Whoa!  Can you believe it is December 1st already?  When did that happen? I didn’t realize it was approaching us so quickly until late Tuesday night.  Then I remembered that I needed to get started on an advent calendar, so that is what I did until about 1130 last night.

I can’t find the advent calendar that I made two years ago AND I had tons of tp rolls that I thought I’d use up.  I cut a bunch of tp rolls in half and wrapped them in holiday scrapbook paper. Then I wrapped the  ends with tissue paper so the boys could poke their fingers in to grab the little paper inside.

This will be there “activity” advent calender. It’s filled with things we will be doing this month, like:

*getting the Christmas tree
*decorating the house
*making hot chocolate
*finding little gifts hidden in the house
*making play dough, ornaments, paper snowflakes, origami things, and treats for the birds
*watching holiday movies
*reading holiday books
*going to Butterfly Magic at the botanical garden
*baking cookies
*going to see the Christmas lights.
*coupons for staying up late and extra computer time
*plus lots of opportunities to give to others.

It will be so much fun! This is one of my favorite things about December!

Happy December Everyone!!

I’ve been asked several times for the instructions for this note keeper, which was published in Green Craft Magazine last January.  Since the magazine is probably harder to find now, I thought I’d share my original instructions before they were condensed for the magazine.

I don’t have any how to photos, just images of the finished project, so I hope these instructions make sense and are helpful.

You will need:
Cardboard box cut into Two – 9 1/4” x 12 1/4” pieces
Cereal box for inside pockets
Paper grocery bag for painting and covering cardboard
acrylic craft paint
sewing machine with thread
various decorative papers (maps, music sheets)
One long strip of canvas fabric 12 1/2” x 2 1/2
ribbon
pencil
ruler
scissors
white school glue and glue stick
One legal notepad

1. Cut open a grocery paper bag at the bag’s seams (seams are usually on the back and bottom of the bag). This will give you a large piece of paper to work with.  You can iron with steam to make flat or soak in water and hang to dry.   Cut two 10” x 13” inch pieces plus two 9” x 12” pieces.

2.  Take one of the larger pieces of paper bag, draw an image with pencil and then sew over lines with sewing machine using dark thread.  Practice sewing on scrap paper first to get the feel of sewing on paper. Adjust the tension as needed to get nice even stitches.

3. Selectively paint within the sewn lines and glue on other images with glue stick to make an appealing image.  When complete and dry, wrap your decorated paper around one cardboard piece using glue to keep everything together.  This will be your front cover. Repeat to make back panel, decorating back piece as desired.

4.  Connect front and back panels by gluing canvas cloth strip to each cover piece leaving a 1/2 inch gap between front and back cardboard panels.  Line the front and back covers with more grocery bag paper, using the 9 x 12 inch pieces that you’ve already cut, covering the edges of the canvas cloth.

5. Make pockets with cereal box board.  Cut a 9 x 7 1/2 inch piece for back pocket and glue in place along the bottom and side edges. This will be where the legal pad will slide in (can also staple this onto lining paper before gluing into place in step 4).   Make pocket for inside front panel,cover with decorative paper and glue in place with glue stick. Attach to inside panel by gluing along the left side and bottom edge. This will be where you can keep special papers and notes.

6. Use ribbon pieces to make tie closure, one on the front panel and one on the back. Glue ribbon in place and cover ends with small pieces of paper to secure.  Add a pen holder by gluing a small piece of ribbon to the middle area of the open pad keeper. Again, secure the edges with small pieces of paper.

Add in your legal size notepad and a pen and your all set for keeping some notes!

Let me know if you  have any questions.

I was surprised today when I got the new issue of Green Craft magazine in my mail box. I have a project in it called, Keeping Notes.

It’s a legal pad holder made with cardboard, paper bag, cereal box and other scraps of fabric, ribbon and decorative papers. The cover has some machine stitching, glued images and a bit of paint. I really loved the process of this project.

I hope you will check out this lovely magazine, if you haven’t already. This issue is packed with loads of beautiful eco-friendly goodness.

thrifted owls and paper weights (hats added with picnik for extra holiday spirit)

We did a quick little thrifting trip to a new thrift shop that just opened up (Humane Society on Speedway for you locals). We went right after school, which meant dragging the boys with me. You would have thought I was using some ancient torture devise on them. From now on I’m going to start saying, “If you don’t cut it out, I’m going to take you to the thrift store!”  Hows that for a threat?

It was just getting them in the store that was hard, but once they spotted the two cute little owls, they were quite interested in what other cool stuff there might be. Plus, the pretty young girl at the counter told my Super-E that he had very nice eyes which suddenly made him a bit shy.  When we left left, he said, “that place wasn’t so bad after all.”

Hmph. There goes my new threat.

He named the blue owl Bluebottom, and the other is Soren. Cute!

I also bought this brass bowl. I was looking for something to put potpourri in. It’s so perfect.  I cleaned it out and put a thin coat of red alcohol ink on the outside to brighten the color.  Inside I put bits of our pine tree, pine cones from our last trip up the mountain and some berries from the neighbors bush.  I also made some essential oil spray to spritz on it occasionally. It’s a 1 oz little spray bottle with distilled water,  10 drops of cinnamon, 5 drops of peppermint, 5 drops of orange and 5 drops of frankincense. It smells heavenly and perfectly Christmas.

I’ve been feeling under the weather over the last few days and recently realized that my little blog here turned 5 this week. I can’t believe it has really been 5 years. It’s definitely been one of my babies that I love, care for, fret over and think about constantly. Funny how that happens.

Since this is the birthday month for many of my family members and friends, it seemed that a little creative cake making was in order.

I made this little cake out of a paper roll, cardboard and box board (from a tea bag box).Then I decorated it with pretty scrap book papers. And of course glitter. Glitter always helps me to feel better.  The top actually comes off making it into a little treasure box.  Lots of fun to make.

As per Creative Kismet tradition, I have to give something away for my blogiversary (which I love to do). This year I’d like to offer a $25 “gift card” to my shop, redeemable anytime before the end of the year. I’ll be adding ornaments, light switch plates and lots more to my shop this month. Just leave a comment and I’ll pick a winner on Monday. Until then, I’ll be laying low, taking it easy and trying to get better. See you on Monday!

I finally got my hands on this Somerset Home Magazine- I know it’s been a while since it came out, but my first copy must have gotten lost in the mail.

It makes me so happy to have it in my hands and see it in person.  It really is such a beautiful magazine. All the Somerset magazines are. I’m on page 10-11.

Here is the original before it was sent off for the magazine. The entire project was made from recycled materials: cardboard, cereal boxes, scrap paper, fabric and other bits.

Here is a sneak peek of something I just finished working on over the weekend. It was sent off early this am, hopefully for publication in another Somerset magazine.

I found this great wooden bowl at the thrift store over the weekend and knew I could spruce it up a bit.

I lightly sanded it and then primed it with white acrylic craft paint.   Then I painted it blue–yellow and cream on the inside. After it dried, I sanded it lightly to bring out the white underneath and sanded a little harder around the edges to bring out the brown wood color.

I am tickled with how it turned out. I’ll be using it for an upcoming craft fair that I signed up for. I’m thinking I’ll put some magnets in it, or something else.

Hope you have a happy Monday.

At least once a month, my friends and I get together for happy hour, or dinner at someone’s house. We drink wine and eat loads of food and laugh our backsides off. Last night was our night together. We all brought a bottle of wine and the host made an amazing set-up of yummy appetizers, soup and an apple tart.

And aren’t her flowers pretty. I taught her how to make them and they are so perfect at the table.

I couldn’t just bring my bottle of wine without dressing it up for the occasion, so I made a little cozy bag to carry it in.  I spent the entire morning researching online to find a decent wine, by the way, and ended up buying a Portuguese wine called Aveleda Vihno Verde. It was pretty good, not that I am an expert in any way, and everyone else seemed to like it.  Drinking wine is fairly new to me, so it’s either good and or it’s not.  I’ll need to start brushing up on my wine lingo.

Anyway, the cozy is made from canvas, a scrap of pretty fabric and some thick twill tape for the handle. Then I made a little flower out of an old felted sweater and attached it with a button that I received in a button swap a while back.  A fun and pretty way to take wine to a gathering/party.

I wanted to share a project I made for GreenCraft Magazine. It’s a cardboard portfolio for pretty papers, important papers, artwork, or whatever you like.  Above is my portfolio before I sent it off almost a year ago. I had almost forgotten what it looked liked.

It is completely made of cardboard, cereal box board, maps and old papers and scraps of ribbon, fabric, fringe and buttons. Oh, and a bit of paint and glue.

I really love this magazine. Beautiful photographs, and so many wonderful ideas and contributors.

I am also in the new issue of Somerset Home, but I haven’t seen it yet!!  I’m hoping to get my copy in the mail soon or I may just have to go out and get it myself. I’ll wait a couple more days…

I wanted to fancy up the table a bit since my roses stopped blooming. I really do miss having them on my table for the last 4 weeks. Rocky is missing his rose petal salads too. So, I had to make some paper ones, at least for the color.  I made them from a Martha Stewart video. They were fun to make while watching play-it-now movies on Netflix.

After I made them, I needed vases to put them in so I spray painted some bottles from the recycle bin. I followed Blaire’s advice for the painting.

Well then, I couldn’t just place the bottles (now vases) on  a plain, bare table, now could I?   So, then I had to paint a table runner. I have a huge roll of primed canvas that I cut, hemmed and painted (copying my pillow design). Then I sealed it with a few coats of matte gel medium.

Now if we (I) could learn to keep the table cleared and clean.