Variation on Snowstorm

Last year, I had fun making a snowstorm to hang on the back of our front door. This year, however, I decided to use some of the paper leftover from the craft boxes to make colored garlands for my kitchen window. I will probably still make the white garlands for the door, though. I only have a couple of strands up so far...this would be so much easier if I had paper punches, but I don't, so at this point, I'm cutting out all these circles by hand!

I put some smaller circles on top
of larger circles to give dimension...I folded
the smaller circles and only glued the middle
crease to the larger circle for a 'butterfly' effect.

Some of the paper had some words and designs,
which worked well for the Christmas theme...
I also made some that are sort of a ball
shape out of four different circles...I have
instructions below.

Here are some of the colors I have so far...
this is scrapbooking paper, but you could also
use magazines, old calendars, wrapping paper,
construction paper or
even make your own decorated paper.
I use two circles per 'ornament' on the garlands,
so that they look pretty from either side.

For the 'ball' ornament, I took four circles,

and folded each of them in half.

Then I glued three of the folded circles together,
leaving the one side open
to glue in the string (or fishing line, in this case).
A glue stick would probably be better to use than
school glue, but it's all I have at the moment...the
garlands can be made with string, ribbon, dental floss,
fishing line, etc.

Then, I glued in the fourth piece to complete the ball.
I think I might have the kids make some of
these as ornaments for our
Christmas tree, too!

My little helper!

Snowstorm

Thanks to a link over at Simple Mom, I have been introduced to a new winter craft called a snowstorm! The instructions call for using round labels and dental floss, but I cut out circles and glued them together over fishing line. I also used two different sizes of circles to stagger it a bit. It was a lot of work, I think it took me about an hour? to make these. I am thinking I might make them to go over my kitchen window! It doesn't have a curtain and it's not like I'd have to take them down after Christmas...now the wheels are turning about how to vary this idea for different seasons and/or occasions!

The flash didn't go off when I took this picture,

but it turned out kind of cool!

I think I got them a little too long...

Tragedy in the Stable

Tragic events in the stable, folks! Somehow a shark got into the manger scene (well, there's actually two manger scenes, you will notice...Gracia made a paper Nativity at school) and killed off everyone except Baby Jesus and the angel (I guess they are considered to be immortal?). See if you can spot the offender...

A close-up in case you had trouble finding it...this poor

sheep is in mortal danger!

I'm thinking that this is probably somewhat irreverent? But it sure is funny what kids come up with! I wonder where they get their over-active imaginations....hmmmm....and just in case you were wondering, the offending sea creature has been removed and all is back to normal in the stable once more. For now.

Odds and Ends

The pile of presents is growing!

Someone was giving away some Christmas decorations,

including this village. The kids are having so much fun with it

that I decided to let them keep it even though it's breakable...

mostly because we were able to borrow this bookshelf! Having

it set up on the top shelf keeps Jkaile out of it...right now

it's also home to all of my Christmas cards and wrapping paper-also

to keep it out of Jkaile's reach.

This morning I noticed that one of the shepherds was

being attacked by the sheep!

Notice that Samson has also joined the Nativity scene...

Our school's Christmas program was put on this last Friday.

The kids were supposed to wear hats and/or scarfs for part of the program.

Micah was quite a sight in his pointy hat, sports goggles, and ear muff thingy...

On Friday mornings, I usually take care of Haley and Anna for a couple of hours.

Jojo SAYS he doesn't like to play with girls, but he sure has a lot of

fun with them while they are here! :) They

were just too cute out there jumping on the trampoline.

Haley and Anna's family is leaving the field this week...

we sure are going to miss our little friends!

Jojo and Jkaile got out these plastic snowflakes (also in the box

of giveaways) and added them to the tree. Poor little tree

is just a tad bit overwhelmed! It was really cute to see

Jkaile working so hard to get them to stay up there! He did

a pretty good job, though, considering! :)

Holiday Fun

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Tasha gave me her leftover fall miniature squashes/gourds. As I thought about what to do with them, it ocurred to me that it would be very funny to "recycle" them for Christmas and give them right back! And it was! We got some good laughs about this yesterday as she unwrapped each one. I forgot to take "before" pictures, but here are some of the end result (minus a green spotted one that I hadn't quite finished...similar to the red-spotted one). I think they turned out pretty cute!

My favorite one, I think...

Second favorite? It was hard to choose...

I've got some other projects that I'm working on that shall have to remain secrets until after Christmas so as not to ruin any surprises...so much fun! :) Last night I found a video on how to make little boxes, which are perfect for some of my creations.

Christmas is coming!

I love Christmas! I love the Christmas story...Joseph and Mary, the angels and the shepherds, Baby Jesus, the Wise Men...I love the colors and the bows and the lights...and the presents, of course! And it's fun to pass on traditions to my kids. Every year is a little bit different for us since we're usually either in a different house or even a different country! Since we're new to Mexico, our Christmas decorations are slim, but we're getting creative and making do...we're pretty happy with the results. I am going shopping tomorrow to pick up some more things, but this is what we have so far...

We borrowed this door ornament from a friend at church.

Miguel even repainted the door! The bow

made it look pretty shabby...

The kids and I have been hard at work making paper snowflakes!

We are hanging them in the windows

and on the front door.

Along with the snowflakes, we have lights in the big front windows...

I also added a couple of strips of colorful wrapping paper

to the top and bottom of the glass...looks festive!

I set up a small table with a green tablecloth for
the presents and the manger scene...the kids have already spent
quite a bit of time rearranging it to their satisfaction.
Good thing it's kid-friendly!


Our diminuitive Christmas tree...it came complete with lights and
ornaments already attached! They are all kid-friendly and
since they are attached, Jkaile can't get them off.
He can, of course, pull the whole tree over, which
he's already done several times.
But no worries, I just stand it back up!
I highly recommend it for families with small children! LOL!

Basket of Goodies Giveaway

Check out another Simple Mom Giveaway...

a basket of goodies for

moms and little ones!

Simple Mom also has some great

simple holiday decoration ideas...