2013 Creath Family Holiday Letter: Temporary One

I usually have this post written by Thanksgiving weekend, but we've been traveling two weekends in a row which is highly unusual for our homebody family.

December is shaping up to be a challenging month for us. We pulled T out of her preschool due to safety issues and mismanagement, which breaks my heart because the teachers and program are excellent. But having active construction while the kids are in session, and putting kids in a building that failed inspection just a week ago are no bueno in our book.

We also decided to "camp out" in our living room at night so that we can all be together rather than sleeping in separate houses while our house is being remodeled. It's actually working pretty well but we now have to coordinate logistics between what we bring to our house and what we are leaving at my parents' place, and when we're spending time at each. BabyM still continues to wake several times at night but we'll tackle that issue later.

And if that weren't enough, Spike has been diagnosed with kidney failure and a tumor in his bladder. He's 13, so we're lucky to have had so much time with him. We're keeping our fingers crossed and loving on him as much as we can.

Well, that's a depressing beginning for a holiday letter, isn't it? 

Now on to the good stuff - we are 2 months into a HUGE construction project to turn our house into our perfect *forever* home. There's something for everyone - BabyM finally gets her own room, the girls get a playroom conveniently across from my new ENORMOUS craft room, TJ gets his own office with a door, and the dogs get their own half of the yard separate from the kids.

T turned 4 in September and some of her favorite things are: 

• Vancouver, Canada (we took a mama-daughter trip there last weekend)
• Her new Kindle (early Christmas present)
• Playing pretend, usually involving food preparation of some sort
• Vienna Teng's new CD AIMS (yes, I am heavily influencing her choice of music)
• The all-Christmas music radio station

M turned 1 in October and she currently likes:

• Walking! (This is new, and she still crawls about 50% of the time)
• Stacking cups of all kinds
• Tackling her big sister, then hugging her
• Lint and dust bunnies
• Her toddler group 

Peanut is 11 and doing pretty well considering his age and size.

TJ started his new job at ESPN in February and likes it a lot. In April, I decided NOT to go back to work at Microsoft after my maternity leave with M. It's been fun and challenging to be home with the girls, but I love the more easygoing pace of our days.

I also continue to make handcrafted stamped metal items and jewelry in my Etsy shop, Anandi's Laboratory. In August, I started a new venture, making custom handcrafted scrapbooks and photobooks at The Papercraft Lab.  I'm pleased to say that I got some nice publicity, and have exceeded my initial sales goals.  (Wouldn't be a holiday letter without some bragging, right?)

My parents spent June through October at their place nearby in Redmond, which was great. We just returned last week from visiting TJ's family in Tucson, AZ, and were able to schedule a quick family photo shoot there so we can finally update the photos on our mantel!

If you're still reading this far, thank you for indulging me :) Best wishes to you and yours for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2014!

(c) Kristi Lloyd Photography, 2013

You would even say it glows: 2012 December Daily-ish album COMPLETED!

Back in the fall, I enthusiastically ordered the crazy expensive December Daily album kit from Studio Calico.  I was all set to Document Our Christmas and Participate in the Online Festivities.  But I quickly realized that making a page a day was NOT going to happen with a 2 month old baby and a 3 year old in the mix. So I focused on having a GREAT holiday season, aided by our Holiday Fun List, and decided to work on the album once the season was over.

That was so much easier.  I started in late December with a bang and made a bunch of pages for the Hello Forever journaling cards I had carefully written up during the holidays.

And then I got stuck.  Once I put all those 31 cards into the album, it was almost full.  And that was without ANY photos. And boy did I have photos.  So I stuffed the project into a clear Iris box and put it with my other unfinished projects.  It mocked me with every passing month.

I wondered whether I should rip it all apart and start over with a bigger album. I talked it over with two crafty friends, who gave me a bunch of helpful suggestions, so I didn't let that expensive kit go to waste.

I've been given the gift of time in this new life as a stay at home mama, so I am trying not to squander it.  I forced myself to tackle this project even though I felt really uninspired.  So a few weeks ago, I pulled out the box, and took stock of what I had.

My biggest job was to EDIT. Since I was creating this album about our holiday season, from the end of Thanksgiving to New Year's Day, not every day was magical and awesome. Many were downright mundane. I had journaling cards written where it was clear I was trying to find SOMETHING holiday-related to write about.  So I got rid of those and just kept the interesting ones.  I was pretty ruthless about it. I added a separate card to track all the books we read during our Book Advent so I didn't lose the information.

Printed on Studio Calico awesome grid card

Once I accepted that it didn't have to be a comprehensive listing of EVERY last thing we did in December, it was a lot easier to make progress and choose to highlight the best parts of the season. I cranked through it in just a few days and finished it easily.

My favorite part is this confetti pocket I made with a Flip Pocket and vellum that I printed on.  I knew I wanted to use this photo for the last page, and love how the vellum lets it peek through.

Last page - confetti Flip Pocket, Thickers, vellum

My favorite holiday photo

Here's a slide show of my entire album.  If you can't view it, here's the gallery.

I'm really glad I tackled this project.  This year, I'll incorporate it into my Project Life album, using the Design E (4 6x6) page protectors.  I love the 6x6 size, and that'll be more compact than a separate mini album.  Since I'm only doing Project Life every two weeks, I'll have plenty of room in the album for extra projects like this.  I'm really looking forward to it!

Did you do December Daily?  Did you finish?

Wordless Wednesday: Sisters in Santa Hats

And if you ever saw it: December Daily-ish 2012

So there's this *thing* among scrapbookers called December Daily, which originated with Ali Edwards.  Typically, you take a photo-a-day and make a mini scrapbook album to document the days leading up to Christmas.

As I mentioned before, photo-a-day projects stress me out, because inevitably, it's 11pm, I haven't taken any photos, and I end up with one of a napping dog or maybe my shoe.  So I knew my December "Daily" was not going to be traditional.

My holiday season starts on Thanksgiving weekend and goes through New Year's Day, so I'd want my album to include those things too. Since I am weak-willed, I bought Studio Calico's VERY expensive December Daily Kit which included everything: album, page protectors, tons of embellishments, paper, etc. Of course, this didn't stop me from buying MORE stuff because "it would be perfect for my December Daily".

I quickly decided on a color scheme - aqua and red (how trendy!) and downloaded some super-cute printable daily journaling cards from Hello Forever. I've been faithfully recording something for each day, including our Book Advent selections.

But I just COULD NOT get started on the album itself. First, I wanted to finish my 30 Days of Thankful album. Also, I had so much stuff for the album that it became overwhelming and I started to feel guilty about my craft supply overload. And part of it was just that we are so darn busy with two little kids and MAKING the memories that I didn't have much time or energy to sit down and figure out how to document them.

But now that Christmas is over, I am feeling a little more relaxed and able to focus on what I want for the album. Last week I took a couple of hours to visit my friend J for a "crafternoon". It gave me the time and space to go through all my supplies and decide what I was really going to use for this project. I also sat down with my trusty notebook and planned out some of the pages and pictures. My title is going to be "Home 4 the Holidays" because we're now a family of 4 (people) and this holiday season was all about staying close to home and starting our family traditions.

Home 4 the Holidays - the spine.

Last night I finally got crafty. I faced my fear of "messing up" the beautiful cream cloth-covered album, and decorated the spine of the book with gorgeous red seam binding, a fabulous Martha Stewart Office bookplate, and some of those awesome Studio Calico wood veneer shapes.  I still need to print a small label for the bookplate, but otherwise, the spine is done.  (Gotta start somewhere, right?)   And please forgive the less-than-perfect photos. I'm trying to use my new DSLR for these, and the depth of field + page protectors is giving me a real challenge.

I had all my journaling cards complete through Dec 26th, so I mounted those on patterned paper with a stripe of washi tape on top, to provide some uniformity across the album. Each page still has a lot of empty space, so they need more embellishment.  I completed the first seven pages and called it a night at 1am.

Here's a little slide show of the pages I've done so far. Click on any photo to view a larger version.



 If you're on a mobile device or it's not working on your computer, you can also view my gallery.

Obviously, I've just gotten started, but this was a huge step for me.  Now I know what I need to do next, instead of just flailing around trying to get going. Tonight I'll start printing photos, which are the real "meat" of the album.

I know all the serious scrapbooking folks are done with their December Daily albums, but I'm trying to remember that it's not a race. The process of putting it together is so fun for me, and I'll share more over the next few weeks.  My goal is to have it done by the time we take down the Christmas tree in early January.

What projects are you tackling now that Christmas is over?

Dairy-free Ginger Snaps - Virtual Cookie Exchange

My friend Di hosts an annual "virtual cookie exchange" with a bunch of bloggers. She was awesome enough to include me even though I'm not a food blogger. I do enjoy baking occasionally as a project with T.

One of the things on our Holiday Fun List was to make and decorate Christmas cookies. Originally my plan was to make these awesome sugar cookies.  But when I woke up this morning I just wasn't feeling it - the whole "process" of making the dough, chilling it, rolling, cutting, making royal icing, and only THEN doing the fun decorating was more than we could do in a day.

So I turned to a recipe that has not failed me yet. I discovered it when looking for dairy-free cookies due to T's allergy. You'd never guess they don't have butter in them, and it's super easy to mix and make.  With minimal effort they look really nice, and we made them more festive by rolling them in colored natural sugar sprinkles.

As per the comments on the recipe online, we made a few changes so I've included the recipe below.

Mama's Ginger Snaps (adapted from Elaine at AllRecipes.com, makes about 3 dozen)

Ingredients

1c packed brown sugar

3/4c canola oil

1/4c blackstrap molasses

1 large organic egg

2c all purpose flour

2tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cloves

2.5 tsp ground cinnamon

2.5 tsp ground ginger

various sugars (colored and white) for decoration

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In stand mixer bowl, mix brown sugar, oil, molasses, and egg until the sugar is dissolved.

3. In separate large bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt, cloves, ginger and cinnamon. Pour this into the molasses mixture.

4. Mix with the stand mixer until well-combined. The dough will look shiny and feel sticky.  

5. Cool mixer bowl with dough in fridge for about 30 minutes (or 15 minutes in the freezer) to make it easier to work with.

6. Using your fingers, make 1 inch balls and dip the tops into colored sugar.  Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet with 3-4 inches between each one (they spread out).

7.  Bake 11 minutes in preheated oven - they'll be a little soft when they come out.

8. Transfer to wire racks after a minute or two to cool further.

These are easy to make, but also easy to overcook. You may have to adjust based on your own oven, but it's better to undercook them as they'll get firmer when they cool. 

It's a great recipe to make with older toddlers - at age 3, T was able to dip the dough balls in the sugar and hand them to me to put on the cookie sheet without squishing them too much.  She also dumped all the ingredients into the bowls after I measured them out, and stirred the dry ingredients together.

if you look closely,
you'll see a dog nose next to the cookie.

They look very festive with the colored sugar. I wish we had done more with mixed colors - those look pretty cool, too. This recipe is definitely a keeper!

Christmas presents for a 3 year old

Since T doesn't read my blog (yet), I figured I'd share what we got her for Christmas.  I did this last year, too. I am pleased to say my shopping is 95% DONE.  Woot.

I read about someone else's family gift-giving tradition and loved it so we're trying it out this year.  

Each person gets four presents:

• Something they want
• Something they need
• Something to eat
• Something to read

This works nicely for TJ and me, because we're often at a loss for what to get each other. Most things we want, we just buy. This way TJ can also get some things for the girls on his own, since last year it was just me buying random things and signing them "Love, Mama and Daddy" (and also some from Peanut and Spike). 

However, I do love to shop, so T is going to end up with more than four gifts.  A lot of them are little things, because she got (and uses) the big stuff already - Kettler tricycle, play kitchen, Balance Bike.

Here's what she's getting this year:

Pure Fun Trampoline - T's friend E has a similar one at her house and T enjoyed bouncing on it. It's compact and can be used indoors, which is great given our crappy weather. This is the "something she needs" because our girl will sit and read books or draw all day long. We need to gently nudge her to be more active.

Hello Kitty Science Class - I know, this is totally girly and pink, which I usually hate. But T LOVES Hello Kitty. And the fact that it's a science class play set makes me feel marginally better about it. Incidentally, they had it at Kohl's for twice the price on Amazon. Not sure what that's all about. Thanks to my trusty smartphone, I ordered it on Amazon while standing in Kohl's trying to understand why it was $17. Definitely in the "something she wants" category, as is everything with Hello Kitty on it.

This super cute beaded necklace from J. Crew's kids' line. The color is called "neon azalea" and it matches her glasses exactly. I probably could have made something similar, but didn't have time to track down beads and ribbon in these exact colors.  I'm not crazy about expensive jewelry on little kids, but this is plastic and ribbon and the price was right. And I know T will *love* it. It also comes in a nice shiny silver box.

Hello Kitty Pez dispenser.  T saw one of these at a craft store and thought it was the coolest thing ever. She has a MAJOR sweet tooth and sadly, has a couple of cavities already, so we restrict sugar as much as we can. But it's Christmas, and this fills in the 'something to eat' part.  Plus she'll dig the dispenser long after the candy is gone.  Just to balance it out, I'll also put a clementine in her stocking and ask her to eat that before she eats any candy. Because we're sneaky like that.

On the "something she needs" front, I bought her some clothes from the Gap and Old Navy. She's been growing like crazy and is now over 3 feet and close to 40 lbs. Size 3T is WAY too small, 4T fits just barely, so most things I buy for her now are size 5, which is big, but likely not for long. She really likes cats for some reason (probably because we don't have any, and did I mention Hello Kitty?!) so I figured this kitty with glasses T shirt would be a big hit.  I wish it wasn't pink (story of my life).


I saw this cute Kikkerland owl keychain at Target and grabbed him on impulse. T loves owls and anything little and cute that she can play "pretend" with. I expect he'll be a big hit, though TJ may do surgery on him to remove the hooting sound. (TJ has a tendency to operate on squeaky and noisy toys in this house because they disrupt his chi.)



For "something to read", the last two books in our Book Advent are new. For Christmas Eve, we'll be reading Olive the Other Reindeer.

What's not to love about a dog who thinks he's a reindeer? But the book I'm really excited about is the one for Christmas Day, called Me...Jane.  It's a book about Jane Goodall as a little girl. A librarian friend of mine told me that little kids don't quite "get" that Jane in the story grew up to be a famous scientist, but I'm cool with that.  Just the idea of a female character as a scientist-to-be in a kids' book rocks my world.

There's one more gift I'm excited about, but it's a joint gift for TJ and T together, so I can't write about it yet.

We didn't buy T a ton of stuff this year, nor did we buy her anything really expensive, and I'm ok with that. We noticed on her birthday that T gets overwhelmed by too many gifts. I'm sure that'll change as she gets older, but for now, we may space out some of the gifts and open some on Christmas Eve.

I'm curious to see how she'll react. She is starting to understand that she'll get presents at Christmas, but I don't think she has a sense of anticipation just yet. Maybe next year.

Happy Holidays to you, and hope your shopping is done, or close!

It's good to be home for the holidays

I got the idea of making a "holiday fun list" from my friend Laura who does this with her kids in the summer and winter. At first I thought it seemed a little too structured and project-managementy and not very fun, frankly.

But 2 months into my maternity leave, I realize we do need that structure. With TJ home all the time, our days are largely the same, and we find them slipping away in a haze of feeding everyone, getting the girls to nap, and next thing you know, it's 6pm and time to start dinner and the bedtime routine. Not to mention it gets dark here around 3:30 so the days seem really short. T is in preschool four mornings a week, so we're constrained to three days for Big Fun Stuff.

So on Thanksgiving weekend, we sat down and made a list of the fun things we're going to do this holiday season. I'm pleased to report we've done 7 or 8 of them already (in RED below)!

The 2012 Creath Family Holiday Fun List:

• Make and eat pancakes at home
• Go to the Rumble Slide park
• Go downtown to look at the decorations
• See the holiday Kindermusik show at Benaroya Hall
• Visit Leavenworth
• Take a weekend trip to San Juan Islands or Vancouver (maybe in January)
• Make and eat apple pie oatmeal
• Be jolly
• See snow
• Make, decorate and eat Christmas cookies
• Make, decorate and NOT eat Christmas ornaments
• Make a Santa Claus ornament
• Do Christmas snowman craft (Target kit)
• Invite people over for an Open House
• Dance
• Take puppies to the dog park
• Ride the B bus (Trillian's idea.  This is just a shuttle between transit centers.  She's 3.)
• Drink milk (Trillian says this is what BabyM wants to do)
• Listen to Christmas music
• Put up our Christmas tree
• Eat ham and pie for Christmas dinner (do you sense a theme?)
• Book Advent countdown
• Send out real holiday cards
• Make real Belgian waffles at home

While I still struggle with the urge to just do things to check them off the list, it's been fun to deliberately incorporate more holiday fun items into our lives. Before kids, we only halfheartedly celebrate holidays. I've posted the list on our fridge so we can see what we want to do next.

What about you? Do you make a list?

2012 Creath Family Holiday Letter: All Is Calm

Happy December!  I can't believe it's time for our yearly holiday letter already. This year's letter will be short and sweet since I have been blogging regularly - I can just give you links to the big stuff.

(c) Kristi Lloyd Photography, Oct 2012

2012 was an exciting year for us!  The biggest news was the birth of Meridian Rayna in October.  But I'll start from the beginning.

In January, we had a big snowstorm, which is pretty unusual for Seattle. Trillian played in the snow for the first time.  She wasn't so sure she liked it.  

February was when we found out I was pregnant with BabyM. This was both exciting and scary, since we were used to being a family of 3.  Well, 5, when you count Peanut and Spike, who are now 10 and 12 and doing well.

In March, TJ took the extremely bold step of quitting his job to enjoy some time off and work on his own projects. We've absolutely LOVED having him at home and it's fantastic that we don't have to squeeze in family fun outings onto the weekends.  The Children's Museum is nice and empty on weekdays!  Trillian also started preschool in March, saying goodbye to the excellent daycare she attended since she was 13 months old.

April was super-exciting, because my life-long dream of visiting Ireland came true. We spent 3 lovely weeks in Kenmare, and traveled mostly in the south, though we did spend a couple of days in Dublin.  We definitely want to go back. I got sick while we were there (virus + pregnancy) so I didn't get to do as much, but TJ and Trillian had a few exciting daddy-daughter field trips.

In May, TJ and I celebrated being married for 7 years with a trip to the zoo with our favorite little person.  We also found out that BabyM was a girl!  Hooray for sisters!

I celebrated my thirty-mumble birthday in June. TJ and I went to dinner at Canlis, our favorite restaurant which is where we got married in 2005.  TJ also went to a track day with his motorcycle, to take advantage of the short riding season.

Summer came to Seattle in July, and it was short, but lovely as always.  At the end of the month, Trillian and I took a girls' roadtrip to Portland, OR for the weekend, and had a GREAT time.  She still talks about it. Next time she says we should take TJ and Baby Sister, too.

In August, we celebrated my dad's 70th birthday at a local restaurant.  TJ's Aunt Jane and Uncle Rick were in town so we met up with them for breakfast at our favorite cafe.

Trillian's birthday was in September, and all the grandparents, plus her great-Granny and Aunt Robin were in town for the party. She also started her new Spanish immersion preschool. She's learning so much! I spent September willing BabyM to stay inside until October, so T could have her own "birthday month".  

BabyM cooperated, and was born via C-section at her scheduled appointment on October 1 like a good girl. She spent her first few days refusing to sleep anywhere but in someone's arms, so TJ was awesome and slept sitting up so that we could get a little sleep.  We had a 0th birthday party for her at home, which Trillian helped plan.

We spent the rest of October and November mostly at home getting used to being a family of four. Trillian went trick or treating for the first time, and both girls went dressed as ladybugs.

My parents went back to Savannah in mid-November and we miss them! BabyM isn't on a regular schedule but sleeps and eats well so I've even had time to be crafty.  Thanksgiving was low-key but nice.

December will be full of Fun Holiday Activities from the list we made together. We're staying home for the holidays so it'll be nice and mellow, just the way we like it.

For an even more detailed summary of what we did all year, you can read through my Project Life posts.  I'm very proud to have kept up this scrapbook project all year, and I'm on track to complete it this month!

We wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Best Wishes for the New Year! May your days be merry and bright!

Book Advent: New Family Holiday Tradition

I first read about the idea of a "book advent" Christmas countdown on Ali Edwards' blog earlier this year. I've always loved books and reading so I wanted to do this in our family, too. Then I promptly forgot about it until I saw Susan Weinroth post about it on Instagram a few days ago.  I needed details, and she put them on her blog.

It's easy - find 25 books and wrap them. Each night in December, through Christmas Day, you unwrap and read one (and maybe re-read some of the others). From what I can tell most people try to choose all holiday books, and build up their collection over time, filling in with library books in the meantime.  You definitely don't need to go out and buy 25 new books, though that sure would be fun, wouldn't it?

As soon as I read her post, I knew we had to do this.  I love the idea of an Advent calendar to build up the excitement of the holidays and have little tiny surprises to look forward to each day. However, I didn't want one full of candy, and the Lego ones seem overpriced for what you get.  We have tons of ornaments for our Christmas tree already, so adding 25 new ones didn't seem like a good idea either. The book idea is perfect.

I don't think we need 25 books about Christmas since we're not Christian, so I broadened the list to also include other winter holidays and winter itself, books about reading, books about giving and love, and a few family favorites.

The First 3: numbered, and with little hints/notes about each one.

I also had a few books set aside for T because she wasn't ready for them, so I've included those.  I know she'll love opening them, and she's really into counting right now, so tonight she was already looking for the book with the "1" on it, so she'd know where to start.

I combed through our books over the last few days and put the ones I wanted to use in a box in our closet.  I had to sneak some out of T's room when she was at preschool.  Three year olds ask a lot of questions. 

I chose two different rolls of gift wrap to make it look more interesting - one with cute winter birds and the other just a plain silver. Today I started wrapping, and man, was it slow.  I'm bad at gift wrapping, and sadly, the paper is cheap and tears really easily.  I've made a solemn resolution to no longer buy cheap Target gift wrap. Only the good stuff from now on. It's just too frustrating otherwise.

Gift wrapping and adhering the number tags is a great use for washi tape, since I have so much of it.  The patterned tape looks great on plain gift wrap, too. 

I have a ridiculous collection of number stickers so I used those for the number tags on each gift.  Of course, I don't have enough of any one sticker type to do all the numbers, so they'll be delightfully mismatched. It's what snooty people call "eclectic", right? 

I got 13 of them done while both girls napped today (omg! at the same time even!).  I'm waiting for Olive the Other Reindeer from Amazon, and need to order a second book, because I want the books on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to be new. I'll finish the rest this week.

Book Number One is one of my favorites, Owl Babies.  My plan is to have us all sit together in the living room, or in T's room before bed, and read. We need to start reading more to BabyM anyway, and I like the idea of us all snuggling together to read.

If you have recos for strong pretty gift wrap, please leave it in the comments.  The Target stuff is not working.  I also could use a recommendation for a great kid's book that's non-holiday related, suitable for preschoolers.  Something not well known would be great as we have most of the classics and popular ones. Thanks in advance!

Holiday Card Mini Album - Experiment 9

Every January, I suffer tremendous guilt when throwing away the cute photo cards we received from friends and family in December.  The thing is, I'm not really sentimental, and I'm not a "saver".  So I usually recycle what I can and throw the rest out.

A few years ago, I noticed my friend Jenn add the photos into her scrapbook pages.  Brilliant, but I couldn't figure out what I would do since I'm not (yet) a scrapbooker.

This year, I saw a link to this cute idea to stick them on standard binder rings from an office supply store.  Hooray!  But I wanted to do more.

For Christmas, I bought myself the Zutter Bind-It-All tool (thank you TJ!).  It allows you to create little mini albums or notebooks.  The tool punches the holes for the binding, you thread the pages onto metal wires made for this purpose, and the tool squishes the wires closed, giving you a cute little bound book.  You don't have to make just standard little notebooks or albums with pages all the same size.  You can literally bind *anything*, as long as it's not too thick/heavy for the machine to punch.

THAT is what I wanted to use for saving my Christmas 2011 photo cards.  I wanted to create cute little covers and make an album out of it.  I toyed with the idea of making an actual Christmas mini-album and interspersing the cards with our own pictures and text, but knew I'd never actually finish it, so I decided to stick with binding just the cards.

Here it is (click to see a larger version):

It took me a little while to figure out the binding tool, but thanks to Zutter's instructional videos on YouTube, it was a lot easier than the manual made it seem. 

This was a surprisingly easy project.  It even has an eco-friendly angle, because the cardboard I used for the covers was the backing that USPS sends me for their "Stamps by Mail" shipments.  Every sheet of stamps has its own huge piece of cardboard and is then shrink-wrapped.  Great if you're a collector, I guess, but it just seems really wasteful.  So I'm happy I could reuse some of that cardboard.

My Xyron XRN900 was perfect for covering the cardboard with cute cardstock.  It covers paper with a really strong adhesive all the way to the ends, so for applications where you need some durability and don't want edges lifting, it's really great. I scored mine for $20 on Craigslist and it has been *awesome*.

After making the front and back cover - cute patterned paper on the front and a nice acid green cardstock inside - I punched holes in all of the cards.  Since they were different sizes, it was a more difficult project than I probably should have started with, but I like a challenge.  Well, I mostly like it when it's done and I've kicked its butt, but I digress.

Then I threaded the covers and pages onto the O-wires.  I found that I needed to punch some additional holes in some of the cards to get them to fit well.  Squinching the O-wire (my technical term) was more difficult than I expected.  The first one got mangled and the pages wouldn't turn.  I tried again, after watching some more YouTube, and got a better (though not perfectly round) result the second time.  I need practice, especially for longer projects that are wider than the tool itself.

I tied some little scrap bits of red ribbon to the binding to make it look more festive.  At first I thought it just looked messy, but it's growing on me.  Especially if I line up all the little ribbon bits in a row.  Yeah, I'm weird like that.  I added a quick "2011" title on the front with some stickers and scrap cardstock, and wrote a little note on the inside front cover about what was inside.

Once I get better at using the Zutter tool, I think I could complete this in under an hour.  So easy! 

A Super-Easy Christmas Craft - Simple Paper Covered Tree

I used to be addicted to magazines.  I liked having reading material that was easy and fun, and showed up every month. I started in college with Glamour and Cosmo, then progressed to InStyle, Oprah and RealSimple. I think that's code for "I got old".

In recent years, I've been drawn to crafty magazines. But not Martha Stewart Living, for some reason.  It just doesn't inspire me.  I can't put my finger on exactly why. Maybe it's that her crafts and food are so time-consuming and scream "if you can't be perfect, why bother trying?". I don't need that kind of discouragement! 

I recently made an exception to my no-paper-subscriptions rule to buy a year's worth of Cards magazine, which is just LOVELY.  It's stunningly-photographed handmade cards, one per page.  It has a little bit of how-to content, but is mostly just a GREAT idea book. In addition, it's so inspiring and gorgeous that I'd love to get published there someday.  It's part of my Mondo Beyondo list.

Craft magazines are RIDICULOUSLY expensive when you buy single issues (if you can find them at all). I guess they have such small circulation, with a specialized audience that will pay. So I try not to indulge very often.

I picked up 'Paper Creations' last month because it had a really cool-looking paper Christmas tree on the front.  I had about 2 minutes to make my selection before Trillian started toddler-mauling all the nice magazines at Barnes and Noble.  So I grabbed it and we left.

It turns out the magazine is not really my style.  Lots of overly ornate cards and crafts, with a more vintagey, "busy" feel.  I'm more of a simple girl myself.  Also, the production quality isn't as nice as cards, but for $6 vs the $20 single issue price for Cards (!), I guess that's why.

All was not lost, though, because the Christmas crafts on the cover were neat-o and super-easy.  I loved the paper-covered tree on the front, and found a variation of it inside. 

So the next time we went to Jo-Ann Fabric & Crafts (a regular occurence when they send me xx% off your total purchase coupons!), I bought the (minimal) supplies needed.

And a couple of weekends ago, I got my craft on, while BabyT played nearby, and occasionally came by to ask "What Mama Doing?"

I had originally wanted to make the tree on the cover, with the looped bits of paper, but realized that would be hard to store after Christmas without crushing the loops.  So I chose to make a tree that was covered in flat paper instead.

Materials and Methods

• Styrofoam cone shape (these appear at Christmas time), about 12" tall, but any size could work
• Cool Christmas or winter-themed patterned paper, preferably not cardstock but lighter weight
• Quilting pins with pearlized ball ends (longer is better, I chose 1.5")
• Sequins or little beads (optional)
• 1.25-1.5-inch circle cutter or automagic die-cutting machine like the Silhouette

1.  Cut out a TON of circles with your circle cutter or die cutting machine, no bigger than 1.5" diameter.  Cut out a lot, then cut some more.  Nope, more than that.  I needed about 100 to cover my 1 foot tall "tree".

2.  Get into your zen mind.

3.  Start pinning paper circles to the Styrofoam tree shape.  Start at the bottom, and stick the pins in the middle of the circles. Overlap them slightly so that you cover the Styrofoam.  You may have a few gaps which you can fill in later, but should be able to get pretty good coverage if you overlap them by about 1/3. 

4. When you've gone around the bottom, start another row and overlap the bottom row to achieve full coverage.  Do this some more, and then some more, until you've covered up the whole thing.

5. Fill in any small styrofoam gaps by pinning large sequins or beads onto the "tree".

6.  That's it!  You're done!  Join hands and dance around your cool little tree.  Or not.  Just kidding.

Tips and Tricks

• Plan the rough order of circles in advance.  I had only one piece of the evergreen tree photo paper, so I interspersed it with a shiny red pattern to look like "ornaments" and then had to finish with some white glitter paper at the top to look like "snow".  Of course, you don't have to make it look like a tree - people will get the idea anyway.

• Lighter weight paper will curve around the tree better.  The glitter cardstock I used at the top is pretty but shows more creases and was less forgiving, especially when pinned at the narrow top of the cone.

• Remember that you're working with paper - make sure your hands are clean and dry and that you don't handle or reposition each piece of paper more than absolutely necessary.  It'll start looking grungy pretty quickly otherwise.  But you can move circles around if you're careful.

• If you have a die-cutter, use it.  Punching all those circles by hand was NOT putting me in the Xmas spirit, that's for sure.  But I needed to do it where I could keep an eye on T so the die cutter wasn't an option.  Learn from my mistake :)

• Older kids would probably dig this craft.  Younger ones will probably poke their eyes out with the pins.  Be safe, yo.

• The volume of a cone is 1/3 times the area of the base times the height.  You don't need to know it for this particular craft, but it might come in handy some other time.

Um, if you're out there in Internet land, could you leave me a comment?  I'm just curious if anyone is reading :)  Extra credit if you make your own tree.  Super-duper extra credit if you post a link to a photo of your tree.  Minus points if you spam me.  :)

Christmas Sweatshop Craft 2010 - Paper Photo Ornament - Experiment 6

Now that it's December, I feel like it's ok to post Christmas-related projects.  I didn't want to be one of those people pushing Christmas before the turkey leftovers have been consumed.

Last year was when I started collecting papercrafting supplies, at first just to finish BabyT's baby book (which is *still* not done and she's 2 now). With all those supplies, I also wanted to make something little that I could slip into our holiday cards.  Since I love sending regular greeting cards rather than the one-panel photo cards everyone else sends, I figured this craft should include a small photo of us.

On the very excellent blog Christmased, someone commented about a family tradition to have a crafty project that they all participate in, to give out to others. Inevitably they'd end up working on it till the wee hours, hence the name "Christmas sweatshop craft". I love that, so I'm stealing it for my title. 

I decided to make small paper ornaments that people could hang on their Christmas trees.  Since it had to fit inside a card, it needed to be flat, so I decided on a round shape with a little cap to look like the top of an ornament ball.  I had to make at least 45 of these, to fit my Christmas card list.  Since I was so excited about this project, I started in early December, so I didn't go into panic mode during this project.  Hooray for being a project manager in real life.  Sometimes it does pay off in unexpected ways.


Paper photo Christmas ornament 2010

 This was pretty easy to make, and would have been even easier (and neater!) if I had used my Silhouette machine to cut out the ornament circles.  I just wasn't thinking about it at the time, since my machine was brand new!

1. Using the Martha Stewart Circle Cuttermanual circle cutter, I cut approximately 3.5 inch diameter circles - for each ornament I cut one from holiday themed patterned paper and one in plain cardstock.
2. I printed the photo I wanted using the Windows Photo Viewer.  I printed them wallet-sized on 8.5 x 11" photo paper and cut each one to about 2 inches square. 
3. I used my Fiskars squeeze corner rounder punch to round the edges of each photo.  (This takes a while when you have 45+ photos!).
4. I stuck the patterned paper circles to the cardstock circles using Mod Podge Decoupage Glue. 
5. I used double stick tape to adhere the photo to the patterned paper side of the ornament (once the glue was dry on the ornaments, about a day later just to be sure!)
6. I used the Silhouette machine's software to design the ornament top - it's just a rectangle welded to a circle, with another circle inside.  I then had it cut out all 45 of these, while I sat back and had a diet Coke.
7. I covered both sides of each ornament top with some matte Mod Podge decoupage glue, to strengthen them.
8. I stapled the ornament top to the ornament with a colored staple.  They were surprisingly hard to find, but I eventually tracked them down at Michael's.
9. Using embroidery floss, I tied a small loop to each one so the recipients could attach an ornament hook.

Tips:

• Rather than decoupage glue, use a Xyron machine, or just strong double-stick tape to adhere everything
• Use an electronic die-cutting system if you've got one to cut circles quickly and more accurately
• Skip using Mod Podge to "strengthen" cardstock on simple projects like these.  Plain heavy cardstock should be fine, or use a clear page reinforcement if it's the right side.
• Use Photoshop elements to place the photos in the *exact* size needed on the page, then you only need simple cutting and corner rounding.
• Write your last name and year on the back so you and others can remember your cute project long into the future. (Assuming they don't immediately recycle it...)
• Make at least one extra to keep for yourself!
• Don't sweat the small mistakes - people will be charmed by the fact that you made them something.  Unless they're super-critical and mean.  In which case, they don't deserve one anyway.  So there.
• When making a bunch of the same design, do it assembly-line style after making the first proof-of-concept: cut all circles, glue all, staple all, etc.