Cookies for Santa

We've got a tradition of making cookies for Santa on Christmas eve. We make the dough, cut them out and then frost them all in one day before setting them out for Santa with milk. I didn't get any pictures of us making the cookie dough, but we got pictures of everything else.

The boys have not really wanted anything to do with making cookies with me lately, so I didn't even bother asking them if they wanted to help make sugar cookie dough with me. They took one look at me getting stuff together and let me know they wanted to help though, lol! They're so good at taking turns since we've been making cookies because I say, "Ok, it's Marcus' turn!" and then "Ok, now it's Jamesen's turn!" and they take turns really well.

When the dough was finally ready to be cut out, it was a bit of a fight with Jamesen. He sat up at the table great but didn't want any help cutting the dough out. He kept putting the cutter in the center and getting so upset at me when I tried to place it better so we could get more cookies on it. He calmed down after a bit though and did ok. Marcus did great! He was so excited and jumped right in. I had to keep him from making a mess by lifting the cutter up and putting it down on a place he's already cut out.


They were both so excited to help me with the spatula. Such a silly thing for them to be so excited about, haha! It always makes me giggle how easily entertained they are.


We waited until after dinner to frost the cookies and I guess we waited too long because Jamesen fell completely asleep right after eating! The boys got up pretty early and he's refusing his nap, so poor thing was tired. I'm kind of sad he missed out on the frosting fun, we were able to get a few pictures of him asleep on Sabe with Marcus frosting :)




Marcus did so well this year! He didn't make a huge jumble of mess like last year. It was messy, but he was able to keep the colors from mixing relatively well. I was so proud of him!


And he was so proud of himself :)

Handprint Reindeer

This craft started out a bit rough. I let Marcus choose which one he wanted to do out of a few and he picked the reindeer. I was excited as I adore hand/foot print crafts. Sabin was home with us so we let him join in on the craft. I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it, but Jamesen wanted absolutely nothing to do with craft. He's been on one today so it might have just been that. It was kind of sad having him want nothing to do with a craft when daddy is never around and finally gets the chance. We eventually got him to sort of participate which I guess was good enough for me.



Marcus on the other hand... Man that kid LOVES crafting. He is so cute and adores it so much. I love crafting with him! He makes everything so worth it. I hope Jamesen comes around and loves crafting too.




At least I got some pictures of them both smiling with their reindeer, haha! This was a fun craft all in all, I just wish Jamesen would have had as much fun as Marcus did.

Christmas Stained Glass Window art

I saw a tut on pinterest that I just HAD to do for stained glass window ornaments from glue and paint. They looked so easy and fun... boy was I wrong about that easy part! It was a lot more work than I was expecting! Like, a lot more! It was fun though so it was worth it and I'll probably end up doing some for each holiday, but when I finally finished I said a big "phew!" and was glad to be done! For anyone wanting to try this at home,

Here's what you'll need:
regular glue
wax paper (I just used a large ziplock bag because I had that on hand)
some white string (I used yarn)
some paper and pencil (to draw out your designs)
and some paint (called for water colors but I made my own out of acrylics)

First I drew my designs. I had these big extravagant plans in my head and a few of them I just plain gave up on (like the Santa and penguin!) but my easier designs were ok. I did this part after the boys got into bed and I'm glad I did because it was time consuming and needed all of my concentration! I poured about a 50 cent piece amount of glue into the bottom of a paper bowl. After cutting out the strings, I dipped them in the glue, ran my finger down the length to get any excess off and then went to work on outlining my designs, sticking a dab of glue wherever two strings met. A few of the parts (like the reindeer antlers) were difficult and I ended up using a small piece of tape to help hold them into place while they dried. I also cut a long piece of string and glued it to the top for a hanger.

This is what I woke up to this morning. Very glad everything dried properly! You can see my poor Santa drawing that I gave up on.

Now cue the boys. Jamesen surprisingly was super willing to do this craft. Maybe it was the paint? Maybe it's because we've done enough crafts together by now that he gets how the whole "let's do a craft!" thing goes? I dunno, but normally he throws a fit and runs away only to come back a few minutes later ready to roll.

I called them over and made the water colors one by one according to which colors they wanted. I just took a bit of paint and mixed it with some water at the bottom of a paper bowl. The boys had fun with the mixing part, haha! Who knew mixing water and paint was so fun? They thought it was great watching it go from a paint blob with water around it to colored water.


Next, I had the boys help me fill each space separately with glue, just enough to fill the space evenly. For grandma, J's in grey and M's in blue.




It ended up looking like this when we were done filling it, so I just used the back of a paintbrush (the non brush end) to spread the glue around.


Then again using the back of a paintbrush, I took a couple dabs of the paint and dabbed it on the glue. I started out with just a few dabs and then added more if I needed it. I wanted the color to still be pretty see through, so I didn't want much of it, just enough to see the color.

And one more time using the back of a paint brush, I let the boys mix the paint. I had to help Jamesen as he was a little bit rough and didn't quite understand that he needed to keep it inside the lines, but Marcus did great! My little champ. I didn't want it completely mixed though, just swirled a bit to give it more of a glassy effect.



I love their little feet and how they sit when they craft me with me, haha! They both got bored before we finished, but I just hurried and did the last little bit to which colors they wanted where. Marcus kept going on and on about purple this, purple that! Purple is his favorite color currently. Jamesen kept called all the colors green, silly boy :) Sure do love them. Anyways, after we got done with the coloring, I set them back in the remote corner they'd been in to dry for a few days.


They took WAY longer to dry than I had expected. The tut I followed said at least 24 hours. I had them dry for 3 days. They would probably dry faster in a drier climate, but being here in some serious humidity might have had a factor in the length of time it took to dry. Once they were completely dry, I slowly and carefully peeled them off the bag and voila! The kids and I are excited though, we have some cute window ornaments hanging up now :)

Home Made Magnets

I bought these materials to make home made magnets over 2 years ago! I ended up moving right after buying them and then having a baby and finding myself with absolutely no time. Then we moved here and I was so excited to make them until I found out that our fridge randomly isn't magnetic! One of my friends on facebook posted about making home made magnets with her kids and that they were using them on the fireplace grate and I went, "I have a grate on my fireplace!!" So today, we made some home made magnets :)


Marcus was really into it from the get go. I'm so glad he's doing so well following instructions since his speech has gotten better. That really makes my heart sing! I showed him once and then he did it perfectly all by himself quite a few times. Sweet boy.




Jamesen always throws a fit when I start a project. I don't know what it is but it's like he doesn't want to do it because I'm showing him what to do. He'd rather just run a mock with the materials and not care about the project. He always runs away and then a few minutes later comes back full swing.




We had a lot of fun running through the house finding magnetic surfaces. They got quite a few to stick on some of Gemma's stuff which they got a huge kick from.

Then I kind of ushered them towards the grate and they didn't really get it at first, haha! I guess it doesn't look like it would hold magnets. Once I put one up they got the idea though and quickly filled it up.




And since we don't have a magnetic fridge, they decided to run go get the bag I've been storing the magnets in and brought them out to cover it completely. I love it! It makes the best decoration for our fireplace that's never used! :)


We ended up making magnets out of random house hold stuff as well like: Christmas bows, buttons, hair clippies, leggos and a few more things that I can't remember right now... See why I need this blog so my memory doesn't fail me? :)

Introduction

Hello! I'm Adrienne, aka Adi (said ay-dee). I've got two little boys named Marcus and Jamesen (4 and 2 respectively) and I'm currently pregnant with a little princess we will be naming Gemma. I'm starting this craft blog to keep tabs on the crafts I do with my boys and my girl when she comes. I'm an avid digital scrapbooker and need a place to write down the stories behind what happened on any given day with any given craft so I don't have to rely on my memory :)

Thanks for following us on this journey! Hope you get some ideas for your troupe from me!

Adi