Christmas Mantel!

I really wanted to do something new & fresh for my mantel so with a few decoupage letters and some cheap wrapping paper I have a new look. What do you think? If only my IPhone could capture my fun blinking lights. Christmas time is upon us!! Noel! ;)

My Favorite Christmas Idea

My favorite Christmas idea was one that just included a little bit of ribbon & tape. I thought it turned out really cute and it is a great way to look at my Christmas cards every day. Maybe I'll keep it up for a couple extra weeks. Here are the details, if you feel you need directions. I used straight pens, not clothes pins. I felt they held the cards in place better so when you open and close the cabinet, you don't have to worry about showering your kitchen with cards. (Oh, and don't get offended if your card isn't on here, I ran out of room. Next year I'll do it on 2 cabinets.) :)

Christmas Favors!

I love that Lily is in preschool for at least a hundred reasons and one of them being that I get to be crafty & creative for a lot of special occasions, like Christmas! Today was Lily's Christmas party at school and she is so excited. They get a fancy Chick Fil-A feast and sing Christmas songs and have a book exchange, I'm excited that I get to take part in the festivities and get to see her celebrate with her friends.

First, I thought I'd show off my favor ideas for each little kid in her class. I thought they turned out really cute! Thanks to 2 Muses for the great idea on the Reindeer Dust!

Here is a picture of my chocolate dipped candy canes & the writing on the reindeer dust!

and now, here is my sweet girl at her first school Christmas party! She had a great time. 

Christmas Time is Here!!

It is now "officially" Christmas time! I am so excited about all the new ideas I have for Christmas this year. I've already hung the Christmas countdown rings and wrapped the Christmas books for Lily to open one a day leading up to Christmas... and the ideas keep flowing! From my daughter's preschool class, Christmas parties and get togethers, I hope to have lots of excuses to use all the ideas and creativity flowing through my head. Here are a few of my recent projects to get Christmas started!

I tell ya, getting an active 8 month old to put his hand prints on anything is a challenge, I was happy to get his hand prints at the top of my canvas hand-print tree and that was a 2 person job! It turned out cute though. :)

The crafts of a power outage...

This last weekend, we experienced a few power outages, so I utilized the time without tv to do some fun fall crafts.

The first one we did was a great idea I saw on Pinterest, a ghost canvas with the kids' foot prints! I love how it turned out. I know it is only September, but I already hung it in my house!

I also took a scrap of wood leftover from some new shelves and with some cute cut outs from the cricut and some mod podge, I made a reversible mantel decor piece. I'll have the fall side out until Thanksgiving and then switch it to the Christmas one. A decor item for 2 season in one piece!