December 3, 2011

Easy Christmas Tree Shirts

Last year, the kids and I made these 
cute Christmas Tree shirts.  
As with most of the stuff we do, 
they were easy and inexpensive.  
Plus, the kids had fun making them 
and they turned out pretty cute too!



Here's what you need:

  • plain red shirt ( I like using the inexpensive t-shirts from the craft stores for our seasonal shirts)
  • some green, brown and yellow cotton fabrics (scraps are fine, as long as the green piece at least 6-8" big)
  • iron on adhesive ( I usually use Heat n Bond Ultra Hold )
  • yellow and white fabric paint
  • q-tips

Here's what to do:  

1.  Iron your adhesive to the wrong side of your green fabric.





2.  Cut out a triangle shape for your tree.  The size will depend on the size of your shirt.  You'll want it a little bit smaller than you'll want your finished tree.  (I used pinking sheers to cut mine for the pine needle effect, but you can use regular scissors too!).  Next, draw a few diagonal lines on on the tree and number each smaller shape.

(Please ignore the nasty looking ironing board cover,
I really only use my iron for craft stuff!)

3.  Next cut apart the smaller triangles, reassemble your tree on your shirt leaving a small space (about 1/2") between each triangle piece.  Do NOT peel off the paper backing yet and use those numbers as a guide so you know which piece goes where.  (Don't ask me how I know that it's nearly impossible to try to reassemble a bunch of triangle pieces without any numbers to show which piece goes which way! ;)  )

4.  Once you have all the pieces arranged to form the tree, peel off the paper backing and iron in place.


5.  Using your scraps of brown and yellow fabrics and the iron on adhesive, cut a small brown tree trunk and yellow star and add them to your tree.  

(Oops, no picture of this part, but I know you can figure it out)

6.  Next, using your fabric paint and a q-tip, add a string of lights in the space you created when reassembling your triangles.  My kids chose to use a combination of yellow and white dots, but you can do any colors.

 


That's it!  Allow your painted lights to dry then wear your new Christmas Tree shirt with pride!


You can even wear them when you go visit Santa 
and impress him with your handiwork.


Sharing our tree at:
Tip Junkie handmade projects

December 2, 2011

Awesome Amazon Deal ~ Scholastic DVD collection




I know I'm not a "deals" blog, and I don't plan on turning into one. (there are too many other good ones out there).  However, when I was just doing some Christmas shopping on Amazon I came across this awesome deal on this Scholastic DVD Collection.  I bought my kids an earlier version of this collection with many of the same stories a few years ago and they LOVED it.  I liked that so many of our favorite books and authors were now in video form ~ we could read the actual stories and then when they wanted to watch a DVD, they could watch an animated version too.  The "animation" varies from story to story ~ sometimes it was just panning across the printed page, sometimes the characters on the page moved a bit, sometimes it was fully animated ~ but they liked them all just the same.  Oh, and many of the stories had a "read-along" option too where the text was displayed along with the narration (great practice for beginning readers!)

Anyway, Amazon now has it on sale for 66% off, making the whole collection just $33.99!!  For 17 DVD's and 100 stories, that's a great bargain for your kids or classroom!!  I know Amazon prices will fluctuate a bit, but hopefully it'll stay this price for a while so others can grab the deal.







Okay, enough of my bargain tips I'll be back later on today with a cute Christmas shirt my kids made last year.

December 1, 2011

Elf on the Shelf Breakfast

Our Elf on the Shelf made his first appearance 
this morning with a special breakfast for the kids.  
It's the first time "Haddihat Foofer" 
did something special instead of just moving 
to a different spot and boy was it a hit!! 



Apparently, our elf picked up some special paper plates and napkins and some fancy candy cane cups perhaps from the Dollar Store ;)   and had it all set up on the table with a menu this morning.  The menu was easy enough that I could make it from ingredients I had on hand while the kids waited patiently (out of all mornings, they happened to choose this one to wake up way earlier than normal!)  Of course, the elf couldn't do the cooking himself, since he's "frozen" until tonight when he goes back to the North Pole after the kids go to sleep.


Here's the menu...

This picture isn't the best, 
but I must say, they were delicious!!

Granted they had finger marks from 
when I dipped them, but they were still a hit!





Because a fancy cup with a twisty straw
can turn regular fruit punch into North Pole Punch!
(and yes, they did brush their hair later before they left for school!)


This whole breakfast was just a little bit of extra work for me, but the kids really loved it.

Here's my original post about our elf 
(with links to great sites for Elf Inspiration). 

And check out our new Elf on the Shelf Idea Party!


NOTE: If you don't have your own Elf yet, I've seen them at Target this year and of course on Amazon.  When we first got our elf and book set a few years ago, I grumbled a bit about the $30 price tag.  However, it's totally been worth it for the "magic" it's been bringing for the past three years now.















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