white Christmas village

Dollar Store Crafts had this fantastic idea to paint little dollar store villages in one single color-awesome, right? So I did.

 I used the trees I've collected over the years. The silver one is new this year-from guess where? - Dollar Tree! It was the last one, sadly, as I would have bought more.

 I cut out a snowy little table runner from white felt.

 It took almost a whole can of white glossy Krylon spray paint to cover these 5 houses and about 5-6 coats!  Totally worth it!

above photo from Dollar Store Crafts

family mugs

Disclaimer!

Hopefully no family member are reading this or your gift surprise will be spoiled!

This year our family members are getting personalized mugs. I bought inexpensive white mugs and used this pen to write on them.  It was only about $4.00. The pen is dishwasher resistant and microwave safe. I first bought this pen and it sucked, so I took it back to Michael's and traded it in for the Vitrea 160 and it worked MUCH better. I tried it in the store just to make sure.

To get the font I wanted ( I used Gungsuh) transferred to the mug, I simply took a lead pencil and scribbled all over a scratch piece of paper and used blue painters tape over to tape it on the mug. I then put the printed out font paper on top of the "transfer paper." I had to adjust some of the longer names because of the shape of the mug-otherwise it would have been slanted.

Next I filled in the transferred-on letters with the paint pen. I followed the directions on the label (let sit for 24 hours and then put in the oven at 325F for 40 minutes and DONE!) I will fill them with hot chocolate mix and marshmallows, coffee beans or tea, depending on the recipient.

I even made one for myself and one for our son- he gets the one with a fox on it :) I love the way they turned out.

felted owl mobile

Oh how I love mobiles!  I love hanging things (except plants) for some reason. I love hooks to hang key, coats and hats and I love towel hangers--anything like that.

I had so much fun with my first attempts at felting I decided to branch out from sheep and make something else. whoooo whoooo should I use as a model?...a snowy white owl!

  I added some felt leaves with embroidered veins (is that what they are called)?

 It's a long way down!

Now I need more ideas of what to felt next!

turkey from a nature walk

My son and  I went on a walk and collected all we needed to make a turkey for the Thanksgiving table.

+

 +

=

little girl gifts

My friend is having her third baby-a girl after two boys! She is very excited and so am I. She came to visit this past weekend so I had the opportunity to make a few baby girl gifts.

My friend's last name is Dillard so I made this little freezer paper stenciled onesie with....

...what else? A dill pickle.

And what little girl is complete nowadays without a huge flower perched upon her sweet tiny head?

My mom made my friend's bridesmaid's dresses when she got married several years back so she had some scraps left over. How exciting! I used the same technique as here for the flower headband.

I think it is my favorite burnt edge flower yet!

owl pin

Our neighbor gave us some tree stumps for our backyard renovation (more on that later) so to thank him, I made some banana nut muffins. The only problem is I only have little flimsy white paper plates. Not a very nice presentation. Then I remembered the felt bags that I Am Momma-Hear Me Roar made that I used for "boo bags" this year. Perfect!

I made one without the handle. Then of course, it needed decoration. Since owls have been all the rage and I can't seem to shake them either, that's what got made for the bag. When I was thinking about if I wanted to sew it or hot glue it, I thought "Why not make it functional?" So I made the little owl into a pin. Now our neighbor's wife can pin it on her bag, or her coat or a wreath or wherever she chooses.

sheep birthday party!

It's time! Our son turned two this week and I've been totally excited about planning his sheep party. As you already saw, I posted about his sheep pillow (which he LOVED!) and sweet felted lamb. Here are the rest of the decorations and party goodness.

Cupcakes! The sheep on the cupcakes are made from gum paste. Mr. Woolie is perched on top.

He wore his sheepie Halloween costume at the start of the party and then changed into his "2 sheep shirt" (see below)

Here is his costume. I made it basically following Martha's directions. However, I had to make it a little more personal. I bought wool and felted it myself. I loved learning a new process. I used a onesie with the arms cut off (I could only find long sleeved turtleneck onesie, so I cut off the neck too) instead of an expensive leotard. I bought girl's black leggings and a black long sleeved shirt (which of course was a 4-5T and I had to make it smaller). My mom made him the fleece and felt hat. We used pink knit for the inside of the ears. This is my favorite because he can wear it all winter.

 Cute little lamb checking out the cute little bunny.

These were taken at our Halloween Festival at church. You can even see a little hay stuck to his bum! How's that for authentic?

Opening the sheep pillow gift. Total joy!

At the last minute I made myself a sheep shirt too. This is the best photo I have of it. It's made the same way I made the invitations. I just basted the felt sheep onto the shirt with invisible thread.

The guests were greeted at the front door with a sign to come on in. The sheep were cut out from an article in Country Living about Fiber Farm --check out their informative and fun blog.

As guests stepped in the door they were met with two  "2 sheep trees" with cut outs of sheepies and  twos.

For favors there were magnets with our son's photos from his 2 year photo shoot. We gave these out last year too. My friend Sandy takes his photos each year and also took his newborn photos. She's fantastic! To make these, all you do is buy see-through scrapbooking tiles and button magnets. In a photo editing program make your photos the same size as the tiles (in this case 1"x1") and place the tile over the photo and press hard. Then glue gun the magnet on the back. To display them I cut out a large sheep and pasted him onto large pieces of paper. The magnets hold the paper to the back or a cookie sheet (test your cookie sheet first-not all are magnetic.)

Here is where some of those felted sheep ended up. I cut paper hills and sky glued them to cardboard. Then I pinned the sheep with straight pins and added flowers from an old lei, again with pins and stuck it all in a black spray painted frame. The sheep were prizes for the game we played (toss the sheep in the jar).

Here is one of the winners in action!

I ran over to Michael's when I got a 50% coupon of a Martha item and bought a sheep hole punch for under $5.00 and made the cut outs into banners strewn around the house.  I got a lot of mileage out of this punch.

I also used the punch for sheep around the cupcake stand (which is really just a platter set on top of a wide mouth vase. I used that stuff you use to stick posters on walls with to temporarily affix them together).

I used the cut-out part of the paper for bookmark favors with some twine on top. How easy is that? Plus, everyone needs book marks, right?  I am always searching for one and tearing off pieces of paper to mark my spot.

I also used the sheep punch to label the toppings for the baked potato bar.

And while I did not get a chance to photograph the baked potato bar, I did recreate two little cheeses with, once again, Martha's sheep punch, stuck on top of a toothpick. Here is a terrible nighttime photo. The lamb plate was one of the prizes in the sheep toss game.

At the last minute I picked up some sparkling pear and apple cider, but did not plan for cups since I had planned to only have beverages already in individual containers. I happened to have some of these cups and drew some sheep on them.

I made this reusable birthday banner and we used it for a backdrop for photos of the guests with the birthday boy. This is my favorite photo of the night with Uncle and Gigi. (Great Grandma).

 The sheep is just stuck on with a safety pin so next year's theme can be incorporated.

It's also the photo where his "two sheep shirt" is the most visible. The birthday boy had several wardrobe changes, as his sheep costume is not really eating-ready.

2 year old + chocolate cupcake and chocolate icing = 1 dirty sheep.

This was the most fun party to plan for. I love having a theme that is personal to our son. He really loves sheep. "Bop" (aka sheep + baaaa!) was one of his first words and he still loves them (except they are "sheepies" now!)

Wheeew! I think that's it!

Happy Birthday my sweetest pea!