The Virtual Advent Calendar Revisited

It's hard for me to believe that last year at this time, I was doing the Virtual Advent Calendar.

Everyday in December leading up to Christmas, I did a holiday project inspired from my collection of vintage craft books.  If you're looking for some last minute decorating or gift ideas, many of them had tutorials.  Just click on the photo above for the Virtual Advent Calendar Posts like:

Bottlebrush Christmas Trees;

The Plastic Toy Wreath; or

The Soup Can Santa.

Enjoy the retro goodness that is the Virtual Advent Calendar!  Happy Holidays!

Sarah



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Thumbprint Art - Christmas Lights Picture Tutorial

A while back I thought I started putting together a board on Pinterest devoted to Thumbprint art....there are so many cute ideas out there! I particularly loved this Christmas Lights picture {inspiration here}. I wanted to use the same concept in a different way: picture frame mat.

Can you think of a grandparent on the planet who wouldn't love one of these?!? This would make a great gift for someone special. Oh, and the total cost is about $3-4 for the frame because it's likely you have everything else on hand! Awe.some.

To make this, you need:

• Picture Frame (mine is a 5 x 7 purchased at Target the other day for $3)
• White cardstock cut to 5 x 7 - cheaper than buying a mat for the frame
• Stamp Ink - I used Acid Free Ink in red, green & yellow
• Fine point Sharpie to draw in the cord
• Picture of someone special to be framed! I used a little piece of double stick tape to keep it secure.

I printed out my inspiration picture for reference!

My girl and I just set up shop and started stamping away ... we made four of these. So first, we stamped all the reds, then the greens and finally the yellow. I'll admit she didn't (surprisingly!) love this, so as soon as she made her prints, she went back to playing and I drew in the cord string with a fine point sharpie.

Close-up of a finished Christmas Light Picture Mat.

My plan is to put a Christmas picture in here, but I don't have one printed up yet ;)

Isn't this awesome how the lights from my Christmas tree are reflecting in the frame? Soooo pretty! Will you make one? If so, be sure to leave a comment w/ a link to your blog!  

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Our Next Challenge ...

Our next challenge is themed just in time for the new year ... as we challenge ourselves to craft with GLITTER!

Photo Source

Projects due here next Wednesday!
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Guest Posting at Honey Bear Lane Today!

Come check us out over at Honey Bear Lane today... we are sharing a tutorial to make this super cute Christmas Card Booklet! It's a great way to save & organize all those beautiful holiday cards we get this time of year!

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And the Winner of the Christmas Decor Challenge is...

Sara!!

Sara is on quite a winning streak and she takes yet another one with her adorable Christmas pillows.  You can read all about them here.  You can read about Sarah's Beaded Ornament here.

Come back tomorrow to see what we'll be up to next.

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Comfy Christmas Outfits

Yeah, I don't even know what to say about my littlest in this skirt, except I love it! She looks like a perfect little candy cane with her big ruffles! :) I made this skirt by just doing a basic skirt with three tiers of ruffles. It's all made of jersey or interlock knit, except the white ruffle which is nylon chiffon like I used in these flowers.

Oh and this is one of the ruffly skirts I alluded to when I posted my Blinging Rudolph stocking (hmmm, Jessica if you're reading, I'm still waiting of a picture of my little LC wearing hers!)

And my big girl for a Sweet A Line Dress (pattern by Lil Blue Boo) with matching leggings and sparkly red shoes (her fave). I absolutely love the fabric on this dress - it's a Rudolph print and that SO incredibly soft! I hope this picture does it justice!

A couple more pictures ... I love this hairbow (just below). I made it years ago with a Martha Stewart tutorial. I has red jingle bells on top of white holly leaves & pink ribbon.

And that's a wrap! (I do have another Christmas'y dress but it hasn't made its way into the wearingcycle just yet!

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Old Bar Stools Made New Again

Hello!  It’s me, Sarah.  I’ve been absent for a while.  A new job has been keeping me away from crafting which is no good!  I did, however, have a long weekend over Thanksgiving which allowed me some time in my sewing room.

 

I put my time to good use reupholstering three of these well-worn bar stools for my mom.  This is what she wanted for her birthday present and I was happy to oblige.  She even bought the fabric!

Before

You’ve seen the before shot, now here’s the after:

After

Wow!  What a difference!  Isn’t it amazing what some new material, a little elbow grease, and a staple gun can do for the common bar stool? 

It passed the cat inspection.

With any luck, I’ll be back over the next couple of weeks with some holiday posts.  Until then, even though I haven’t been around much, I’ve been thinking about you!  

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Super Random Post - Hair

I am officially obsessed with a blog I found via a good friend whose hair ALWAYS looks great ... The blog is The Small Things and she has lots of great hair tutorials! I'm wearing the Elegant Half Up (without doing the full up part obviously) and I love it. It even stayed up ALL DAY LONG! I've played around with a couple of other styles and they are all totally doable with her instructions. Oh, and who knew that the curvy side of a bobby pin was supposed to be the side touching your head? I had no idea!

Have a great weekend! I have Christmas parties both nights, so I'm thinking that I'm going to attempt the side braid with a bun! ;)

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Sweet A Line Dresses - Scrappy Style

So it's pretty obvious I *may* be a little obsessed with Lil Blue Boo, right? Yes, yes I am! When she released a new pattern last week I of course bought it right away, and made 4. Yes 4. Here are numbers 3 and 4 ... still need to photog numbers 1 and 2 :)

I so love LBB stuff that I bought a box of scrap fabric a while back; who can pass up promises of those silk screened scraps? Well not me. I have been just waiting and waiting for a good idea to pop into my head for using my favorite silk screen scraps (the "when I grow up" print, and the paper dolls)! This is what I came up with and I couldn't be happier!

This pattern (like all the others) is great. Easy, easy to follow, and super cute. I've made sizes 2/3 and 3/4.

It's safe to say we "all" like the new dresses. Except the little ones said they were "freezing" on this particular day (it was like 65 degrees here = freezing) and so we had to zip back home for long leggings and coats ... oh and the photo session was abruptly ended when my models walked out on me! ....

Isn't it cute how the little one's dress back is a completely different - yet totally coordinating - fabric? I love that!

Oh and did I mention this pattern goes up to size 14 years?!? So, nieces heads up: you're getting dresses for Christmas this year! ;)

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Christmas Decor Submissions - Voting Time!

Lots 'o Pillows, see more here.

Beaded Ornament, see more here.

And please VOTE on your favorite Christmas Decor craft!

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Lots 'o Christmas Pillows - Challenge Submission

The challenge here on the blog was offically Christmas Decor; however, my personal challenge was so do this without buying anything new! I'm pleased to report that with some patchwork to stretch the linen-blend fabric a looooong way, it worked!

I present lots ' Christmas pillows. :)

I wanted to paint on the linen fabric, so with the help of Microsoft Clip Art, freezer paper stenciling and the Martha Stewart Pearl & Metallic paints I was able to create exactly what I wanted.

Like I said in this post, you can make the Plaid / Martha Stewart paints work on fabric by adding Fabric Medium to the paint. It works!

I got a little carried away with my embellishing ... there are Jolee's heat fix crystals, some ribbon and of course some pom poms on these pillows!

All the pillows have an envelope back closure so I can easily swap them out.

My personal favorite is this one: the reindeers are just too much! It's so hard to see in the picture but each reindeer is sporting at least one clear crystal. The lead reindeer got a collar, the antlers are decorated on the 2nd, and the 3rd one has a little bling on his booty.

I was going to stop with those pillows, but just kept going! The smaller one with the Christmas trees on it, is just an regular old pillowcase - just smaller. That fun fringe on there was purchased at JoAnn's - it's the "chenille" fringe by Simplicity in the holiday section. Ok, I did buy that!

For the big "Joy" pillow, I used the negative pieces of my freezer paper stencil for the first Joy pillow (up top). All that cutting is exhausting, so I wanted to stretch my stencil as far as possible. Oh, and I'm giving most of these away anyway .... so I won't end up with two Joy pillows.

So there they are! I'm pretty excited about these pillows and hope the recipients are too ... now to figure out which ones to keep and which ones to gift :)

Oh, and please do vote on your favorite Christmas Decor Project!

I'm linking up here !

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Submission - Beaded Ornament

I went simple and sort of old school with my submission.  A beaded ornament made with some fun plastic beads I found at Hobby Lobby last year and a styrofoam ball.  It's an update version of the styrofoam ornaments we made as kids.

I also attempted one from buttons, but didn't quite get it finished.  Here's what I've got so far.

I'm not sure if I like it or not.  Your thoughts?

Okay, go vote, vote, vote!

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