Christmas Weekend

We didn't have a white Christmas but we did have a white day after Christmas.  It's still snowing. It's been a cold season for us so far. I like seeing the snow and I like that I don't have to drive to work in the morning. But, I'd be very happy if we warmed back up soon and stayed that way until Spring.
We've had a very nice Christmas. We not only had a decorated tree inside but we put one up on our porch too.

Today we are enjoying a lazy day. Tomorrow will be a busy day, probably. Unless I decide I just want to be lazy again. :) We have been very blessed this year and are very thankful for everything.  Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Tags

For a recent swap I needed to make Christmas tags. I cut the tree shapes out of cardstock and stamped them with snowflake stamps. I found some buttons and painted them with light blue acrylic paint and once that was dry I painted them with glitter paint. I then stamped the "SNOW" and dabbed ink around the edges of the tag. Last touch was the fibers. I think they turned out beautifully and I hope the ladies who got these liked them too.

Falling Leaves, Blooming Flowers and Leftovers

 There is no question that it is Fall. The leaves are falling off the trees today by the thousands! I took a little stroll around my house after lunch and found some beautiful leaves. And, my Lantana bushes are still blooming. That's one of the things I love about Lantana is that it blooms for so long!  I even spotted some bees and butterflies still enjoying the blooms as well.

 Of course one of the great things about Thanksgiving is the leftovers! This turkey and dressing will make for a delicious dinner this evening and tasty turkey sandwiches tomorrow.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING Everyone!!!

Christmas Cards

Friday I was able to make 72 handmade paper Christmas Tree Shapes! My plan is to use some for cards and some for gift tags. So today I started on the cards. I've made this design before without the red background. I wonder... what style is your favorite? With or without the red?

Jack O'Lantern (Fruit Cup)

I saw this idea in a magazine recently. I wish I could remember which one it was. There were so many neat Halloween ideas in it. This is an orange that I hollowed out and filled with chunks of orange, apple and grapes. This is such a neat idea! The saw from a pumpkin carving kits works very well on the orange. If you do decide to do this, the orange pulp you carve out of the inside will be pretty mangled so you might want to have an orange on hand that you can slice into better looking pieces. :) It's a great gift to give to friends or to use for a Halloween party. I wish I would have though to use something bigger like a grapefruit or on a larger scale, a watermelon would probably work nicely!

Enjoy!!!

Painted Mini Pumpkin

While getting groceries last week, my daughter spotted a bag of mini pumpkins in the produce section. Since it is a little bit too early to carve pumpkins, I picked up a bag of the mini pumpkins with the idea of painting them. I painted this one with Green, Peach and Yellow acrylic paints and painted on the details in Black. I also glued a black prima flower next to the stem and found a nice bead to glue on top of the flower.

It was so much fun! I have 4 more to paint. :)

Halloween Magnets

Sometimes ideas come right out of the blue when you are absolutely not expecting it. In fact, I am surprised my husband didn't wake up in the middle of the night because of the bright light bulb that lit up over my head! Really crazy... in the middle of the night. Sometimes that is when the best ideas happen.

I was able to get a box of out-dated tile samples a couple of years ago and I had yet to use them. I KNEW they would be great to use in crafts but just hadn't been inspired. In fact, I hadn't even thought of these in over a year so it was really surprising to me when my brain came up with this. I had to dig these out from under a pile of stuff yesterday morning! Here is one of the samples. They are 2 x 2 inches.

I painted the tile samples black with an acrylic paint, painted the sides and the back as well...

I also had these great papers that I just got from my friend Sarah at Paperpeddler.etsy.com. Aren't these just the cutest Halloween papers!

I cut and glued the images and then glued a magnet on the back. I am just tickled about how these turned out and plan to make a few more in the Halloween theme. :)

I encourage you all to keep a notebook by your bed so when those bright ideas happen in the middle of the night, you can write them down!