day 184: ribbon christmas trees

the finished ribbon christmas tree :)

day 184 and the weather outside is frightful .... so windy it is making me grumpy!  time to lock myself indoors and make something pretty.  today's pinterest creation can definitely be defined as pretty, the ribbon or paper christmas trees made with polystyrene cones popping up all over pinterest are so beautiful they were on my list of must do's for this festive season.  my sweet friend dee made two a couple of weeks ago (one ribbon and one paper) and hers looked so cool it confirmed my desire to make them!  i pinned two different types of these trees to my christmas is coming board, this one is from polished to perfection and uses paper to make the tree and this one is from whipperberry and uses twisted ribbon to complete the christmas tree.

i thought i would use a combination of both tree types to finish my tree.  i went with ribbon as it was on sale (50c a metre!) but i didn't want to deal with twisting it for my first attempt so i am just going to do straight forward loops.  just a word of warning, when dee made her tree she went through rolls and rolls of ribbon so if you are going to do ribbon make sure you have heaps of it and it's not to expensive ribbon otherwise this project is a costly one :)

to complete this project you need ribbon or paper, pins or hot glue, and a polystyrene cone.  this tree is going to end up in pollyanna's room so i have used the colour palette from her room as opposed to christmas ribbon and it's got a sheen to it ... she's a girly girl.

i found it easiest to make the loops with the hot glue and then attach them all around.  i ended up with three different lengths of ribbon for the loop making: three rows of 4", three rows of 3 1/4", and then three rows of 2 1/2" ribbons before doing the top.

starting out with the hot glueing of the loops

going up!

the finished tree!

and there it sits happily in pollyanna's room :)

outcome:  i love the finished effect. it looks really sweet in polly's room too. actually i love it so much and it was so easy to do, i think i will make 3 red ones for the kitchen!  definitely going to be making a bunch of these over the coming festive seasons, easy and you can totally make them to fit with your decor :)

a big thank you to both whipperberry and polished to perfection for their tutorials.  both had wonderfully handy hints in them, each offering different advice and that really helped.  together these tutorials worked an absolute treat for today's creation.

day 159: christmas pillows

pillow for christmas

day 159 and i am going to do some more preparing for christmas.  the month i spent doing just halloween creations really made me embrace that festive holiday and i loved having all the different decor around the place.  i want to make sure i do the same justice to christmas because it really is just like the song .. "my favourite time of the year".  i thought i would start with my mum's room and create a christmas cover for this pillow (below) that adorns her bed.

my gran made this for her mum, she was VERY talented :)

i feel in love with this design by allisa jacobs on etsy, isn't it cool. if you are not undertaking no spend november you can purchase this gorgeous pillow without the hard work from here. they really do look beautifully made with love and care, as with everything in her etsy store.

as for me, i am going to use the things i have here at home and attempt my own using allisa's inspiration.  i measured the pillow so i could make the slip cover to the right size (as that seemed like the best idea!) then pinned the cushion cover to the size i wanted.  i didn't sew it in place though as i wanted to sew the christmas trees on first before finishing the pillow. also seemed like a good idea ;)  i went with red trees as my mum's room is full of greens and, well, you know the tradition of these two colours and christmas!  i did heat transfer the trees in place with heat'n'bond before sewing around them.  for me this is the easiest way of doing it so nothing moves.

the fabric i grabbed to start this project

 once the trees were in place i finished off the pillow cover just using an envelope style closing so it would slip on and off for the festive season nice and easily :)

trees sewn in place

the finished pillow :)

outcome:  the red trees worked really well in my mums room and i am pretty happy with the design of the tree placement! as always just need to get better at the sewing side :)  not as pretty as the needle work from my sweet gran, but it will put a festive glow in my mum's bedroom.

my sincere thanks to allisa jacobs for the wonderful inspiration i used from her pillows that you can buy from here. allisa also has a blog that has wonderful design inspiration and do-it-yourself decor to ogle over ... i stopped by and forgot to make dinner : )

day 154: christmas book advent

the books for the christmas book advent

day 154 and the christmas bug has well and truly taken hold of my pinterest creations.  today i am making the first of a couple of advent countdowns for the family.  this one is dedicated to the kids and their love of reading and art.

the magical idea came from oopsey daisy's alison. when i saw her idea i pinned it to my christmas is coming board knowing it would be perfect for my kids even though they are much older than her little man. the concept is that you wrap up 24 christmas books so each day during advent you open up the book and read it with the kids then do an activity that has a synergy with the book you have just read.  the nice thing is the kids have a little surprise to open each day and a new activity to reinforce the message in the book ... fun times :)

i actually think as long as you adapt the craft and books you chose for your children and situation, this is a really awesome idea for all aged kids.   my kids can read but they still love me reading books to them and they adore baking and crafting, thus making it a perfect thing for us to do all december.  if you are pushed for time or christmas books maybe do a twelve days of christmas one :)

below are the list of books i am using and the activity that will go with each one:

1. A Letter to Santa - Writing a Letter to Santa
2. A Kiwi Jingle Bells - Make Strawberry Jam
3. The Littlest Christmas Tree - Decorating our Christmas Tree
4. Slinki Malinki's Christmas Crackers - Making Crackers for Christmas Day
5. Christmas in the Little House - Bird Feeder
6. How the Grinich Stole Christmas - Make Candy Canes from Pipe Cleaners
7. On this Special Night - Make a Fabric Pillow to Gift to a Friend
8. Christmas Comes to Mrs Mouse - Make Fabric Little Houses for your Friends
9. Mr Men: A Christmas Carol - Make a Mr Christmas Pudding Bean Bag
10. Angelina's Christmas - Bake Christmas Tarts for the Neighbours
11. Grandma's Kiwi Christmas - Pohutukawa Picnic
12. Santa's Kiwi Holiday - Go to Mission Bay to Make Sandcastles
13. Berenstain Bears Save Christmas - Gingerbread Cupcakes
14. The Christmas Caravan - Make a Christmas Star out of Tinfoil
15. Mog's Christmas - Make Christmas Stockings for the Kittens
16. Polar Express - Polar Express Hot Chocolate Party
17. Mrs Wishy Washy's Christmas - Home Made Bubble Blowing Solution
18. Snow Bears - Making a Teddy Bear
19. Mr Men: 12 Day's of Christmas - Make a Card for Raya and Deliver her Present
20. The Christmas Story - Ice Block Stick Manger with Hay and Baby Jesus
21. Jolly Old Santa Claus - Brownie Reindeer
22. Santa and the Reindeer - Reindeer Gingerbread Biscuits
23. The Night Before the Night Before Christmas - Make Christmas Tree Ice Cream Cones
24. A Kiwi Night Before Christmas - Make a Cricket Pitch Ready for an Afternoon Match

the books to be wrapped :)

a lot of the crafts have (of course!) come from searches on pinterest and so i have HAD to make a new board called 2011 Advent Crafts.  the links on the activities above will take you to my board that has the activities listed and linked their.  

as always on the day the kids and i make the creations we will blog about them right here with rightful thank you's to all the glorious owners of these wonderful ideas.  but for tonight all my thanks goes to oopsey daisy's alison, she is truly talented and has imagination to envy.  thank you alison so much for blogging about your christmas book advent, i can't wait for december to start so we can get into it :)  ok that's it for today, i'm off to wrap 24 books now the kids are asleep!

  

day 153: countdown to christmas free printable

a dry erase christmas countdown :)

day 153 and i have a christmas countdown on my blog but not in the house ... shame on me!  today we solve this small issue with a free printable countdown from sarah at life {sweet} life.  not only does she have a free printable to frame for your christmas countdown, but sarah also offers it in two colour choices of red or green ... now that is sweet.  the free printable is designed to go into a picture frame with glass so you can use it as a dry erase crhistmas countdown.

this is a perfect because i have lots of frames so i don't need to buy anything for this project, although i could have done with a magenta printer cartridge :(  i printed the red version of the countdown out confident i could find a frame to match the size ... i couldn't.  i did, however, find a very christmasy looking frame that was a 6 x 4" frame so decided to go with that and print the image out again at that size.  only this time my printer told me i was out of magenta ink and would need to print in greyscale .... WHAT (P*@#*&$(*  this is when no spend november came and bit me in the behind today.  no more colour printing for another 21 days, yikes!  and that folks is why i have been forced to have a chosen greyscale christmas countdown.

my first choice red one, shame about the fact i didn't have
a frame for this size ... measure first then print

the greyscale option with a frame that fits!

happy days, a frame with a print that fits :)

nested christmas countdown in the the rest of the greyscale
decor!

outcome:  luckily i have planted the frame in with some black and white photo blocks so it doesn't look too bad ... but a lot less christmasy than the red one i had planned to use.  love the free printable though, looks great in a frame.

thanks goes to sarah at life {sweet} life for the wonderful free printable that has two three colour choices, it is brilliant and can easily be adapted to any size frame you have ;)