Gingerbread (well technically Graham Cracker) Village

Last night was our annual gingerbread house making  night. We have done this for the past few years, and I honestly think it is one of the boys' favorite Christmas activities. Maybe because they get to play with candy...or maybe because they get to sneak candy while they are decorating:)

Jason constructs the little houses out of graham crackers and confectioner sugar icing, and then we basically have a free for all with our candy bowl and a few candies bought just for our gingerbread houses.

My {semi-ocd} house with lots of red and green. I saw the cute double stack bushes on another website, and bought those little gumdrops just so I could have cute bushes outside my gingerbread house:) There is also a cobblestone walkway made out of a variety of brown jelly beans.

Jason's perfect house has a Bubbletape roof and cute Christmas lights along the roof line. He also added windows out of yellow gummies and Swedish fish bushes all the way around his house.

Henry got creative with the decorations in his "yard" and made some cute lollipop and lifesaver lamp posts. He also added a really cute chimney that didn't make it through the night:) You can see it on the plate on the left hand side...we can try to reattach it later.

Grant had a free for all with every kind of candy we had. He added lifesavers to his roof along with a tootsie roll. He made a Swedish fish door and a {not very sturdy} Swedish fish fireplace on the back of his house. He also made bushes similar to mine, with what he called 'snow' made out of gum on top of them:)

Eli's house was completely made by Eli...and by that I mean he even used some of his spit to get things to stick! He would find a piece of candy, suck on it for a few minutes, and then decide to stick it to the roof of his house. He also got caught a few times sneaking things off the roof of his house to eat:)

Thanks for visiting our Gingerbread Village...I hope our little houses have inspired you to make your own village this year:)

Because Everything is Better with Glitter

Back in September, the boys and I gathered up some really cute little pine cones while we were out of town for our family reunion....yes I have been saving pine cones since September to do this project:) I actually put the pine cones in my glass jar during the fall, but I knew they needed to be fancied up a little bit for Christmas. So here are my Glittered Pine Cones, and a step by step just in case you have been saving pine cones for months too:)

 Start with your pine cones, spray adhesive, glitter in any color you would like, and brown paper lunch bags.

Lay your pine cones out on a protected surface.

 Open up your lunch bags and dump a pretty good amount of glitter into them. One color per bag...or you could be wild and mix them all together:)

 With your pine cones on a protected surface {aka newspaper} spray them with a liberal coat of spray adhesive.

 Drop your pine cone into the lunch bag, seal the top, and shake it around.

 Carefully remove your pine cone making sure to knock off any of the excess glitter...and you have SUPER cute Glittered Pine Cones!

 I did mine in red, green, and white but I think these would be really great in all white or maybe a few different shades of blue.The great thing about this project is that it is easy to modify to fit your decor!

 I think they look great in my glass container...much fancier than the plain ones before {because everything is better with glitter!}

 And just because I was in a glittery kind of mood, I also did made some cute glittered trees {as seen on eighteen25}. I sprayed the cones with adhesive, dropped them into the paper bag, gave them a shake, and then hot glued them to some glass candle holders from the dollar store.

cute, quick, and cheap...my favorite kind of craft!

Have you glittered anything today:)

Please Tell Me...

{I'm not the only one who still has a list a mile long.}

 {I'm not the only one with a sink full of dirty dishes.}

 {I'm not the only one who still has a ton of baking to do.}

 {I'm not the only one who has one sad present under the tree...and no tree skirt.}

{I'm not the only one who can't believe we only have 9 days until Christmas!}

Wordless Wednesday: Working on Teachers' Gifts

2010 Christmas Cards

It took a few hours of browsing, but I finally picked and ordered our Christmas cards!

Can I just tell you again how much I LOVE Shutterfly!

Here is our card for 2010:

Color Me Merry Christmas Card

Click here to browse hundreds of Christmas card designs.

View the entire collection of cards.

If you haven't ordered Christmas cards yet, you still have a few more days before Shutterfly's deadline. Hop over and check out all the great cards they have to offer, and while you're there you can also check out all the great gift ideas too!!

Simple Snowman Snack

Christmas is a great time for fun snacks! Here is a quick and simply snowman snack that even the kiddos can help make:)

*A FEW HELPFUL TIPS*

You can put the marshmallows either way shown above, but I found that the marsmallows tend to spin out of place if you put them on like the one in the middle.

Dip all three marshmallows in melted candy coating and let the excess drip off before you start to decorate.

Put the Twizzlers in the freezer rolled up in the shapes needed to make the smile and the top of the earmuffs. This helps them stay curved while the candy coating dries.

Empty Frame Wall

My third craft using all those old, dusty frames isn't exactly a craft, but I did manage to find another use for them! They are now decorating the ones very plain wall in our half bath. I love the look of a big wall of empty frames, but I really had to sell it to my hubby before he would help be hang them up:)

 Not too bad for free! All I did was pop the back and the glass out of the frames, Jason pulled off the metal tabs in the back, and they are simply hanging on a small nail.

And because we actually redid the entire bathroom, I figured I would share pictures of the finished project. Let me just preface these pics with: It is REALLY difficult to take good pictures in a tiny bathroom that has no natural light!!

 Jason put up some great textured paintable wallpaper that I found at Lowe's. One roll cost $18 and I think he only used half a roll to cover the one wall in our bathroom. We used paint from our living room....mainly because that color is hard to coordinate with and the half bath is right by the living room. It was also a nice perk that I didn't have to spend money to buy paint!

 I picked up a big frame at Hobby Lobby for 50% off, and spray painted the garbage can and basket with black spray paint.

 Jason hung up this new mirror that I ordered from CSNstores.com. I love it! It was such a great price, and the mirror is really great quality! I painted a few extra pieces of the wallpaper and framed them, and we added a new towel rack.

Our half bath went from boring beige walls, to chic and colorful with a few days work and not a whole lot of money.

Recycled Frame Wreath

I have been wanting to make a square wreath for a while...the only problem was I couldn't seem to find a wreath form that was square! So when I decided to finally do something with my big stack of old dusty picture frames, I realized that I didn't need to buy a square wreath form:) I could just recycle some old frames and turn them into a cute wreath! 

Recycled Picture Frame Craft #2

I started with an 8X10 frame {that's what I had on hand, but I think a bigger frame would look even better},
some red burlap, and some fun polka dot Christmas fabric.

I cut the burlap into long strips that were about 4 inches wide, and I cut the polka dot fabric into long strips that were about two inches wide. You are going to layer the polka dot fabric on top of the burlap, so you can make your pieces any width that you like, just make sure that the burlap is bigger so it can be seen under the polka dot material.

Layer the polka dot material on top of the burlap and the make ruffles.

**Use whatever technique works for you or google instructions for how to make ruffles, because I have no tips on ruffling...I had a really difficult time with them {this is the project I was working on when I burned my thumb with hot glue}! I'm even thinking of getting a ruffle foot for my sewing machine after the fun I had trying to get my ruffles to work:)**
After you get your ruffles made, line them up along the length of your frame, measure, cut, and hot glue them in place.

Use your hot glue gun to add a strip of fabric or some coordinating ribbon to the top of the wreath as a hanger, and then marvel at how lovely your old dusty picture frame is as a Christmas wreath!

My sweet friend Liz is having a fun Countdown to Christmas every Thursday in December. Hop over and check out all the fun Christmas things that she and everyone else are doing this year:)

Wordless Wednesday: Boys and Beignets