Decorating with Holiday Cards

Every year, we as Moms and wives will move mountains to get a good Christmas picture.  We coordinate outfits, make sure hair is done and shoes are clean.  We get that perfect shot, plop it on our Christmas, mail it out and that's it, done for another year.

Well I came across this idea on Pinterest and thought it was a great way to display those beautiful Christmas cards we work so hard for.  Here is my inspiration:

Originally found at Indulgy.com

AND

Originally found at Ashley Winn Design

I just so happened to a have a railing just like this one and I actually liked the way the finished product from Indulgy.com looked so I followed that one most closely.  

I went to Michael's and bought some craft wood.  Each piece was just a little bigger than the size of my Christmas cards.  Then I got some holiday scrapbook paper.  I had glue and ribbon at home.  I forgot to take a picture of all my supplies before I used them (sorry I'm cramming a lot into this holiday season!).  

I wrapped each board in a different piece of scrapbook paper.  I used a stapler to secure it since the paper is a bit heavy I wasn't sure if glue would stand the test of time.  I wrapped them like you would a present.  Then I took Modge Podge and mounted each photo on.  Once they had a minute to adhere, I put a coat of Modge Podge over the entire thing to seal it.  I let them dry over night and drilled a hole for the ribbon the next morning.  

Here's my end result:

Overall I was happy with these.  I may change up how I do this in the future but I like the general concept.  I also may use their photos with Santa too.  I got the wood and scrapbook paper from Michael's and both were on sale.  I maybe spent $5 on this project.  It was easy, inexpensive and came out nice...plus each Christmas I am able to see how my family has grown and changed!  So, with that start saving your Christmas cards because this gets a PIN!

A Holiday Gift Basket Idea Inspired by Pinterest

Whether it's your kid's school, a gift exchange or a donation, every holiday you always get that one request for a gift basket, am I right?  This year I was asked to do a donation in the form of a gift basket for a raffle at my son's pre-k.  I was sick of doing the old "movie night" basket or any of the other traditional gift basket ideas so of course I went to Pinterest.  

I had no idea there would be so many ideas!  I didn't think gift basket themes were such a popular topic of discussion but it turns out they are!  Visit my gift ideas board to see some of the cute ideas I found.  

I didn't really find exactly what I was looking for but this basket jump started my creative juices.

Originally found at Harmon Raffle Baskets

I liked the idea of a Christmas themed basket but I wanted to use one of the remaining black pashminas I had from my sister's shower (see how I used those in this post) among several other new items I had bought and never used for what I intended.  I was thinking about all the things that happen during the holidays and it clicked....holiday parties!  There is always at least one if not more to go to and you're always worrying about how you're going to look, so the Winter Glam basket was born!

Here's the end result:

The basket contained:

• A black pashmina scarf
• A scarf pin
• 2 OPI holiday nail polishes
• A travel size lotion and body spray from Bath & Body
• A lip mask and lip balm from Mary Kay
• A faux diamond bracelet
• A nail file

I wrapped it up and put some nice ribbons on it but left them off for the picture so you could see the contents.  With this project, I don't really have a pin to rate pin or pass, but the idea of using Pinterest for gift basket ideas gets a PIN!  

Thanksgiving Turkey - A Kid Craft

If there is anything I've learned in my four short years of being a parent it's that if you want to keep your kids out of trouble, and by trouble I mean not tearing apart your house, you've got to find ways to occupy their little minds.  Sometimes life gets in the way and you can't always be super Mom but some days the planets align and you get to wear your cape!  I'd been seeing some cute Thanksgiving crafts on Pinterest so I decided we'd try one.  Here was my inspiration:

Originally found at Preschool Crafts for Kids

I of course did not plan ahead to do this so as I started gathering my materials together, as both of my kids were screaming, and realized I had no paper plates.  Not a problem, I improvised and grabbed an empty diaper box.  Instead of having to color the plate we got to skip a step cause the box was already brown.  

Starting supplies for our Thanksgiving Turkey Craft

For those of you that don't know, I have a 4 year old and a 1 year old.  They are both VERY busy bees so I had to move quick!  I traced their hands on different colored construction paper and let my 4 year old cut them out (he's big on using scissors these days because he's learning about cutting on the line at school).  In the mean time I cut a circle out of the turkey and made a part that would be his body.  

Giovani cutting away!

Next I had my 4 year old start gluing which he also loves to do.  We added googlely eyes, a gobbler and a hat (as per Gio's request) and here's the finished product.

This was easy and cheap.  Best of all it took us two mornings before pre-k to finish so it kept him busy for a bit.  PIN!

I've got a lot of projects in the works so I'm not sure what will be up next, so just stay tuned for more!