You wish you got this white elephant gift I made...

Christmas Traditions Calendar Gifts

Here's the Christmas crafty gifts I've been working on all week!  Finished all 7 last night (one for each sibling's family on both sides + us).  The idea was originally from a friend's blog last year, but then I took it and ran with it in my own way, thought about it all year.  It's an 8x10 black picture frame w/ calendar pages behind it (7 versions/pages behind the glass, one for each possible arrangement of dates within the month of December so it should last forever, just bring the current year's date arrangement to the front each year).  I added rub-on embelishments to the outside of the glass (each one's a little different). I put on a 5/8" velcro dot into each grid square.  I cut 1" circles out of coordinating cardstock scrapbooking paper (with a punch).  Wrote on each circle a Christmas Tradition (this is why I asked for traditions on FaceBook about a month ago :) ).  Velcro'd them on in random order.  Made a white cardstock envelope and adhered it to the back of the frame and put in 5 extra blank circles w/ Velcro on them so they can write in their own family traditions to add to the mix.  The idea is that they pull this calendar out at the beginning of each December with their Christmas decorations, the kids all pick what little Christmasy thing they want to do when and rearrange all the pieces on the calendar, and then the family does one simple little Christmasy thing each day in Dec, most not requiring any $$.  Kinda fun!  I can't wait to do it :)  Calendars are going out in the mail today to the family....24 people's Christmas gifts...DONE!  I have the calendar template as a Word document if anyone wants to make one- I can email it to you.  I hope you & yours have a great Christmas season filled with fun traditions!

Here's the LDS version (I changed out some of them for non-LDS traditions for my family members):

1. Decorate the tree then have a family slumber party in front of the tree with the lights on all night

2. Snuggle up, sip eggnog, & watch a Christmas movie
3. Pick up peppermint hot cocoas & drive around looking at Christmas lights
4. Deliver a plate of cookies to your next door neighbors & sing a Christmas carol
5. Build a snowman
6. Go sledding
7. Bake and decorate Christmas cookies
8. Eat a seafood dinner
9. Put candy canes on the Christmas tree
10. Call your grandparents to chat & tell them you love them
11. Deliver a meal to a family in need or donate a meal’s worth of food to a food pantry
12. Slow dance with your loved ones to Christmas music w/ sparkling cider
13. Make/buy Christmas pajamas to wrap up
14. Blare Christmas music & take family picture at the top of the stairs
15. Go plead your case to Santa at the mall
16. Write your letters to Santa & drop in a mailbox
17. Buy a toy to donate to Toys for Tots
18. Ice skate
19. Go for a walk in the crunchy snow to look at stars
20. Tell the nativity story & act it out
21. String strands of popcorn, cheerios, or fruit loops & hang on the tree
22. Make a red and green construction paper chain to count down the days until Christmas
23. Sing Christmas carols together as a family
24. Make shepherd’s dinner of warm soup & bread, sit on blanket, and tell the story of the shepherds
25. Share holiday traditions stories from cultures around the world
26. Watch Luke II (The Nativity) film w/ the song Breath of Heaven playing in the background
27. Go to the temple
28. Buy/Make an Christmas ornament to represent your family’s past year
29. Read a Christmas story
30. Make reindeer food with hay, glitter, & carrots- leave in a paper sack on the mantle for Santa to take
31. Share something you’re grateful for and your goals for the coming year

Yes, I could have made a calendar filled with just food traditions, but I'm trying to get away from the food-focused nature of holidays!

October Cards

August Cards

August is the coolest month for a birthday

In My Next Hundred Years

Thanks to MadCity Gal, I'm in love w/ these canvas projects, now! Looks like I might be ordering some more vinyl lettering soon, Amy :)







So cute!

June Cards

This is what 25 birthday cards look like at midnight on June 1st. I am a big fatty procrastinator, can you tell?

(I make then sell cards to my boss for use in our business for our clients- these are for June birthdays- coming up w/ creative ideas every month is tricky so I'm always up for good ideas if you have any- these are a spin off of an Archiver's sample project last month- my favorite places to "borrow" ideas from are Archiver's emailed newsletters, Stampin' Up demonstrators emailed newsletters/websites, & other creative websites)

Merry Christmas!

Doug and I will be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning here at our place in Madison. I'll be cooking all morning and then Christmas mid-day we'll be headed down to my brother's house in Rockton, IL for the Tinkler family Christmas shin dig at 2 pm. My oldest brother Mark's family will be driving in from Virginia- so the whole family will be together! Yay! Really late that night, we'll be headed to my parents' in Huntley, IL, then the next day we're getting a family portrait taken in Beloit, WI and celebrating my niece's 12th birthday at a pizza place around there. Then we'll be relaxing the 27th through 1st with Doug's family in Batavia, IL. His brother Matt's family & his brother Jeff's family all get in to town on the 27th- it's an inlaws year for Christmas ;) So hopefully if you're a Batavian, give us a jingle and we can meet up.

We hope everyone has an awesome and safe Holiday Season!!!

5 Little Nieces

Doug and I have 5 nieces & 5 nephews on my side of the family, and 2 little baby nieces on his side of the family. I just finished the diaries for my 5 nieces last night when I went to Archiver's Scrap Mania with some friends and I'm so excited- wanted to show them off!


^Britney is almost 12, plays basketball, and is going on 17 :)


^Jordan is 10, and just got her black belt in Tae Kwon Do


^Breanna is 8, a little girl scout, very girly but intelligent


^Alaina is 5 and a girly girl and snuggle bug


^Jazlyn is 2 and a total beach baby. This will be more of a doodle book for her :) Got the bigger journals for the oldest 3 girls since they have the most drama to write about :)

Now, just gotta figure out 5 little nephews' presents....obviously nothing crafty, but I'm thinking of buying books? Any good suggestions? They're 9, 6, 6, 5, & 3 I believe.....

Grandchildren

So I've been going down almost every Saturday for the last few months painting my parents' house in Huntley, IL. This is one of the decorating creations I've been helping my mom with. It's her "Grandchild Wall" displaying her 10 grandkids. Soon we'll be adding her 3 granddogs. For mother's day, I got her the vinyl lettering (Thanks, Amy- You're Awesome!), she already had the shelves, my sister-in-law Bethany got her the 3 Willow Tree figurines, and my sister Laura got her some picture frames. Dad put it up a couple of nights ago for Mom and here it is!