Thanksgiving Countdown

This November I'm determined to keep it simple! Since I'm still exhausted from our Halloween countdown I knew I wanted to keep November as stress free as possible. For our Thanksgiving countdown I used a cheap frame that I bought at Michaels in the clearance section (it had a crack on the bottom). That didn't bother me since my kids would most likely knock the frame over and distress it even more. I removed the back of the frame and painted it orange with acrylic paint and once dried I applied vinyl I cut using the silhouette. I found these awesome envelopes at Staples last Christmas. I added numbers to each envelope and cut leaves using the silhouette in fall colors and placed them inside the envelopes. Each day my kiddo pulls one leaf out of that days envelope and writes what he is thankful for. Some leaves include activities that make this month of giving more special like bring someone a coffee or take someone an unexpected gift. I love that this teaches my kids the importance of being thankful and really focuses on what the month of November means to our family. We are making a special effort to be thankful each day for everything God has blessed us with. Hope this inspires you to start Thanksgiving traditions with your family. XOXO~Jenn 

Paint brush ornaments

So this Christmas season I'm determined to keep things simple. That means that I need to get a start on handmade gifts before the true holiday craziness begins around here. I'm happy to report that I have already started Christmas shopping. However, my handmade gifts always seem to take a back seat. Since this year I have a few handmade gift exchanges I figured I better get a move on. So here are a few examples of some quick and easy handmade ornaments that are also easy on your pocket book:) 

First up are these adorable paint brush ornaments.

 

I bought the paint brushes from Home Depot for $1.19 each and used the acrylic paint I already had to paint each one. For the Santa ornaments I used rinestones I found at Michaels and glued them on with this glue. Also found at Michaels. 

You can probably hot glue but little pieces, my fingers and hot glue don't always see eye to eye. 

For the snowman I used my vinyl cutter to cut out the snowman face. You can totally free hand this but...well...umm... I can't! So vinyl it is:) 

For the hat I hot glued yarn I had laying around and added a bow made with ribbon scraps. Think about what you already have and use that. I love those kinds of projects! Think outside the box and get creative.

Here is another super simple and cheap ornament you can make in under 5 minutes! Seriously. I just did it. It took me longer to heat up my glue gun. 

Peppermint flower ornament

All I did to create this cute peppermint flower is hot glue the sides of each peppermint candy to one another. For the red dots I used a few foam balls from jar filler I bought on clearance at Tai pan trading a few years ago. Hot glue ribbon to the back and there you have it! Cute. Cheap. Easy! Now go and create something!

Xoxo~Jenn