A Handmade Christmas Tour

I am a SUCKER for Christmas decorations!! This year I really wanted to try and keep it simple because with the two little ones running around and touching/grabbing/examining/tasting/etc., etc, etc.,  EVERYTHING, who knows what they could get into....and what a coincidence that this is our first year as a "single-income" family at Christmas, so there isn't a lot of "extra" money falling out of our stockings for new decorations!! I tried to take a lot of what I already had and my trusty craft supplies and make some new "holiday cheer" for our home.....

 Advent Calendar

the red and green rectangles are actually card stock sewn together to make pockets to hold the "treat"

I made this ornament using some gold Mardi Gras beads and hot gluing them onto an old gold ornament (idea found here).....now if I could only find a project for the bazillion purple and green beads we have floating around the house :)

I took that same idea and made this ornament using some red "jewels" I used to have on a candle tray... I can just hear Gracie now, "oooohhh, look mom, rock candy:)"

Gracie and I had a lot of fun making these block ornaments for our tree (idea found here)

a coffee filter Christmas Tree

A wall hanging for a picture of the girls with Santa

(we haven't gotten around to that yet, hoping to do it this weekend, although I'm sure it will just be a contest to see who can scream louder because they are terrified of him:)

A student of mine gave me this bell a couple of years ago, it is so pretty, but very LOUD.... this way it makes no noise so I can enjoy it even more

My sweet friend Caroline and I got together a couple of weeks ago to do some Christmas crafting and we made these covered letters

*We also made another SUPER cute craft, but I can't post it on here because most of my family will be receiving it for Christmas :)

We made these for our neighbor who ALWAYS brings in our trash can for us (he probably just gets tired of trying to avoid it with his truck after its been sitting out for 2 days since the trash came), our other neighbor who asks if we need anything from the store when she sees us outside (isn't that so sweet?) and finally, the librarian who is so patient with Gracie when she insist on showing her the craft she made like 12 times.

(idea found here)

and the best handmade artwork I've ever seen :)

Thanks for stopping by!!