Design Mouse

A Crafty Christmas: Mistletoes

I found this idea online and thought it was cute. Getting the feet painted was easy but getting a clear print was not. It took us four attempts to get this pair. 

10 Days of Holiday Crafts: Advent Calendar Cards

An advent calendar has been part of our Christmas tradition for as far back as I can remember. One year, I created a twist on this for my parents, who lived 13 hours away. I made 25 cards using family Christmas photos for the front of the card. Then I wrote my journalling on the inside of the card. I used foam stamps to decorate and number 25 envelopes. 

I sealed the cards inside and sent two bundles, tied in ribbon, to my parents with the instructions that they should open one each day - according to the number on the envelope. Sending them in two batches meant that I only had to do 12 cards before December, then I had about a week to get the other 13 cards done. 

For Christmas I gave my parents and album that had pages the size of the cards so they could put them all in one place. This was a fun way to use some of our many family Christmas pictures and capture some of my thoughts.

10 Days of Holiday Crafts: Photo Christmas Cards

If you are a crafter & a photographer (or have one in the family) here is a great way to combine those two hobbies. And it's a quick way to make lots of Christmas cards. Not feeling crafty? You use the same concept by uploading your pictures to photo sites like Shutterfly and using their card templates. 

Search back through your pictures and find ones that remind you of Christmas - they don't specifically have to be Christmas pictures. The pictures in these cards came from: a hunting trip with my dad, Christmas decorations in Sun City, AZ and a snow day when I first moved to Seattle. The snowman is actually made in the bed of my truck in a hotel parking lot. If you know you want to do this - plan ahead. Take pictures of details this Christmas and use them next year. I found the best pictures had a single focal point and some "blank" space. I printed off some pictures that were too busy and didn't end up using them. 

Order a batch of 4x6 prints.  How many you order depends on how many cards you want to make. I think I got these for free with one of the Shutterfly specials. 

Cut your photos so that they are the main part of your card. You could do all cards the same size and shape if you want this to go even faster. I don't know why exactly, but I don't follow patterns well - I have to make each card a little different. 

Embellish away. I used ribbon, stickers, rub-ons (these are great directly on the photo), vellum quotes and my own handwriting. This is the crafty part - so have fun with it. 

10 Days of Holiday Crafts: Recycled Gift Tags

My mother-in-law bought a set of these Kirkland handmade gift tags from Costco a couple years ago. They are quite elaborate and it seemed a shame to only use them for one year. Maybe you even make your own elaborate handmade gift tags and don't want to see them go to waster. So here are three ways we've recycled them:

1. Write on the backs with pencil. 
2. Cut paper the same size as the back and adhere over last year's names. This is easy for square tags. 
3. Make cards from the gift tags. 

Here is a set of cards I made from the gift tags I saved. Each card is about 3"x5", depending on the size of the tag. It only took me a little over an hour to make 11 cards this way. For most of the cards I followed this basic formula:

1. Measure tag. 
2. Cut out colored backing paper that is 1/2" wider and 1/2" taller than the tag.
3. Cut out white cardstock that is 1" taller than the tag and will fold to be 1" wider than the tag. 
4. Round corners & add embellishments, if needed.
5. For the waving bear, penguin on skates and santa cards I tore paper strips to create "snow" to ground the figures.