Clothespin Wreath Advent Calendar

Posted on November 28, 2012 by jewelsathome

My brain has been whirling with all the creative advent calendar ideas out there. I grew up with a beautiful felt advent calendar my mom made, and I want to recreate something like that for our boys. While I’m still mulling over all the options for the long term, it is the end of November, so for this year, I’ve decided to make a clothespin wreath using Christmas wrapping paper and scrapbook papers to hold 24 cards with activities we can do together through the month.

Clothespin wreath advent calendar with an activity for each day.

The instructions for the wreath are detailed in the previous post. The only changes were that I made this wreath a bit bigger (13″ diameter) to accomodate 24 pins, and I added numbers to the pins for each day. The numbers are stickers on punched out circles, and I used removable tape to stick them on the clothespins, in case we use this wreath for pictures or cards in the future.

Clothespin wreath for Christmas makes a lovely advent calendar or card display.

Numbers for a clothespin advent calendar

For the activity cards, I printed 2″x4″ shipping labels with 24 different activities, one for each day. There are lots of options – here are some I thought would be fun to do with the kids this year. I’d love to hear what you are planning, too!

Get a Christmas tree
Decorate the Christmas tree
Write Christmas wish list
Make ornaments
Holiday Faire at school
Make a gift for a friend or family member
Give a homemade gift
Drink hot chocolate
Go see Christmas lights
Wrap presents
Make snowflakes
Read How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Read The Polar Express
Prepare Christmas “thank you” cards
Donate food
Donate toys
Decorate a gingerbread house
Visit reindeer at the zoo
Watch “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer”
Watch “Frosty the Snowman”
Make a snowman pizza
Bake Christmas cookies
Write cards for teachers
Deliver gifts to teachers
Family game night
Snowman pancakes for breakfast
Mail Christmas cards
Brunch with Santa (like family photos, this is a strange torture I cannot resist!)
Call relatives and sing carols to them
Movie night (this is a Christmas Eve tradition for us)

I stuck the labels on cardstock in Christmas colors and patterns and then clipped them to the wreath, with the labels facing the back. We can turn over one each day!

Clothespin wreath advent calendar with a special activity for each day.

Maybe I’ll come up with a new advent calendar next year, or maybe this wreath will become our tradition. I think I’m at least as excited as the boys for the countdown to Christmas!

“Jewels”

I shared this project at:

Felt Christmas Trees

Posted on November 20, 2012 by jewelsathome

Here is the second group of Christmas trees I made for our mantel this year.

I haven’t put up any of the trees yet – I love Christmas, and I’m definitely catching myself singing along to the carols in stores, but I’m trying to enforce a little discipline at home. Besides, we’ve had some warm spells this November, so I might as well finish soaking up fall before celebrating winter!

I was originally inspired to make a Christmas forest by the exquisite handmade Christmas trees by Shauna Mailloux, and for today’s trees, I found inspiration from the charming felt trees made by Rebecca at the Crafted Sparrow.

Just to remind you, here’s a picture of the first decorative Christmas trees I made. They were all quick projects created by winding yarn or trim around the cone.

Make your own decorative Christmas trees. Easy, inexpensive, and unique holiday decor!

For the felt trees, I also used homemade tree bases formed by rolling used cardboard boxes into cones of varying sizes.

As predicted, this second group of trees did take longer to make, but they were still very doable projects and absolutely worth the effort!

Felt triangle trees
These trees were the ones inspired by the felt trees made by Rebecca at the Crafted Sparrow.

I made the first tree using 3 full sheets of felt for a 14.5″ tall cone. I started by cutting two inch strips of felt and then cutting those into triangles (top left picture below). I saved a little felt to hide the cardboard under the first row and a small circle to finish off the top.

Because this tree sat flat on the ground, rather than on a trunk, I wrapped some strips of felt around the bottom 2 inches of the tree, so the cardboard wouldn’t show under the first row of triangles (top right picture below). I then glued triangles, overlapping slightly, in a row around the cone (bottom left picture below). Hot glue worked better than white glue, which just got absorbed into the felt. I worked the same way all the up the tree and capped off the top with a small circle of felt.

A pretty tree, and I love this dark blue-grey color of felt.

DIY felt Christmas tree.

The second felt triangle tree sits up on a glass bottle for a trunk. I’m thinking of filling it with some silver and grey beads. This tree was made the same way, except the first row of triangles hangs off the bottom of the cone (left picture below), since there is a trunk. For some variety, I made a narrower shaped cone for the white tree, and I added also some small pearl beads I had in my craft stash (right picture below). The cone for this tree is 13″ tall and used just over two sheets of felt.

DIY felt and bead Christmas tree with a glass base.

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Felt circle tree

My friend and partner in crafting (crime), Ari, spotted these sweet felt trees from Land of Nod (and let’s be honest, what isn’t sweet at Land of Nod?!). The circles were not so hard to cut out – I used a Sharpie to trace a spool on a sheet of felt (top left picture below) and then pinned it to a second one, to cut out two sheets at once (top right picture below). This little tree used just over two sheets of felt.

Because the tree sat up on a base, I glued the first row of circles hanging just off the bottom of the cone (bottom left picture below). The cone was wider than the others, to change things up, and I decided to put a base on it, which was a large tin can wrapped in brown felt (bottom left picture below).

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Another cutie to add to the forest!

DIY felt circle Christmas tree inspired by Land of Nod.

Here are some more pictures of the new felt trees and some of their old friends:

I am hoping to get around some more trees this season, but we’ll see how things go, with some stockings and teacher gifts still on the to-do list. I’m enjoying getting warmed up for the season!

“Jewels”

I shared this project at:

Centsational Girl’s holiday Link Party

Make Your Own Decorative Christmas Trees

Posted on November 15, 2012 by jewelsathome

Don’t get me wrong, I pretty much love craft projects just for the joy of making something with my own hands. But, to be honest, there are DIY projects that look just like you DIY’ed them, those that turn out as well as something you would buy, and then there are those that turn out to be truly beautiful, unique pieces of art. When I saw these handmade Christmas trees by Shauna Mailloux, I knew they fell into the last category, and I couldn’t wait to try them myself.

There are a hundred ways you could customize these trees. I used a few of Shauna’s ideas and came up with some of my own, browsing the craft store and my own odds and ends. I encourage you to try making your own unique holiday creations!

Make your own decorative Christmas trees. Easy, inexpensive, and unique holiday decor!

Like Shauna, I made my own tree bases by rolling cardboard boxes into cones of varying sizes.

Here are the first few trees I made. (With some luck,) I’ll add more later. I call these the “instant gratification” trees, because they were quick and easy. The “blood, sweat, and tears” trees will take a little longer…

Feather boa tree
This is my absolutely favorite of Shauna’s trees. It has a great funky elegance. When i was looking for supplies, I wasn’t sure about the quantities of materials needed, so I’ll list what I used to help you with your sourcing.

For this tree, I used 4ft of feather boa for a 14″ tall tree. It was simple to tuck one end of the boa in the top of the cone and wind it around, securing it with some hot glue once in a while. You can leave quite a bit of space between the rows, since the boa is so fluffy. I used a white cardboard cone, in case any cardboard showed in between the rows.

Make your own decorative Christmas tree from a feather boa. Easy, inexpensive, and unique holiday decor! From Jewels at Home.

White feather boa Christmas tree.

Eyelash yarn tree
I loved the look of the white boa, but all the other boas at the craft store came in rather non-Christmasy colors. Luckily, this glitter eyelash yarn gives a very similar look!

One ball (0.88oz ; 39 yards) of glitter eyelash yarn covered a 12″ tree. I used two strands (pulled the yarn from both ends) twisted together, as it’s actually very fine yarn. The technique is the same – tuck the end in the top and wind the yarn around, but since the yarn is so fine, I used the toothpick end of my tree topper to help push it inside the cone.

I absolutely love this one, too! The tinsel strands reflect light and make it sparkle. I’ll show how to make the little beaded tree topper below.

Use glitter eyelash yarn to make your own decorative Christmas tree. Easy, inexpensive, and unique holiday decor! From Jewels at Home.

Glitter eyelash yarn Christmas tree with a beaded topper.

And then, there were two!

Use eyelash yarn or a feather boa to make your own decorative Christmas trees. Easy, inexpensive, and unique holiday decor! From Jewels at Home.

The fluffy ones! Feather boa tree and glitter eyelash tree.

Cording and braid trees

Not just for Marie Antoinette’s curtains, the trim section of our local craft store had some more great finds. I found some cord in red and also these green and gold braids. Because of the lacy edges of the green and gold braid, I spray-painted the cardboard cones to match first. The rest is the same as the others, sticking the end in the top of the cone and winding around, with hot glue applied along the way.

In terms of supplies,

the red cord tree used 2.5 yards for a 9.5″ tall cone
3 yards of the green covered a 9.5″ high cone, with a few inches to spare
the gold is a bit narrower, and I used 4 yards to cover a 12″ tree, with some space between the rows, as shown

DIY Christmas trees made with braided trims.

Beaded tree-topper

I also got this idea from Shauna’s trees, though she didn’t explain exactly how she made it, so here’s what I did.

Glue a large bead onto the end of a toothpick (top left picture below)
Spread tacky glue over the surface of your large bead (top right picture below)
Dip your glue-y tree topper into a bowl of small beads (bottom left picture below)
Insert the toothpick into the top of your tree. Ta-da! (bottom right picture below)

I have some ideas for more tree toppers, though I think that many of the trees look great on their own, too.

Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!

“Jewels”

Kids’ Art Gallery Frames

Posted on November 15, 2012 by jewelsathome

My kids’ art projects tend to accumulate in (not so) little plies all over our house. I’m implementing a new system to organize all of it, but more on that later. I would love to have more of their creations up on display, but I get around to it so seldom that the few pieces that are hung are completely outdated. I’ve been looking for a solution that makes it easy to change our our display, and I knew I had found it when I spied these frames with clips from Shanty 2 Chic.

I decided to make mine with fabric, rather than paper, backgrounds. The fabric matches these DIY picture mattes I made. I’ll show you how to make your own!

Materials:

frames – I used NYTTJA frames from Ikea, which are perfect, because the front is plastic that has a protective film on it for packaging. I left the film on, so that if I ever want to use these are regular frames, it will be easy to peel off the fabric.
fabric or decorative paper
magnetic bulldog clips

Instructions:

Take apart your frame and spray the glass (or in this case the plastic) with spray adhesive. I think you could also use a glue stick, if you spread it thinly. (top left picture below)
Cut out a piece of fabric (or paper) about 1.5″ wider than your glass in all directions. Lay the glass, adhesive side down, on the back side of the fabric. Cut the corners diagonally, to reduce bulk. (top right picture below)
Fold over the fabric and tape it in place securely. (bottom left picture below)
Reassemble your frame. (bottom right picture below)

The last steps are to hot glue the bulldog clips in place and add your art! (pictured below)

Here is the kids’ new art gallery in their room. I can tell already that I will be using these frames a lot! Also pictured are the DIY travel-themed pencil tins I made for them.

Next up: I’m getting started on some projects for Christmas!

“Jewels”

DIY Fabric-covered Picture Mattes

Posted on November 12, 2012 by jewelsathome

Little details like art pieces are what bring personalty to a room and make it feel complete. Sometimes, it seems like I’m so busy battling piles of laundry and other basic necessities, that I will never get around to all these little details, but I’m always rewarded when I do! I finally put up the travel art for the boys’ room.

I decided to try making my own picture mattes by wrapping cardboard with fabric. You could do it with a large sheet of art or wrapping paper, too. One caveat is that cardboard can be acidic and could damage valuable art or photos, so this is not a project for your heirlooms. I turned the coated side of my cardboard towards the back, hoping that would protect the art a bit. This project turned out to be pretty easy, and I like how it looks. I’m also glad, because I have some other plans for this fabric in the room, and now it will all coordinate!

Materials:

light or medium weight cardboard, like cereal boxes or toy boxes. I think regular corrugated cardboard would be too thick and bumpy.
fabric or paper to cover your board
glue (glue stick and tacky or white glue) and scissors

Instructions:

Cut the cardboard to the size of your frame’s glass, and cut an inner shape to fit your art – you don’t have to do a simple rectangle or square; how about an oval? You also don’t have to center your opening; western-style mattes look great when the bottom area is slightly taller than the top, grounding your piece. Asian art is often centered with the top area slightly taller, representing the sky. (top left picture below)
Cut a piece of fabric about an inch wider than your cardboard in all directions. Use the glue stick lightly on the front to stick the cardboard onto the fabric. Instead of glue, you could also use Heat’n Bond Ultra Hold Iron-On Adhesive (top right picture below)
Fold the fabric around the cardboard, and use the white or tacky glue to hold it in place, clipping the corners. Do the outside first, and then the center. (bottom left picture below)
Ta-da! (bottom right picture below)

DIY fabric-covered picture mattes with tutorial. Jewels at Home.

Step-by-step tutorial for fabric-covered picture mattes.

Here are the art posters up on the wall in the big boys’ room.

And here are the newly framed pictures next to the DIY cardboard initials I made. This display wall is slowly coming together – I’ve got one more project planned!

Now, hopefully this motivation will carry over to my own bedroom gallery wall!

“Jewels”

Forever Young Wall Art – Free Printable

Posted on November 4, 2012 by jewelsathome

“Forever Young” by Bob Dylan has been one of my favorite songs for ages, though I fell in love with it sung by The Pretenders. Since our first was born, I’ve been thinking the lyrics would make perfect decor for a nursery or play room, with their mix of affection and wisdom. So, it has taken me a while, but I finally typed up the lyrics and dressed them up with some fonts and colors for our kids’ playroom.

If you’d like to print a copy, you can download the PDF of the “Forever Young” lyrics printable.. And here is what it looks like up close:

If you want to change things around and create your own version, the fonts I used were Gabriola and Felix Titling. The frames are NYTTJA frames from Ikea. They are nothing fancy, but the lightweight design (the fronts are plastic, not glass), work well, because the playroom walls are exterior stucco, and I have had no luck putting nails in it, so I used these trusty 3M Command Picture-Hanging Strips. They are advertised as being able to hold a lot of weight, but I don’t like to challenge them!

I’d like to add some more art to this wall – thinking of some Instagram photos city scenes and cars, but I think these are a great start!

Never too late to finish a project… only took 9 years from inspiration to implementation!

“Jewels”

Inspirations from Daily Life – October 2012

Posted on November 1, 2012 by jewelsathome

Oh, how I love to wander around Hayes Valley and drool over all the fabulous furniture stores. I loved the throw pillows in these two scenes from Quatrine and am keeping them as inspirations for our master bedroom.

Beautiful throw pillows spotted at Quatrine in Hayes Valley, San Francisco. I especially like the grey pillows with the ribbon border in two colors and the round bolster with panels.

Beautiful grey embroidered pillows at Quatrine in Hayes Valley, San Francisco.

Just a few steps away from Hayes Street is this lovely parklet in Linden, across from the Blue Bottle kiosk. I love the plantings, rock bench, and painted koi.

Pretty parklet with low stone bench, rock garden, and painted koi.

And back at home, I moved this tiered serving dish that I bought for the tea party up to our master bathroom, and I love the charm and organization it adds to the space.

A small tiered serving tray is a beautiful way to organize jewelry.

“Jewels”

Kids’ Reading Nook and Clubhouse

Posted on November 1, 2012 by jewelsathome

When we installed the Ikea Pax built-in closets, it created an alcove in the corner our boys’ room. Some day, I think this might make a good place for a desk, but for now, it makes a cozy hideout for reading, games, and “K+L+J” club meetings. This is an easy project, with a fun twist with its starry ceiling.

Materials:

2 tension-mounted shower curtain rods
Tab-top curtain panels
String lights
Large floor cushions – we were lucky to inherit this great beanbag chair, part of our friend Victor’s bachelor decor that he had to part with when he moved in with Nicola 🙂

Great kids’ reading nook with starry ceiling.

To close off the alcove, I mounted one tension rod at the front, holding the curtain panels, and the other at the very back of the alcove. For the starry ceiling, I wrapped the lights around the two rods, weaving between the curtain tabs.

Easy starry ceiling for a cozy reading nook.

I’d like to add a few more things to the walls of the alcove, but for now, there’s a world map that fits with the other travel-themed decor in the room. It looks like the boys are having a good time in their new space already!

“Jewels”

Firefighter Birthday Party

Posted on October 25, 2012 by jewelsathome

“Baby” J is hardly a baby anymore. He’s 2! Yes, I am sad. But,whenever I think this idea through, whether it be about my kids progressing too fast through childhood or myself approaching middle age, the conclusion always seems to be that I am grateful that we have the chance to grow up or grow old. And of course, we are all only growing older, so I try not to let the sadness about the passing of each stage overshadow my enjoyment of it.

Now, enough philosophizing and onto the fun! J is in that stage of a young boy’s development that centers around all things with wheels, engines, and in the best cases, both. When I told Steve I wanted to throw J a firefighter birthday, in honor of his favorite vehicle, a firetruck, he commented that it was certainly a better idea than celebrating J’s second favorite, which is a garbage truck. True.

Invitations

I found these cute “Red Fire Truck” invitations on Shutterfly, which worked our perfectly for our party.

Red Firetruck birthday invitation from Shutterfly. Perfect for a little boy’s party!

I also printed up this little note. As I mentioned, I like to try alternatives to birthday gifts to teach the children about giving and reduce clutter at home. At J’s party we raised $80 for the San Francisco Firefighters Cancer Prevention Foundation. My colleagues and I have seen several firefighters at the Cancer Center where we work. These women and men are exposed to many dangerous substances in their work protecting others, and they often do not get all the financial support and services they need to address the risk of cancer, so this organization is a good way to fill that gap.

Instead of birthday gifts, collect donations for a meaningful charity.

Decorations

We dressed up the house with red and white balloons and these birthday banners I customized.

Customized firefighter birthday banner.

Another customized firefighter birthday banner.

For the children to play, we had the play firehouse I made, as well as a pop-up firetruck made by Playhut. I found the best price on eBay.

Firefighter birthday with DIY playhouse and pop up firetruck.

Sticking with my pledge to reduce plastic trinkets from birthday parties, I chose to buy real cotton baseball caps and add these firefighter badge stickers, rather than buy plastic hats that will break in a few days. The cotton hats were reasonably priced when bought in bulk, are very good quality, and blank, so they can be reused for any occasion. I wrote each child’s name inside with white puffy paint.

Buy cotton caps in bulk and add a sticker for a reusable and durable party favor.

Games

In case you are looking for game ideas for a firefighter birthday, I’ll include mine below, but I’ll also disclose that we didn’t end up playing most of them. The kids were all so absorbed with each other and our toys that I didn’t manage to rally everyone in one place at one time for games…

These were inspired by some fire safety stickers I found. I wanted each child to get a sticker for completing an activity. I tried to make them things that kids from two to nine could all enjoy.

Dial 9-1-1

Lesson: Ask kids if they know the number to dial if there they need the police, ambulance or firefighters. Remind them that they should not call 9-1-1 for fun. It is only for a serious emergency.
Activity: Kids hop on a hopscotch pattern with the numbers 9, 1, and 1

Bee smart. Don’t let fires start & Fire safety starts with me

Lesson: Be aware of items that could be a dangerous and start a fire. Remind kids to stay away from these items.
Activity: Ask each child to name two things in a house that could start a fire. For the younger kids, name a few items and ask them to say if they could start a fire, eg. stove (yes), candles (yes), shoe (no!)

When fire strikes, Get out and stay out & Crawl low in smoke

Lesson: If there is a fire, get out of the building as quickly as possible. Do not hide inside. If there is a lot of smoke, crawl on the ground, where there it’s less smoky.
Activity: Make an obstacle course (ours started in a playhouse) that includes a crawling segment. To make it fun for the older kids, you can time them.

Happy Birthday, dear JJ!

I can’t take credit for the cake – we bought it – but I will take credit for eating several slices.

Firetruck birthday cake.

Birthday boy and his brother enjoying cake and their new firefighter caps.

In the end, I think it was a fun birthday for baby J and his friends. The occasion was made extra special, because Nicola came with her new baby (remember the bib and onesie bouquet I made?). We are looking forward to many more family celebrations with them.

“Jewels”

Easy Customizable Birthday Banners

Posted on October 21, 2012 by jewelsathome

I often see beautiful birthday banners customized for a theme party. I love having something that matches the rest of the event and makes the birthday boy feel all the more like the day is made just for him. On the other hand, I don’t love the idea of something that can be used just once.

So, I’m very happy that I realized that you can adapt any banner to a theme… And then just as easily change it for the next party.

I can’t resist poking around the clearance shelves at Target and was excited to recently find a colorful birthday banner in red, yellow, and blue. The colors were perfect for our upcoming firefighter birthday, but the circus animals were not. But for just $1.54 (!!), I knew I couldn’t make anything like it myself, and it wouldn’t be a big project to cover up the circus animals with something new.

Here’s a picture of the original banner (top) and then the way it looks after I simply added yellow cardstock and a picture of a fire truck (bottom). I used painter’s tape to attach the new decorations, so they can be removed easily without damaging the banner underneath.

You can easily change the theme of a party banner to reuse it! Why didn’t I think of this before?

Firefighter birthday party decorations. So easy to reuse this banner by changing from a circus theme to a firefighter theme.

Once I changed the new banner, I got the idea to update another one I’ve has for years. It’s a very simple design that would go with anything. The original banner had stars between the letters didn’t have a lot of space for customization, so I decided to make extra pennants to add on the ends. I just cut triangles out of blue cardstock to match the rest of the banner and glued smaller triangles of a patterned paper. I covered the triangles with clear contact paper, so that things could be taped on the surface and then removed. I punched two holes in the top of the pennant and used a simple brad (an office supply “brass fastener”) to join it to the existing pennant.

Making pennants for a birthday banner. Cover the paper with clear contact paper, so decorations can be switched out according to the party’s theme.

Add extra pennants to a ready-made banner, to give you more room for customizing your theme.

For baby J’s party, I added firetrucks again, but these can be taken off and switched to something new for our next party!

Customize a plain banner with removable decorations. This banner can be used over and over again!

A plain banner customized for a firefighter birthday using removable decorations. This banner can be used over and over again for different parties!

Yes, this is a simple idea, but it’s a great addition to our party repertoire that I can now re-use and customize at the same time!

I’ll put together the rest of the firefighter party pictures to post soon.

“Jewels”