Light Bulb Snowmen

  Today, I'm sharing another craft of Christmas past. I cannot take credit for this idea, but I did help make these. Several years ago, my sister-in-love & mom-in-love saw or heard about this idea & decided to give it a try. Well, I would say that they very successfully pulled the idea off.

  The idea is to up-cycle used lightbulbs & make them into cute ornaments for your Christmas tree.

Here are the supplies used:

• Light bulbs
• FolkArt Clearcote Acrylic Sealer *See note below*
• White paint
• Felt
• Pom-poms in different sizes
• Googly eyes
• Twine
• Pipe cleaners
• Mini teddy bears
• Letter beads
• Thread
• Hot Glue

**Update: To view my step-by-step tutorial with step-by-step photos, click HERE.**

They started by painting the light bulbs ahead of time. ** Update: my sister in law told me I missed a step. "You need to add that we sprayed the lightbulbs before painting them...with FolkArt Clearcote Acrylic Sealer otherwise the paint just peels off." Thanks so much, Jodi!! **

Then, the fun began. This is where I came to help.

• Cut strips of felt for the hats (or toques as we call them here in Canada) as well as the mittens. 
• Attach twine to the hats & make a loop to hang the ornament
• Add eyes
• Add pom-poms for earmuffs, noses, & buttons. (You can also add them to the tips of the hat, as I did in the second picture on the blue hat)
• Add a pipe cleaner around the base of the hat as in the second picture, if desired.
• Attach mittens to twine & glue in place (leave some room loose at the front of the mitten for the next step)
• Make them personal by adding a name or sentiment with the letter beads. String them onto some thread & glue the ends under the ends of the mittens.

Here's our little snowman/woman family:

  If you'd be interested in a more in-depth tutorial, leave me a comment & let me know. If there's interest, I can certainly whip up another one of these with some photo directions. Pictures would certainly help with the hat portion of the instructions as that can be hard to explain. 

  We bought a mini white Christmas tree for our family room this year. The kid's decorations (including these) & my nutcracker decorations grace its branches. We're lovin' it!

Enjoy your day!

Linkin' Up:

The Artsy Girl

Christmas Fudge

  Christmas is the season of sweets. Cookies, cakes, pies, candies... and Fudge! 

  For as long as I can remember, I've loved fudge. I remember visiting The Fudgery in Banff, Alberta every summer & being able to choose my very own piece of sweet, gooey fudge from their vast selection of flavours. Another great part of the fudge shop was the big window they had in the front of their shop. You could stand outside & watch them make batch after batch of their amazing creations. 

  Several years ago, I found this super easy fudge recipe. It's a very versatile recipe - you can add whatever extras you want! Dried fruit, nuts, marshmallows, peanut butter, cookie pieces, candies... Let your imagination run wild! My kids love the marshmallow version so that's usually what I make.

Basic Chocolate Fudge

Makes about 2 lbs.

3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 can sweetened condensed milk

dash of salt

1-1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 Tbsp melted butter (if adding extras)

Over low heat, melt chips with sweetened condensed milk & salt. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla (and butter, if using). Fold in extras if desired. Spread evenly into wax paper lined 8 or 9 inch square pan. Chill 2 hours or until firm. Turn fudge onto cutting board, peel off paper & cut into squares. Store covered in refrigerator. Also freezes well.

Extras:

If you're putting in any extras, add 2 Tbsp melted butter to fudge mixture. Then fold in 2 cups of marshmallows, nuts, candies, cookie pieces, dried fruit, etc.

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Enjoy your fudge creations!

Linkin' Up:

Chef In Training

Ta-Da Tuesday

Today's Creative Blog

Crazy Sweet Tuesday

The Artsy Girl

Spool Tree Ornaments

  Wow! Is it really less than a month until Christmas? Are you busy getting ready? I sure am! This weekend, it looked like my craft room threw up... I had so many things on the go. It was such a mess! I can't forget how blessed I am to even have a craft room to mess up... The last two houses we lived in, I didn't have that luxury.

  Here's one of the projects I was working on. Vintage spool tree ornaments. I found the vintage spools at a thrift shop this fall. I had pinned this idea on Pinterest & knew exactly what I was going to do with them. They turned out so pretty!

Supplies:

• spools (vintage or new)
• glitter
• all-purpose white glue
• sheet music or other paper
• pearl beads
• buttons
• wire (I just used Christmas tree ornament hooks)
• small wire working pliers 
• hot glue

Instructions:

1. Start by running a small bead of glue on the edges of the spools. Roll in glitter. Let dry.
2. Cut strips of sheet music or other paper & adhere to the centre of the spools.
3. Glue buttons to the bottom of the spool with hot glue.
4. Shape your wire into curly-cues & add pearl beads. Add a twist on each end of the bead to keep it on the wire. Glue into top hole of the spool with hot glue. 
5. Call your friends & brag to them about your pretty Christmas ornaments!

They look so nice & vintage-y on our Christmas tree. 

A set of these would also make a fabulous gift... especially for a seamstress or fellow crafter. :) 

I'm definitely going to keep my eyes peeled for more of these little goodies. 

I hope you're starting to enjoy the Christmas spirit & have had some time to start your preparations.

Enjoy your day!

Linkin' Up:

Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Craft-O-Maniac

Made By You Monday

The 12 Crafts Of Christmas

Everything Under The Moon

Tuesday Talent Show

Mommy By Day, Crafter By Night

Today's Creative Blog

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The Artsy Girl

Holiday Highlights

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Literally Inspired

Astute Information

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Home For The Holidays

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Tatertots & Jello

Christmas Blocks

  Today I'm featuring another craft of Christmases past. These blocks have been in our family for decades in one way or another. My brother & I played with them as children... seriously. They were just plain wood blocks back then though. When I was a teenager, I found them in a box of old toys & decided to make them into Christmas decor. I painted them in alternating red, green, & navy. Then I stencilled the letters for "Christmas" on them.

  After I was married & decided to go a little more contemporary with my Christmas colours, I repainted them silver & added rub-on letters to spell Christmas & with the one extra block I had I spelled "Merry" with sparkly little letter stickers.

  I've enjoyed these fun Christmas blocks so much over the years! This year, they're sitting on the bar top between our kitchen & dining area.

  If you'd like to make set of blocks like these, you'll need:

• wood blocks
• paint
• letters (rub-ons, stickers, stencils, or stamps would all work)

I'm off to do some more decorating around here. My daughter & I did some more Christmas baking yesterday. Come back next week for another Christmas recipe & lots of other Christmasy things!

Enjoy your day!

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Shine On Friday

Winter Banner

  I've started to decorate our home for Christmas at last. Thanks to all my fans on Facebook who's "likes" showed me that they had already decorated their homes for Christmas! It showed me that I was not too early by any stretch! I've been putting decorations up bit by bit & our Christmas tree will be going up this weekend.

  This being my first Christmas blogging, I thought I would share with you some of my Christmas crafts of the past as well as some of my collections & special decorations.

  Today, I will begin with a winter banner I made a couple of years ago.

Please excuse the plastic coated window! ;)

  I made it with chipboard shapes I purchased from Stampin' Up! I painted the snowflakes & stars silver or white, punched holes with my Big Bite & connected them with blue ribbon. So easy!

If you would like to make something similar, here's what you need:

• Chipboard shapes
• Paint
• A heavy duty hole punch such as a Crop-o-dile or Big Bite
• Ribbon

  And since it's wintery, not just Christmasy, we can enjoy it into January & February.

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Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers!

Enjoy your day!