Take a fancy picture of your tree

For those of you with fancy cameras, you should try taking a picture like this. Full instructions are here.

Miniature knitted ornaments

My mother-in-law asked me to gather some free patterns for her so she could knit up some quick ornaments. I thought I'd share what I found on Ravelry to inspire you.

 

 

More fun ideas for the holidays

How cute are these little gingerbread houses? You can download a pattern and see the tutorial from notmartha here.  They are based on the recipe for these amazing gingerbread snowflakes from Martha.

Don't want to do all the work to make the houses and put them together? Buy these cute cookie cutters and be done with it. The cookies sit on your mug!

Need a partridge in a pear tree to round out your holiday giving? How about this beautiful linzer cookie?

Looking for some last minute knitting projects? These are two of my favorites that I've seen in the last two weeks.

I love this destroyed cowl. Pattern is a free .pdf on Ravelry here.

You can wear it long like this or around your neck twice more like a scarf.

Who wouldn't love these bunny slippers? CRAFT magazine offered up the free pattern here.

How about a quick project for a little kiddo in your life? Here's a free pattern for a felt crayon holder.

Are you inspired?

Make your christmas lights fancy

Learn how to use a manilla envelope to make your lights pretty here.

Advent calendars

This year we were excited to get Playmobil advent calendars for the kids. They seem to love them. But the obsession on 'stuff' this year is a little out of control. Maybe it is just preschoolers, but I'm guessing that it only gets worse. For some reason I thought the toy calendars would be better than the cute chocolate ones, but they are still focusing on the stuff and not what we are counting down toward (ie Baby Jesus!). So next year I am going to either make a felt advent calendar like this one:

[Instructions for similar one here.]

Or I am going to make an activity one using baby socks like this one:

Instructions here. I love how simple this is. I was thinking I would fill it with activities for us to do as a family or to help prepare for Christmas. Any tips?

Make something cool: sweet deer

I can't wait to make this! Headed out to buy some felt for the deer body today and will likely make him look a little more like this or this. Download a free pattern here. Cute!

Creative gift tags

Here is a great little gift card that looks like a vinyl record. You can see the tutorial here and download .pdfs of the artwork so you can make your own.

Make something cool: coffee sleeve wreath

What a great way to reuse coffee sleeves! I love simple crafts that you can do with the kiddos, and there is no reason you couldn't use other textures of cardboard from the recycle bin. Check out the detailed turorial here.

Make something cool: gift card wallet

Are you giving gift cards for Christmas? Add a home made touch by making these cute little wallets.

Peanut Butter Balls

We discovered these delicious candies this year. The kids love helping me make them and they are great little gifts too! Instructions are here.

free: holiday funtime garland

what a cute craft to make with your family! click on the link to the image and look at the biggest one to download and print. think we will be making this in the next day or two.

the girls

How cute are these little girly clothespins? Super fun gift for the kids friends, I'm thinking...

More holiday things to make

I have a few more things to add to my list...

• Snow globes
• Rock animals

I'm sure there will be more that we come up with!

How can you resist these?

make something cool: ruffle skirt

Very fun project for little girls! Check out the awesome tutorial here.

make something cool: mitten ornament

I saw this pattern last year and didn't get around to making them. I love this little ornament and am hoping to squeeze it into my holiday crafting this year. You can find the free pattern here and see how the oliver + s folks are using them for an advent calendar. Cute!

Thanksgiving activities for kids

I was just printing out some fun things for us to do today with my preschool aged kids and thought I'd share.

• Activity placemats and another one here
  
• Pilgrim booklet (reading and coloring)
• The colors I eat on thanksgiving booklet
• Other booklets
  
• More printables

Have a great day with your families!

Thanksgiving

This is the first Thanksgiving I'm hosting in a very long time. And I'm getting excited. I've simplified the menu this year and am only making the things I care about most:

• Turkey & gravy
• Stuffing
• Sweet potato casserole
  
• Cranberry sauce

Everything else (rolls, drinks, pie, etc.) will be bought this year and brought by my parents or in-laws. Possible exception - I think my mom will bake a Marionberry pie if we are lucky. Yeah!

But as I look around my messy house, I'm realizing we are hurting on the decor front. And I haven't thought about a gratitude project so I need to get crackin'. Some good ideas for decor (I mainly care about the table at this point - it is a little late for everything else!):

• Mayflower centerpiece
• Turkey placecards and more here
• Quick natural placecards (I actually have a handful of these I picked up outside the knit shop a few weeks ago)
  
• Finger puppets
• Awesome corn husk votives
  

I heart owls

Click on the image for more information. You can download free owl brushes for Photoshop here.

Photoshop lesson 2

Scrappin' fun

I'm taking another Photoshop class from Jessica Sprague and I really like it. This is the layout I made during the first lesson:
And while this may look simple, I think I had almost 40 layers in Elements before I finished. I even turned the photo to sepia manually and colored in Carter on his bike. I'm feeling very fancy right about now.