Card Making!

Let me just start by saying that I love hardware stores or home improvement stores for the free treasures...

I have used many a paint chip or color swatch for many a project! 

Generally when I walk past a paint display I grab a few new color samples. Who says I'm not constantly painting walls?! Super simple card making. I love a clean looking card, with a bit of fun detail or color. ENJOY! 

I attached the paint chip to the front of a trimmed card using double stick tape squares. My favorite part of this card would be the paint colors and how PERFECTLY they match the theme! Green giggle, bright foliage, bold bark, and retro green, all for my Secret Santa Christmas card. 

I added the cedar bough stamp using a chocolate colored ink! SEE?!?! Too PerFecT!

Using an edge cutter, I trimmed up the front edge with scallops. Then cut a card sized piece of this FuN gold and white patterned scrap book paper.  I figured it was Just Right for a WEDDING card. Oh my! I attached the piece with more double stick tape squares! 

Look at that! Using extra paper, I cut out a rose from the gold and added it to the top right corner of the card.  Silly ME! I failed to take a FINAL product PiC! Whoops! Maybe Tori or Joe can attach a photo in comments! CONGRATS!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas! (Part Two - Felt banner)

If you saw my part one post in the Christmas series, you may have noticed the God Jul felt banner that I created for the church entryway wall. The project was SO simple, that I was tempted to make a second one for home, but realized that I was OUT OF WHITE FELT! Oops! 

MATERIALS:

White felt (6 sheets 9x12 sheets or cut the 12x18 sheets in half)

Red felt (I used 1.5 12x18 sheets)

Stencils

Tulle ribbon or other ribbon of choice

Glue (Hot glue was great!)

I printed out the font I wanted from Microsoft Word, and selected Rockwell at size 710! I would have used a much smaller size for home, but wanted these to be large and fill a big wall.

I then cut my stencils and traced them backwards onto the red felt so that when I cut the felt, the front would be free of markings.   

I then cut my 12 inch by 18 inch white felt in half. Using the hot glue, I folded about one and half inches of felt down to make a casing. I ran hot glue along the 9 inch edge and folded the edge down to seal the casing.  Complete this step on all of the pieces of white felt (you should have 6 matching rectangular pennants with a casing at the top). 

I then took the red felt letters that I had previously traced and cut, and using more HOT GLUE! attached them to the white pennants.  I did my best to center them left to right, but kept them a bit lower than centered top to bottom.  That was just a personal choice! Do what YOU want! 

Once I had all of my letters secured, I strung them with red tulle ribbon from Jo-Ann Fabric.  It's about six inches wide, but scrunched up when I threaded it through the casings.  

I tied bows on other side of the banner prior to hanging it on the wall.  The fluffy bows were great for hiding the push pins and gave it just a bit more flair!

GOD JUL or Merry Christmas to everyone! Keep watching for part three! See you soon!

We Wish You A Merry Christmas! (Part One)

Oh hello! It's that magical time of year again! My favorite month of all, December! It's my birthday month and Christmas, my favorite holiday, so needless to say I'm just jolly! This time of year also means that it is time for my Christmas blog series.  Again, you will see this year's decorations at church, around the house, a quick wrapping post, and some very neat gift ideas (those will have to wait though since I have to give them so my readers that receive don't have a spoiled surprise!). Ooh! And I hope to get a post in about a fun new find that I want to put on the front porch! Merry Christmas and enjoy!!!

Starting off with decorations at my church, which features a Scandinavian theme. The theme is highly appropriate for a couple reasons, the first being that the church was founded by Scandinavians, the second being that we are hosting a few events this season that we wanted to give a Scandinavian feel, so rather than re-decorate, it was best to make it the whole theme! Many hands make things go so much faster, so a huge THANK YOU goes out to those that volunteered their time and energy! 

Everything is very simple and traditional; the color scheme is red and white with evergreens and burlap. I'll try to keep the descriptions to a minimum (I'll caption each picture like I did for the Thanksgiving post). Most of the decorations are easy to put together and I have a separate post for the felt banner.

The week prior to decorating is usually spent preparing. Lots of paper chain, and turning my burlap Thanksgiving table runners into squares! 

Picked up a dozen poinsettias from Costco for $60. Best price that I could find in town. They are used all over the building, but we have four that brighten up the altar.  On each side I used a clear cake stand to give dimension in height. 

Here is where the burlap squares came into play! I don't love the gold/silver foil that the poinsettias were wrapped in, so I trimmed the foil down so it could hide under the burlap and sheer red ribbon.

My aunt Kathy (she is so clever, and I like to think that craftiness runs in the family!) decorated the Advent wreath and table so beautifully.  More burlap and burlap ribbon to act as a table cloth. (Pardon the garbage, photos were taken while work was in progress!) :)

We use the same grape vine wreath each year and simply add our own greens and color to fit the theme.  This year Kathy added the greens and some red berry picks that I stole from my mom! Thanks mom! 

We have long and bare ledges that surround the piano areas in the sanctuary, but during Christmas they are filled with color and candles.  Kept them very simple this year. Cedar boughs, the usual faux candles (Costco has these for a decent price usually, and they are the best in situations like this!), and realistic but totally fake poinsettia blooms in red and white.

Rather than use a traditional tree topper in the form of a star or even a beautifully designed angel, we went a bit vintage! This angel is part of a very old wooden manger scene that has been at the church since LONG before I was born. She made the perfect topper for our Scandinavian Christmas tree.

I was having issues getting the entire 12 foot tree in the picture! But here is where part of the paper chain ended up!
Thanks to my dad and Dave for putting on the lights, climbing ladders, and getting that angel to stay put!

The ornaments were simple too! Pine cones with red ribbon and traditional straw ornaments with red thread to hold them together. I know Bev, Dave, and my dad did ornament hanging and they did a beautiful job!

Dave and Bev also helped hang lighted garland from the balcony rail and my mom created bows from red and white checked ribbon that I snagged from Costco a couple seasons ago. (Costco seems to be a theme here too...)

Rather than buy new, we reused the same pillar candles in glass that we had last year with the paper chains. The windows only feature the candles and wood cranberry beaded garland that I also stole from my mom! 

Kathy and Brittany took that vintage manger scene and put it to good use! Since the Christmas program needed a manger anyways, Kathy thought it was a good idea to leave it in place all season! I AGREE! I mean this is the true meaning of Christmas! Featuring real hay bales hauled in by Jeremy, Brittany and Larry. And you can see the poinsettias peeking through! 

In our coffee area and front entrance area there is a large blank wall so I thought I'd take advantage of that space and add some good Norwegian cheer! Check out the easy HOW-TO! 

Downstairs window wells feature more cedar, more poinsettias, and more imitation candles. And the center window features my little IKEA friend.  I also mixed and matched ribbon downstairs, red and white checked with the same sheer red from upstairs. Thanks to my grandma and Kitty for filling the windows with boughs!

Whole window! There are three windows total, all a variation of this concept.  

Somehow I failed to get a picture of the tree downstairs! Uff da! But I can tell you that it features a matching paper chain to the upstairs tree, little red apples, white Christmas balls, and traditional red candles! Thanks to the team of girls and ladies that put that tree together so beautifully!!!

Stay tuned for more festive ideas and creations! Merry Christmas to you and yours!

'Tis the Season (Part Five, Final Installment)

Welcome to the final installment of my Christmas themed blog posts! This post features just a couple projects and decorating ideas that I used around the house this year. Enjoy!

After creating the large pallet sign for church, I got the harebrained idea to create more signs! The first sign I created was small dark green piece with white printing, MERRY CHRISTMAS. After painting the sign and lettering, I used a piece of sandpaper to rough the piece up just slightly on the edges and across the words, just slightly.  

The second small sign I created was for a family white elephant gift exchange that has a rule about being self crafted or created.  I got this idea from Pinterest (Go figure!), and simply downsized the piece. Although I would still LOVE to create a full size sign! 

The green sign became part of my alternative wreath project, featuring a family heirloom sled from Germany and a greenery arrangement tied with a plaid ribbon. So if you come a-caroling, you will be greeted by this cheery Christmas sled! 

I believe that all parts of the home are fair game for decorating, so in order to make my room look and smell extra Christmas-y I made a very simple display on the top of a bookshelf.  I took a medium sized vase and filled it with cedar greens. Using the same green and red plaid ribbon from the sled display, I tied a simple bow around the top of the vase to add a hint of color. To finish the look, I used a piece of the vintage sheet music paper chain. I did not do anything fancy with it, choosing to just drape it casually around and over my picture frames.   

I love the simple look, and the yummy evergreen aroma that now fills the space.  Plus I just LOVE Christmas, so the decorations bring me all sorts of holiday joy!

Being this is the final installment of my 'Tis the Season blog series, and Christmas is just days, hours, moments away, let me close with a heartfelt thank you for following my blog! 

May you and your loved ones enjoy a Merry Christmas and holiday season filled with peace and blessings! 

'Tis the Season (Part Two)

Well hello! Welcome to the part two of my Christmas crafting series! On Friday we had a decorating party at church in order to get the church ready for Christmas. Many hands make light work!

Using the same vintage sheet music that was used for the Adore Him banner, I printed the music onto cream colored paper. I then cut the paper along the long sides, so I got 11 strips out of each piece of paper.  Then it was time to get gluing! I'm quite certain that I made at least 100 feet of chain!

Paper chain went everywhere! Including on the ledges that surround the piano areas.  The printed burlap was picked up on sale at Joann's and the candles are battery powered finds from Costco! My goal was to make the placement look natural and not too symmetrical.  

And more garland! With beautiful glass jar candles from Fred Meyer, on sale for only $1.20!

The Advent wreath this year is also quite simple in nature.  My cousin Brittany did a beautiful job of weaving in greenery and adding the single white poinsettia for accent.  So simple, yet so pretty!

My Aunt Kathy had the great idea to hang white ornaments from the balcony railing with white ribbon.  They are hung at varying levels to give more dimension! 

When in doubt add more burlap! Tree skirt in natural burlap!

Still doubting? Add more paper chain! The tree features the paper chain, white pine cones, and white poinsettias.  The tree was then topped with a white tulle bow (not placed as of the picture).

The altar features white lighted garland and a greenery arrangement with white roses. The altar railing has lighted green garland, the vintage music paper chain, and tulle bows that match the tree. 

Overall our goal was to keep the decorating simple. I think we did a beautiful job of capturing the simple country charm inspired by the vintage sheet music. ENJOY!

'Tis the Season (Part One)

This is the first of at least four blogs entries focusing on Christmas projects! The first blog is about a Christmas banner for church, the second features the overall decorating scheme for the church, the third will showcase a pallet sign, and lastly my Christmas wrapping theme for this year! And perhaps one or two more! Oh such a busy time of year! 

This one is about a simple and classy looking banner that my Aunt Kathy, Mom, and I created. The banner base was made of natural burlap and creamy colored thread.  My mom was the sewing superstar and took care of the hemming and stitching the top loop from which the banner would hang.  

I took on tracing 6 inch monogram letters on to vintage sheet music that I copied on to card stock. Then my Aunt Kathy and I cut out all the letters so they would be ready to attach to our newly minted banner.   

Vintage sheet music featuring Christmas carols! 

Using a straight edge and tape measure so we made sure to stay aligned, we laid out our letters! Then we used a caulking-like all-purpose adhesive to attach the letters to the burlap (fortunately for us, it dries clear!) We made sure all the edges had a small fringe to add detail to the banner. 

I promise we ironed the burlap, but of course, the picture below looks like we didn't do a thing! Oh brother! I promise it looks great in person! 'Tis the season for "Adoring Him!" 

Stay tuned for more Christmas Merry Making! Coming up next: Christmas decorations in the church! 

More Holidays from Room 10!

Every year at Winter Break, Valentine's Day, and Summer Break, I get my students a gift. Being a teacher, I find it necessary to give something educational... This year every student got a copy of E.L. Konisburg's Newberry Medal winner From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Each bag also contained a holiday themed pencil, a regular sized candy cane, and a bag of chocolate coins! The most expensive part of the gift was the coins, surprisingly.  The wrapping was simple, brown lunch bags stamped with white snowflakes, then a hole punched at the folded over top, and tied with a white tulle bow! The kids were ecstatic, and so impressive, the way they carefully untied and unthreaded their bows rather than tearing into the bag as I had expected. I have the sweetest and most amazing class, they continue to impress me with the little things. :)

Gifts!

As part of our hallway decorations I created a simple bulletin board.  It consisted of a chunk of white butcher paper, cut to resemble a hillside, and a few different figures courtesy of our Ellison paper punches! I punched green evergreen trees and light blue snow flakes to add to the scene.  I then punched each child a snowman (person?) to decorate.  Students could decorated in any way that they chose, provided they put their name on the front clearly.  I got some great snowpeople! With such a simple project, the students exhibited subtle or not so subtle creativity in order to personalize their snowman.  The "Season's Greetings" sign was made from Ellison letter punches that were layered red on top of green to give them some depth.  The letters were then glued into place on strips of poster board so I can reuse it in the future!

Completed board.

Variety of student work!

Our final project was an ornament that students could take home as a gift if they so chose.  The ornaments started as shades of white paint-chips and ended as happy snowmen!  Creating these ornaments was very simple, each student needed a paint-chip, squares of black construction paper for hats and punching buttons/faces, small orange scrap of paper, a strip of patterned scrapbook paper, glue, and a hole punch! When selecting paint-chips, remember that the multi colored style have more character! Home Depot has very wide chips so the overall look is very square.  I picked mine up from the Fred Meyer paint department.  Walmart also has thin, multi colored chips.

Thin multi colored paint-chips as a foundation

In order to make faces and buttons we used the hole punch to punch 2 eyes, 5-6 dots for a smile, and 3-4 for buttons.  If I was making these in a smaller quantity I would use black buttons instead of using the paper.  

Detail of the face.

The hats are created from black paper, simply cut edges down on either side leaving about an 1/8 of an inch on either side for the brim. They are then glued across the top edge of the chip.  Noses are thin triangles just trimmed from a scrap of paper.  Scarves are strips of patterned paper that I pre-cut, then wrapped around the chip and glued to stay put.  Students were encouraged to cut, wrap, and assemble in their own way so each snowman is unique!  Students were then given a piece of ribbon to loop on the back for hanging purposes.

Final product! Hang and enjoy!