Gingerbread Houses

Ivy counts down the days for lots of things and gingerbread houses is one of them.  We have bought kits in the past but this year we decided to make our own from scratch.  Lets just say there are pros to buying the kit.  BUT it was fun and we all pitched in to make it our very own.  Darin cut out templates for us and we all had to hold it in place while the frosting firmed up enough to stay.

This little guy kept trying to get us to give him candy.   Sorry buddy, just because you have teeth does not mean you can eat candy canes.  That smile won't change my mind either. ;)

The very hardest part for me is letting Ivy decorate it.  But after 6 years I am getting the hang of it.  Its not a magazine worthy gingerbread house by any means but really I couldn't have made one perfectly either.   Sometimes I feel like I give up on doing things because its not going to be done just right.  That it isn't how I pictured it would go or some silly thing like that.  I'm learning from my family that creating memories with them is doing it perfectly.  That a six year old's version of a gingerbread house, is awesome.  Or that the majority of the ornaments on the tree hanging from the bottom branches is just how it should be.  Because we did it together, and that is the best way to do things.  

Happy Christmas!!

Happy  Christmas everyone!  Its been a magical day here.   It is even snowing!  We made a video for our Christmas card this year that I hope you will watch.  I hope your day is a blessed one.  Thank you for being a part of our lives.

Rock the night away | Printable

Are you guys ready for the last of my Instachristmas tags?  Just like all the others there are lots of ways you could use this but here's how used this one.  

One of my dearest friends just had a baby.  On 12.12.12  Lucky little guy.  SO when I chose Rock the Night Away I was thinking more along the lines of a mama rocking the night away with her new babe. So I put together a cd of some quiet Christmas songs.  We downloaded this Fireplace Sampler from The Music Bed a few weeks ago and have found some new favorites on there.  I also made a Lotta Jansdotter swaddler (its a free pattern) and a blanket for the little.  Then I wrapped it up and mailed it off to our far away friends.  

Rock the Night Away Printable

I've uploaded the printable to google docs again for you to download!  As always free but if you love it maybe donate a dollar to our adoption fund!  You could make a party sampler to give to a friend,  I cut an envelope with my silhouette that is the perfect size for a disc. Or if you are giving an itunes gift card to a friend this would be a cute way to package it up don't you think?! Are you done with your Christmas shopping? I just have a couple things left.  EEK!  Its less than a week away!

PS.  I've been using this shape for a cd envelope

and this library pocket.   

Check out the other Instachristmas tags!

Cup of Cheer

For Your Mistletoes 

For your mistle toes| printable

I finally found a minute to show you guys my next InstaChristmas tag!  I was going along all fine thinking I had a ton of time to get things done before Christmas.  Then this week happened and I feel like I have no time left!  

Sometimes though no matter how busy I get I always find time for things like adding touches to my dining room wall. Its been 3 years and I finally hung some of my favorite things on this really big wall.  I took a canvas and painted it with chalkboard paint so I could change it as often as I wanted. 

For your mistle toes! What a fun idea huh!  I kept it simple and used a circle punch to make little tags to tie on to some of my favorite colors of nail polish.  {jag-u-are. stylenomics. clambake.}  Chalk, hole punch, and some twine and you are done!  You could also use the tags to put on homemade foot scrub, or a cute pair of boot socks.  Really, just like the cup of cheer tags, there are a lot of fun ways to use these little guys!

 Mistletoes square Mistletoes 2

I made two versions of these tags.  One is these square tags perfect for cutting in to circles.  The other is a little bit bigger to add to a box for gift giving.  You can download them from google docs, easy peasy!  As always these printables are free to download, or you can click on the donate button and maybe donate a dollar to adoption fund.  

Are you guys feeling the sudden crunch of time for Christmas too or is it just me?!

Be sure to check out the other Instachristmas tags!

Cup of Cheer

Rock the Night Away

A cup of cheer | Printable

Ask and ye shall receive!  I've uploaded the cup of cheer pdf to google docs for you to download!  It is a PDF that you can print on cardstock and use for gift giving this year.  {Personal Use Only}

Have  a cup of cheer tags

I printed mine on white cardstock and then rubbed chalk on them to give a more authentic chalkboard look to them.  I also like to rub some black ink on any cut sides so the white edge doesn't show.  

Uuummmmm.... I feel weird about this and I don't quite know how to ask.  But we are friends right? 

I love being a stay at home mom to Ivy.  I love making things and sharing it with  you guys.  I also really want to adopt a baby.  Which it turns out can be kind of expensive. And it can be hard as a SAHM to come up with ways to help out with extra expenses sometimes ya know? So I thought I would try and use my resources.  If you love a free printable that I share, and want to download it to use, would you maybe donate $1 to our adoption fund?  Its done through paypal so its super easy and only takes a second.   Just click the donate button under the printable, or on my sidebar over there.   Of course you don't have to.  NO PRESSURE!!  You can totally download them for free and I'll be so happy that you loved it enough to use it and spread some holiday cheer! Mmk thanks. End awkwardness. 

  I hope you guys had a great weekend!  Ivy and I got invited to attend the Nutcracker on Saturday.  It was a first for both of us.  I know, how did I get to be 33 and never have gone?  Well we loved it, especially my little ballerina.  We got all dolled up.  Ivy even wanted her hair curled.  Which is a really big deal by the way.  

She added my leopard scarf to her ensemble.  Besides the whole socks and sandals thing, she can be a regular fashionista.  But holy cow isn't she gorgeous.  I love her to the ends of the earth.  Even when she makes me be the nutcracker or the rat king ALL day long.  She has been a dancer/ director/ stage hand/ costume designer almost nonstop since Saturday night.  The creative energy never ends with that girl.  

Happy Monday!

A major award!

This morning my instagram notifications were going crazy!  That's weird I thought, since I didn't take a single picture yesterday.  Fail.  But oh man I was so excited to see why!  

Eek  I won!  Rhonna Designs picked me!  Woot.  Darin is so proud  :)  Thanks to Rhonna and all of her cReative team for your amazing inspiration.  And of course I'd like to take a moment to thank InstaChristmas, which has made all of my holiday dreams come true ;) Cup of Cheer!  Cup of Cheer! Oh man, I need to lay off the Christmas movies.  Doesn't that sound like the Chair of Cheer from the Grinch?  I hope you guys are having a good Friday! 

PS watch Instagram this weekend for more InstaChristmas sneak peaks!

Santa's Little Helper Service Project

At church I got a new calling working with the 10 and 11 year old girls.  I love it!!  These girls are so much fun.  My only challenge really is that there are 20 of them!  It is hard to find things to do with them that we can get done in an hour.  We kind of have to keep it simple.  So this week I decided to turn them all in to Santa's little helpers.  

I saw the idea on The Fickle Pickle and switched it up a little bit to go with the holiday, since its December and all.  I found some $1 Santa hats at Walmart, grabbed a couple of boxes of candy canes and put my own elves to work putting together 20 Mission Possible packets.  I used the the printables from The Fickle Pickle's original post which are super awesome!  She even has a list of service activities to do.   Because of the Santa hats I went ahead and used 9x12 manila envelopes.  I put together a subway art tag for the front and was done.  For the subway art I used a couple of lines about elves from Christmas movies that were in my head.    We have been watching the Santa Clause kind of a lot so thats where a couple come from.

The girls loved it and it was fun to hear them get excited about all the different things they could do for others.  They make awesome elves!

Have a cup of cheer.

Have you been loving all the chalk art that has been popping up?  Just when you thought the chalkboard was done, too.   I was patiently awaiting Rhonna Designs to release her InstaChristmas because I knew it would be perfect for adding some chalk art to my home for the holidays.   In fact the only thing I bought on Black Friday was InstaChristmas.  Well besides a trip to Voodoo Donuts I guess ;)  I have been adding it to my instagram photos and playing around with it in photoshop as well.  I really, really, totoally like it. 

Over at Rhonna's blog she is having a tag contest so I came up with a little gift tag that can be used lots of ways for gift giving this holiday.  Using a chalkboard background in photoshop I came up with this little guy.  Ivy has been walking around singing this song and I couldn't get it out of my head!

I made a fill page for the back side and was able to fit 9 of the 2.5x3.5 tags on a sheet of paper.  I printed it out on white cardstock and cut out each tag.  To give it a little bit more chalkiness I rubbed chalk over the whole design and then wiped it off.  Use a black ink pad to ink the cut edges for extra measure too.  

I think it would be a fun hostess gift to tie a tag on to a bottle of sparkling cider.  And even more fun would be to get those mini bottles and have them for New Years Eve!  Oh, man.  How cute would that be?!  

I've been wanting to try the sharpie mug thing so I decided to actually make a cup of cheer.  I got a mug from Target for $3 I think, and using a circle stencil and a bronze sharpie I put some confetti dots all over the mug. 

 While my mug was baking {at 350 for 30 minutes}  I made a pocket for a packet of hot chocolate.  I printed out the chevron fill page on kraft cardstock and then cut a library pocket like the ones I used for my advent with my silhouette.   I love seeing the design peeking out from the inside.  I backed my tag with some red striped paper and glued it to the front.  I tucked the hot chocolate, along with a mug rug and a box of chocolates into my fun new mug to give as a gift to add some cheer to a dear friend's day.  

I might even make up a couple more of these library pockets to stick some Starbucks gift cards in for quick gifts to give to friends and teachers.  So many ideas for one little tag!

EDIT!!
You can now download your own Cup of Cheer tags by following the link below.  And read about how you can maybe help with our adoption HERE

CUP OF CHEER PDF

PS you can check out the other instachristmas tags too!
For Your Mistletoes
Rock the Night Away

Inspire Me...So fun I had to share!

I've been bringing back Inspire Me posts because I love sharing beautiful pictures or fabulous things I've seen around.  This weeks is a little random post of awesomeness and fun things that I just had to share right away.  

Handmade Ryan Gosling. So so funny.   The one about the craft stuff everywhere made me think of Darin.

If you have an apple device run to the app store and get the Red Stamp app!  Its free and fabulous.  As my friend Julie said... its a marry-able app.  It sends cards right from your phone by text, email or post em online.    Now you don't have to stress about not having a Christmas card done!

My friend Marilyn is fabulous and she did the most fabulous thing with her instagrams.  I use a lot of exclamation points when I talk about how much I love this.  You can get your very own calendar in Marilyn's etsy shop.

Source: katiespencilbox.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

 A Let your Heart Be Light printable banner tutorial from Katies Pencil Box.  I love the sparkle.  

Source: abeautifulmess.typepad.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Every time she posts a hair tutorial I die.  I love the color and her style.  Slowly but surely my hair is growing out again.  Hopefully next holiday season I can rock it.  

Source: thirtyhandmadedays.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

I heart these free snowflake embroidery patterns.  Found on 30 Days Blog.

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What has been inspiring you this week?

Photoshop Tutorial | Using FILL to make your own patterned paper

The other day I gave you a gift tag download I made using colourlovers.  Colourlovers is a rad website where you can make your own palettes of colors and you can use all of the designs, color them and come up with some fun patterns.  You can then use the patterns in Photoshop to make your own printable paper.  

So hurry and sign up  for colourlovers so I can walk you through how to make a fill in photoshop. Then you can make all sorts of fun paper for Christmas tags or just about anything else.

Lets start with this polka dot pattern.  Once you have found the pattern you like * don't worry I will wait * you can then change the colors from grayscale by clicking on each color box and finding the colors you want.

{Its a little detailed so click through to get the full tutorial} 

Making your packages Merry & Bright {download}

One of the best parts of all of the treat and gift giving this time of year is the packaging.  Don't you agree? I've been heading to the post office just about every other day with happy mail I have been sending for Ruffled Sunshine and gifts I've been giving.  Luckily I have a post office just down the road in the grocery store so I can skip the lines!

If you would like to make someone's day Merry and Bright, get the tag printables by clicking through...

Gingersnaps are my fave.

Around here Santa Claus's favorite cookies might be Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies.  But Mrs.  Claus LOVES her some gingersnaps. In fact Mrs. Claus loves them so much she only makes them once, maybe twice, in December so that they are a special treat.  After she makes them she has to promptly give them away or put them in the freezer so that they don't all get eaten!  This year a sneaky little elf has discovered the joy of gingersnaps too.  Her little hand snatches those cookies every chance she gets.  

{A friend brought me these cookies after I had surgery a few years ago and they instantly became my most favorite cookie.}  

Every year we leave out cookies and eggnog for Santa. We also make sure and leave a carrot for Rudolph.   Rudolph loves carrots just like Ivy.   

Santa leaves a little bit of magic {glitter} behind and a note thanking Ivy for the cookies and for being such a good girl that year.   We'll be leaving gingersnaps for Santa {and Mrs. Claus!} this year. 

What do you leave for Santa at your house? 

  

Mindy Gledhill. In Concert

Remember when I went to this magical concert last year?  Well she's coming back to town.  

Mindy + Christmastime.   Doesn't that sound fabulous?!  So click here so you can snag your tickets to the show.  

Presented by Marilyn Lott

Artwork by Lindsay Stoyan

Photo by Jefra Starr Linn

Five Gratefuls

... my cozy home and Christmas tree lights.

... not just learning new things, but using what I learn.

... black ink + kraft paper

... a friend that braves the cold every morning.

... little girls that cuddle up on my lap and are snoring 2 minutes later.  

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{inspired by Passionista}

A Little Service. Advent

Can it really be December already?  I love December, don't you?  I've had advent calendars on my mind since I've been putting one for our family together.  It just needs to be hung and I can't wait to show you.   Until then I wanted to share this little service advent calendar we made with our Young Women at church last night.  

On our schedule was a service activity.  But we also wanted to  help them have service on their minds for longer than one night, especially during the holidays.  So I came up with an easy way for them {and I} to perform service all month long, keeping Christ more centered in our Christmas.  

It is simple to put together and  if you want to make one for yourself, I bet you could even get it done today and not miss out on a day.

I found the envelopes in the gift bag section at Michaels.  I think they were $3 for 25.  I cut numbers with my Silhouette but you could use stamps or any number stickers you have on hand.  Hole punch the top and string them all together.  Tuck in a card with an act of service to do each day, and you are ready to count down the days to Christmas!  

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PS... The winner of the Level Up Intro To Photography class is Italia!  Thanks so much for entering!  And I'll let you know when the class after Christmas is so you can learn how to use your new Christmas Presents!