Advent Calendar DIY Part II and Activity Ideas

12 / 12 / 13

Welcome to Part II of the Advent Calendar DIY. If you missed the Advent Calendar DIY Part I you can check it out. Today we are going to focus on the finished product and what activities and ideas you can put inside your calendar. I wanted to do a mix of both activities and actually items, so I started by making a list of what I wanted to include (you can see the list below). Some activities needed to be done on certain days (like visiting Santa) so I mapped those days out first, then filled in the rest of the days with a mixture of items and activities.

Here are some Ideas for activities to include:
-Make Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows
-Take a drive to look at the lights
-Make cookies
-Read Twas the Night Before Christmas
-Watch Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer
-Sing Christmas Songs
-Visit Santa
-Write a letter to Santa and mail it
-Make a Christmas ornament
-Make a gingerbread house
-Attend a Christmas Parade
-Go Ice Skating
-Make a Snow Globe
-Decorate gingerbread men
-Make handmade cards to send to family out of town
-Make a wreath
-Have a park day
-Have cinnamon rolls/donuts for breakfast
-Go to Columbia and watch the Candy Canes get made (then buy candy!)
-Go Sledding
-Plant a tree

Here are some ideas for treats to include:
-Candy Canes
-Hot Chocolate Packages (with marshmallows)
-Chocolate Santas
-Bag of Popcorn (for movie night)
-Hotwheels cars
-A special ornament for the tree
-A Christmas CD
-A favorite Christmas DVD/Blu-ray
-Measuring Spoons (for cookie-making day)
-A book (Christmas or not)

There are many more items and activities you could include in your advent calendar. How about a picture a day? Or maybe making a homemade gift each day during advent? I hope you have fun making your calendar and remember to enjoy the time spent with your family!!

Advent Calendar DIY Part I

12 / 1 / 13

I love doing advent calendars for my kids. It is such a fun thing to do each day leading up to Christmas. It really helps us to connect everyday during such a busy time of year. You can do an advent of how ever many days you want. I typically do 1 through 24. But, you could start on the 10th, or even the 15th and have a smaller countdown. Here is a DIY of how I'm doing my calendar this year.

1. Gather up your supplies: muslin bags, fabric paint, number stencils, foam brush available at any craft store, piece of cardboard to put inside the bags. 2. Slide your piece of cardboard into your bag so when you apply the paint it doesn't leak through. Line up your stencil on your bag. 3. Using your foam brush, stipple and dab the paint onto the stencil. Try not to get too much paint on your brush and it will bleed through the stencil and distort your numbers. 4. Let dry for 1 hour.

That's it…. This is how I made my bags for our calendar this year. I made bags 1-24. I don't make a bag for the 25th because, well, that is Christmas day. Have fun with your calendars and I will be back with part two of this DIY.

Weekend Style: Lumber Jack and Jill Edition

5 / 11 / 13

WOW!! What a wonderful day it has been so far!! I hope all of you are having an awesome day also. Today, myself and my little Mr.'s, as well as my Sissy and her little Ms., got to ride on a float in the Motherlode Round-Up Parade. We were riding on the float for the Tuolumne Lumber Jubilee… which is a Jubliee in our home town that happens once a year…full of logging events, a tug-o-war, and a carnival.

The Motherlode Round-Up parade has been a tradition in out town for
years! As long as I have been alive, and long before that, every
Mother's Day weekend, the Motherlode Round-Up happens. Saturday is a
three-hour long parade, followed by a rodeo all weekend. Lots of fun!!
I have been in the parade numerous times and for different things, both
as a kid, and now with my kids. It is always fun, and it is always
memoriable.

P.s. the theme of our float was
lumberjacks and jills…hence, all our plaid!

This and That Pages: Baseball

4 / 23 / 13

Here are my first This and That pages. I'm absolutely loving this!! I don't ever start on the first page of my journals, so these two pages were created a few pages in. I used several stickers, as well as the Epic Day DSP, the Remember This stamp, and washi tape!!

Don't forget… The This and That Bundle is 15% off right now, but only until April 3oth. Go to my Online Store and get the entire set!

My Digital Studio Monday: Working With Templates

4 / 22 / 13

I'm back with another My Digital Studio Monday. Today we are going to talk about working with templates. There are many digital kits offered by Stampin' Up! that include templates in them. As a matter of fact, when you purchase the My Digital Studio Software, it comes preloaded with a bunch of templates to choose from. So, what is a template you ask? Well, a template is basically a pre-made page or layout and you just add your photos to. Templates are a great way to quickly make fantastic looking pages and cards. Today I am using one of the templates from the Lemonade Stand disc that I received during Sale-A-Bration. This particular disc came with 12 template cards, and 12 template pages!!

It was so easy to create this awesome page. I altered the template just slightly by adding the two strips of DSP at the top with the staples, and enlarging the size of one of the photos. I then added my journaling text over the speech bubble and it was done!! This page literally took me all of about 5 minutes!! Incredible!

Are you interested in trying out MDS? Well, you can download the software for free and try it for 30 days. Go to my online store and do that now. Ready to buy it? Well, guess what… Stampin' Up! just lowered the price… MDS is now only $19.95!! That's right, an amazing value. Try it out… I think you'll like it!!

And while you're at it, check out yesterdays blog post where I made a hybrid card using MDS and traditional products.

Happy Easter

3 / 31 / 13

Image Credit

Happy Easter to you!! I hope you enjoy the day with family and friends celebrating life!!

Visiting Murphy’s

2 / 26 / 13

I love Murphy's, CA!! It is one of my favorite places to just go and walk around, window shop and enjoy the day. AND, the best part is it is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from my house!!

We started out picking up our wine club shipment from La Folia. (Yes, we are in a wine club! Yes, it's kinda snobby! Yes, the wine if freakin' amazing!) The little Mr.'s enjoyed going to the toy shop and browsing around. They ended up picking out fools gold, a Million Dollar bill, Tiger's Eye gems, and a fake knife. We went into a wonderful tea shop called Tea An'Tiques. The ladies in there were amazingly nice and helpful and I got the most delicious loose leaf hibiscus tea! Then, our last stop was my favorite… Lila & Sage. I can't help myself when it comes to this quaint cupcake shop. Their baked goods are to die for, the atmosphere is literally euphoric, and they won Cupcake Wars. What is cooler than that?? If you get the chance, check out Murphy's. It is literally one of my favorite places on earth!!

Playing Games

2 / 18 / 13

My family has always been a big game family. My Nanny (Grandma) used to love to play games and as kids we would play a game with her everyday after school. Usually Scrabble or Rummy, and on Christmas it was bingo for dimes and nickels. I loved playing games with my Nanny, and my family has really carried on that tradition.

Yesterday my oldest Mr., who happens to have just turned 8, requested to play Monopoly. He had never played it before, so in the morning we began what ended up being a 4+ hour game (with no winner!). He quickly caught on and was really kicking my butt for a while. It certainly was fun, but alas, not sure how many 8 year olds can withstand the long hours of Monopoly, but mine lasted a little over 4 hours before he threw in the towel and the game was called on behalf of being "just done."

In honor of games, I thought I would give you a quick run down of my favorite games. Of course, the good ol' Scrabble tops the list. We have family specific rules that even my cousins know, and when we play it's serious business!! Then, I would have to say Yahtzee is my second favorite. Gotta love a game of dice and chance. If you are in the adult crowd, a good game is Apples to Apples when you have a few friends, a couple hours, and a mixed drink. And, if you live in the UK, you can check out Foxybingo.com. That one requires real money, so it's not for the faint of heart!!

There are many game apps out there, Angry Birds being a popular one (and a lot of fun). Another one is the Words game which is kinda like hangman but played between multiple people on your phone.

I encourage you all to bust out a game, spend some time with the family, and have fun. What games are your favorites?? Let me know!!

*This is a partner post with Foxy Bingo. Please play responsibly!

Holiday Time

1 / 9 / 13

I hope you all have had some wonderful times this holiday season. We spent lots of time together, with family and friends and just relaxing while we readied ourselves for the new year. We walked in a parade, had breakfast with Santa, made Crafts, spent several days with family, used brown paper wrapping, and had a glorious time. Here are some snaps of it (warning…photo heavy):

We had SUCH a good time!!!

New Stampin’ Up! Kit, Ornamental Elegance

12 / 3 / 12

The ornament on the cover of our holiday catalog is such a hit that
we are making it available to you–just in time to deck the halls with
terrific trimmings you've made yourself! We've simplified this fun
project so that you can quickly and easily achieve the same results. In
addition to the kit, all you need is a glue gun, scissors, and adhesive.
(Our Anywhere Glue Sticks [104045] are perfect for assembly.) Want
greeting or place cards to go with those ornaments? The Ornament
Keepsakes Stamp Set (W 128048 C 128051) gives you perfect coordination.
Fancy a little sparkle and shine? Sprinkle on our Dazzling Diamonds
Stampin' Glitter (102023)!

Create 10, yes 10, heirloom ornaments–or stunning tags to attach to a special neighbor gift.

The Ornamental Elegance Kit (132832) is $14.95 and includes:

Die-Cut Cardstock Elements
Cherry Cobbler 3-1/2" Scalloped Tulle Ribbon
Natural Linen Thread
Vintage Faceted Designer Buttons
Large Pearl Basic Jewels

Order
these now online so you will have plenty of time to make them for Christmas
gifting–or for your family tree! Available while supplies last.