coffee filter snowflakes

my daughter came home from kindergarten with one of these cute snowflakes so i thought we would make some more. it's SUPER cheap (you can buy 50-100 for around $2 or even less. maybe check the dollar store?) and all you need are the filters, scissors, string/thread for hanging, tape and your imagination. pure awesome.

all you have to do is fold one filter in half, and then in half again (so in fourths) and cut, cut, cut! the girls had a good time snipping away with their safety scissors and i found that it became a little bit addicting. make one, then make another to see how i could make it different. it was fun and a good indoor activity with it being so cold outside. (i super-duper do NOT like winter.)

we were going to tape them to the window in the front room but frankly, our windows are crap and a ton of moisture builds on the inside so we opted to tape them up using scotch tape (or the like).

chicken chili

ok, so this is a really bad picture and i meant to take one in a bowl when it looked super yummy, but i forgot. :( but TRUST ME when i say it is DELICIOUS! we love this recipe! you can make it as spicy as you want depending on which ingredients you include/leave out/minimize.

for instance, the recipe calls for cayenne pepper and i leave that out. my hubs doesn't like hot food. i also do slightly less chili powder and use mild chiles. you could, however, make it "mild" and then add tobasco if you are the only one that likes it spicier. just a thought. :)

you can find the recipe HERE! enjoy!

i should also say that the picture shown has WAY more chicken than what the recipe calls for. i bought a 3+ lb package, intending to separate and freeze some but totally for got so it's PACKED with chicken tonight. :) i served it with rolls and topped the chili with sour cream and shredded cheddar cheese. (although my original plan was to make mini scones, perfect for dunking. ran out of time, darn it.)

felt hair clips

i needed to come up with a christmas gift for the little girl i babysit, hailey. so i googled a bunch of stuff and eventually decided to make her some hairclips and headbands because her hair is pretty short as you can see in the pictures. (yep, that's her, the little blondie) i didn't take pictures of the others, but these were for sure my favorites. took the longest to make because it was all hand stitching, but i love them and want to make some for my own girls now. perhaps one or two for myself. :) i didn't bookmark the link i used as instruction, but if i find it again, i'll link it back here. :)

So this isn't the exact link that i used for making my clips, but i did look at it and got inspired from it. i'm sure this method would work just fine as well.

UPDATE: THIS is the link i used for my clips. pretty straight forward and leaves you to your imagination as far as what you could do with the felt/clips. i love it.

Melissa's wreath

this is the wreath my best friend, melissa, made. see? waaaay better with double sided paper, right? i think so!

Paper Flower Wreath Tutorial

so i made this wreath... and don't know that i love it enough to make more. it's a bit time consuming. BUT, if you had to be somewhere for a long period of time and needed something to do to pass the time, this might be a good idea! IF i were to make it again, there is one thing i would do differently -- use double-sided paper. or even just cardstock so there is color on BOTH sides of the flowers. mine looks fine. i guess. but my best friend made one with double sided paper and it looks 10x better. just a thought.

my best friend is the store manager at a ROBERT'S CRAFT store and they have an idea table for seasonal crafts. that's where the idea came from for this wreath.

alright, here we go, people!

you will need: (sorry, no picture)
*foam wreath (i used a 12" wreath)
*floral tape (mine used jut more than 1 full roll)
*ribbon to hang it (i used roughly a yard)
*paper (i used 5 different patterns, 3 sheets of each)
*glue gun + LOTS of glue sticks
*optional* cricut machine (could also use a silhouette machine, or just trace something round)




first, i used my cricut machine to cut circles out of my paper. i fit (9) 3 1/2" circles from each page.



you then have piles of circles. obviously. i'm new to this ok? please bear with my pictures... not picture after this, i drew a swirl on the back of a bunch of circles, then used ONE that was traced and put it on top of a stack WITHOUT swirls and cut them out. saved me from drawing on EVERY circle. my paper was just that -- paper. some paper is thicker, it will work the same, you just can't cut through as many at a time. does that make sense?



so your circles, after the swirl is cut, shoul look like this, or something close. trust me, they don't have to be perfect.



i got this tool at ROBERTS and it was a life saver. you could roll them by hand, but it will be well worth your money to get one of these little babies when you're rolling more than 100 flowers.


so slip the OUTSIDE point of the circle-turned-swirl into the little slot (you'll roll from the outside to the inside)



and start rolling. whichever pattern you want to have show on the INSIDE of the flower, that one goes on the inside.



roll, roll, roll until you get to the center and it looks something like this. then just pull it off the tool.



it should look something like this. wash, rinse, repeat. and make a pile of them. or put them in a bowl so they don't roll everywhere. either way. in the time it takes to roll them all, they "relax" a bit. kind of like a perm. only paper. :) i liked that so they would end up larger and cover more surface area on the wreath. i did find that some "relaxed more than others and i kind of love that. different sizes make for different texture. awesome.



when i got tired of rolling, i took a break and wrapped the foam wreath. pretty cinchy. just wind it around the wreath so it overlaps on itself. done.



wrap the ribbon around like you're making a bookmark... that's the first thing that came to mind. i dunno. anyway, find the middle and hold it at the back of the wreath, tails hanging down the front. then wrap the tails around the FRONT of the wreath, UP the BACK, and through the loop. make sense? let me know if you have questions.



put a blob of hot glue on the "base" (formerly the center of the circle) of the flower, then use one finger to push the new center of the flower down into the middle, hence the glue, and hold for a couple seconds. wash, rinse, repeat. million times. till all the flowers are done.



when you're read to glue the flowers to the wreath, put another blob of glue on the BOTTOM of the former base...



and press it wherever you want it on the wreath. wash, rinse, repeat. again, a million times.

and then you're done! YAY! i did mine over 3ish days... i also have 3 children and was using the only table we own. it was a constant "get it out and work on it" "put it away so we can eat" deal. i play the same game with laundry and my bed. during the day, it's spread all over the bed so we can (hopefully) find what we need and at night it gets shoved back into the baskets at the foot of the bed. anyone else do that? or is that just me?

i was thinking tho... wouldn't this be cute done with a few REALLY BIG circles on a burlap wrapped wreath? i see a lot of burlap crafts in the blogger world right now and love it! like THIS ONE from my super good friend BRITTANY over at LOVESTITCHED. i totally want to make these for the christmas tree that is not yet set up in my home. :)

lookie here!

check out the Roberts give away HERE from DCWV!! (die cuts with a view)

oh. BUDDY!

you can't imagine my excitement when my good friend Brittany over at Lovestitched told me she was doing a silhouette give-away as well!

there are so many chances to win one of these puppies! and now i really want one. (like i didn't want one before??)

so go HERE to enter on Brittany's awesome blog and then look around and find fun ideas for christmas gifts! she also has an etsy shop full of fun stylish accessories AND does photography! she does it all and is amazing! love her!