Thanksgiving Advent Ideas GALORE!

So are you ready to celebrate the 12 days of Thanksgiving??? (never heard of it you ask, well I just made it up ha ha ha ha).... Go make an Advent Calendar- to find out how, hop on over to Moda Bake Shop for directions!

Here are some ideas that I hope will peak your interest! 

Make 12 Quilted Shapes! 
I made a Turkey and a Pumpkin with some left over charm pieces. You will have PLENTY to make 12 things to fit in all the pockets if you want!  I just "drew" the Turkey but if you are interested let me know by leaving a comment and I can put up the directions/pattern here.

It would be easy to think of 12 little "things" to make for your pockets.. you could make, leaves, pumpkins, pilgrim hats, turkeys,  boats... the list goes on- look for online coloring pages for shapes to use.

Link to the Turkey Applique Pattern can be found here

Fill the pockets with 12 facts about Thanksgiving: just go to Wikipedia, you'll find out more than you ever thought you'd want to know about Thanksgiving!


What about a "Quote a Day" about Gratitude? Here are 12 I found online.

Gratitude Quotes

1. God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today.  Have you used one to say "thank you?"  ~William A. War


2. The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts.  No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.  ~H.U. Westermayer


3.  Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone.  ~G.B. Stern


4. There is no such thing as gratitude unexpressed.  If it is unexpressed, it is plain, old-fashioned ingratitude.  ~Robert Braul


5. For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

6. If a fellow isn't thankful for what he's got, he isn't likely to be thankful for what he's going to get.  ~Frank A. Clark

7. He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.  ~Epictetus

8. Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.  ~W.T. Purkiser

9. Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.  ~William Faulkner

10.  As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.  ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

11.  We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.  ~Cynthia Ozick

12. Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel.  ~Author Unknown

What about a Thanksgiving Craft A Day?  Your kids will love pulling it out of the pocket to see what they get to do that day! You could use a combo of "pre made" bought crafts (like fun foam stuff) and some home made ones... Here are some links to some fun ones to try...

12 Thanksgiving Crafts

1. Make  a Turkey Votive Holder

2. Thanksgiving's getting close, let's make a centerpiece for our Thanksgiving table!

3. Let's get our fingers dirty and make place cards for Thanksgiving Dinner.

4. Color a Picture to hang on our wall.

5. Make "crackers" to have at Thanksgiving Dinner.

6. Don't be fooled!  Let's turn an Oreo into a Turkey!

7. Let's make Bingo cards to keep our guests entertained on Thanksgiving day! 

8. Turn a pine cone into a Turkey! 

9. Go on a nature hike and gather fall leaves!

10. Read a story about Thanksgiving 

11. Build your own Mayflower!

12. Why not dress up to fit the part on Thanksgiving day? 

There is always Good Ole' Candy? I mean who doesn't love that!

Some other ideas! 

12 Autumn Recipes (would be a good one if you don't have little kids at home)
12 Conversation Starters for Thanksgiving Dinner
Go ahead and "rewrite" 12 Days of Christmas ... to 12 Days of Thanksgiving...
"On the first day of Thanksgiving, my true love gave to me, a Turkey on a silver tray"...
"two pilgrims hats"
"three french fries" (okay so that might not work, but you get the idea!)
12 silly "jokes" about Thanksgiving... you know "why did the Turkey cross the road?"

A gratitude "project" a day for your family...
1- Today write a letter letting your teachers know how much you appreciate them.
2- Don't take things for granted, find something today that you can give to someone who needs it more than you.
3-Today, find a way to serve your neighbor.
4-Do something nice, and totally unexpected for another member of your family
5-Write a sincere letter to someone who has had a profound influence in your life.
6- Say "thank you" at least 10 times today.
7- Write 5 Thank You notes today, and MAIL THEM (email does NOT count!)
8- Bake a special treat for someone in your life who you truly appreciate.
9- For one week, in your prayers, only thank God for the blessings in your life, don't ask for anything.
10- Give someone a HUG!
11- Do a chore today without being asked.
12- Call your parents and tell them how grateful you are for everything they have ever done for you.

Also check out:
Angela @ A Bushel and a Peck listed out activities for the calendar she made last year.

So let me know! What do you think?  If you have done something like this before post a link, I'd love to repost them here to share with everyone!

New Contest...

Lila Tueller is giving away a Layer Cake and Jelly Roll of her NEW fabric on her blog! oh .... I'd love to win..

You can see the Diaper Bag I made with a Layer Cake from her Santorini Line here...
Go check it out!

Mini Scrapbooks & Fried Chicken....

This summer I had the opportunity to visit Savannah. I have always wanted to visit Savannah, and it did not disappoint!
We took a trolley tour of downtown, shopped, & ate at none other than the Lady & Son's!  (btw, the title comes from a story... no one in my family has really been a "fan" of fried chicken before.. including myself.. until we had it at the Lady & Sons! ... so it became our "joke" that we all love it now after our trip!)

I decided to make a "mini" scrapbook of this trip... I'm starting to rethink how I handle scrap booking vacations. I like the idea of mini scrapbooks for trips. Last year I made a shutterfly book of our trip to Europe and LOVE how it turned out (maybe I'll post that one...).  I think the mini book makes scrapbooking a trip sooooo much easier. There is a definite start and a stop, and you finish with a great sense of accomplishment.

I used some of the techniques I picked up at creative escape... and most if not all of the products are from my monthly Jenni Bowlin scrapbook kit (one of my fav's!)

For the cover, I used Grunge paper, (it won't tear, so it's great for a book cover) I painted it red and then inked it brown. It ended up looking like red leather, in fact when my husband picked it up he wanted to know where I got the leather for the cover.  The rest of the products are Jenni Bowlin, with stamps from Close to My Heart...
*** just a note,  I'm not endorsing any products here... no one sent me anything for free (although I would be open to that LOL!!) this is just stuff I had in my "stash" that I pulled together to make my book.**


Here are the inside pages of the book. To keep little hands from ripping them, I secured each page with 1/4" eyelets.

on this page are flip flaps from close to my heart, just attached at the side with staples.

this page is made from polka dot felt... I sewed the photo on at the corners.

The book dimension are 6x9.. for this page, I made it 6x12 then took a 6x6 piece, folded it in half and used ribbon to "bind" it into the fold of the larger piece of paper, then attached photos into the "flaps"... a good way to get alot of photos into one page...

also not shown, I typed a whole page with our "story" from the trip and put it at the beginning of the album

Now on to make a mini book of our other trips this summer... San Diego... that one should be fun huh!

'tis the Season!

So yesterday was the first day of Fall, which means it's time to break out the good old Halloween decorations!  Right now they are strewn all over my kitchen floor! Don't you just love the mess associated with holiday decorating?

I LOVE LOVE LOVE to decorate for Halloween! Although Summer has overtaken me as my favorite season (hey you can't beat swimming pools, flip flops & vacations)... Fall is a VERY close second, if not a close tie.

(this is my crew a few years ago...not my house anymore, we moved since then)

In the coming weeks, I'm going to share some of my Halloween traditions and decor, and please share with me some of yours! I'd love to see traditions, recipes, costumes etc!

So to get started here are a few:

Follow this link for a  Halloween craft tag from last year, a little neighbor gift & mini scrapbook.

Also:

Last year for a couple of friends I made caramel apples. They were SUPER easy, just melt caramels in a double boiler (store bought caramels) then dip the apples, and dip in sprinkles, nuts, chocolate chips, whatever you have.  To package them, I used some left over chargers. I picked them up at Target after Christmas clearance, they are sparkly silver (I think they were 4 for $5 or so)... made a tag and tied it all up with some cellophane.

Traci at Amazing Mae  is giving away a pumpkin door hanging, and trust me as the owner of one of these you want one!!!

Kathyrn and Melissa of Nanny goat have got some pumpkin recipes comin' up too! Watch their blog!

Ki Memories is Having a Halloween Craft Party on their blog... can't wait to see what they come up with !

House of 3 has some AWESOME Halloween digital stuff! Did you see the cute stuff they are making with it!!? My head is seriously spinning with ideas!

So what else? Let me know? I want ideas!

*note, I am switching to short feed... I've just read too many stories of people having their blogs "cloned" (cjane is one)... seems going to a short feed is one of the best ways to stop this! *

Typo's and Today's Creative Blog...

First, for those of you in google reader I am SO sorry about all the typo's in the skirt tutorial... I can only blame too much cold medicine... :-) Sorry I should have checked it a 3rd time!



Today's creative blog is doing a Tuesday Get your Craft on... it's pretty fun.. you should check it out.. everyone posts what their working on... lots of great ideas.

Sydney's Skirt: The Tutorial

*edited to add.... hi... I feel terrible that I have to add this... but this skirt tutorial is provided for your own FOR FUN at home use ONLY, please do NOT take this and make or sell a pattern of it. I just saw today that someone took my patchwork skirt tutorial and is selling a pattern of it... not cool.. I want to keep putting this stuff up for free and to share, but only if everyone can play nice!****


Hi,
I'm so excited to share the tutorial for the Sydney skirt with you. It is similar to my last skirt tutorial but a bit "new and improved".  Just so you know I did NOT come up with the idea for this skirt. I have to thank the amazing Heather Bailey for that one. Last spring she had an adorable skirt on her blog and I JUST had to make one... this is how I "figured" it out... good ole' trial and error... so I thought I'd share with all of you!

Fabric Requirements:

3/4 yard main fabric
1/2  yard ruffle fabric ***edited... sorry.. you just need 1/2 yd not 1 yd***
1/4 yard waistband fabric
3/4 yard white muslin or cotton lining fabric
1 package ric rack
1 package 3/4" or 1" elastic

First you need to determine the size you want to make your skirt. Mine was about a size 6-8.
Measure your "model" or daughter :-)
You need:
-Waist measurement
-Hip measurement (widest part, around their bum)
-length measurement- from hip bone to where you want the skirt to fall

Take the waist measurement and times it by 2. This will give you the WIDTH for your 2 skirt front pieces.
For example my daughter's waist was 20" so my skirt WIDTH was 40"... (2 pieces)

Take the hip measurement and add 3" or so - if you aren't sure, add more- this will give you your waist band measurement. My daughters hips were 25.5... so I cut the waistband 28" WIDE

Now for the length measurements:
After you figure out how long you want it (by measuring from hip to where you want the skirt to fall) you can cut your pieces). 12" was a good length for my daughter.
So I cut:
2 pieces 12" x 40" of Skirt front fabric (this is your MAIN fabric)

This skirt uses white muslin to for the underskirt (saving $$$). So out of your white muslin cut:
2 skirt under pieces:
11" x 40"  (if you want the skirt more FULL or twirly... go ahead and made this piece WIDER, like the full 44" width of the muslin... if you are making this for a baby or a toddler, that's probably too much fabric, stick to the same measurement as the main fabric)

To make the ruffle cut:
4 pieces of fabric 4" x 44" (or the width the fabric comes already, if you are making a tiny skirt you will have extra, if you are making a skirt for a older girl, cut a 5th piece)

Cut one waist band piece: 28"x6"

Okay so this is what you will have to start with...
2 main skirt panels (12x 40)
4 skirt ruffle pieces (4x44)
1 waistband (28x6)
2 underskirt pieces (11x40)

Sew the 4 skirt ruffle pieces together at seams. Press seams open.  Finish hem on one side buy turning fabric under 1/4 " then turning under another 1/4" and sew.
Press.

It will look like this when finished. You could also finish this with ric rac instead if you like.

Gather the ruffle. I got a ruffling foot.. what a great invention! You might have one and not even know it! It is harder to figure out how to put it on your machine than to use it.  If you don't have a ruffling foot, run 2 rows of gathering stitches (set your machine to the longest stitch lenght) along edge. Pull stitches until gathered.

Sew 2 underskirt pieces together at side seams. Finish seams with serger or zig zag stitch.

Attach ruffle to bottom of underskirt pieces, right sides togehter. Sew.  When you get back to where you started attaching the ruffle, adjust gathers and sew a seam in ruffle.
Using a zig zag or serger, finish this seam off.
Set underskirt piece aside.

Sew 2 skirt pieces together at side seams. Finish seams.  Finish bottom hem of skirt with either zig zag or serger.

Attatch ric rack to bottom of skirt on the right side. Sew straight down the middle of the ric rack.

Turn the ric rack under... then top stitch to hold ric rack in place. PRESS well.

Take your waistband piece.  Use a marking pen and mark the fold on one side. On the other side, sew a 1/2" seam.

Run 2 rows of gathering stitches on your main skirt piece AND your under skirt piece... gather them seperately...don't sew them together at this point.

Pull up on gathering threads, and matching side seams, fit into waist band.  You will have your right side of your waist band, then your main skirt, then your underskirt.

Stitch all layers together. Making sure that you caught all the gathers as you stitch.

Fold under edge of waistband 1/2" and press.
Fold waistband over skirt so that the folded edge lines up with the seam of the skirt. Pin in place. Press.

Lay your  elastic on your waistband. Use a marking pen and note where lies.  Along this line, sew a casing for your elastic.  Leaving open a 1" hole to feed elastic though.
Cut elastic to size.
Using a safety pin feed though casing. Sew elastic together.  Sew casing closed.
By hand, sew waistband to skirt.

You're done!!

I'd LOVE to see the skirts you make! Leave a comment with a link if you do! And please please ask me questions if something is not clear.

Oh...
The posy pins, were made with a tutorial on Heather Bailey's website, I just substituted scrapbook flowers for felt (since I don't have any of that FAB felt yet! it looks so yummy!) The button was from Joann's... and the letter's on the t-shirts are simple applique... just printed a letter on (used times new roman font) paper, traced it on wonder under, ironed it on then sewed a simple seam around it. You can see more of how I did it here.

A new skirt tutorail is coming! I promise

Okay! I PROMISE a new skirt tutorial is coming! Here are the pictures! I got them done... It is similar to my last one, but "new and improved" and uses a little less of the fancy fabric to help out the ole' pocket book.. plus it's more "twirly" I'm calling it the Sydney skirt.

These are for my daughters two super best friends... polly pockets wouldn't "do" for them... So I'm off to the parties today, and will get the tutorials up tonight or tomorrow. I promise! I would have gotten them up earlier but I am still plagued by computer problems. (plus I'm still missing photoshop- hopefully I can get it back this week).....Luckily the guys at the Apple store were SUPER helpful and got my new laptop working!! (it would NOT get on the internet! not very conducive to blogging!)

So, here's a sneak peek! This one is for Mikayla... she is a super cute red head... I thought the autumn colors would be so cute on her...

This one is for Sarah, she is a girly girl who loves pink and purple!
What a weird coincidence that two of my daughters best friends would have parties on the same day!

I'm off! I have 2 more skirts "in the works" hopefully I can share them soon, but we are in the "throws" of sports season around here, not too much time to craft lately.

More Creative Escape Projects

Here are a few more projects... It was nice to sit down and have all the creative stuff figured out for you ... you just sit down and create... everyone does the same thing at the same time... so can't take  credit for anything, that goes to the awesome designers.

First is Heidi Swapp's project. It's a cool like a scrapbook on an easel that opens like a chinese box. Her's had lots and lots of photos on each flap.  It's not 100% done. There are glitter buttons which go on the top but I didn't glue them on yet, especially after she told me they came from China and you can't get any more of them.

Next is Marah Johnson.  She does super cool stuff... the photos don't do this project justice. We used glimmer mist to dye the paper... it was such a cool techniuqe... If you are a twilight fan you should check out her website she is doing a super cool twilight scrapbook...
Her project was a box that fits several little photo books in...

Heather Bailey project was a favorite of course... Her paper was the same print as her fabric so what's not to love about that. It was a cool circle scrapbook.. Each page had a clever "something" a pocket, a flower, a page tab... etc.. On the back page was a spinner (the green flower)... The brad in the center makes it so it can spin around.  I'm going to add photos to this one and hang it on a vingate hook in my daughters room.

This is Paula & Deb's class of 7 Gypsies. You can't tell from here but it's all built from book board (really thick chipboard)... The 2 photo mats flip up and down to hide little messages... it's not 100% done yet.  I love this idea, I'm going to put it on an easel in my house... it would make a cute wall hanging too.