Too Early For Christmas?

Not in my book is it too early for Christmas!  With the school quickly approaching which means back to work for me, crafting time will be very limited!  I'm getting a jump start on my holiday craft fair projects this year--no waiting til the last minute this year.  Here are two of the five wreaths I've made over the weekend.  I really enjoy making them and they don't take a lot of time at all.  I've got it down to 52 minutes start to finish.

*pattern paper and chipboard embellishments used here are from Crate Paper-

"Snow Day Collection"

You'll see a lot of different methods out there to make these curled paper wreaths.  They all work, this was just my preference.

Supplies:

1 - 10" styrofoam wreath ( has to be the hard smooth foam, not the kind the sheds when you touch it)

6 -12" x 12" sheets of pattern paper (doesn't have to be double sided)

1 -box of dress/straight pins (the ones with the flat metal head that look like a nail)

paper trimmer

 bone folder

tulle/ribbon

I started by cutting my paper to 1/2" strips (getting 24 strips per sheet of pattern paper).  Once all were cut I used my bone folder and curled my paper just as you would with scissor with curling ribbon.  Start in the center of  1/2" x 12" strip and curl to one end, then do the other. It will look like two loops meeting each other at the center.  After they are all curled you can design as you like, you can see in my first one I used 6 different pattern papers and kept each pattern together.  One the second one I used three different pattern papers (2 of each sheet) and scattered them throughout. One thing to note:  double sided papers are a little harder to curl (depending on the brand/manufacturer) and you may have to curl each strip twice.  However, they make wreaths that are much fuller while the single sided papers make a tighter curled wreath.  You can see how the top wreath I made using my favorite manufacturer (Crate Paper--Snow Day Collection) is more full and the empty space in the center of wreath is smaller than the second wreath.  Both look great, and I actually like the white on the back of single sided paper showing in spots because it breaks up the patterns in spaces.

Thanks for stopping in!

~Kerri

Snowman Soup

  Today is my day to share a holiday project idea at Practical Scrappers, and here's what I came up with-- my altered to go insulated coffee cups. I found these to go cups at my local Joann's in their bargain bins for $2.50 each ( and I used my coupon to over the holiday to get another 20% off ). These cups I made for my kids' teachers to go with the other little gift I made for them. 

These were super easy to make! When I got the cups they had another piece of paper in them. I traced them on my favorite paper (Crate Paper -Snow Day Collection) and embellished with the matching chipboard, cardstock cut outs, and cardstock borders.

Here's a look at just one of the cups up close. Next, I filled each cup with a package of hot chocolate mix, a bag of mini marshmallows, and added a Wilton peppermint swirl candy cane which you can see down below.

Finally, I made my little "snowman soup" tag. Now, there are a couple of different poems out there for "snowman soup", but I picked the one I liked best and printed it out. Here's an up close picture of the tag which reads:

Was told you've been real good this year

Always glad to hear it!

With freezing weather drawing near,

You'll need to warm the spirit!

So here's a little Snowman Soup

complete with stirring stick.

Add hot water, sip it slow,

It's sure to do the trick!

Again, these are super quick and easy gifts that are great for teachers, secret Santa exchanges, friends, or just anyone that you want warm their spirit this holiday season. Thanks for stopping in and don't forget, only 14 more shopping days left!