Red, White, and Blue Windsock

Browsing the internet (aka: wasting time instead of doing something productive) and saw this idea for an easy quick craft - since I have the supplies on hand I just now went and made one (aka: got off my behind and did something)...took me maybe 15 minutes tops and it's really cute. Great kid craft!

Cut 1" strips of plastic tablecloths - I cut 10 each of red, white, and blue ones that I had on hand (from the dollar store that are 54x108") for a total of 30 strips. Make a wire ring using whatever wire you have on hand that you can bend into a circle, twisting it closed with some pliers (turn the ends under so they aren't sticking out and sharp). I have 16 gauge wire which is pretty heavy but still easily bend and shapeable.

For each strip: fold in half, put the center loop under the ring, bring the ends up over the ring and thru the loop, pull tight. Repeat until the ring is as full as you want it. Tie on some fishing line (or thread, or light wire...) to hang.

this is all you need (or use scissors to cut the strips), plus pliers to bend the wire.

29 strips to go...

tie on something to hang it - I used fishing line.

Found the idea here.

Christmas Bell Door Hanger

My friend Janis came over for crafting at Day Camp and we made these cute door hangers out of a bell and a bird...

I found large bells at the craft store, not as big as I was hoping but they're pretty large. We ran a ribbon thru the loop on the top of the bell and tied a knot, leaving long tails - I had this bright green on hand, you could use narrower ribbon or patterned ribbon or twine...use your imagination and whatever you have on hand. 

 Then we raided the Christmas decorating box and came up with some pieces of wired garland, berry picks, cardinals (cardinals just seem like Christmas to me - did you notice my Thanksmas/Christmas tree was decorated with cardinals and poinsettias?), silver leaves...just use whatever you can find. Little pine cones or shells would be cute - whatever will fit on the top of the bell.

After tying on the ribbon, just build up what's going on the bell, hot gluing different things until you like how it looks. For this one I used a berry pick, a 4" piece of garland, a couple silver leaves, and the bird on top. That's about it for directions haha, just hot glue things to the top of the bell and hang it up!

I used one of the dollar store wine glasses
on my craft table as a holder for the bell
 so it stayed put while I hot glued stuff to it,
hands free while hot gluing is always a
good thing...

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!