Take Out Box Advent 'Calendar'

Bah haha.

This blog post is so late it's not even remotely funny.  Who writes about an advent calendar on the third day of December?  Moi.  Lame sauce.  To comfort my tardy soul, I should explain that this project comes together lickety split; you can have a new 'calendar' in one evening.  Or: pin it and save it for next year!

I decided on November 27th that I needed a new advent calendar.  The old one had teeny little pockets that held Lindt truffles perfectly.  Chocolate and a two year old with a memory like an elephant?  Nuh-uh.

Besides, I wanted to make this advent about doing things rather than getting treats.

For this project you will need:

24 take out boxes (I used 16 oz and 8 oz sizes)
Decorative paper
Cutting tool (like a Cuttlebug or similar) or pre-cut numbers
Circle cutter or punch in 2" and 1.5" sizes
Clear glue
24 items to place in the boxes

Cut out 24 x 2" circles and 24 x 1.5" circles out of decorative paper.  My paper came from this book of scrapbook paper, available at Michael's.

Cut out numbers (if you need to).  My crafting took place at 10pm on November 30th (hence the crap photo), I laid my numbers out to make sure I had cut the right amount (late night crafting = increase in errors) before packing my Cuttlebug away.  I used the 'Olivia' alphabet and number set.

Glue the circles and numbers on each box.

Fill with fun things!  I stuffed the boxes with tree ornaments, finger puppets, stickers, muffin liners, cookie cutters, and lots of activity tags.

The activity tags included:

Attending the Santa Claus parade
Skating (will be the first time!  Exciting for a mom who is an ex-figure skater)
Baking cookies
Baking muffins
Reading Christmas books
Watching Christmas movies
Having hot chocolate
Colouring in Christmas-themed colouring books
Making cards for family and friends

I had various ideas for displaying these little boxes: hang from a tree, string up like a garland, etc.  But ultimately, convenience and ease prevailed and I stuck them on top of a white fabric blanket on the piano.

Paired with my vintage bottle brush trees, I think they look pretty cute up there.

Today, Rowan and I have a date with a cookie cutter and cookie dough. Happy Monday!

Birthday Cards From Wee Ones

Happy Friday!

The last time I was at my parent's place, I actually remembered to photograph the card I made for my Dad's birthday.  Which was in September.  Ha!

Nothing better than an inky (and slightly smudge-y) high-five from a grandson.  But what do you expect from a fidgety 1 year old?  Frankly, I think I was a little insane to ink up his hand!

Initially I was thinking of incorporating the 'high five' into the message.  But I couldn't come up with anything that wasn't complete lame-sauce.  So I used one of the stamps from this set to make it more 'from Rowan'.  Making it more adorable by default.

 Have a great weekend!

Rowan's Thank You Cards

For your viewing pleasure: the little note cards I whipped up to say 'Thank You' to everyone who spoiled him (spoiled him R.O.T.T.E.N.) on his birthday.

I wanted his handiwork to be included on the cards somehow, so I printed out a sheet of 'thank you' in different fonts and sizes onto cardstock and had him scribble away.  Okay....I'll admit that I did a little (uhhh... a LOT)  of scribbling as Rowan's version of 'colouring' is stabbing the paper with a crayon.

"Mummy!! Look at my new cell phone!"

 Now that he's one, I'm starting to feel the stress of having too many toys (I know I'm not alone!) in the house.  His birthday haul was too much for his moderately-sized toy box to handle, so it's been divided up and half of it is living in a storage container for a month or two.  This way, when he gets bored of the current toy box residents, I can swap them out for storage container residents.  This seems like a great plan right?  Yeah it did to me too.  And then I remembered that Christmas is 114 days away.

Watch-Me-Grow Birthday Banner

The birthday related posts continue today with this little birthday banner.

Honestly, this project made me smile so much.  I can't think of anything better (uhhhhhhh...maybe that's not entirely true.  Quiet time with a glass full of Veuve would be pretty freakin' fantastic) than staring at adorable baby photos for a few hours.

My banner is pretty simple, but if you have a fancy paper cutter you could do this or this.  I bought a $15 Cutter Bee circle cutter that worked just fine.  Since I was making two of them (that equals a gazillion circles, folks), it was definitely worth the moo-lah.  I started at 'brand new' and continued to gather my favourite photo from each month up to 11. 

One piece of advise: if you're stringing them on a ribbon the way I did...tape the ribbon down at the back.  Otherwise, you might throw a tantrum over having to repeatedly untwist the ribbon.  I may be speaking from experience...

The second banner was made for Rowan's buddy Ryerson, who turned one on Sunday!  We had a little party for the boys on the weekend since they were born two weeks apart.  I'm thrilled with how efficient those babies are!

Stay tuned for one more birthday-related post this week!

Art by Rowan

Rowan's Dad is an artist.  A GREAT artist.  For Father's Day, I thought it would be cool for little dude to create a masterpiece to give as a gift.

Add caption

 I was hoping to capture at least one photo of Rowan in action, but this 10 month old artist needed a lot of help and lost interest quickly.   His footprints proved to be a challenge too; however they turned out much better than I had anticipated.  Bonus: I didn't get ink everywhere!

Instead of framing the picture, I nabbed a 'Collage It' travel mug from Starbucks.

Functional art!

My First Scrapbook

Have you been on the scrapbooking bandwagon for eons?  I just joined.  It was a hasty start, I'll admit that much.

I was trying to figure out whattheheck to get my darling Mama for Mother's Day.  In past years, I've always sent flowers because I was working and unable to visit, but not this year!  I felt very lucky that I was able to spend my first Mother's Day with my Mum.

I hummed and hawed over a gift for a little too long.  I think I finally decided on the Tuesday before Mother's Day that I would make a scrapbook (and pseudo-baby book) of my Mum's favourite person.

As you've probably noticed, Rowan is a little older than 2 months.  Procrastination is a devil. 

Stay tuned for month 3 :)

Thank You Cards

I'm going out on a limb here by assuming that my brother and sister-in-law have opened their wedding gifts.  It's been a few days since they've returned from their honeymoon...I think I'm safe :)

A month before the wedding, I asked Jess if there was anything in particular she needed gift-wise.  She asked me to make her some 'Thank You' cards.  Uhhhh, buying paper, ribbon, cuttlebug supplies, ink and an embossing tool for an actual purpose?!  SWEET BEANS!  I think it was my first guilt-free trip to the craft store ever.

I ended up making four different designs, 48 in total.  I thought if I just did one style I would get bored.  The 'thanks' lettering comes from the 'Olivia' alphabet set (by Provo Craft, aka Cuttlebug).  I found it on sale at Walmart and from what I gather, it's becoming hard to find.  I'm thinking Ebay or Amazon is your best bet to nab one.

I left the little embossed birdies blank in the event they don't need all the cards.  These little babies can be used as regular note cards. 

Oh man, I love my cuttlebug.  I used it to cut the 'thanks' lettering, flowers and decorative frame and emboss the paper.  *Sigh* that was a magical afternoon.

I think they took 4 days to complete (my concept of time is shot to hell) as I did most of my work during nap time and after R-man went to bed.  Two other things that helped: watching 'The Tudors' on Netflix and eating 'Toppables' crackers.  Ahhhhhhhh mat leave!

Cuttlebug!

My new toy arrived this morning!! 

It's a belated Christmas gift (from myself) that I found at The Scrapbook Cottage.  The cuttlebug is a little embosser and die cut machine and for whatever reason, it's in very high demand.  It was on back order so many times, I thought it would never arrive!

My Aunt Debbie made some gorgeous Christmas cards this year (and wouldn't you know it, I can't find the card to show you!) with her cuttlebug, and after a long conversation, I realized it was the one little thing missing in my paper-crafts paraphernalia. 

I was playing around with it for a little while...albeit, I only have two embossing folders.  I received the owl for free - how did they know about my obsession with owls?! :)  Fortunately for me (but not my wallet) I live within walking distance from a Michael's; I surveyed the die cut/embosser folder stock before I purchased the machine.  Let's just say: J-a-c-k-p-o-t. 

I played around with ink, but I think I need to get the proper applicator and not use textured paper....that just doesn't look good. 
There's a project that I will need it for, but you'll have to wait a little while before I can put up the post.

Have a great Family Day weekend!