Cardboard Wreath

I found the tutorial for this wonderful wreath on Elise Blaha's blog. You can find it here. She is a wonderful artist with lots of cool paper goods in her shop, Elise Joy. I made this wreath with paper from my stash and cardboard from the recycle bin. Elise recommended a nice type of adhesive from Paper Source, but I used my hot glue gun since it was handy.

I'm so inspired by this project, that I want to make a large wreath for over our fireplace that we can display year-round. Thank you, Elise, for sharing this project!

A Few Thoughts on Christmas

Last year, I bought most, if not all, of the girls' Christmas presents at the consignment shop. I just had really good luck, and I found great gifts. This year I didn't have as much good luck. So, I ended up buying new stuff in the store. Not everything, but a few things. I broke some of my rules this year--one being that I wouldn't buy stuff that required batteries. (We do have a supply of rechargable batteries and a charger, so we can deal with a few battery-requiring items.) But, toys that require batteries are not my favorite. The other thing is that storebought stuff always has packaging, whereas thrift shop stuff doesn't. When we were done opening presents last year, there was basically no trash--I think there was one piece of packaging that we had to throw away. I recycled all of our wrapping paper and that was that.

Another rule that I broke was buying storebought stuff made out of plastic. Plastic toys aren't my favorite either , but I did buy two plastic toys this year that I couldn't find on eBay, Craig's List, or Freecycle.

I do have to mention here, that I have a few things from the consignment shops, AND my friend Polly gave me a big container of Legos and a set of dollhouse furniture for the girls. Both vintage. I cleaned everything up, and Brendon made a few repairs to the furniture, so these recycled toys will appear under the tree.

It's also a little harder this year because Ellie is getting bigger, and she knows what she would like Santa to bring. She didn't ask for too many things, which is nice. And the other day, she told me she didn't want Santa to bring too much because we already had a lot of toys. I told her we would share the toys that she and Robin had outgrown with other kids. She likes that idea a lot, thankfully. (I've really been trying to get her involved with Freecycle.)

Next year, I hope to do better. I wanted to make reusable cloth bags this year to wrap our gifts, but I didn't get to it.

Here are my other ideas for next year:

-Start early on everything

-Try again to shop at thrift stores and consignment shops, Craig's List, eBay, and Freecycle

-Try to make as many gifts as possible

-Give books! There's no packaging!

-Buy gifts on Etsy whenever possible

-Buy gifts from local artists whenever possible

-Wrap gifts in cloth bags or recycled materials (my friend Serene is doing all recycled wrapping this year and she inspired me)

-Try to get Ellie and Robin to make gifts for each other and for Daddy

-Give to as many charities as I can

-Do more vegan holiday cooking and baking

Any other good ideas? Send them to me!

Dot Tree: Simple Christmas Craft for Kids

Okay, so this is going to be my first tutorial. It's a very simple Christmas craft for kids. Even the tiniest of artists can make this.

Dot Tree

Materials needed:

• white dot stickers (or colored dot stickers, which are helpful for the littlest of artists)
• colored construction paper
• markers, crayons, or colored pencils
• gluestick
• hole punch
• string
• optional: cardboard

Instructions:

1. Cut out a triangle for the shape for the tree. Cut out a small rectangle for the trunk of the tree. (Older kids can probably cut out these shape on their own.)

2. Color the dots. (Toddlers can just scribble on the dots or they can use pre-colored dots.)


3. Stick the dots onto the tree.

4. Glue the trunk to the bottom of the tree.

5. Optional: cut out a star shape and glue it to the top of the tree. (I happened to have a star punch, so I punched out the stars.)

6. Punch a hole at the top of the tree and put a short piece of string through the hole and tie a knot. (I used red embroidery floss, but any string or yarn will work.)

Optional: If you want a more durable tree, you can glue it to cardboard prior to applying the dots.

Voila!

Splendid Blue Wren Coloring Page

I got the inspiration to create my own coloring pages from Made by Joel. Joel offers really cool coloring pages--I love his art work and his blog. You can find it here. So...here's the first one. Hope your little ones enjoy it! (I think if you click on the image you should be able to print it. Please let me know if it doesn't work.)

Recycled Advent Calendar

I really wanted to create a handmade advent calendar this year, so I started Googling advent calendar ideas. I found a wonderful tutorial for a recycled advent calendar here at Craftastica. Ellie and I made this out of paper bags and catalogs that were in our recycle bin. (I also used some packing tape to reinforce it.) It was a two-day process, which was hard on a four-year-old, but we were both so excited about the result. Every day we move the purple paper clip along to the next number, and the girls get a little treat.

When I found this design, it dawned on me that anytime I want to find a project online, I should put the word "recycled" in the search. Recycled art projects are so fun because you can usually find what you need around the house--no running out to the craft store. And, it's eco-friendly. So...you'll be seeing another recycled project in an upcoming post.

Sock Puppets

Recently, Ellie asked me if we could make sock puppets. I just happened to have some socks that I was getting rid of, and I had the same thing in mind. I Googled "sock puppet tutorial" and I found great instructions for a no-sew sock puppet here at Simple Up. The puppets came out fantastic. We just used old socks, scraps, and craft stuff that we had around the house. (And a hot glue gun.) Ellie wanted to make a prince and a princess, and we had a little puppet show after we made them.

Ellie named the princess "Buttercup." (Now she wants to watch "The Princess Bride." Is that okay for a four-year-old?)

The prince...

And the puppet show...we use one of our chairs as the stage whenever we do puppet shows...

Catching Up

It's been a while, I know. So, I have a few things to catch up on...

Sometimes I take Ellie and Robin for wagon rides around our neighborhood. We go up North Avenue to Laurel Avenue, which is a really pretty street. We have some favorite things that we see...some stray cats; some gardens; our friend Annette, who is a poet and gardener; and my favorite tree. I don't know exactly what kind of tree it is, but I want to have one someday. I think it's some sort of ornamental Japanese maple. The reason I love this tree so much is the amazing color that it turns in the fall. It's a firey, orangey, coral sort of color. When I started my gratitude journal last year, my first entry was about this tree. It just blows me away. I took pictures of it in the summer and the fall. (My photos don't do it justice.)

Over the summer, I went to Ohio to visit my friend Polly. I hadn't seen her in so many years, and it was a short but wonderful visit. When I was there, she gave me some things for the girls--one being a complete set of vintage Danish modern dollhouse furniture. We're going to give it to the girls for Christmas, and we're on the hunt for an appopriate dollhouse to go with the furniture. I made some blankets and pillows for the beds. Just a quick 5 minute project with scraps...

And, I've been working on a little bird ornament. I made him from scraps, too. I was thinking he could be a prototype for future items in my someday Etsy shop...I hope to turn him into a pillows and soft toys.