Advent Calendar, Rolled Paper Christmas Tree, and Burlap Ruffle Tree

Today I'm sharing my favorite Christmas crafts from last year.

Advent Calendar made with paint sticks.

My Rolled Paper Christmas Tree.

I never got around to sharing this next one last year. 

Burlap and Muslin Ruffle Tree.

 I got the idea here. 

  


Linking up at Lady Behind the Curtain,  Tidy Mom,  Life as a Lofthouse, Or so she says..., Homemade Ginger, 
Whipperberry ,  Adorned From Above, and at these parties

DIY Crystal Snowflakes

So my daughter came home from her science 4H class with a cool little snowflake that she had made. Right away I knew I needed to make more for our Christmas tree.

 I don't know the science behind it, but these little snowflakes are amazing.

 These are quite easy to make and if you're like me you'll already have the supplies on hand. That's my favorite kind of project!

Want to make your own Crystal Snowflakes?

Here's what you need:
white pipe cleaners
string
wire cutters {or old scissors that you don't care about}
pencil
wide mouth pint mason jar
water
borax
food coloring {optional}

Start by cutting your pipe cleaner into thirds. Take two pieces and make an x. Then wrap one around the other. Repeat with the other piece to make a snowflake shape. Tie the string onto one of the ends.
Place it in the mason jar to figure out where to tie the string to the pencil. You don't want the snowflake to touch the sides or the bottom of the jar or else it will become crystallized to the jar. I trimmed the ends a little bit so it would fit better. Once you have the snowflakes hanging in the center of the jar, remove them.

Fill the jar with boiling water. Add food coloring, if desired. Add 6 T. borax to pint jars. {or 12 T. to quart jars} Stir until dissolved. I found it was easier to pour some borax into a bowl for the kids to measure out.

Then place your snowflake back in the jar. Make sure that it's not touching the sides or bottom of the jar.

Now comes the hard part. You have to wait overnight for the crystals to form.

I pulled them out the next morning and put them on a paper towel to dry.  You can see that the blue one is just lightly colored. We used probably 12 drops of food coloring. The kids thought this was really cool. I did too. I've made quite a few for the tree and am still going to make a few more.

So what do you do when your jar has crystals all over the bottom? Here's the trick. Pour a little boiling water in it and grab a fork to scrape the bottom a little and they'll come right off. Sometimes it will come out with super hot tap water too.

I had a hard time finding borax, but finally found it at Walmart. The two local grocery stores didn't have it. It's in the laundry soap aisle.

I may try them with colored pipe cleaners. It might give it kind of a frosted look. I love projects like this. You can mess around with different things. If it doesn't work, oh well...since it doesn't cost much.

 I honestly cannot get over how pretty these are. I can just imagine the Christmas lights bouncing off those little crystals once I get the tree up.

Linking up at Lady Behind the Curtain,  Tidy Mom,  Life as a Lofthouse, Or so she says..., Homemade Ginger, 
Whipperberry ,  Adorned From Above,  One Project Closer   and at these parties

Mint Muddy Buddies

I love Muddy Buddies. I don't make them very often, because I can eat it all myself. I've seen a lot of variations. I've tried the cake batter Muddy Buddies and love them too. I'm not one to experiment too much in the kitchen. I love to bake, but I like to have a recipe to follow. But when I got the idea to try a Mint Muddy Buddy, I figured it was an easy enough recipe to alter.

To me, mint seems like a Christmas flavor. This would make a super quick neighbor gift. There are only three ingredients.  The only thing I would do different is to make a double batch. With six people in our family it didn't last us very long at all.

Click here for printable version

Mint Muddy Buddies
1 c. mint chocolate chips {I used andes mint chips}
5 c. chex
1 c. powdered sugar.
Melt chocolate, pour over Chex and mix. Place powdered sugar in a zip top bag. Add Chex mixture to bag. Zip closed and shake until it's all covered with powdered sugar. Enjoy!

Linking up at Lady Behind the Curtain,  Tidy Mom,  Life as a Lofthouse, Or so she says..., Homemade Ginger, 
Whipperberry ,  Adorned From Above, and at these parties

Terrific Tuesdays #43

Before we start, I'd like to invite you all to enter my current giveaway: Custom Family Rules Printable Download

I took a little break over Thanksgiving, but I have tons of Christmas crafts, goodies and gift ideas to share. The next two weeks {maybe three} will be full of Christmas posts. Then I'm going to take a few weeks off to enjoy Christmastime with my family.

Some of my favorites this week:

Burlap Candy Cane Wreath by Life on Lakeshore Drive

This is gorgeous!! 

 Felt Christmas Ornaments by The D.I.Y Dreamer

Go see all the other fun color combos she made.

Menu Planner by The Thinking Closet

This looks like a great system. I love that the the ingredients for each recipe are on the back of the card.

If you were featured grab a button!
Also check out my facebook page, I post additional features there from time to time.

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Here's what I shared this week:
14 Things to Be Thankful for when your Fridge dies

and 

Customizable Family Rules Review and Giveaway

Now let's see all the terrific things you've been up to.

Here are my guidelines:

1. Link up any projects, crafts, or recipes you have blogged about recently. You can definitely link up several projects. No shops, or link parties please.

2. Comment, comment, comment.  My vision for this link party is not to link and go. Please comment on two other links.

3. I'd love for you to follow my blog.{This is not required, but I’d love for you to take a minute and check it out.} Also if you're so inclined, you can follow me on facebook and pinterest as well.

4. Display my button somewhere on your blog - in the post, the sidebar, or on a party page.

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Customizable Family Rules Review and Giveaway

I have seen lists of family rules before, but I'm not good enough with the computer to make my own. So when Andrea from Signs by Andrea contacted me about reviewing her new product Customizable Family Rules Artwork Builder, I jumped on it.  Here's the one I made:

Really cool right?!! And guess what? You all have a chance to win your very own customizable family rules.

This was really easy to do. I love that you can customize it using colors that would go well in your own home. You can customize the rules. There is a list of rules to pick from or you can even add your own.  There are 9 different styles. For example, I used Fontabulous.  It was very user friendly.

Here's mine all framed.

With Christmas coming, we are all trying to think of thoughtful and unique gifts. This would be perfect!

Follow the prompts on Rafflecopter for a chance to win your own!

a Rafflecopter giveaway