christmas – Page 3 – emerald city diaries

Pinterest Christmas: DIY Window Wreaths {Linky Party}.

Welcome to the last week of the Pinterest Christmas series for 2015! {See week one, two, & three here!}

This last week I wanted to share a quick & easy wreath display. We have two huge picture windows in our living room, one in the front of the house & the other on the side. The front window always showcases our Christmas tree (though this year & for the foreseeable short term our tree will sit off to the side of the room to keep Eloise’s play area in tact). I have always wanted to do something fun & festive on the side window that sits behind our dining room table. Enter wreaths. I think I have pinned every single hanging in a window wreath picture!

{original Pinterest link – Winter Wreath Windows}

{original Pinterest link – 12 Styles of Christmas}

{original Pinterest link – Easy Christmas Wreaths}

Supplies:

Wreaths – I had every intention of making boxwood wreaths using this tutorial, but then I stumbled onto these Smycka wreaths at Ikea & I couldn’t resist at that price point! (I couldn’t have DIY-ed wreaths for less than $9 a piece.)
Ribbon – I chose wide red satin!
Hangers – I used small finishing nails

So, this isn’t really a DIY tutorial, as much as it is showing you how I hung three pre-made wreaths in my window… wah wah.

I had Aaron help me hammer in the nails at an angle into the top of the window trim (actually it was his idea to hang them this way!) since I am WAY too short to reach the top of the window.

Then I looped the ribbon around the wreath, pulled some slack, & tied a bow at the top. And repeat for the other two wreaths, changing the amount of slack if you want them at different heights. My wreaths twist a little bit from side-to-side because they have a bit of weight to them, but I adore the way they look!

Thinking about making this project? Feel free to leave questions in the comments or link your own in the Linky Party below! Also be sure to check out Kendra’s Pinterest Christmas projects over at The Gilbertson Family.

Thanks for joining us in our annual Pinterest Christmas series! We had SO much fun & we can’t wait until next year! The Linky Party will be up the entire month of December, so be sure to check out the other linked projects & link your own up too!

Did you DIY any of your Christmas decorations this year?

Here are the instructions if you are a new to linky-party:
•click on the blue button at the bottom of this post – the one with the frog
•add a link to your Pinterest Christmas blog post in the URL field (please do not link to your home page but the specific post page)
•for “name” write a short descriptive name for your post
•if you would like to put the Pinterest Christmas button on the bottom of your post, we would love to see it there!

Pinterest Christmas: DIY Gold & Glitter Ornaments {Linky Party}.

Welcome to week three of the Pinterest Christmas series for 2015! {See week one & two here!}

This week I wanted to share a few ornaments that I made for our Christmas tree. The tree is one of my favorite parts of our holiday décor, & I always manage to make a few new ornaments each year.

{original Pinterest link – Gold Dipped Ornaments}

{original Pinterest link – Glitter Ornaments}

Supplies:

Clear, round ornaments – I used both plastic & glass
Gold spray paint
Painter’s tape
Small Ziploc bag
Gold glitter
Egg carton (optional) – this helps to hold the ornaments up while painting
Drop cloth – I like the fabric ones with the plastic back because you can reuse them over & over for either craft projects or room painting
Ribbon – for hanging ornaments
Scissors

Even though I found tutorials to make (really similar) ornaments, I sort of just winged it since I wanted to keep things as simple as possible.

{Sidenote:the clear bulbs made it really hard to get in-focus pictures!}

For the gold glitter ornament, I basically just took off the ornament top (be careful not to pull too hard because the metal is really soft!) & poured glitter inside, & swirled the glitter around the ornament. I found that the glitter stuck better to the sides of the plastic bulb; as soon as you started swirling the glass one, the glitter would slide off. Some similar tutorials on Pinterest use an adhesive to help the glitter stick to the sides. I think really chunky glitter would look cool too! To finish the ornaments, I cut a few inches of ribbon & tied a knot at the ends.

And for the gold painted ornament, I chose to just paint the bottoms of the bulbs & leave the top clear.

I started by taping off a line around the middle of the bulb, but didn’t worry too much about it being perfect. The most important part was to get a really good seal, so I made sure to really rub the edge of the tape down so I could get the cleanest paint line possible. After taping my line completely around the bulb, I taped a small (sandwich) Ziploc bag over the top of the bulb to keep it from getting painted.

To paint, I spread my drop cloth out in our backyard, set out the egg cartons, & set the ornaments with the top (bag side) down. Then I sprayed a the bulbs to get a full first coat on. I am not the best spray-painter since I cannot control myself & always paint too thick, but I did my best to keep the coats thin & even. The paint I used was pretty quick drying, so I was able to get another coat or two within a couple of minutes (probably not recommended though). And then I left the bulbs to dry for 2 hours (as stated on the paint can) & went back out to check for coverage. I had to add another thin coat, & then waited for drying again. (Normally when I am painting walls with Painter’s tape, I pull the tape when the paint is still wet, but because of the plastic bag, I waited until the paint was dry on the ornaments to pull the tape). And, finally, I added a ribbon hanger (like above)!

Are you DIY-ing any ornaments for your tree this year?

Eloise meets Santa {2015}!

We went down to see Santa at the downtown Nordstrom with our friend Beatrice last year {see that picture here} & decided to make it a tradition! This Santa Claus is a particularly busy one, so we have opted to always go early in December so I can include copies of pictures with some of our Christmas cards {but not so early, like on Black Friday, when there is an 8 hour wait!}.

This year we headed down on December 1st & tried to get there as soon as the doors opened. We weren’t the first in line, but didn’t have too many people in line in front of us. Even still, the entire thing took about 90 minutes, & it was right during nap time, so I was just waiting for a meltdown to happen {&, spoiler alert!, a tiny one did}. Eloise was really into the decorations & lights, but was pretty antsy the entire time. The kid just does not want to stay still {& I don’t blame her!}.

As you can see below, Eloise was very stoic at first, & then she got really sad.

DT1_2563 DT1_2564
DT1_2565
So we called it good with the first picture & Eloise was much happier to roam around Santa’s workshop/window display while we waited for Beatrice to sit on Santa’s lap {that also didn’t happen & B was not happy to see Santa either!}.

Do your littlest love or hate Santa Claus? I always feel so bad for Santa when he has to pose with kiddos who really just don’t want to sit with him!

Pinterest Christmas: Toddler Felt Christmas Tree {Linky Party}.

Welcome to week two of the Pinterest Christmas series for 2015! {See week one here!}

This week I am sharing a felt Christmas tree I made for Eloise. Like most toddlers, Eloise is busy & curious, so a Christmas tree in the middle of the living room sort of seems like a disaster waiting to happen. The idea of not having a tree for these toddler years is out of the question (I LOVE having a tree!) so I thought I could make something to at least distract her a little bit. And who knows, maybe it will keep her from playing with our real tree? #wishfulthinking

{original Pinterest link – Felt Tree}

Supplies:

Felt (assorted, see details below)
- 1 yard stiff felt (I bought dark green premium felt but it wasn’t stiff enough to completely hold the tree’s shape)
- 1 yard fusible fabric stabilizer (to remedy my above problem; I used Pellon Pelted 71F Single-Sided Fusible Ultra Firm Stabilizer)
- 1 yard green felt
- white
- red
- light brown (for Santa’s face, reindeer, etc.)
- dark brown
- blue
- yellow
- red
Scissors – fabric scissors work best on felt!
Sewing machine
Buttons – 28 + 4 assorted red buttons (I bought a package of assorted buttons at JoAnn’s)
Ribbon – thin ribbon (1/8 in.) works best for attaching to the tops of the ornaments
Elastic – thin elastic for securing the ends together (to form the tree)
Ornament templates – see here
Needle
Thread
Iron

For this project, I basically followed the original tutorial. I had to tweak it a bit since the measurements were in metric, but for the most part it worked!

First, I cut the felt for the tree. I opted to sew the two big pieces of felt together right away. It is cleaner if you follow the original tutorial & wait until all of the stitching is done on the top of the tree, but oh well. I also didn’t have super stiff felt for the underside of my tree.* I didn’t satin stitch the lines on the tree mostly because I didn’t have a double needle for my sewing machine (nor have I ever used one!). I opted to try out one of the fun stitches I have on my machine – the leaves were a nice touch I think!

Next, I sewed on the buttons, 24 of them, all over the tree. I tried to scatter them around the tree & looked to the original tutorial for guidance on placement & distance. I also discovered, during this step, that my sewing machine sews on buttons! Yep, you read that right, buttons! And it is the absolute coolest thing I have ever done! Sewing buttons on by hand isn’t hard, but it is time-intensive (at least for me), so this saved me SO much time! Then I added the four buttons along the edge that will button up the tree. And finally I added four elastic loops to the opposite edge.

The final step was to make all of the felt ornaments. Not an easy task, but the entire point, right? I first printed out the ornaments (three pages) & cut them out. Next I traced each cut-out on the coordinating felt color (I looked to the original tutorial); I just used a pen, but in hindsight I would have tried a vanishing marker (they are sold in the sewing section). Then I cut out each piece of felt in the color that I needed for each ornament. I eye-balled the smaller pieces & didn’t worry about making anything perfect. I tried to machine sew as much of the ornaments as I could since I find it faster than hand sewing. I also attached the ribbon loop for the top of each ornament with a sewing machine (using a forward & backward stitch, repeated) with the ribbon ends sandwiched in-between the front & the back of each ornament piece.

Eloise seems to like this tree, but isn’t super interested in it. She is, however, leaving our real tree alone, so I call that a win (& SUCH a surprise!). She is mostly just pointing & staring at the tree. When she does play with this little felt tree though it is awesome that the ornaments stick to the tree without having to be hung by the loops, because it will be a few years before she has the fine motor skills to hang those ornaments from the loops on the buttons! Her favorite thing is to take the star off & put it back on, so definitely include that if you make this for your toddler!

*Sidenote: As I had mentioned above, I didn’t get stiff felt (the Joann’s I went to didn’t have it, at least in an obvious place), so I added the stabilizer to the back. The tree originally stood up on its own without the poster board, but it was dented & not very sturdy. In hindsight, I should have realized I needed to make an adjustment with the felt before I sewed on ALL of the buttons… it wasn’t awful to iron the stabilizer at the end, but be really careful because if the iron is hot enough to adhere the stabilizer, it is also hot enough to start melting buttons. Uh oh. Also, be sure to have water in your iron so it can steam – that makes the biggest difference when trying to adhere the stabilizer!

Are you DIY-ing anything for your kiddos this year?

Pinterest Christmas: Toddler Fingerprint Tree Cards {Linky Party}.

Welcome to week one of the Pinterest Christmas series for 2015! I am SO excited to share my projects with you this month!

First up is a {pretty} simple project I did with Eloise. I like to include her in cards I send out, like her feet in the shape of a heart for Valentine’s Day last year, or her footprint on her birthday thank you notes. This was the first time we used paint on her fingers, & I am glad the paint was non-toxic…

{original Pinterest link – Toddler-Made Christmas Cards}

Supplies:

{white} cardstock – for the cards; I cut each one into quarters
Paint – I used acrylic craft paint in 5 colors
Sponges (optional) – I picked up some cheap ones at the grocery store
Green paper – for trees; I used one dark green & one light green sheet
Scissors
Glue stick
Marker – I used a fine point Sharpie which is my go-to!
Wet wipes – to clean up messy hands!

This project is pretty straightforward, albeit messy, & I would suggest doing it with your toddler right after mealtime, or when he or she is the happiest!

First, I cut out all of the trees. I started by cutting my green paper into three strips (they were 12 x 12 sheets) & then eye-balled a good triangle shape. Then I cut out all of the trees. {In hindsight, I should have waited to cut the triangles out & let Eloise paint these longer strips. There may not have been as many “ornaments” on each tree, but she is little enough I think this would have been a better route.}

Then I cut my white cardstock into quarters. I was originally going to do a 4×6 or a 5×7 card, but it seemed so wasteful!

Next, I opted for painting. I squeezed a small blob of paint onto the sponge – three on one & two on the other. I let Eloise dip her pointer fingers into the paint (with some help) & then helped her press her fingers onto the trees. I tried to get about three or four prints on each tree. She was super interested in the sponge (so I gave her a clean one to play with in an attempt to keep paint from getting everywhere!) & also wanted to eat the paint. Big surprise. It was difficult for me to see her eat that paint (well, lick her fingers) because it definitely wasn’t organic, edible paint, but oh well!

Because there was paint, well, everywhere, I placed each completed tree on newspaper to dry. Once dried, I glued three trees on each card, alternating the light & dark green trees. Finally I added “Love, Eloise 2015” on the bottom of each card.

I saved one of the cards for our fridge (& it will ultimately go into Eloise’s baby box for safe keeping!) but the entire point of these cards was to include them with our holiday cards. We don’t have a lot of family that lives close by, so I think it is fun to send a little something special in the mail when we can!

What are you DIY-ing for the holidays? Do you include your kiddos?

merry christmas {2014}

wishing you a very Merry Christmas this year!

LowerFamilyChristmasCard_20142

after my friend Brenda made Eloise’s birth announcement, i was inspired to make our Christmas card this year with my limited InDesign skills. i LOVE getting Christmas cards in the mail every year & adore seeing all of the updated photos of families & kiddos. i scoured sites like tiny prints & shutterfly to get some ideas. honestly, a lot of the designs are pretty simple if you have access to InDesign, or even Photoshop. like last year, i wanted both a family photo & an infographic letter. this way we could share a picture of our entire family {not just Eloise!} & also give a few updates for those who may not be regular blog followers or who want a recap of the year.

we hope you all have the merriest of Christmases & that you get to spend time with loved ones.

happy, happy day!

xo M

see previous christmas cards here, here, & here.

christmastime with eloise {2014}

christmas is such a magical time of year & definitely my favorite season. i can’t believe how much more magical & fun it is when you have a child. i have been having so much fun with eloise this month!

we went downtown earlier in the month with a friend & her little one to see Santa at Nordstrom. eloise was so good while we waited in line & very excited to see Santa. she didn’t ask him for anything this year but did give him a smile!

{hat: handmade by aunt kelly // sweater: Old Navy // dress & bloomers: babyGap // onesie: Old Navy // tights: Old Navy (old) // moccasins: Freshly Picked}

before i strung the lights on our tree this year, i thought it would be fun to do a festive photoshoot with eloise since she adores lights {& christmas lights are no exception!}. i dressed her up in her christmas jammies & of course her Santa hat!

i hope you are having a very merry holiday season!

a pinterest christmas: clothespin advent calendar.

welcome to the final week of A Pinterest Christmas! see the first week’s post here, second week’s post here & the other years’ crafts here.

much like last year, i wanted to share my love of advent calendars by creating another one {you can never have too many, right?}. last year’s was focused on fun activities to celebrate the Christmas season, & this year’s focus is small gifts, or in my case, ornaments to hang on the tree each day.

in theory it would have been best to share this project during the first week {& it was my intention!} but painting the numbers took so much longer than i had anticipated. oh well, right? also, the original pin for this link wasn’t a tutorial, so i had to make things up as i went along.

{original Pinterest link – candy cane advent calendar}

supplies:

wood board {i used a 1×6 Poplar board & had Home Depot cut it in half)
fine sandpaper
white paint {i used Behr primer & paint from this project}
paintbrushes & roller
24 clothespins
number stencil {i used a Martha Stewart set i picked up from Michael’s with a coupon}
red craft paint {you could use any color, but i used red for some of the clothespins & the numbers}
sponge brush
wood glue (i used Contact Cement)
ribbon {i used two different kinds}
glue (i used Fabri-Tac)
picture hangers or d-rings

i started by prepping the boards – lightly sanding & rolling on three thin coats of white primer/paint. {note: i decided to do two boards instead of one long board for storage reasons.} then i prepped the clothespins: i painted about a third of them red & glued ribbon to the remaining pins. i found that clipping the pins onto a thick piece of cardboard made it much easier to paint; i also decided that i would just paint the top part of the pin & not the bottom. for the ribbon, i applied a thin coat of Fabri-Tac to the pin, laid a piece of ribbon down, & then cut the ribbon {as opposed to measuring & cutting all of the lengths of ribbon first & then trying to glue them on exactly right}. i laid the pins down on each board {12 per} & tried to get them as equally spaced as possible. then i glued each pin in place on the board.

once the pins were adhered, it was time to stencil the numbers. it probably would have been easier to stencil before adding the pins so that the stencil could lay completely flat {or i should have just cut the bottom of the stencil!} but i thought it would be easiest for spacing to put the pins exactly where i wanted them & then add the numbers above. the first few numbers went really well with the stencil since the cardboard on the stencil was still fresh & not full of paint. i did every other number to begin with in order to make sure i had enough room to tape the stencil down without disturbing a previously painted number. it got trickier once i got into the teens & twenties since i needed the 1 & 2 stencil for each of those numbers – this is where the project really slowed down since i had to wait for the paint to dry on both the board & the stencil. in hindsight, i may have bought a plastic stencil instead that you could wipe the excess paint off of between numbers. i only did one coat of paint for each number {so there is a sponge-paint quality to the numbers}, but did also go in with a small paintbrush to touch up the edges where the stencil bled.

what i love about this calendar is that it can be different each year. one year it could hold little gifts for every day & another year it could hold handwritten cards about the reasons why we love the Christmas season! this year i thought it would be fun to leave 24 ornaments off of the tree & then add a new one each day until Christmas. one day in a few years i know eloise will love the tradition of this advent calendar!

For more projects and inspiration, check out the other blogs in the A Pinterest Christmas series [Emerald City Diaries | Greg & Maggi | The Gilbertson Family | The Pena Family | This Grey House | Without A Doubt]. Share your Pinterest Christmas projects with us! Comment on one of our blogs, link back to a post, or use #PinterestChristmas2014 on Instagram!

a pinterest christmas: eloise’s first ornaments.

welcome to the second week of A Pinterest Christmas! see the first week’s post here & the other years’ crafts here.

in celebration of a baby’s first Christmas there are always lots of ornaments to choose from. aaron & i have our own bets on how many Eloise may get this year, but i thought i would also add to the mix by making two of my own. one is with her birth announcement & the other with her footprint.

keepsake ornament

{original Pinterest link – wedding invitation ornament}

supplies:

clear plastic ornament (or you could use glass)
invitation or announcement
paper cutter or scissors
ruler
ribbon
charm
pencil

i made a version of this ornament for my first Pinterest Christmas project with our wedding invitation so i pretty much knew what i was doing.

first, i decided which parts of Eloise’s announcement i wanted to use – i focused on her stats. then i measured & marked a 1/4 inch section around each part i wanted to include in the paper strips. i used a paper cutter & scissors to make the paper strips & wrapped the strips around a pencil to curl. once i had all of the strips cut & curled, i took off the top of the ornament & placed them inside. then i cut a length of ribbon, strung on the Eiffel Tower charm, & tied it in a bow on the top of the ornament.

footprint ornament

{original Pinterest link – handprint ornament}

supplies:

clear plastic ornament (or you could use glass)
craft paint
ribbon
sponge paintbrush
ribbon – wired ribbon makes the best bows!

i modified this project in a few ways: i chose to do Eloise’s footprint instead of her hand (mostly because a footprint is so much easier!), & i used craft paint instead of embossing. the result wasn’t exactly what i was hoping since the footprints didn’t turn out that well. none-the-less, it is still a good representation of her feet on her first Christmas {which was the point, right?} & i have been doing ink prints of her footprints every month, so it isn’t like i won’t have her footprints in another form.

this was a really simple project. i sponged paint onto the bottoms of Eloise’s feet & then pressed them onto the plastic ornament. then i tied on a bow.

For more projects and inspiration, check out the other blogs in the Pinterest Christmas series [Emerald City Diaries | Greg & Maggi | The Gilbertson Family | The Pena Family | This Grey House | Without A Doubt]. Share your Pinterest Christmas projects with us! Comment on one of our blogs, link back to a post, or use #PinterestChristmas2014 on Instagram!

a pinterest christmas: family christmas stocking.

welcome to the first week of A Pinterest Christmas! i started this series as a fun way to share the Pinterest-inspired projects & crafts that i created for Christmas – my very favorite season of the year! check out the other years’ crafts here.

the year i started A Pinterest Christmas, i attempted to make stockings for our family at the time: me, Aaron, & Sadie. Sadie’s stocking turned out really well, but ours, not so much. ever since then i have been wanting to make us a new set of Christmas stockings. when Eloise joined our family this year i knew it would be the perfect opportunity! [& i went ahead & made four knowing that we would likely have another child at some point – no i am not pregnant! – & then i wouldn’t have to make a third set at that point!]

i followed two Pinterest pins – one for the stockings & linings & the other for the hangers.

{original Pinterest link – lined Christmas stockings}

{original Pinterest link – Christmas stocking hanger}

supplies:

Christmas-themed fat quarters
thread – i used white for the entire project
lining fabric – i used this fabric from our Christmas tree skirt project
ribbon
buttons
scissors
stocking pattern – i used a free one here
needle

i started by ironing all of my fabric {nope, i didn’t pre-wash it – worst seamstress ever!} & cut out the stocking pattern – two stocking sides, 2 lining sides, & one cuff. i learned the hard way that you have to flip the pattern to make the cut out stocking side, or else you will have the back of the fabric on the backside of the stocking…

next i sewed all of the pieces. i made the cuff from a single piece of fabric – sewing one seam, flipping the fabric right-side-out, & then folding the fabric in half (as shown in the linked instructions). for the linings, i sewed around with a 1/2 inch seam, leaving a few inches on the long side of the stocking to flip everything right-side-out later on. for the stockings, i sewed the two pieces right sides together with a 1/2 inch seam & then flipped them right-side-out.

then i attached all the pieces. first, i sewed the cuffs to the stocking bodies, and then stuffed each stocking into the lining & attached. if you leave a small hole in the seam of the lining – just a few inches – then you can flip the entire stocking inside out & have a nicely finished stocking with a lining & no raw edges.

i then switched tutorials for the stocking hangers. i liked the look of a real cuff, & a ribbon hanger with a button so i combined the tutorials for the perfect stockings! i was able to round up four white buttons from my button box & use some Christmas-y ribbon that i picked up for another project (which you will see next week!). the nice part about adding a real cuff is that i could attach the ribbon & button, & hide the stitches underneath the cuff.

{also Fa La La sign & mason jar snowglobes}