TUTORIAL: Toilet Paper Tube Advent Calendar

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™ and Cottonelle, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #CottonelleHoliday  http://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO.

Can you believe it is December already? That means only 4 weeks until Christmas!!! Well, 23 days to be exact, whoa momma!

With holiday parties and cookie exchanges coming up on the calendar, the last thing I want is to be stuck in my bathrooms always having to change the dang toilet paper! Hello, I have more important things to do like bake up some yummy goodies, set a festive table, and actually enjoy my holiday parties this year. Thank goodness for the Cottonelle Triple Roll pack I found at Target, triple the toilet paper on one roll means less trips to restock the bathroom for me!

And when you do finally get an empty roll, how about a fun holiday idea to make having to change that roll a little bit easier?

I saved our leftover toilet paper tubes and created a super fun Advent Calendar for my littles! It was so easy to do and the best part is that you already have the toilet paper rolls so that project material is free! This time of year you can even get scrapbook paper at most craft stores for 6 sheets for a dollar so this is one inexpensive project AND a whole month of fun for the kiddos!

Toilet Paper Tube Advent Calendar

25 toilet paper tubes

a variety of scrapbook paper

glue stick

scissors

twine

number stamps and ink or number stickers (1-25)

glue dots

white foam board

old picture frame

The first thing you need to do is cut your scrapbook paper to size, I cut mine 4.25 x 6.75 inches which gives you a bit of overlap for the edges when you wrap.

Then just glue the paper around each tube.

Once it is dry, mine seriously took like 30 seconds to dry, you just push the ends in slightly to form a pillow box...easy peasy!

But don't forget, before you close up you newly made pillow box you will want to add your advent calendar gift! This can be anything small like a toy, a piece of candy or gum, or even a piece of paper with an experience for the day like these here. For this advent calendar I decided to put little figurines inside that, in the end, would create a wintery Christmas scene.

This is what the finished product of this Advent calendar will look like!

Each day there will be a little something to set up...a sled, a wrapped package, maybe even a few letters :-)

A deer, or two, or three...or a snowman.

Even a teddy bear!

Once the tubes were filled and closed, I wrapped each in some twine and hung a little number stamped circular tag to each for each day in December leading up to Christmas.

I had an old frame I found this summer at a garage sale for $1 that fit a piece of white foam board perfectly and I just used glue dots to place the tubes onto the board.  They are pretty lightweight so it only took two glue dots per filled toilet paper tube to hang.

And there you have it! An easy, inexpensive, and really pretty Advent Calendar using toilet paper tubes!!! 

If you want to make this fun project or maybe you just need to stock up on some toilet paper for all your holiday parties, CLICK HERE for a "Buy Cottonelle Triple Roll 12 pack or larger and get a FREE box of Kleenex" coupon while supplies last and head over to Target to redeem this great deal! 

XOXO, 

TUTORIAL: Cloverleaf Chain Garland

I got in a few hours this weekend creating and DIYing thanks to the push from Michaels stores CRE8TIME challenge, yahoo! How did you do? If you don't remember, Michaels' challenged me and a few other bloggers to spend one hour a day creating for 8 days in order to reclaim our creativity in this busy world (and you can join in the fun too, just click here!). 

I've got to tell you that I feel like I'm in such a better mood during the day knowing that I have mindfully set aside just one hour for me to create.  The best thing about this weekend was that I actually got to get an hour in during the morning on Saturday as Oliver was napping and my older 3 were busy creating themselves by making birthday cards for their friends (we had a lot of birthday parties to attend this weekend so they were busy for quite awhile!)

One thing checked off my list was some fun St. Patricks's day decor for our home. And can I get a WOOT WOOT for completing another project from start to finish, that has got to be the best feeling in the world, right!  

Now I don't have a whole lot of decor for this holiday for some reason but this year Noah really wanted to get in on the fun, he is waaaay into Leprechauns right now...checking every book out of the library that he can. So, I decided to get creative with my Fiskars Heart Punch and turn those tiny little heart shapes into sweet green cloverleafs which I connected via thread to make a fun chain of garland. It was so easy, I tell you...SO easy!

Cloverleaf Chain Garland

Fiskars Heart Punch
Scissors
Scrap book paper (I used various shades of green)
Coordinating green thread
Sewing machine

First, take your Heart Punch and punch out a few sheets of scrapbook paper worth of hearts.  I used scissors to cut each sheet of paper into strips to maximize my hearts!

You will need three hearts per cloverleaf.  I laid mine out like this (above) right next to the needle of my sewing machine and sewed right down the center of the cloverleaf.

Then just continue to add cloverleafs every couple of inches until your garland is long enough for your liking.

P.S. Make sure you give yourself a tail of thread at the beginning and end of your garland for hanging!

Then just find a little nook, entranceway, or maybe even a frame to hang them on...or in!

So pretty and easy!  I was able to whip out a whole bunch of these chain garlands to place all over our house in about an hour...I think we are ready for St. Patrick's Day now! 

If you are joining me in my CRE8TIME challenge I'd love it if you'd share what you created over at the CRE8TIME gallery, here.  It's pretty fun browsing through so much creativity!

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,

**I have been compensated for this post. However, all opinions are truthful and my own.  This post contains paid links.

4th of July 2012

Happy 4th of July everyone!!  Hooray for awesome color coordinating fun :-)  You can see what I mean about that in this post from 2010 here or last year's Memorial Day pictures here!)

This year we get to initiate Oliver into my love of coordinating holidays :-)

Thank you to my momma for giving me a few sweet moments with my sewing machine so I could whip the kids up some 4th of July fun!

Today, there is lots of flag-waving happening at our house.  Thank you guy outside of Walmart who was handing them out last week.

Besides flag-waving, this little girl has been spending her day twirling...and sometimes flag-waving and twirling simultaneously.  Gotta love the twirly dress!

{Brothers!}

And in matching shorts!  

Noah has been telling everyone that he gets to match Oliver this year...he sure loves his little brother :-)

This little guy has been spending the better part of his day napping...

Oh, sweet baby naps and oh, my sweet little baby!

Can you believe he is already 2 1/2 weeks old!!

{a little grandma and little man love}

We are getting ready to BBQ with some good friends, there is a brat calling my name!

Hope you have a great 4th of July!  

Talk with you soon!

XOXO,

No Sew Sequin Shamrock Shirt-TUTORIAL

**See tutorial below!**

How about another easy St. Patrick's Day idea?  This one takes almost as much time as my 10 minute Knot Wreath seen here, quite possibly 12 minutes, and mainly because you need to be just a little, eensy weensy bit careful since you are using glue :-)  The best part of this shirt and the reason it's so easy?  It's NO SEW!  So if you love to DIY but don't own a sewing machine or aren't much of a sewist this project is for you!

This shirt is so fun that I have been requested to make two more for Noah and Penelope.  Really?  Okay, how can I say no to them!  I think I'll make Noah's shirt say "Lucky" and Penny's might be a series of 3 or 4 leeetle shamrocks or maybe even a rainbow...oh the fun of such an easy DIY craft.  And what's even better is that no one will get pinched if they are wearing these come March 17!

No Sew Sequin Shamrock Shirt

Blank t-shirt

Fabric Glue (I love Aleene's Fabric Fusion pen...if you buy it at Joann's with a coupon it's less than $3!)

Decorative sequin trim (I used 6mm sequin on a 15 foot roll from the trim section!)  

Piece of card stock or cardboard

First things first, I placed a piece of card stock inside the shirt just in case the glue seeped through, I didn't want my shirt front and back stuck together!  Then I roughly laid out my Shamrock design.  This way I knew how much of the sequin trim I needed and cut it a few inches past that length so I had some room to play.  

Then I just lifted sections of the Shamrock up one at a time and placed a thin line of glue where the sequin should be.  Pat the sequin trim down and move on to the next section until you are done. 

I doubled up the trim at the Shamrock's stem to make it a little thicker as I thought this looked a tad bit nicer but you obviously don't have to!  Then just cut the trim so the stem is a length you like and make sure the cut end is glued down nicely so it is secure.  

Let dry for a few hours, Aleene's Fabric Fusion pen said 2-4 hours although I'm sure each variety of fabric glue is different.  

Put it on your little one and watch how excited she is to have a brand new shiny and sparkly shirt.  Look at this girl, she can barely sit still!

So cute!  And perfect for St. Paddy's Day.  

You could also do this with all sorts of different trims for super easy and fun holiday wear :-)

Have a great weekend!!

XOXO,

Ginger Kids and Ornaments.

Just ten days until Christmas, is that right?  Well, we continue to be knee deep in Christmas activities that are keeping sweet little hands busy and sweet little faces full of big smiles, how about you?  Last year I found these ginormous Gingerbread men, you might remember them from this post here.  Well, I went and bought them again, thank you Trader Joe's, and they prove to still be a big hit.  Dare I say I might even like decorating these better than Gingerbread houses as there is no wait time for icing to dry after house construction, y'all know what I mean.

Noah is so in love with the movie Prep and Landing and if you hang around my Facebook page you know that I am too, it's just too cute!  He wanted to make his Gingerbread man either Lanny or Wayne but really I think he just wanted to put those green goggles on him most!

Here are the completed Ginger Kids.  Noah's on the left and Penny's on the right.  Yes, those are sprinkles.  Everywhere.  You can still find them on my kitchen floor as they bounced all over the place during decorating.  Oh boy!

Our Christmas Advent yesterday was for the kids to pick out their special ornament for this year although I changed it to be that they would just 'Open' their special ornament.  I thought it would be more fun if they had a little package to open so that is what we did.  Every year we try to find an ornament that suits their personality.  My parents did this for my 3 siblings and I and it was always so fun to get our ornaments out every year and ooh and ahh over them saying, 'oh, I remember this one' and 'this one is my favorite!'  

I always like the Hallmark Holiday Keepsake Ornaments, they always have something cute and, so far, fitting to each of our kids every year plus I like that they are package so carefully in their own little box.  We write each child's name and the year it was given on the box along with a little note from mommy and daddy.  The box makes it easy to put them away once we take the tree down and then we can easily remember who's ornament is who's the next year.

This year, Noah received a Prep and Landing ornament, of course.  Totally fitting for him this year.

Penelope, our little ballerina, received a Barbie Ballerina ornament.  She is In Love to say the least.

And little Eloise received a Curious George ornament as she is quickly becoming the George fanatic of the house.  Good thing we have lots of stuffed George's from Noah's hey day.  

So, just 10 more days.  Are you ready?  

XOXO,