Merry Christmas To You All

On 12/23/1981...

Let It Snow!

This is my office door. Even though is was easy-peasy drawing that bear, it was great fun. Just sittin' on a snow bank, blowin' bubbles snowflakes. And you thought snow came from the clouds.... silly butterflies. Cutting out snowflakes is one of those things we all do as a kid and then one day, when we're all grown up and want to cut them out, we can't remember how to fold the paper! Fear not- help is on the way. Martha Stewart has a nice resource for folding, as does Snowflakes Info.

However, I think this is the easiest way to fold your snowflake paper. Folding this way gives you the marks for folding the paper into thirds. I'm sorry, I don't remember where I first learned to fold this way so I don't have a link. Just copy/paste/print the image below.

Sorry it got kind of crowded at the bottom of that page but I hope you can make sense of it.

OK, now---- stop back in tomorrow and I'll show you something very special that you can do with all of those snowflakes that you cut. It would be a great activity to share with your kids. In the mean time, thanks so very much for visiting today.

A Sommerfugl Tree and an Offer

Check out the end of the post for an offer from Amy Kirkpatrick Art.

Sommerfugl- "summerfly". Norwegian for butterfly. Maybe it's "summer bird". At any rate, we're about butterflies today, naturally. Christmas butterflies, because, well- why not? Last year I took a leap of faith and, since it was my last Christmas working on that unit, decorated one of our trees just for me.

Yup, that's right--- butterflies. But of course! One of the gals brought in this white Christmas tree a few years ago and I've been decorating it in nice traditional ways every year, though not the same every year. The only hesitation I had last year about decorating the tree with red butterflies was that I really hoped the Clerk, who could see the tree from her work spot at the Nurses Station, would like it. She has fairly traditional tastes so I wasn't sure how it would go over with her and I didn't want her to have to look at an ugly tree all season. Fortunately, she loved it. Whew! Looking at it now, a year later, there are things I would definitely change but oh well....

I wanted to go back and do something more with the topper but time got away from me so that's the way it went. I like how it came out and saw a couple folks taking photos of it so guess it was OK.

This year, because of my job change, I don't have to decorate three trees and the entire unit, plan or assist with three parties and a Christmas Eve get-together or all the other little holiday things at work. I don't even have to do anything for the Christmas lunch in the department where I work now- just show up and eat. So that's how the other half lives!!! That also means I have loads more free time for myself and my family now. I've been dreaming of this day so maybe all the commotion and job upset was worth it!

The hospital has a house (small hotel-like setting, actually) for patient families and folks getting out-patient treatments such as daily chemotherapy. They've been having a wreath-decorating contest and auction for the past few years to benefit the Patient Comfort Fund. So guess what? I entered a wreath - wow! And I entered the wreath of my own free will, not someone deciding that "the unit" should enter a wreath, which inevitably meant me. I told one of the clerks to check out the wreaths when they go on display and she will know mine the second she sees it...

Looks familiar, doesn't it? I dabbled crystal glitter glue on all of the white wingtip spots but it doesn't show well in the photo.

 had something else in mind originally but it didn't work out on the greenery wreath- needs to be styro. Again, seeing things I would change but not gonna sweat it. Maybe next year.

OK, now, the offer.

This is exciting!

Last summer, I shared this watercolor butterfly painting by Amy Kirkpatrick--



Amy has graciously offered a discount for you, my beautiful butterfly readers. So--- just in time to buy yourself a Christmas present--- go to her Etsy store, AmyKirkpatrickArt, and use the code butterflyjungle when you check out in order to save 10% on your purchase. I had a terrible time deciding but am anxiously and impatiently awaiting my two beauties. Yes, I couldn't decide so I got two. Merry Christmas to me!

 

Still running slow here in the jungle but it's been so fun to play Christmas at home this year that I don't really think about much else once I get home at the end of the day. Tomorrow? Finish the tree and the outside lights. Then it's on to lefsa and cookies!!!  Thanks so much for stopping in and I'll see ya next time.

 

Pipe-Cleaner Christmas Trees

I never planned on such an early Christmas post but like it or not, Christmas is barreling down on us. I hate that I think of it that way sometimes but I not only have a personal Christmas, I also have Christmas at work- more trees and decorations, more food and festivities, more hustle and bustle. Any time I can cut the work load without sacrificing the holiday spirit- I'm all for it.


Cute and cheap and quick! That's the ticket! I found myself wanting "something more" for a centerpiece on the tables at work last year and came up with these little guys. They go together fairly quickly and I got plenty of compliments, particularly on the ones made with the white sparkly pipecleaner.

Important Bit- I honestly don't remember if I came up with this on my own or if I had seen it somewhere else and just didn't remember. All I know is that I was doing a centerpiece for a meal with the patients and it had to be super-duper inexpensive. If you've done this or have seen it some place, please let me know so I can give proper credit.

The bare minimum items that you need for each tree are:

Styro cones

Pipe cleaners

I used 6 inch cones for these trees and that size took 17 pipe cleaners. Of course I went with the sparkly ones.

Insert one end of the first pipe cleaner into the top of the cone about 1/2 an inch.

Bend the pipe cleaner over at a 90 degree angle,

 

and start curling it in a circle around in a circle on the flat top of the cone.

 

The stem will spring loose if you don't hold on to it so you'll need to "keep a holt of it" as they say out on the farm.

The first stem should make it over the edge of the flat top on the cone. The nice thing about the sparkly pipe cleaner is that it sort of sticks into the styro a bit to hold on. We'll talk in a minute about the softer pipe cleaner.

When you run out of stem, make an elbow about 1/4 inch long ...

and stick it into the cone.

 

Insert the next stem right beside the first one and continue to wrap the cone.

 

Be careful about leaving too much space between each stem or the cone will show through. If you're using white pipe cleaner that's not such an issue. I try to coil the stems so that the ends of the little bristles overlap just a tiny bit.  That seems to be a fairly economical way of doing it but of course you can wrap the pipe cleaner more densely if you prefer. Just remember that you will need more than 17 stems of pipe cleaner if you do.

 

Wrap the pipe cleaner all the way down to the base of the cone.

Turn about an inch or so of the last stem under the base and insert the end into the styro.

You can make toppers for your trees if you would like using whatever you have on hand. I had these small ornaments and just ran a pearl pin through each one and stuck it onto the top of the tree. 

You could decorate your tree with sequins or beads if you wanted to but I didn't do that so don't have any pics to show you how cute I'm sure it would be. 

The white tree you see above (in the middle) is made with the sparkly white pipecleaner and got lots of compliments. People had no idea what it was made from. Then we have a fun little Santa's Hat tree made from the softer pipe cleaner. There was a pom pom on top but it apparently went on back to the North Pole, never to be seen again. The white at the top of the Santa Hat tree gave me an ornery time- it didn't want to stay put.

Cut a piece of stem about half an inch, fold it into a "V" and use it to anchor your cantankerous section of stem into place.

For last year's patient Christmas Dinner table, I was working with a lime green and red theme but green Christmas trees are so expected so I made mine red.

We set up one long banquet table so I generally use a long centerpiece that stretches most of the length of the table. I ended up with about half a dozen more trees after I took this photo.

I bought the silver sparkle stars at Michael's. They're foam and a little hot glue gun action was all it took to get them to stay.

The Intern made this centerpiece for our overflow table. So simple but so festive. Maybe it would look nice if the entire thing were set on a silver or glass platter.

So there you go- easy little trees for your Christmas decorating needs. My mind is already churning for this year- maybe an entire Christmas tree forest with trees of different sizes, some fuzzy, some sparkly, maybe some wrapped with ribbon. Oh boy, the possibilities.

And even though this is a Christmas post, don't forget to have a beautiful Thanksgiving.

Count Down Calendar (Advent Calendar)

Are we there yet? Can't you just remember how when you were a kid it seemed as though Christmas would never, I mean NEVER, arrive? I swear, counting the days until Christmas- several times a day- was how my Zippy learned to count.

Here's a Countdown Calendar project to get your little Santa's Helpers in on the act. This can be as simple or as elaborate as you would like for it to be.

  

Start out with a basic "wood" clipboard. These are some kind of compressed wood product and hold the glue, paint, sparkles, etc. much better than the plastic ones. I got mine from Office Depot and they come in 2-packs. Nice if you have more than one munchkin type person at your house. Some clipboards have the screws to remove the clip do-hickey at the top but I wasn't able to find any of those. So we'll work around it.

You'll also need some of this super fun chalkboard paint. How fun is this stuff!! 

Mark out a 7.5 inch square on the clipboard.

Tape off the square with painters tape and paint inside the square with the chalkboard paint. If you can, use the painters tape for delicate surfaces.

You'll need to use two coats in order to get good coverage. Paint one coat in one direction, let it dry, and paint the second coat in the other direction.

Make your stroke nice and smooth and even, as on the left side above, not swirly like on the right side of the clipboard. You know that, of course, but when working with kids or non-crafter adults (like I do) you'll want to mention it.

Once the paint is dry, carefully peel off the painters tape.

Use a pencil to mark out your grid. The lines need to be 1.5 inches apart in order to get your 5 x 5 grid.

Use a paint marker to draw your grid.

 Draw all of the lines in one direction first, letting them dry completely before you do the perpendicular lines so that you don't get streaking and smudging.

Here's another hint- once you draw a line with the paint marker, tilt the ruler up and away from the board instead of sliding it. You may also want to consider wiping the edge of the ruler off with a wipe or damp paper towel before you lay it back down on the clipboard for the next line. The paint markers dry fairly quickly.

After I started this clipboard, I decided that I wanted the edges around the chalkboard part to be a color. That's because ...

 ... I was zero-thrilled with my first run at this project.

So I carefully taped off the chalkboard area and painted the outer edges.

  

 Next I drew some gingerbread men in a couple of sizes on tan scrapbook paper, shaded them with colored pencils, and painted on the frosting with paint markers.

Then I added some swirls with white glue and glitter and drew in a little Cardinal friend with paint markers and Sharpie.

Glue on the gingerbread fellas once the glitter-glue swirls have dried.

Finally, add a bow.

Write in the countdown days with chalk. We have a big debate at our house every year about which day is first, which day is last so I started on the Eve as one day left since that day can feel like the longest day of the month when you're a kid who's been forbidden from shaking any more presents.

Stash the chalk in the clip do-hickey.

You can erase the days or cross them out with the chalk.

I did make another countdown calendar, going back to the non-painted outer edges. I used scrapbook paper to add a colored band across the top and was originally going to cut out CriCut letters for a title --"Days To Go" or something. But the felt presents and tree, which came from Michael's, were so cute I just went with them and added some swirls with glitter glue. Not lovin' this one either but it's just so fun to play around.

So there you have it! Not too hard at all. You could use the clip part at the top to post notes such as...

"Stop poking at the presents."

"Clean your room or no presents."

"There better be some diamonds under that tree."

So hang in there, we're getting closer. Have fun and sing a few carols today.

Next time- Awesome Fudge!