Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Pretty Paper Christmas Trees


Here is an easy fun Chrismas craft tutorial, Pretty Paper Christmas Trees. 

What you will need: double-sided paper of your choice.  You want the paper double-sided because when you loop the paper you will be able to see inside the loop.  You will need straight pins and styrafoam cones.  Styrafoam cones can be spendy, I bought the 7" cone from The Dollar Tree and the 9" cone from Hancocks Fabric on sale, just shop around or use coupons.



9” Paper Christmas Tree


You will need to cut strips of paper from coordinating paper, I used a different pattern for each layer, but you can repeat a pattern if you wish. Then you will loop the strip and use two straight pins to attach paper to cone. Pin at the corners. The next layer up should be placed between the two strips in the layer below to hide the pins. You will use about 194 pins.

*You may need to trim the width a little on some strips to fit around better.

1st Four Layers (Starting with the bottom layers):

12 strips, 11 strips, 10 strips, 9 strips of 1” wide x 3” long

5th and 6th Layer:

9 strips, 8 strips of 7/8” wide x 3” long

7th Layer:

9 strips of 3/4” wide x 3” long

8th Layer:

7 strips of 3/4" wide x 2.5” long

9th and 10th Layers:

8 strips, 7 strips of 5/8” wide x 2” long

11th Layer:

7 strips of 1/2” wide x 2” long

Finish:

Make a cone for the top by cutting out a half circle and gluing it to the top. If you want, embellish along the edge of cone.



7” Paper Christmas Tree

You will need to cut strips of paper from coordinating paper, I used a different pattern for each layer, but you can repeat a pattern if you wish. Then you will loop the strip and use two straight pins to attach paper to cone. Pin at the corners. The next layer up should be placed between the two strips in the layer below to hide the pins. You will use about 184 pins.

*You may need to trim the width a little on some strips to fit around better.

1st Four Layers (Starting with the bottom layers):

12 strips, 11 strips, 10 strips, 9 strips of 3/4” wide x 2.5” long

5th Layer:

10 strips of 5/8” wide x 2.25” long

6th, 7th , 8th, 9th , and 10th Layers:

10 strips, 9 strips, 8 strips, 7 strips, 6 strips of 5/8” wide x 2” long

Finish:

Make a cone for the top by cutting out a half circle and gluing it to the top. If you want, embellish along the edge of cone.

This is a great craft to do with friends!  Have Fun!!!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Etsy Christmas Stockings


Just Listed
in my Etsy Shop

I just finished making a set of 6 Christmas Stockings, which are now in my Etsy shop.  Each stocking has it's own design and unique look.  I used mostly Michael Miller's Funky Christmas fabric.


Dots


Checkered with Chenille


Argyle


Christmas Animals 


Pinwheel


Zig Zag


All the backs have green ticking fabric.  I hope they will find a good home!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Surprise Disney Vacation


Our kids woke up to the smell of pancakes.  When it was time to eat they saw the Mickey Mouse pancakes, and one boy asked, "Are we going to Disneyland?".  Yes we are, we leave today!  We had our things packed up and ready to go.  We drove!  A long drive, but we were able to see friends and family and play a little in California.


Off we go!  Gotta love Redbox.  Pick-up the movies almost anywhere and drop them off just about anywhere too.  It sure was nice having the DVD player and headphones.  During that time Jason and I had peace and quiet.


It seemed unreal to the kids that we were actually at Disneyland.  Even for me, I was 16 years old the last time I was there.  It was Jason's first time.


Here we are in line for our first ride, Star Tours, one of our favorite rides.  We played at Disneyland for two days and did this ride 3 times.  We didn't have to wait usually more than 15 minutes in line for most of the rides because we went during the slower time at Disneyland.  But a downside to that was a couple rides weren't operating, like Pirates of the Carribean.



Another favorite was Splash Mountain!  In the picture above, my hand is right over the face of another kid that got stuck with our family, the picture worked out for us.


The weather was PERFECT, sunny and in the 70's.



California Adventure was not a favorite of ours, mostly because there was a lot of construction going on, so we spent the majority of the time at Disneyland.




Mark Twain Steamboat ride.


I can't believe I went on this ride.  It was the first and last time, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.  It was a little freaky.  Tanner and Logan were the bravest!


I'll miss you Disneyland, if I have it my way we'll be back again soon.


We played at the beach.  We are from Washington so even though it wasn't very warm, it was what you would expect here in the summertime.


Santa Monica, we ate at Bubba Gump.


We went through the Redwood Forest after visiting family in Northern California and visited Paul Bunyan on the way home.

We made some good memories!
Good times...good times!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Farmer's Wife Blocks


I have joined in with most of the quilters working on the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt.  Although, I have many projects going on at once so I haven't gotten as far as I want.  To get started I checked out the book from my local library, but someone else must of had the same idea because I wasn't able to renew it this last time.  I should just buy the book.  Anyways, this is what I have so far.  I can't say that I love my blocks, but I am just using the scraps I have on hand, which I guess makes it more random, maybe even more farmer like.  Check out these Farmer's Wife Blocks that I LOVE at Simplify and a little sweetness.