Christmas Craft Show Display

Remember that craft show I mentioned needing Christmas cards for? I thought I'd share how we set things up.

 Honestly, this was kind of a last minute thing, so we didn't really have a plan. We each just shopped our houses and stash to pull this together. We went with a gold base and green and white accents.
I grabbed the milk crates and covers that hold the padawans bedroom Christmas trees to add height.

Free candy and business cards in a little Mason jar

I used some gold musical instrument garland that's been in the attic for ages to dress up the table. My cake plate held some decorative tree candles and a couple cards.

More display cards on picture stands

Bass added thumb tacks and then Tenor ran the twine on our shutter fireplace screen for me to display more cards.

 My friend draped another gold tablecloth over some boxes to display her cards.

I lent her a crate and a birdhouse to add height to the other side of the table and show off her super cute Cricut Christmas tags.

We had a good time spending the day together, but sadly, the show wasn't well advertised and was poorly attended. I learned a couple things about selling cards and have filed the info away in case we have opportunity to do another show.

Do you enjoy shopping at craft shows? Or just browsing them for your own creative ideas?

Make a Card Monday - Card Swap 2016

Every once in awhile a few friends and I do a card swap. We had the chance to have a girls' night out and card swap a few months ago. Here's my haul. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's always fun to come up with a few cards and then get so many great designs back. It changes up what I send to people too. haha

Make a Card Monday - Christmas Joy

Another quick craft show Christmas card. I based it off this design. The sequin and glitter paper is a nice juxtaposition against the kraft base. I think these would be great for 'after the holiday' thank yous too. :)

I have a few left for sale. Check out my "store" here. :)

Inside sentiment

I hope your Christmas was full of joy!

Details:
Cardstock - Recollections: kraft and red / Paper Studio: White
Patterned Paper - Unknown: some Christmas stack from 2012 maybe? / The Paper Studio: gold glitter
Color - Palette: Noir
Tools - Nestabilities: Scallop Circle die / Nestabilities: Standard Circle die / Cricut: December 25th
Embellishements - Nicole: gold sequin

Budget Pouches for Kids

Looking at the Christmas budget this year, I thought maybe I'd make the padawans something to try to stretch our pennies. Even with all the sales and coupons, I'm not quite sure I achieved any significant savings. Isn't that how homemade gifts always work? :)

My project is something I've been wanting to do for the padawans for a long time. I've pinned several ideas for kid budgeting but never found something that really struck me. Then I stumbled across this zipper pouch tutorial. I thought I could adjust it just a bit to make it work for the padawans.

Soprano's set of 'shop, save, and share' pouches is a France theme. It's funny...I remember being enamored with all things French when I was about her age. Even took French in middle school and high school. When I spotted the blue Eiffel Tower print at JoAnn's, I knew that's the direction I wanted to go.

 Her pouches are each lined with a coordinating fabric.

Eiffel Tower print with blue trellis lining

French bakery print with mint butterfly lining

Macaron print with Paris script lining

Tenor's budget pouches are a completely different theme...Doctor Who. 

Doctor Who Villains, a fractal title print, and tardises... tardisae, tardis, tardi?

His are all lined with the same dark blue galaxy fabric.

I followed the tutorial exactly except for one step. After I cut all the pieces, I sewed a little piece of clear plastic onto one of the outside fabric pieces. I used a zigzag stitch to go around 3 of the sides to make a little pocket.

After the sewing was finished, I tucked a little piece of paper. Each set has a 'shop', a 'save', and a 'share'.
My hope is that the padawans will use these whenever they receive money (either little jobs for us or the neighbors or as gifts). They can split their money up to be able to save some, tithe or bless others (share), and of course, spend on things that end up on their wish lists.
If not, the pocket papers are changeable.

Do you make handmade gifts for the holidays? Any projects left on your list? :)

Make a Card (not on) Monday - Washi Reindeer

Here's another Christmas card I made for the craft show. I hand tore pieces of washi tape to create the background...no measuring. I just eyeballed the lengths. The reindeer die cut comes from the Cricut December 25th cartridge. I think the measurement was 2 3/4" but I can't find my notes. :(
After I cut the deer from textured white cardstock, I tied a bit of twine around the neck before attaching.
I have a few left for sale. Check out my "store" here. :)

Details:
Cardstock - Recollections: red / Paper Studio: White / DCWV: textured white
Color - Memento: Ladybug
Embellishments - Recollections and Unknown: washi tape / Stampin Up: Candy Cane twine
Tools - Cricut: December 25th

School Summary - 7th and 9th grades - weeks 11-14

I respectfully ask that you not pin pictures of my children to Pinterest. Thank you!

You can see what we're using here: 9th-grade curricula and here: 7th-grade curricula.

Literally this is the most boring school blog year I've ever had. I'm not sure I'll even blog school regularly next year. It's just a different set-up than our first five years. They are working independently, and it's more book work than hands-on. Maybe I'll continue with it, maybe not. :)

Weeks 11-14

In Tenor's homeschool this month…

He started learning Greek letters in his AHL work...which is super easy since he's on his 3rd year of biblical Greek. Yay for one thing that's easy!

Tenor art assignment

My favorite thing this month…
He wrote a few psalms for AHL assignments that I just loved. He does have a good sense of poetry when he puts his mind to it.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

Again, just emphasizing that the weekly conference is really important. (I'm just going to leave that line there for the rest of the year as a reminder to myself.) I'm trying to get him to go back and take notes on things he's already read to help cement it, but it's taking a long time. I should have had him take notes while reading from the beginning of the school year.

What’s working/not working for us…

He seems to be struggling with the logic elective. I'm not sure if he is reading the exercises and answering too quickly or if he's not grasping the concepts... if he has continued interest, we might find another logic resource at the end of the year to keep working on it.

Soprano art coloring

In Soprano's homeschool this month...
Boring post alert...it's the same old, same old for Soprano too. :)

Art coloring and notebooking

Beautiful Feet assignment for Brighty of the Grand Canyon

Beautiful Feet assignment for Brighty of the Grand Canyon

My favorite thing this month…

She had to create a poll for the family to cast votes as an Uncle Sam and You assignment. She picked the questions, the answers, and tallied up the votes after we were done.

What’s working/not working for us… Her school day is taking for.ev.er. I feel like she should be done much earlier each day than she is. We're working on trying to figure out how to help her be more motivated and to get done sooner.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing...

Tenor went on his first Senior High youth group weekend retreat. He had a great time. :)
We went to D.C. again. It was originally going to be a weeklong trip but our accommodations fell through. However, we had already received notification that our White House ticket request was approved. We went down for just a day instead.

View of the gardens from the First Ladies' Hall

China Room

East Room

Mom, mom, mom, that's the Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington that Dolley Madison saved when the British were burning Washington! I guess something we learned stuck.

Green Room -- aptly named

State Dining Room

White House North Lawn

 After the White House, we hit the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

The only 'super moon' I actually got to see since the weather was so overcast at home.

We found a platypus! Another of Soprano's favorite animals.

After another busy month of schooling, we enjoyed taking off the week of Thanksgiving. A few more weeks, then Christmas... crazy!