  I am trying to explain to him that it will be a little while before we can actually decorate the eggs since I don’t even have the water on the stove yet!

I go down the basement to get the extra eggs out of the refrigerator and I come back upstairs to see Gabriel pulling out the entire container of eggs from the kitchen refrigerator.  We get those eggs put back into the refrigerator and he helps me put the eggs I brought upstairs into the pot of water before I turn on the stove.  Thank goodness I have a power burner because that was one little boy who was ready to color some eggs!

No sooner are the eggs in the water than he is getting the stack of measuring cups out because I said we needed to measure out the vinegar and water.  While I was doing the dishes he was waiting, rather impatiently, and watching the egg coloring pellets dissolve in the vinegar.  He was very happy when I said that he could finally add in the water.  Of course, during all of this Matthew is just playing happily and quietly in the family room with his trucks.

When the eggs were done I put them in the collandar to help them cool and ran some cold water over them.  That child was all over me!  He was begging to color them and kept insisting that they were cool enough.  I ran them in a lot of cold water and then gave in.  As soon as I set them on the table and called Matthew into the kitchen to decorate the eggs Gabriel split the eggs between them and the decorating began.  Both boys were very excited but, for some reason, Gabriel is just as excited about the setting up part as he is about the decorating part.

Over the last couple of years our eggs have been some interesting colors.  Last year most of them were black.  As you can tell, Gabriel really enjoys decorating the Easter eggs so when he runs out of eggs he simply redecorates the ones he has already decorated.  In the end our eggs have been dipped in many, many colors before they are finished.  Last year this led us to a shade of black.  This year wasn’t as bad.  The boys kept the eggs in the colors a bit longer and the eggs ended up not getting dipped as many times.  This year we have eggs where you can tell what color they are but the color just looks dirty.  Since the boys have so much fun decorating the eggs I just let them be and let them choose how they want to do it.  Needless to say, it creates quite happy memories and quite interesting colors!

Gabriel has his Easter Party at preschool tomorrow and the parents usually send in goodie bags for the kids to give to one another.  For Gabriel’s goodie bags this year I did something a little different.  I know that kids usuallyget a lot of candy for Easter so instead of sending in goodie bags of candy I’m sending in goodie bags with freezer pops in them.

My boys love those long freezer pops that come in those plastic tubes.  However, they do not like to hold the freezer pop because it is too cold on their hands.  We usually end up having to wrap it in paper towels or a dishcloth or something but now we use popsicle holders.  I found the idea awhile back on Pinterest and you can find the popsicle holder tutorial that I posted here.

I ended up buying freezer pops and making two popsicle holders for each child in his class.

We put a freezer pop in each popsicle holder and put two in each goodie bag.

We tied the goodie bags closed with a ribbon and attached a little card to the ribbon that said that the goodie bag was from Gabriel.\

Gabriel really enjoyed helping me put the goodie bags together, cutting the ribbons and hole-punching the tags. The only problem that we encountered was with tearing apart the freezer pops. They came in sheets of 10 and you have to tear them apart. When we do this with the freezer pops frozen there is no problem. Today we did not have the freezer pops frozen and we had a lot of problems. The plastic tore very easily and then we had liquid freezer pop spilling out everywhere. I ended up having to tear them apart instead of letting Gabriel do it and even I tore a few of them open. That part was frustrating but, other than that one issue, these goodie bags went together very easily, look very cute and Gabriel is super excited to hand them out at preschool tomorrow!