Candy Cane Mice

I have made these for years but have no idea where the idea or pattern came from - look how cute they are (and they're very simple)!

                                  

You need felt in 2 colors, small googly eyes, something for the nose (I use mini pompoms), and candy canes.

Draw the pattern on cardboard or heavy cardstock, then cut out. It's an oval, 4" tall x 2 1/2" wide for the body, and the ears are 1 1/4" x 4" long, see picture for the shape. Trace the shapes onto felt and cut them out. Cut 2 (1/2") slits on the body where the candy cane will go, and 2 (1/2") slits on the head where the ear piece will go. Fold one end of the ears in so you can insert it into one of the slits and then feed it up thru the other slit. Glue on the eyes and nose. Insert candy cane thru the body for it's tail.

on the left is the pattern, in the middle is the cut out felt shapes.
note where the slits are, they don't have to be perfect but you
get the idea where they should approximately go. the vertical
slits on the narrower side of the body are for the ears,
the horizontal slits on the bottom is where the candy cane goes. 

feed the ear piece  down thru one slit then back up thru the other

insert the candy cane so it's on the underside of
the mouse. 

Paper Christmas Lights Garland

Shout out to my friend LeDonna for this cute idea - she saw it and sent a picture to me, and I agree with her that it's a fun easy Christmas craft for young and old alike :). Thanks L!

Because I'm a little bit of a perfectionist I didn't want to just wing it if there was someone who had actually figured out exactly how to make these somewhere online, so of course I googled and found a few different ones. I followed these directions and they worked perfectly.

Supplies are few:
- cardstock in a few different colors for the lights, and gray for the tops
- hole punch
-ruler and scorer (scoring isn't necessary but it did make the tops fold easily and look neat)
-glue stick or adhesive of your choice (I used my Stampin' Up rolling glue thingy)
- thick twine to string the lights on, I used about 48"

Directions:
Cut gray cardstock into 1 1/4"x  4" strips
Cut colored cardstock into 1" x 8 1/2" strips
(note I made 15 lights, so I cut 15 gray strips and 15 assorted colors strips).

Score the gray cardstock every 1/2". You could also just fold it neatly every 1/2" and run your fingernail along the edge to give it a sharp crease if you don't have a scorer. 

Make a dot at 1 1/4" and 2 3/4" in (that turns out to be in the middle of the 3rd space and the 6th space, see my picture - I stopped making a dot after the first couple and just eyeballed it). Hole punch on the marks. Fold the paper on the score lines, glue both ends 1/2" flap to each other making a circle.

To make the bulb: fold a colored strip in half. Pinch the two ends together and push on your palm or table to get a slight bend in the sides of the bulb. Holding the ends together hole punch thru both layers about 1/4" down in the center.

To string them into garland, put the top of a colored strip into a gray circle matching up the holes. Run twine thru all 4 holes. Then continuing adding the lights until you have it as long as you want, making sure to line up the bulbs with the glued gray part all facing the same way. Spread them evenly on the twine.

One thing I did I have a second of trouble with is the twine fraying and becoming hard to fit thru the holes - I wrapped a small piece of tape around the end and that solved the problem. 

Snowman Ornament

December 1st! Time to start thinking Christmas decorations :) My niece Mickey and I made these adorable snowman ornaments out of a few simple supplies, easy and inexpensive.

All you need are plain clear ornaments (easy to find right now at the craft store), white paper, craft paint for face, and maybe some pretty ribbon to tie on the top if you want.

We painted black eyes, dark red dots for mouth, and an orange glittery "carrot" nose. Cut the paper into long thin strips (ours are 3/4" x 11" but you can do any size you want), roll the strips up into tight coils and insert into the top of the ornament (remove the hanger part first obviously). Shake the ornament around a bit to loosen the strips if they don't on their own, keep adding strips until it looks good to you. Put the hanger back on and tie a big pretty ribbon thru the hanger loop (or just hang up as is!). So cute!