A Different Spin on Snowflakes

I seriously don't know how I came upon this pattern last week, but here is the website where you can get this pattern and template.

 http://mattersofgrey.com/diy-star-wars-snowflakes/

My son, who is 3, doesn't really know the story of Star Wars, who is good and bad...etc, but he knows he likes Storm Troopers!!  He has a shirt with Darth Vader and two Storm Troopers on it and one day he wore this to Speech class at a local school...the teacher said, "Oh, your shirt is so scary", and he proceeded to tell her very sarcastically, "It's not scary, it's just Star Wars."  We all laughed and went with it.  Anyway...when I found these online, I thought I would try to trace them in my SCAL software and cut them out for the tree this year!  They worked great!  I did a Storm Trooper one for our tree and for a friend of ours who's twin boys and husband love Star Wars "stuff".  My son chose the red background.  He loves looking at it and can't wait to show Daddy when he gets home!  When his Dad did get home, he said, "You know, you need to do one of Yoda too for our friends", so, that is what I did!  Yoda was so cute!  Hope you have fun cutting these out.  You DON'T have to have a cutting machine to do these...there are templates to go by on the website that you use scissors to cut them out!  Have fun and remember, it is always homemade!

"Sour Cream" Containers...Teacher Gifts

I saw this idea on a blog with a video...these are so simple and so cute.  I couldn't find the blog that I had seen when I did these but found another one with great directions and a video:

www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/sour_cream_container/

I did these for teacher gifts at Halloween and now again for Christmas.  I did the Halloween ones for my children's Bible school teachers and for my son's preschool teachers.  I just did them this time for their Bible School teachers.  These teachers work in 6 month rotations and I know PERSONALLY that these are hard jobs for 6 months at a time and they deserve a little appreciation at different times of the year.  I don't have a picture of the Halloween ones that I did but they were Halloween paper with a tag on them much like the website above.  For the Christmas ones I did, I used holiday paper and attached a reindeer head on them and stamped "Happy Holidays" on the face of the reindeer.  Simple and cute.  Just a tid bit of info:  This website above used red tape, which would work great!  I used hot glue on mine this time because regular adhesive (no matter how sticky you think it is) it is NOT GOOD ENOUGH.  Use red tape or hot glue!!!  If you use hot glue, it is a little harder to put through the paper crimper but it works just as well.  Red tape would be your best bet!  Enjoy!  Here is a pic of my reindeer containers! Remember, it is always homemade!!

Holiday Cards

These cards are so cute and so easy...it takes a few minutes to do them but I am about to give you the measurements for each card so that will take some of the guessing out of it for you!  I saw this pattern this morning on http://www.southerninkerbelles.blogspot.com/ (she used it for baby shower cards) and thought, "This would be great for Santa and Elves...or ANYTHING you could think of doing with it!!"  So, I went with the Holiday ideas and did and Santa and an Elf. 

Santa:  1.  Start with a RED A2 size card (8 1/2 in x 5 1/2  in piece of paper folded in half)  that opens from the side (you could make it open from the top as well if you wanted to which would be a 4 1/4 in x 11 1/2 in piece of paper folded in half).  2.  Use a 1 3/4 in circle punch to punch out the neck.  3.  Use a 1 1/4 in square punch to punch out middle of the legs.  4.  Cut out slim rectangles off the top sides to make the indentions you see in the picture....about 2 in x 1/2 inch.  5.  Use a cutting system or a punch to cut out the scalloped edge around the neck.  6.  Use a edge punch to make the center white "fluff" for the jacket.  Use the same punch to make small ends to his pants.  (all of my white was done with glittery white paper)  7.  Cut out a piece of black that is 4 1/4 x 1 inch.  8.  In yellow or gold cut out a small 1 inch square;  then cut around that with a 1 1/4 inch square punch and you have your buckle!  8.  If you so choose, you can emboss the front of the card before you assemble all the peices.  I did mine with the Swiss Dots pattern.  9.  Assemble!  10.  After you assemble you may have to trim a little bit in the neck area.   Just FYI  :)

Elf:  1.  Follow the first 5 steps of the santa card....except the color in step ONE will be GREEN.  6.  Cut out a strip of striped red paper (or whatever pattern you think would be cute on an elf) that is 1 1/2 in x 4 1/4 in.  7.  Cut out a black strip that is 1 in x 4 1/4.  8.  Cut out in white or silver (I used a white glitter paper) a buckle that is the same size as the Santa buckle.  9.  Cut out two small circles using a cutting system or punch for the buttons.  You could also use large brads, buttons...whatever you think would be cute.  10.  You can emboss the card before you assemble if you would like.  On the elf, I chose not to, but it is totally up to you!  11.  Assemble!  12.  After you assemble you will have to trim the red paper in the indention of the legs.  FYI  :)

Hope these were fun to do!  They were for me!  Happy Holidays!! Remember, it is always homemade!!