It Was Very Merry + Air Dry White Clay

Just a little mini re-cap of the holidays in our home. There were lights, glitter, cookies, and white clay ornaments and tags. It turns out that making a giant batch of white clay gift tags and ornaments is actually not too difficult.  This is one of those projects I talked about earlier. I paired my ornaments with lux velvet ribbon for a nice contrast. You can see one of the word tags here on a vase. All of the Craft It Forward 2011 peeps received some of these; friends and family as well.

Most of what I made were pretty simple squares, rectangles or other cookie-cutter shapes. The bird was a little idea I had in my head, but I just saw a similar one posted on the Ikea blog the other day! Great minds think alike, huh? =)

I also made a lot of non-Christmas elements that will be fun to use in the coming year. Check out the tutorial here (auf Deutsch), and read about the project here (in English).

Did you make a lot of any one thing for this holiday season (aside from Christmas cookies!!)?

Kiwi Kids on Why I'm Celebrating

Different people are celebrating different things, but I liked hearing and seeing how a group of kids in New Zealand interpret and share the story of why I'm celebrating.

Merry Christmas!

Wrapping Gifts for the Post

When every inch counts, and so does the finished product, you know fluffy bows aren't going to survive an overseas adventure. This year I used some decorative paper and fun masking tape to add a little pizazz to my packages. Then I stamped names on the gifts w/my rubber stamps. And because decorating the box is as fun as decorating the gifts inside, I added Rudolph and some holiday greetings to pass along a little cheer along the journey.

Bonus: We discovered that UPS is way faster and cheaper than DeutschePost/DHL for our last-minute shipping. We even have a tracking number that goes beyond Germany, phew!  Also handy was the fact that they came to our door to pick everything up, meaning no eternal lines at the post office.Yay!

Sneak Peek: Patches

I'm working on something -actually, a LOT of somethings! Posting's been light this week thanks to pre-holiday grading and editing projects, not to mention the creative projects that can't be posted since there are a few recipients reading. However, this sneak peek should be finished next week and is definitely something I can share. There are also a few other projects that need to be shared and will be posted shortly, so stay tuned!

Shiny happy bags

These went in the mail the other day. They had fillings. They were part of Craft it Forward 2011. They were fun to make. They are part of the reason I have silver glitter engrained into the rug on my office floor (here's the other reason). I guess that makes my floor a shiny happy floor.

Until I lay on the floor in fleece pants the other night to cut fabric. Now my black fleece pants shimmer. Shiny happy pants.

I'm an official writing instructor and I cringe at my own writing. How much rule-breaking is allowed in blogging? The text in this post is a perfect example of poor style; take heed!

Dare I tell you that I'm about to go correct a stack of writing assignments and a research article? Do you fear for them??  =)

Our Advent Calendar 2011: It Shimmers and Shines

Ok, there are a lot of pictures in this post, I know. However, I also have to say that I really love this year's Advent calendar, like A LOT. I had the hardest time taking pictures of it because it's in a dark corner of our living room (on our ugly 1960's green marble fireplace) and it shimmers and shines only when my ribbon votives are lit. Throw in the typical German weather for this time of year -overcast- and it's a recipe for photography disaster. So basically there are pictures because I love this year's calendar AND because I'm amazed I was able to get what I could with my little point-and-shoot!

I made this calendar for my husband (he fills a red felt calendar for me) and he was ecstatic; he loves it! He loves wildlife, so when I saw the forest animal free Advent printables from Raumdinge (I think she got the graphics from The Graphics Fairy), I knew I had to use this for him.

You may notice some similarities to our godson's calendar. The white bags were just too easy and since I had so many left over, it made sense to use them up. They're just little white sandwich bags; I think I paid 75 cents for 75 bags. The little chalkboard clips were found at our local drugstore (go figure) and I used my tailor's chalk to write the numbers. The fabric strips were cut and recycled from his Advent calendar last year. The shimmery paper is my favorite part though; I used a paper punch to cut these from some glitter wrapping paper I found last week. I bought the paper here thinking it was printed foil, but no, it was real glitter! Needless to say the floor in my office shimmers now...good thing I have a vacuum cleaner!

The funny thing is that I didn't plan on adding the glitter paper, or using the ribbon votives, but once I started laying things out, I realized I needed shimmer and shine -and I had the wrapping paper! and then as I set it up in the living room I realized it was really dark -but the little votives would add light and nicely reflect off the glitter.

The other trick I had to employ was creating elevation. We didn't have a place to string these up (that would be so cute!) and since laying them flat on the mantle would look lame, I used plain brown post paper to wrap some empty cardboard tissue and food containers.

Basically, I had a lot of fun putting this together and both of us are really pleased with how it turned out. It makes for quite a cozy little corner!

Anybody else make an Advent calendar this year? I think they're so fun! If you've posted pictures online, share the link in the comments so we can all enjoy!

2 Second Christmas Votive DIY

Not too much to say about this; just find some cute little jars and tie a bit of ribbon around them. These will be finding their way around our home until I use them to decorate the table for our Christmas Day feast.

Ribbon is so easy, isn't it? I think I need more ribbon in my life! Are you a ribbon fan?