Christmas Wish Books - Annual Christmas Tradition

This is a 'read me' post...please don't rely in the pictures because that is not really what I am sharing :)

My husband and I have a few Christmas traditions we do with our kids every year; I might share them all with you in a later post. One of these that I truly love and have done since they were little, was to create a Christmas wish list with them. As soon as they were able to hold a pencil, I encouraged them write what they wanted from Santa (sometimes I interpreted below it).

My son's Christmas Wish Book

Three years ago I started a Christmas Wish Book for both of them. I wish I had started this tradition as soon as they were born but unfortunately I didn't. So I will share with all of you, so you can perhaps enjoy this from when your little ones are really little.

This part is not the important part..but I know I need to share it anyway:) I bought a hard cover coil note book at Michaels for $1. The kids selected two of their favorite Christmas scrapbook paper and they Mod Podged them on the front of the notebook. We secured a ribbon over the seam where the two pieces of paper met. I had cardboard letters from the Dollar store that they covered with glue and then glitter. They glued the letter to the front of the book and then the books were done.

 

What happened next was what I love. Over the next few weeks, the kids wrote their wish list for Santa (believe me it changes it a couple of times before Dec. 25), what they are thankful for and they drew a few pictures.  I wrote the day and year on every page after they were done. My one rule was that they were allowed to make changes, but no page could be ripped out of the book.

This page got a little crinkled in the wish list creation process but it is still amazing!

Every year these books come out of storage with our Christmas decorations and the kids repeat the process. And every year we look back as a family and see how thing have changed over the year from their penmanship and spelling to what they thought was important. Their wish lists have gone from asking for bubble gum to a PS3,what they were thankful before were small things and now they are thankful for profound things like a healthy loving family, and how they have grown so much from being our babies to our big kids.

This is my son's self portrait from a few years ago. To me it looks like he is beating up his sister :)

I have only been doing this for three years with my guys and it amazes me to look at how fast they grow.

I plan to continue this tradition until my kids are big enough to pass it on to their kids. At that time, I will give them their Christmas Wish Book so they can share with their little ones what they hoped and wished for when they were little too.

My son drew he wanted a DS. I guess that is what he thought it looked like

I wanted to share this with you so perhaps you can share these memories with your kids as they grow too.

What are the traditions you do that are special to you and your family? Are there any you did when you were a child that you wish you had carried on?

Would anyone be interested in having a 'Christmas Tradition Link Party' where everyone can share their Christmas traditions? I would love to see what everyone else does so we can start some new ones.

Enjoy!
Stephanie

Knotty Picture Frame - Celtic Heart Knot

I have a few not so secrets to share with you...I am addicted to Pinterest (but who isn't), I seem to pin everything to do with hearts and I love Celtic knots! I actually love the Celtic knots so much, I gave my husband a wedding ring has the infinity knot the entire way around the band.

I have been trying to find a way to create the Trinity Knot out of rope to frame it for my in-laws for Christmas. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a way to do this. But in my searching I found something better, something that satisfies both my loves for hearts and Celtic knots...I found directions on how to tie a Celtic Heart Knot! Don't you love the internet?!

I bought 2 feet of 5/8 inch braided cotton rope at Lowe's for $0.50. Thinner rope would look very nice too, but Lowes didn't have any at the time and I was not patient enough to wait for it to come in :) Note: I originally tried this with polyester rope from the Dollar Store and it did not work well.

I burned the ends of the rope to prevent fraying with my handy dandy candle lighter.

This YouTube video clearly shows how to tie a Celtic Heart Knot. It takes maybe 2 minutes to tie this heart knot; you really will not believe how simple it is.

I bought a cheapo frame at the Dollar Store for $2. I selected this one because it has space between the glass (more like plastic) and where the photo is. This allows there to be room for the rope heart to fit behind the glass.

I used a piece of scrapbook paper that accented our family room and that provided a contrast to the white rope as the background.  This would also look great with burlap behind it.

It doesn't really look like much in the photo, but it looks great. I wish I could hide this until Christmas so I could give it to my husband as a gift. But as I have learned after his last gift (the marathon bib coasters) he reads my blog often.

 I was able to make this special gift for the bargain basement price of $2.50!

The next time I am at Lowe's or HomeDepot I am going to see if they have the thinner rope and make a couple of these as ornaments. I will let you know how that works :)

What do you think?
Stephanie

Five Finger Snowman Candle Holder

One of the most popular posts I did over the past year was the Five Finger Snowman Ornament. This was something I have done almost every year with my guys. I love to see how their hand prints have grown over the years and how the ornament size has gotten larger in order to accommodate their hands.

I am starting to get a huge collection of these (at least 15) and the kids don't seem to be overly happy to make them anymore. So I thought this year I would try something different; so we made them into a Five Finger Snowman Candle Holder. I was not sure how it would turn out, but after finding the candle holders at the Dollar store, I thought a $1 investment to try this was worth it. Well it did turn out and I think they are adorable.

I started with a squarish candle holder. I really wanted a round one, but they didn't have any. Even though I settled for this shape, I am happy with the results.

I used the same method of getting the paint on my kids hands as the Ornament but I used a more permanent paint that would not wash off if the candle holder gets wet.

Since Sharpies do not write well on glass, I used fabric puff paint to draw on the accents. I actually loved how this turned out because it gave dimension to the glass. I would have preferred brown for the arms, but I didn't have it on hand, so they are black.

As you see three fingers were on the front and the other 2 wrapped around the 2 other sides of the candle. Now this candle is cute from 3 of its 4 sides. Even if the fingers create some wonky snowmen, they are still adorable.

 

 How cute are those? I think they will make adorable grandparent gifts and great keepsakes for us.
 Since I had the paint and tea lights on hand, this project cost me $1 each.

Have a fantastic weekend.
Stephanie

Marathon Runner's Bib Coasters

This gift idea is for all of you who have someone in your life who has taken part in a marathon, half marathon, triathlon, or any other activity where the athlete wears an athletes number bib.

A few months ago, my husband decided he was going to run a marathon and he gave himself one year to do it. He set out a series of milestones that he needed to achieve in order to reach his ultimate goal. His first major milestone was to do a half marathon (21.1 km or 13.1 miles) within 3 months of starting running.

I was and am so proud of how hard he worked to complete his first half marathon in under 2 hours and I knew I wanted to do something special with his runner's bib.

I was at Habitat for Humanity and they had these amazingly beautiful Carrera marble 4x4 inch tiles for $0.40 each. I quickly scooped up every single one that was not chipped and almost ran out the door screaming "start the car". For $1.60, I could make a set of 4 beautiful marble coasters. I had my idea for what to do with his running bib.

Materials needed:

• 4 4x4 inch tiles
• Copy of Runner's bib
• ModgePodge
• Felt protectors
• Spray sealant

Method:
I ran to the local copy shop and made a color laser copy of the bib. In the back of my mind I worried that this could be a "seemed like a good idea at the time" project. If I cut up the bib and it didn't work, I would have felt horrible.

I cut the page into quarters and trimmed the edges so that they fit nicely on the tiles. I then ModgePodged the paper onto the tiles so they fit together when the 4 tiles are placed in a square.

I thought the tiles looked a little empty on the top/bottom so I cut out vinyl, with my Cricut,  to spell "eat, sleep, breathe, run".

I liked this but wasn't 100% happy with how this looked, so I decided to put the date of the marathon along with my husband's race finish time on the tiles instead. I really like how this looked.

I purchased felt protectors at the Dollar Store and placed 4 on the back of each of the tiles. The funniest part is this step cost half as much as the tiles themselves.

Using Valspar's spray sealant/top coat, I put 3 coats of gloss sealer on each of the tiles. This ensures the paper is waterproof and it will keep the vinyl secured. Plus unsealed marble will stain easily from coffee or wine, so this should protect the marble too.

(I blurred out the numbers)

I am really happy with how these turned out. This project fulfilled my wish to make this a keepsake that will remind my husband of the race every time he looks at them.

Grand total was just over $3.00 ($1.60 for the tiles, $1 for the felt protectors, $0.50 for the photocopy, I had the vinyl, sealant and ModgePodge on hand).

I hope this helps you with your Christmas list. If you don't know anyone this applies to, be sure to check out the FGI (Frugal Gift Ideas) page to see all the other gift ideas I have made over the past year.

Can you think of any other ways to use this? Anyone else have a collection of sporting items that they have no idea what to do with?

Have a great week.

Stephanie

Personalized Monograms on Marble

I think I have found my "go to" Christmas gift for the year.

Paper Pastimes has this amazing tutorial on how to split letters using the SCAL2 program for the Cricut. Denise is so kind to share a video she created clearly describing the few steps (literally 5 minutes)  needed to create these beautiful initials. For those of you don't want to take the time to do this, Denise has actually spent the time and done this with the entire alphabet. She will email the files to you for an extremely reasonable price of $5. You can't beat that!

After seeing what Denise created, I knew I had to make these for everyone! Aunts, kids' teachers....oh the possibilities are endless. I thought these would be great gifts if I made them on an 8x8 inch marble tile. After heading to HomeDepot and Lowes, I could only find 6x6 inch marble tiles. So that is what I will have to work with (for now) until I can find my dream size.

I am not going to do a tutorial because Paper Pastimes does it so well. So please head over and watch Denise's step by step video. For those of you with SCAL, be sure to look around her site, she has great tips, ideas and template. What a wonderful resource!

I purchased the 4 - 6x6 inch tiles at Lowes for under $6 and the Cricut vinyl at Walmart for $10. I calculated I can make 8 tiles with the one Cricut vinyl package. If I had found black contact paper (for $1) I would be using it...but this seems to be impossible to find now.

Here are the tiles I used. Be sure to give them a quick clean to make sure the dust is off them.

 Another trick I learned from Paper Pastime is to mark the halfway points on the 4 sides of your tile/paper etc. when transferring vinyl.

Then mark the halfway points on the transfer paper/painters tape over the image. This allows you to easily line up the vinyl and you don't have to struggle to get it straight! Goodness...Denise is a genius.

 Secure the vinyl as you remove the transfer paper. And you are done!

 Since this is not going to be a coaster or be handled much, I am not going put a sealant on the tile.

 

 I had a Dollar Store plate holder that I used to stand the tile up and finish it off.

Isn't this amazing for the price. $1.50 for the tile, $1.50 for the vinyl, and $1 for the stand. $4 for a great, personalize gift.

Note: I think for my kids teachers, I will put their last name in the middle instead of first names.

I love it! Thank you again to Denise at Paper Pastime!

Got Scrabble? Scrabble tile ornament

This ornament is for all the word nerds out there :) I mean no insult to anyone, believe me my family is right there with you. Scrabble is one of those games you either love or hate. I personally am in the 'hate' camp but most of my family enjoys sitting down for a highly competitive game of Scrabble.

This Scrabble Christmas onament is not a Full of Great Ideas original idea. I have seen it all over the web for a few years now. I am not sure where it originated but I assume since it is on Martha's site, she might be the official creator. You know how it goes, someone creates and hundreds recreate.

I purchased the Scrabble set at ValueVillage (our local thrift store) for $2.99. I would have loved it to be $1.99 but was willing to spend $2.99. It is amazing how $1 bothers me when I am thrifting.  I made sure there were lots of tiles in the box before snatching it up. I had originally planned to frame "I Love You" but never got around to making that. Perhaps in January when I am on a $0 budget again, I will do it :)

Since you are limited by the letters in Scrabble, be sure to decide on what words you want to spell before you start gluing. There are only 1 or 2 of many tiles, so spell carefully. I knew I wanted to make one for the family members who absolutely love Scrabble, so their names got first priority. I did make one for us too just because I think they are freakin cute!

I used my husbands fancy dancy hand miter saw to cut the tile trays. My husband convinced me this was the best method of cutting the tile trays since they are far too small to cut with the electric one. He threw into the conversation that I could possibly loose a finger with the big electrical one. So small hand miter it was.

I carefully arranged all the ornament names I wanted to make in order to get the most names on each tray. Since there are only 4 trays in the game, I wanted to uses them wisely.

I marked where the tiles ended with pencil and carefully cut them with the miter saw.

The edged came out a little rough, so I lightly sanded with a fine grit sandpaper.

I marked the middle of the tile tray with pencil and screwed in a hanging eye.

 

If you have girly hands like me and this step hurts, use a pencil tip to help turn the eye into the wood. That is what I had to do to save my fingers. I prefer the eye to be a half turn more than what I did with these so the ornament hangs straight, but once I started to put the tiles down, I realized this was my only option.

I applied a thick line of Gorilla Wood Glue and stuck each tile down. This glue does not dry clear but almost a light wood tone. So if you get any on the tiles just clean it off with a rag, but you don't have to worry too much. If you don't have this on hand, you can use any wood glue, craft glue or even hot glue. They won't be handled that much so they really don't have to be cemented down.

 

 Here are how a few turned out. I absolutely love them and can't wait until Christmas to share.

 So for $2.99, I have made 5 custom Christmas ornaments and I still have 2 more trays left! What a deal!

This could also be made for teacher's gifts. Spell out their names and they can place the tile tray on their desk. I will have to see what letters I have left :)

What do you think? Have you made other crafts with Scrabble tiles?

Stephanie