speaking of fabric flowers

How much do I love these fabric dahlia flowers?!?!?! The only problem is that they just look like a lot of work...I cant decide if they would be worth it or not....tempting, very tempting. Maybe after the holidays.

Will we ever make a flower headband?

So, for like the last three times I have visited home, my youngest sister and I have planned to make flower headbands....yet, the time always seems to go too fast and we never get a chance to do all we wanted to do (and since headband sewing seems to be one of our lower priorities, it always gets skipped). However, IF we ever do get around to it, I found this tutorial on brown paper packages. I totally big, fat {heart} ruffles so I think if I will add in some extra ruffles if we end up making them, but overall, I really like it. (and we could always use one of the nine billion flowers from the flower mother load)

Cute Christmas Creations

I found these snowman candy bar holders on conniescreativecorner

They look VERY easy. Here is the link for the FREE file to print up (dang...I guess I had better go buy come colored ink...please tell me I am not the only person who is endlessly out of printer ink...it's so dang expensive too!) and some a tutorial on how to put them together from Kerry's paper crafts


I also thought this gift card holder from stamping inspiration was cute.

Nativities

I wanted to do a link up to char's crap ive made nativity party so here are two pictures of our nativities. I LOVE her blog and I even know char personally (yes, I feel like I am almost a celebrity because of it. She was my trainer at work... way back in the day... when we used to do credit card collections together!)

Now I know, I certainly dont have any uber cool hand carved wood nativities straight from Jerusalem or anything like that, but I do have one unique thing about our nativities....we ALWAYS have more than three wise men. This tradition started when we first got married and bought our first nativity at Walmart. My husband was insistent that we had to find one that had "extra" pieces that matched so we could buy a fourth wise man (because you show me in the bible where it says there were only three wise man....cause it doesnt! :)


So, even our little people nativity (which I highly suggest getting one if you dont have one already. They are THE BEST for kids) I had to seach ebay to find a fourth unique wise man!
Here is the first one we got after getting married. Count closely on the right side and you will see what I mean!

Ornament Wreath

I made this ornament weath for my front a door a few weeks ago. I really liked how it turned out. About the only thing I dont like is that my husband has broken it TWICE. So, this is acutally the second wreath and I liked the way the first one turned out better. Oh well, hopefully this one will last through the holidays and then I plan to buy some new ornaments once they go on super-cheap after Christmas clearance and re-do it (since this one is currently being held together completey by hot glue!)

There are tons of tutorials out there on blogs about making them so I am not going to do a full tutorial. If you need ideas, I mainly used this tutorial on Eddie Ross. I also liked this one because it had links to several different wreaths so I could get ideas of what I liked (and what I didnt!)

Here are a few friendly tips that I found along the way. (and a few things I will do differently when I re-do it!)

1. If you are even remotely as clumsy as I am; use non-breakable ornaments.

2. That being said, dont use TOO cheap of ornaments (I got these at the dollar sections of target and while I loved that they were only a dollar a pack...I didnt love how how easily the tops broke when I was trying to smish {is that even a word} as many ornaments onto it....or when my husband dropped it.

3. When I do it again, I am plan to do it a little differently: if the ornament tops are all interchangeable, I plan to just string the ornament tops onto the hanger (without the ball being attached to it) at first and then put the balls on once they are all on so I can arrange them and move them around as needed (without having to unstring them all!). Just remember that when you attaching the balls to the ornament tops you have to use a dab of hot glue so they dont come apart.

4. Used ribbon that isnt sheer (I used sheer ribbon and it was pain trying to make sure it didnt show the clothes hanger underneath.

5. SAVE A WIRE HANGER! Man, I didnt realize how much I followed Joan Crawfords advice (you know, "NO MORE WIRE HANGERS" from Mommy Dearest) until I tried to find a wire hanger.

So, I cant wait to see if anyone else makes one and what they find out!