Gearing up ...

... for the holidays.

Can you believe tomorrow is December 1st? And that because of the way the calendar falls there are only 3 weekends until Christmas day?!? I know how fast time moves around here and 3 weekends is not very long at all.

So, I thought I would share the crafts I'm planning to make as well as share some inspirational blogs for holiday crafting ...

I've chosen to do three crafts this year, which on top of sewing Christmas gifts, baking, decorating and wrapping .... will be plenty for me. I didn't want to set myself up for failure, so I choose three that I knew were workable in my schedule that would not leave me stressed out or regretting the amount of money I spent on them.


Craft 1 - Cardboard Christmas Wreath, by Elise Blaha
~ Elise's blog is full of handmade Christmas inspirations ... this is the one that stuck out to me. I love the green and white color palette, but if I can't find that in my scrapbooking stash, I'll go with what I have. My total cost should be somewhere around $0. :) My plan is to hang this one on the mirror in our entry way.

Craft 2 - Flower "Poinsettia" Pinwheels, by Heather Bailey
~ I loved these from the moment I saw them in the December Creating Keepsakes issue. I'm so happy Heather shared them on her blog ... her tutorials are beautifully done. My cost to make 5 pinwheels will be around $5. I probably could have found papers that worked in my stash, but choose to use a 50% off coupon at Michael's and get a pack that matched the look of our tree and decorations. I'm not quite sure where I'm going to put these yet, but I know they'll be adorable wherever they end up.


Craft 3 - Tree Forest, by Amy Butler
~ Thank you to Kelly who shared her latest Home Companion magazine, which featured an article about Amy Butler's home at the holidays and included several free patterns, with me. I loved these trees and knew I could make them very quickly and I think they'll look lovely on my sofa table. I think Kelly is making them too, so I'm excited to see how ours compare (I always love when two people are given the same project and can have such different end results). What I didn't expect is that Styrofoam cones are expensive. I think with material (yes, I bought more, but could have/should have gone through my stash) and 3 cones this one will be around $20.

I'm also excited to do some kid crafts with Ethan in addition to our annual baking and gingerbread house.

Now about advent calendars ... I love advent calendars ... and any mom to a small child should love advent calendars as they cut down (a little) on the "Is it Christmas yet?" questions. However, as much as I love advent calendars, it's been hard to find one I like (or am willing to pay a ridiculous price for when I do like it). I'm picky, shocking I know, and didn't really want cardboard or chocolate involved in the advent calendar. So, last year I made my own, which we'll use again and again and again. I love it.

Well this year we'll also add another advent activity, which I read about right before Christmas last year. Lucky for you, I just saw another post about it, where they called it "25 Storybook Surprises." Basically you gather 25 Christmas/Holiday books (new, used, old, borrowed from the library) and wrap them up and put a number on each one. Then each night in December you open a book and read it. I've gathered at least half of what we need and I plan to get the rest in the coming days from the library. If you don't have 25, you could always do the 12 days before Christmas too.



You can find other great advent ideas here, including the adorable little birdies above, as well as many wonderful crafts for the everyday.

I'd love to see what you're up to in your little craft part of the world. Please leave me a comment so I can stop by and see :).

Happy Sunday and Happy Creating!