Christmas crafting & a DIY

The day before December happened the boys and I had a fun little morning activity in our jammies.  Breakfast was still in our teeth but I couldn't wait another minute to cut snowflakes out.  I have several uses for them this year; but the other's are a surprise.  Brody enjoyed it!  H of course just munched on snacks and wandered around.  This is one of those "what this mom does" things.  I'm still interested in what kind of activities you do with your kids!  Please share.
We hung them on red and white bakers twine with mini clothespins much like at my Christmas in July Party.  Our living room doesn't have our Christmas tree in it so I needed something festive there.  I did add lights to our two fake trees- which I might leave up forever now :p
For this craft, I flew solo... sorry boys.  Mason-jar-glitter-waterless-snowglobes!  I've seen it everywhere around blogland and instantly had to do this.  It's unclear who the original mastermind of this craft is, so thanks pinterest.  So anyway, I had everything minus the trees so it would be easy, right?  Wrong!  Well, the craft itself was.  But finding my trees was near impossible.  If you are one of the unlucky ones, like me, maybe I can help.

So, before Thanksgiving even happened I went to Michael's and two other craft stores to find these trees.  I looked online and wasn't finding exactly what I wanted!  It's like Anthro bought every last one.  The only ones I eventually could find were at Hobby Lobby- but they didn't have the cute snow bases.  Just those cheap looking wooden circles.  You know what I'm talking about.  Also, I could only find medium to small trees.  I wanted an 8'' one or something for my big jar.  No luck.  So, I improvised.  I decided to take white felt to cover the hideous stands- and since I didn't have a tall tree, I decided to make a tall base out of cardboard and make a "mountain side" & set the tree on top.  I even did it for my medium size jar so the trees wouldn't get covered up by the lid too much (pictured below).  I really love this craft idea.  And since I had most of everything already this entire project cost me about $4!
And finally, not too long ago I saw my blog friend Leenie posted about some cute twine crafts.  She had one that really stuck out to me and I was like, I'm doing this!  Plus I had twine left over from B's third bday party (most of these leftovers were from that. ha.)  So, I went to the craft store where I was going to get a big wooden letter to make it.  But i realized the letters were $5-10 each for the size I wanted.  Not worth it.  So I thought for a moment.... I could easily make a letter.  Here's what I did....
::cut out cardboard with exacto knife::glued three of the same letter together for fattness::then wrapped in twine and displayed!  (I just wish I had fatter twine.  Oh well!)  But what's great about cutting the letters yourself is you can customize their shape anyway you want.  I was in a rush so I made mine simple.
Easy!  And cost me... $0!
Crafting on a budget.  Happy Saving!

17 comments

Jessica said…
such cute ideas! I love the snow globes :)
TOoo cute, I saw that mason jar on pinterest and plan to do it!!! The word thing is awesome though and the card boarding improvising is SMART!
Suget said…
yay!! those are cute DIY decor... I likey. I can't wait to decorate...
Anonymous said…
All kinds of cute crafty ideas!!!
Those yarn letters are so adorable :)
Laura said…
The letters are my favorite. Gonna have to do that one! :)
Laura said…
The letters are my favorite! Gonna have to make those!
brooke field said…
Such great DIY's! Merry Christmas!
Unknown said…
I absolutely love the snow globes! I don't have snow where I live, so I want to make some of those :) thanks for sharing! all of these ideas are fabulous.
oh my goodness- so amazing! Thanks for the inspiration!

xo em
Shay said…
SO SO SO cute! I especially love the twine- so simple and adorable!
Kyla Makay said…
SO cute! :)
I love all of the ideas!
Makay
www.thebirdssay.blogspot.com
Courtney B said…
love love LOVE your crafts! Why did I ever stop cutting out snow flakes?! And I really want to attempt making these snow globes :)

P.s. Where have I been?! I've been missing your blog! It's not weird or creepy that I'm attached to your cute family, right?! As if that didn't sound creepy enough....
... said…
Just found your blog! I love all these sweet decorations! :)
his little lady said…
i adore all of the DIY projects! i need to get myself to a craft store immediately! ;)
xo TJ
Anne said…
connie, cute duck... ;) I'm onto you.
Brianna said…
This is lovely!! Perfect post for me! since I love anything with twine, and I have a ton of empty mason jars just waiting to be put to good use! :)

Your blog is so lovely! So glad I stumbled upon it! Looking forward to posts and reading back a little, :)
Anonymous said…
Love these!