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

Gray skies bring out the hipster in me.

  

I find it much easier to be fashionable in the winter.  Don't you?  Boots. Skinnies. Shirt. {P}leather coat.  Scarf.  Maybe a hat.  Done.  So what if it only varies slightly each time right? The only person who sees me on a regular basis is Darin.  And lets be honest.  He is stoked to see me in that cuz I don't have sweats on ;) And being monochromatic is very hip of me don't you think?  

Sometimes a pop of color is good though. Yes?   As soon as I saw this sweater at H&M I knew it was coming home with me.  I'm pretty sure I have wanted it all of my life.  It is kitchy, it is coral-y red and the reindeer are perfectly Scandanavian.  Which goes really well with my Scandinavian coloring.   Speaking of which Ivy has informed me that my hair is not blonde.  Sniff.  Its just the Instagram filter sweetie. Don't let the Walden fool you.  Also if you want to feel really good about your *rear view*  just try on clothes at the Washington Square H&M in Portland.  The mirrors will do your body image good.  Seriously.  

And to get Ivy back for the non-blonde comment I'm posting a picture of her five year old fashion sense. This was her awesome church attire on Sunday.   I failed to teach her not to wear socks with sandals.  But apparently she picked up on the whole monochromatic thing. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Thank You Cards {free printable}

I feel like I am saying thank you so much these days which is a good thing.   I don't mean because its Thanksgiving and we are feeling more grateful than usual.  I am just blessed to have so many great people in my life that uplift, inspire, and help a girl out every once in a while.  I made a thank you card to give to a couple people.  I just printed them out on kraft paper and wrote a little note inside.  Feel free to grab a bag of Cadbury eggs to give along with your card.  Yes I saw them, just today in Christmas colors.   Crack I tell you.  

And since this is my 400th post I thought I would thank you too.  You can download {for personal use of course} your own thank you cards HERE.   Print, cut and fold and don't forget the cadbury eggs!