Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Organizing My Thoughts (Stop Laughing.)

This is me getting organized.

I have a heap of different projects to share today and as per my usual M.O. they are kind of all over the place. 

But I'm okay with it, if you are.

I figure you're getting used to me.

Let's get to it, shall we?

I thought we could start in the Mudroom.

I'm going to call this montage "The Dumping Ground":

Also, Bella's stomping grounds.

Bella is our pooch. 

She's kinda sheddy, not all that smart, and totally neurotic. 

But we still love her.

This is usually what I have to work around in my scrapbook room:

And you people with cats think you have it tough when kitty wants to sit on your keyboard.

Here's a layout I did a while ago of Bella wearing J's clothes:

Instead of college funds in our house we have "Future Therapy Funds" (and a swear jar).

Anyway, back to the mudroom, remember, this is me being organized in my thoughts.

I hate things on my counters and things that don't have a place to live.

I didn't want a big bag of dogfood (the forest green bag completely clashes with our house decor) just laying around crappin' up the place.

So I used a big empty dog treat container (Costco).  Bella was very happy to help me empty the container.

She likes food quite a lot. 

Something else she and the husband have in common.

So I decorated the front and top with some patterned paper and punched a couple of holes in the lid and threaded some ribbon through to act as a handle.

The other idea I had (after someone (husband) put wet boots in the cabinets we have and ruined the bottom of the slide out drawers) was to use patterned paper to frouf up the place (frouf: meaning to spiff).

I just took 2 pieces of 12x12 paper, pieced them together and taped the seams on the backside. I have since found a large roll of clear sticky vinyl at the Walmart that I'm going to try and laminate the pieces of paper with (I'll let you know how that goes.  Me + large sticky anything = fiasco written all over it).

I still had some thrift store scores left over so I used this shadow box (I shared the before photo in the previous post), painted it black and made the inside using some little scrapbook tokens that I've had probably since the early 2000's).

It's hard to see, but the tokens have a fire hydrant on them (though I've never seen a dog in real life use a fire hydrant as a bathroom.  Weird.) a bone and the word "woof".

You can see them better here:

And the quote I chose was because of the previous photo of Bella on her back in my scrapbook room. 

She is a shameless hussy. 

My friend tells me it's all learned in the home, but I plead the fifth.

I hung her leash and the poop bags from it. 

That way my kids will ALWAYS know where the poop bags are and can't plead ignorance (all learned in the home...I'm starting to see what she means).

The quote I printed on photo paper and adhered it to a piece of wood that I had painted black and I put the hooks on afterwards.  I also used a bit of black craft paint to touch up the screws as they were silver instead of black.  Dollar store screws, I tell ya.

..............................................................

Chapter Two:  Bathrooms and Laundry Rooms: No One is Going to Get Punched in the Face

I made these pieces a couple of years ago using an AMAZING tutorial that Linda Barber had online.  It showed you how to iron on freezer paper to the back of muslin type fabric and then run it through your printer.  Or something like that.  I kind of forget.  But it was brilliant!  Linda is awesome.

I wrapped them around a couple of dollar store canvases I had laying around:

My wrapping technique leaves quite a bit to be desired. 

I don't know if any of you eagle eyes noticed, but that is a remote control on that stack of towels and yes we do have a tv in the bathroom.

If it were up to cable-guy, we'd have one in every room of the house, and I fought him like crazy (crazy being the operative word, a TV in the bathroom? Really?) but I have to admit, I really like to take baths and now I can totally get my reality on while soaking in a big soapy tub of water. Sometimes crazy is as crazy does.

And this is the other stuff I have in my laundry room.

And by stuff I mean thing:

I downloaded a font that had the laundry symbols and put it on a digital paper in PSE and printed.  Another cheapo frame jazzed up with Heirloom white.  I found (pilfered) a piece of velcro from the garage and hung the frame on the old washboard.

...........................................

Chapter Three:  Short and Sweet.  Well, short.

Here is the other piece of the metal tiered cake rack I promised I would share today:

Way better for my necessities and bedtime stuff. 

And yes, that's dental floss. 

And yes, I floss my teeth in bed. 

And yes, I know many people think that's gross.

But my dental hygienist thinks it's awesome.

Well, I didn't tell her about the "in bed part" but I know she's proud that I'm getting the job done at all.

...........................................

Chapter Four: Some Random Stuff (Organized-schmorganized)

The reason I like spray paint so much is that I don't have to clean (let dry by accident and then throw away) brushes.  Imagine my delight when I found chalkboard paint in spray form. 

Back to my 50 centsing ways, little plate at the thrift store, what?  You guessed it.  50 cents.

I used my gluegun (who I hate because she burns me and makes a mess on my floor, but sometimes I have to take the whole no pain, no gain thing to heart and plug her in) to glue the little Making Memories clip on and then wrapped a piece of chalk with patterned paper (I scalloped the edge first), strung it up with twine and capped it off with a decorative brad that I used my good (why do I do that?) scissors to nip the prongs off of.

Wheeeeeeeeeee!

That's me jumping on the Keep Calm bandwagon.

This is for our trailer.

I adhered it to a piece of chipboard and used some Tim Holz clips on a canvas, so I can remove it when the next bossy trend comes along telling me what to do.

I know I tease my family and joke about them, but they're okay.

I'm pretty sure I'll keep them.

I made this one in a similar way to the butterfly one I shared earlier this week. 

MDF.

Patterned paper.

Cardstock.

The only difference is I glued these little knobs (heh heh) to it and then strung the baker's twiner across them and used little clothespins (dollar store) to attach some photos, a tag and a metal flower.

Bob. 

Dad. 

You know the story.

...............................................

Chapter Five: Recycling Bags and Stuff

Three things that have brought me a small amount of joy:

1. Starbucks sugar free vanilla syrup (with a free kraft bag!)

2. The most awesome of watches from the most awesome of husbands who really DOES read all those "if you're looking for a present to buy me, check this out" links that I email him (with a free kraft box!)

3. Scrapbook paper.  KI Orange Peel White mostly (can you guess what goes here?  Free bag!)

All these free bags go into a big tub in my room for future use. 

Here's what I did today (also I had a lot of free butterflies from the murder flutter I cut earlier this week):

The butterfly garland was super easy:

Fold over and punch small hole through back butterfly:

Adhere butterflies together with pop dots between their wings (no adhesive on the body part).

String them together (I used more of the baker's twine.  It's my binge today.)

Add to bag in whatever way pleases you.

Just a note - on the large bag, I folded the top over, pushed a large brad through a punched brown circle and then through the top layer of the folded part.  Then I glued a tiny magnet under the folded part and this holds the top shut.

Here's my free box.

I used more of the old book that I made the nest stuff out of and used this tutorial to make the bow:

And here's another idea for gift bags - I made these for Valentine's day for my boys.  I have about 400 lunchbags (remember when paper bag mini books were trending?  Yah.  Me too.)

 And, now I shall close the curtain on this week.

Thank you for joining me, I hope you got inspired to make something.  Or at the very least gather up some of your 50 centses and hit a thrift store to see what kind of treasures you can find.

Overton out.

2011 Calendar Idea

  A Note from Celeste

For the past couple of years, I've made CD calendars to give as gifts.* I used Microsoft Publisher to set up the calendars and I've shared them online as a free printable. Unfortunately, I no longer have access to Publisher so making my own would be difficult. I set out to find another free option to share. On Splitcoast Stampers, I found this free printable CD calendar from Cat. Thanks Cat! All you have to do is download the PDF and print the bases—then you can decorate the calendars to your heart's content.

For my calendar, I decided to create it digitally so I opened Cat's PDF in Photoshop and used the calendar bases to create my pages. I used a kit called 365 Days with You by Shawna Clingerman and Lauren Grier at Sweet Shoppe Designs. The kit has themed mini-kits for each month—an easy way to create a calendar! By creating my calendar digitally, I can print out a slew of them to give to relatives and friends.

When your calendar is finished, you'll need to find an old CD case you no longer need or buy some new empty ones. Follow these directions to create the CD case holder for your calendar. If you make a calendar, be sure to share it in the Flickr gallery. Happy Holidays!

*Pssst—a 2011 calendar makes a delightfully on-time gift for New Years' if you ran out of time before Hanukkah or Christmas : )

Brown paper packages tied up with strings...

I'm starting to detect an unplanned Sound of Music thread running through this week!

(Speaking of a few of my favorite things, we have even more snow now.  However, as I type this (on Monday night), there's actually a blizzard warning in effect through Tuesday morning, with a predicted wind chill of -10 to -20!  Brrrr!!!)

Don't you love receiving gifts that are wrapped up all pretty?  Sometimes I'm just as thrilled with the packaging as I am with what it contains.  And I feel so loved when I see that someone took the time to foofify my present when she could have just tossed it into a gift bag with some tissue paper.  (Like I typically do. *Blush*)

Today's post will be a blitz of printables practically guaranteed to produce that warm and fuzzy feeling when the recipients of your gifts see that you took time for the foof.  The best part?  They won't cost you any more than the paper and ink required to print them. 

Simply click on an image to be directed to the appropriate page. 

 

{via Creature Comforts}

{via designworklife}

 

{via Fresh Picked Whimsy}

 

{via Creativity by Crystal}

 

{via Worldlabel}

 

{via Miss CutiePie}

 

 

{via My Sweet Prints}

 

{via Eat Drink Chic}

 

{via HP Creative Studio for Home}

 
{via our own Monika Wright}

 

(via our own Karen Grünberg}

.

{via Mae}

There!  A few things checked off your list.  See how organized you are? :)

 

Take a deep breath...

Good Monday morning! 

Am I a bit too chipper for you?  The truth is, I love Mondays and I love snow, and today the two make quite a striking couple from where I sit.  

I'm feeling very grateful and content, which is an ideal way to approach this Thanksgiving week and beginning of the Christmas season.  And it's also a great way to start off my focus for the next few days: creatively chasing the joy-killers frantic and broke from the holidays.  My goal is to send you off with all sorts of free and easily-accessible resources that will save you both time and money as you move forward with all of the things you want to accomplish over the next month.

This is a busy week, so I'll try my best to keep things short, sweet & simple. Here's the basic outline:

• ORGANIZATION
• GIFT PACKAGING
• CHRISTMAS CARDS
• RECIPES
• LAYOUTS

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. When you read you begin with A-B-C, when you plan you begin with O-R-G...  Okay, cheesy.  But admit it--you were at least tempted to sing along.

If you're not organized to some degree, there will be no avoiding frantic and broke.  So I would like to share some ideas and printables that you can use to get plans down on paper and keep track of all the details.

This is a mini accordion file I decorated and labeled last year to help me keep track of gift receipts.  There's a section for each member of my family and one in the back for everyone else. This was a lifesaver.  Notice that I didn't put a year on it.  I will reuse it until it falls apart.

 

And this year I'll be printing off a few of these to tuck inside, courtesy of Atypical Type A.

 

Remember last Monday's WCS feature by the sisters of eighteen25?  On this guest post at Under the Sycamore, they offer a free download and step-by-step instructions for how to put together this cute and practical planner.

 

Giver's Log offers a very thorough Ultimate Holiday Checklist (both a filled-in and a blank version).  Jump in on Week 4 and fight that tendency toward procrastination!

 

If you're anything like me (i.e., you consider organization to be a worthy form of recreation), you may swoon at the sight of the Christmas planning ebook and slew of printables over at Life...Your Way.

 

Forget plain white scratch paper.  Allsorts gives us a much more cheerful way to create our to-do lists this year.

And team member Celeste Smith not only offers a free to-do list download, she explains how to make those sheets into a pad!

Perhaps you have the desire to do Ali Edwards' December Daily, which is very feasible now that you're taking the steps to plan ahead ;)  That link is full of information and resources.  And our own Karen Grünberg provides this free download of adorable Christmas tree days which can be used as layered templates.

I hope you're inspired to get a handle on your plans as you utilize some of these free resources.  Please leave a comment and let me know if you do!

Quick and Easy Monsters

You may have already seen my layout in the October gallery here at Write.Click.Scrapbook., but I’ll post it again here, as it was the inspiration for today’s blog post:

 

 

 

 

 

 

These quick and easy monsters, inspired by this cute project posted to the Write.Click.Scrapbook. Tumblr, were so darn cute I wanted to make more, so I did.

I made one, gave it some legs, and put it on a card:

I made monster twins…

and used them to make a Halloween matching game:

("They did the match, they did the monster match...")

I thought about some non-Halloween uses for these cuties and made them and put them on placecards:

I thought about some other things that could be made with these monsters (but didn’t make any of these myself – gotta leave something for all of you to do!):

• Cupcake toppers
• Banners
• Party invitations
• Name badges
• Treat bag toppers

If you want some directions for quick and easy monster-making, here you go:

1. Cut a monster head/body from patterned paper or cardstock (optional: round corners).
2. Add eyes made using a small circle punch (white cardstock) and a hole punch (black cardstock).
3. Add a nose made using the same small circle punch.
4. Handcut some funky spiky hair and glue it to the back of the monster so that it sticks up from the top.
5. Marvel at the cuteness.
6. Make another one.

If these monsters aren’t quick and easy enough for you, check out these really quick and easy awesome monster-y eyes Beth Proudfoot designed and has made available as a printable:

(Beth has lots of other awesome Halloween printables on her blog.)

Hope to see you back here tomorrow for the final Halloween week blog post, featuring fun and unusual ways to record your Halloween memories.

Inspired by Cupcakes & Farewell :)

So yesterday's post got me in the mood for... cupcakes!

I think I must whip up a batch this weekend.

It also got me perusing cupcake websites. HERE is my favorite of the week. Can you get over the absolute cuteness she has going on there?

I got so many color and design ideas just from looking through her posts. In fact, I made a little layout inspired by some of her cupcakes!

Here's her photo:

& here's my layout:

I have always wanted to know how to clip fonts and dingbats over patterned paper. I am such a beginner at Photoshop. But I found an awesome, simple tutorial HERE. And I found a bajillion other cool tutorials HERE.

The completely adorable title font, I got from the fabulous Celeste Smith.

And the heart dingbat font, I downloaded for free HERE.

Better run and get to my weekend...

Thanks for hanging out with me here this week!

freebie friday (w/frosting!)

Happy Friday!

I love summer like the next girl, but I have to admit it's nice to welcome the weekend as the kids are settling into school. Life feels organized and that's a good thing.

Last evening the teenage girls in my church group "adopted" grandmothers. We potted flowers with the girls and they anonymously delivered them to their grandmothers. The girls will do random acts of sweetness for them over the next six months until the grandmothers are invited to a dinner where the girls will meet them. Love that!

Anyway, for part of the craft, I made some sweet little plant toppers to go with their gifts. It reminded me of my cupcake topper mania a few months ago and I figured I'd just better share that with y'all!

p.s. I.cannot.believe. I just typed y'all. For the record, I have only lived in Oklahoma for thirteen months. :)

Without further ado, here are the happy plant toppers:

And here are the birthday toppers I made a few months ago...

And here are the thematic cub scout toppers I made a bit before that.

Now after this you would think I would be all cupcaked out.

Nope. I will forge on with my cupcaking endeavors. Plus I'll show you how to make the toppers!

Here are some little designs to get you started...

To create your own cupcake toppers:

1 - Download the Happy Birthday toppers HERE.

     Download the Thank You toppers HERE.

2 - Print your page onto white card stock.

Make sure you print out TWO pages. The toppers are two-sided. That's part of their charm :).

3 - Punch each image with an appropriate sized circle punch.

4 - Using scotch tape, adhere a toothpick or a bamboo skewer to half of the circles.

5 - To the circles you have taped to sticks, attach two small pieces of dimensional adhesive - I used mounting tape. If you are going to take a picture of this step, I would strongly recommend using a model who has just eaten a large blue ice cream cone and who is willing to move around a lot so the picture is blurry. :)

6 - Align the two circles for each topper back to back and adhere each pair together by removing the adhesive backs.

7 - Show off your cute toppers! :)

And now for the freebie part! Sadly, I must admit something about myself at this point. I am extremely frugal. Although someone once complimented me by calling it resourceful. :)

Either way, I love finding adorable fonts and digital goodies online and enjoy it even more when a freebie becomes a favorite. One of my freebie favorites was used to make the toppers above.

Click HERE to download it.

(Note that for some strange reason, this font is italicized. If you want the flowers to appear normal, you must shift before each letter. Not sure why they designed it that way, but we'll forgive them as it's a cute free font.)

See to you tomorrow! :)

If it's not Baroque, don't fix it! :)

Back to school anyone? As the mom of three small, but growing boys the past couple of weeks have been crazy at our home. We've loaded up with new school supplies, we've got our cute for now new school clothes, and we have our lunch menus planned. Life is good.

Friday was our first day of school. Friday+The First Day of School=Kind of a strange idea to me, but we got ourselves there and soon we will settle into a happy little routine.

Here are my fifth, third, and pre-k graders now...

Aww. I very nearly cried during the pre-k orientation meeting the other day. My baby in pre-k? But that is an empty nest story for another day... :)

Anyway, here I am and I'm happy to be hosting the blog again here at Write.Click.Scrapbook! And since it is back-to-school time and all, I thought I'd tie today's post into the classroom...

Looking through your layouts do you see any patterns? Okay, so I'm not really asking you to look for ABAB patterns, but do you find yourself repeating the same design scheme, the same color palette, or the same font?

I think a funny thing about we scrapbookers is that we feel like we need to constantly change things up.

I'm the type of girl who gets the same meal at my favorite restaurant. Every time I try to switch it up, I wish I'd gone with my old standby. I think this approach is very useful in scrapbooking-especially if we get overwhelmed that our pages need to be a certain way or that they're not the latest greatest in new style.

So I guess the bottom line of today's post is that if it's not broken, don't fix it! If you love the same palette, keep it. If you love that font, type away. My tastes do change through the years, but I find that when I stick to my basic taste, the things I've designed that way have been my very favorites.

And without further ado, I will demonstrate this with five different layouts using the SAME die cut font from Quickutz. I happily adjusted to my cute little Revolution a few years ago, but although I loved all of the fonts, Diesel was my favorite.

It had me at hello... :)

 



  


 

So how about you? Is there something working for you in your scrapbooking that you don't want to change just yet? Post a couple of layouts in the gallery!

& tune in tomorrow for a little focus on photos. Be sure you stop by and say HI! :)

LRN: The Statistics Approach

OK, confession time: I made it all the way through college without ever having to take a statistics course. I'm not really sure why, as it seems that everyone complains about how tough that statistics class is.Was it an oversight on the part of the university councilors? I'm not really sure. I suppose the Math Gods were smiling on me and knew that college algebra was the toughest math I could take!

Tossing all of those "stats are boring" preconceived notions aside, though, statistics are pretty fun to use on LRN layouts. I think of these LRN layouts in terms of numbers: what numbers are influencing my life right now?

Here's one example:

When I made this layout, I opened up a Word file on my computer, first thing in the morning. Then, as the day progressed, I added stats to it, little bits of information that related to numbers. I didn't only look at the day, but at the "summer so far" point of view. I think it's a revealing telling way to journal some details of your life without getting overly sentimental.

One thing to note about this layout: it really is all about me. It's even going in my album, even though there isn't a photo of me on it. Here's something I really feel passionate about: we scrapbookers are neglecting ourselves! We need to get into a few pictures and onto a few layouts. (And lest you think I'm not putting my money where my mouth is, there is a layout with my picture coming up later this week!)

I can already hear the chorus of complaints: "But I'm too ______ to get my picture taken!" (Insert any self-deprecating adjective in that space, like fat, wrinkled, old, grey or whatever else your particular issue might be.) Here's my take on that: in, say, five years, you are either going to be MORE of what you don't like about yourself, or you'll be less of it. Say, for example, you think you're too big, and you'll be in a photograph once you've lost some weight. In five years, you might be bigger---in which case you'll be grateful to have photographic proof of your current smallness. Or, in five years, maybe you'll have lost a bit of weight, and you'll look back at your larger photo and see how far you've come. (As someone who lost 30 pounds a couple of years ago, I can attest to this: It's really awesome to have a reference point, a visual recreation, of how I changed myself.)

Either way, though, you matter. Your experiences, thoughts, and ideas are worth scrapping.

OK, off my high horse now. Back to the statistics idea! Here's another layout, this one by Kelly Jeppson.

She approached stats in a different way: by using lists and receipts. This is a twist (a great one, yes?) on the traditional stats approach, but think about it. You can learn a lot about a person's life by reading his or her shopping and to-do lists. (For a giggle, check out the book Milk, Eggs, Vodka: Shopping Lists Lost and Found next time you're at the library.)Kelly included both as background paper for her layout.

(Interestingly enough, this is another layout that's more about Kelly, and less about her kids, and see: you don't have to use a picture of yourself to scrapbook about yourself!)

One more layout. Here, Erin Sweeney does both a list-style LRN layout and includes some stats (the details about which month/day of pregnancy each photo was taken). That's another way to approach stats: things that are measurable about your life.

A few more ideas for using statistics on a LRN layout:

• Measurements. Of course, there's the standard weight and height of your subject, but what about less-typical things like sizes? (Think clothes, ring, and shoes.)
• Countable items. How much/many of a variety of items do you use during a day? Consider, for example, the numbers behind a typical day with a newborn, from diapers to formula to wipes to changes of clothes to the (very few and rare) hours of sleep...
• How often one specific thing happens during a day (temper tantrums thrown by your two-year-old, songs your teenager listens to on her iPod, times your dog begs to be taken outside for a walk).
• Stats about traveling. This, of course, could be fun on a vacation layout, but what about during a normal day---how many miles do you drive? and where do you go? What freeways do you take?
• Seasonal statistics. What percentage of your holiday ornaments are up right now? (Of course, on a theoretical LRN layout...I'm hoping none of you has any holiday ornaments out yet, although I did see an enormous display of Christmas ribbon at my Costco the other day.) How much of your Christmas shopping is done? How much candy have you purchased for Halloween, or how many pieces did you go through on the 31st? (You could also confess to how much has already been eaten, even before the trick-or-treaters come. Not that I have ever done that. Ever. Promise. I also have never had to re-buy Easter candy because I had eaten all the hidden chocolate bunnies/eggs. E.V.E.R.)
• Amounts of stuff you use in your life. How many paper towels do you use in a week, how many dryer sheets or dishwasher tablets or trash bags? Or think about it in terms of your crafts and hobbies. I, for example, currently have 14 different patterns of fat quarters sitting on my sewing table, waiting to be turned into a quilt. How much photo tape do you use during a typical scrapping session? How many seeds do you plant in the spring or bulbs in the fall? How many books can you read in a week?
• Numerical details about a goal. For example, how many miles have you walked so far this month? (Check out this cool website, Tools to Keep You Active. If you enter your daily exercise, be it running or walking or hiking or swimming or even spinning, it will show you an illustration of both how far you've moved across the United States and what the landscape would look like.) Or what percentage of your goal have you saved for your next vacation?

OK, then! I hope you are sufficiently numerically inspired! Maybe you should leave a comment with your favorite number and why it's your favorite. We want to continue to keep the Math Gods on our side, after all! (My favorite number is 12, by the way. I think it is a fascinating number because so many other numbers can go into it. I've always liked 12. 29 is also a favorite number of mine, though I have a harder time pinning it down. I get a little chill when I see the number 29 somewhere. Is that weird?)

Christmas in July :: Treat Bag Toppers & Calendars

I am a happy little elf knowing that you're all enjoying the downloads! Mission accomplished.

Ready for me to reveal another secret? These are the first downloads I have ever completed entirely on my own! Designed, saved as PDFs, uploaded to blog...and it worked!  I did design one other download {scroll to bottom of post for free download} but I had to rely on Ali to work out the details of the PDF. But not this go around. I wanted to master it on my own and make it work...and I did! {Okay, I'm a little Type A and hate asking for help!}

REMEMBER: Never underestimate the power of yourself...you CAN do it!

So, on to today's adventure in crafting...Treat Bag Toppers to the rescue! {The reverse side of the design was left blank for you to have room to add your own personal message before folding over and adhering to the treat bag.}

 

Download Wcs_treatbagtoppers_monikawright

Yes, another download! Did you notice that all of the downloads to this point coordinate with one another? And if you're interested in the name of the font I've been using, it's called Pharmacy. I downloaded it for free from here. It's my new favorite.

So. At some point, we've all made up treat bags, haven't we? I happen to like the whole process of choosing the treats and packaging them up, but know that others feel like it's a chore. Here, two pencils are wrapped with ribbon and an eraser is covered with scrap holiday-themed paper and inserted into a snack bag before adhering {with glue dots} the treat bag topper to the snack bag.

 

If you prefer, use the ellophane bags that are available at Wal-Mart, Michael's, JoAnne's and Hobby Lobby in the candy-making aisles. 

But, if you're doing this the night before the Pre-School and 2nd Grade holiday parties, don't be discouraged. By all means use the zip top snack bags as I have here. It won't make a difference to the kids...it's all about making what you have on-hand work for you. I used colored staples to adhere the treat bag topper to the sandwich bag, these items were too heavy to use glue dots.

One can never go wrong gifting chocolate, especially Dove's dark chocoloate! I used my Crop-o-Dile from We R Memory Keepers to punch through the bag topper and the snack bag, strung some baker's twine through the holes and added an embellishment. I think this version is my favorite.

And what is Christmas without an Advent Calendar? At least for our family. I purchased this calendar at Target {online} two years ago, and saw the same style again in the store last year, but in red.

1. gather your Christmas-themed supplies and unscrew door handles
2. embellish door layouts so that door will still open, remembering to punch hole for door handle
3. decide if you will put dates in number order or random fashion 
4. choose your daily treats and make tags for each date
5. reattach door handles

For the past two years, our tags have included an assortment of clues to hidden, inexpensive gifts that would not fit behind the door, chocolate, dollar bills, family game nights, watching favorite holiday movies together as a family, family date night {dinner out} and items from the Dollar Spots at Target, Michael's and the Dollar Tree.  And we do all this x3, since we have three kids {18, 6, 4} and trust me the 18-year old does NOT want to be left out! 

At times it felt that they were more interested in the treat than the meaning behind it all. This year, we're adopting an idea I found in blogland and I wish I knew who to credit: reading a Chrismtas story for each of the 25 nights! We already have a nice collection of stories, but not 25. So we'll supplement that with new books, Bible stories and library books.

Here's a different spin on a countdown calendar I posted to the write.click.scrapbook. Flickr gallery before I was a design team member. Yes, it really is a cookie sheet. And those are wedding favor heart tins. I displayed this in the kitchen, so it fit the theme. You could also spray paint the cookie sheet for a cute alternative.

And one last calendar idea: a birthday countdown. Now they won't have to ask you how many days there are until their birthday! Here's the before, which was purchased at the Dollar Tree.

  
Here it is after I sanded down the shiny finish, painted with blue and green acrylic paints and used spray chalkboard paint for the middle. I might still try to cover the chalkboard paint and spray the outer rim with clear acrylic spray so that the colors will really pop!

I'd love to see your treat bags and calendars, so take a quick photo and upload them to our Flickr gallery.

Remember, tomorrow is give.away.day. {you never want to miss one of those} so I'll see you again on Friday!

"I don't remember, that's why I scrapbook."