Felt Christmas Trees

I thought these trees were pretty cute but of course the link didn't actually send you somewhere with directions.  Boooo. I still couldn't resist trying a variation.

We started with 1 medium and one small cardboard tree forms.  It was probably more difficult for me to wrap them then it should have been.  I'm not good with curved lines.  Just wrap it however you want in whatever colors you like.  Smaller trees are easier.  I used hot glue, and tried to line up my yucky seams in one place so that could be the back

 Here they are pre-embellishment.

Isa found this super cute nutcracker ribbon and neither of us could resist. Just put a little bit of hot glue on at a time so you have time to line up your ribbon before it cools.  Also, if you are going to have a front and back be sure to line up your ribbon seams with your felt seams.

 All the way around

 I had this pink and red ribbon left over from a previous project and they worked great!

I was trying to change up the patterns a bit.  Just put it on however you want.

 Isa got this little scrapbooking kit at the dollar store that has been sitting in my craft stuff for years and I found these little gems in there.

I got these little glitter sprigs at Hobby Lobby last year for a wreath and never made it.  They worked great here so I just clipped off the individual balls and used them.

 The cute little pink star!  If you want ribbon on the top the star will help cover the glue spot.

These buttons were also in the kit 

 Finished trees.  I had a ton of fun with these.  Thank goodness I had my resident designer (Isa) to give me advice :)  A very cute addition to your decorations.

Price Breakdown:

3 pieces of felt .25 each totaling .75.  Even though I bought the pink and red ribbon for something else I'll count it here.  I bought each spool for .98 so came up with 1.5 feet of pink and 2.5-3 feet of red.  I am most probably overestimating here but better safe than sorry. I'm calling it .75 for P and R ribbon.  The Nutcracker ribbon was $1.50.  The forms were $3.58 for both with a 20% off coupon. The little ball sprigs were 1.79 for 2 but I only used a few so I'm calling it .50. Totaling --- $7.08

Preserving a Little Fall

So here are the two things we were making.  Wax dipped fall colored leaves and the fall leaf candle holder. 

It is a very rare and short window if time where the leaves are traditional fall colors in Texas.  Usually they go from green to dead pretty quickly.  So we had to act fast.  Isa and I gave ourselves a few extra minutes on our walk back from the library and collected a ton of leaves.  I also had a bunch of left over was from candles and things so this craft basically cost $0.  I understand that some people might need to buy wax and I have no idea how much that would be sorry.  

The candle holder told me to Modge Podge the leaves first.  Yes I make my own.  Way cheaper.  Half Elmer's glue half water and shake.  I will say that I think this step was pointless. Just use straight glue.

I painted on a layer of straight elmer's glue first.

 Then tried very unsuccessfully to get the leaves to stick smoothly to the bottle.  It was really annoying. 

Once it dried I thought it looked really bland so I pulled out the big guns.  Just mix some into the glue you use.

I think I did 2 or 3 layers of the glitter glue, letting it dry between each layer.

Perfect

With a candle

close up

 Isa really enjoyed dipping the leaves and she only got singed once :)  

 Some drying

The holding plate

A bowl of fall!

 You can see the wax clumped up in some places but overall cute. 

Just a heads up after a week or so they will start to tun brown.  Ours aren't quite so cheery now.  

 Overall, this craft cost me $0 because I already had the wax, Modge Podge and the jar.

Felt Pine Cones

I had a really hard time tracking down the directions for these things!  All the links to the ones I wanted didn't go anywhere.  Eventually I succeeded though.  They looked so cute and fuzzy so how could i resist?

 The directions seemed simple enough.  Iron wax paper onto felt.  Not easy. The wax paper kept pulling off of the felt and clinging to the static on the iron.  Not easy.

Then Cut out your "petals" using the template.

 I will say that I stupidly assumed you only needed one of each letter.  Make sure you cut out enough of each.  It's different for each letter.  Also, cutting all this felt will not only take FOREVER but will also dull your scissors super fast so be prepared for that.  I'm too lazy to sharpen mine so just got another pair.

 Scraps

 Then you start putting the "petals" on in their designated order. put a small piece of coordinating color felt in between each layer.  

 On my first batch I would do one and then cut it off the dowel rod and start the next one.  This didn't work well as the rod was then rough on the end and snagged on the felt.

 instead I recommend just pushing them down toward the end when you are done and then cutting them apart last.

I thought I took picture of the stem but apparently not.  Basically you cut a little circle out of whatever color and cut a hole in it.  Then string a narrow strip of felt through it and hot glue it to the bottom after you have trimmed the dowel.

I 

Pine cones. 

Slice and Dice

So I have no become the only member of our family to have not had surgery.  Isa went under the knife to have her adenoids removed. This post is VERY delayed.  

Looks happy enough.  Especially considering she had the 2:30pm surgery slot.  She was pretty hungry.

  Last picture with all her body parts.  Many people told me that after they gave her the "giggle juice" I should video her because she would get really silly.  I kept asking and she just kept saying "I'm fine mom!" and kept playing Minecraft.  I was a little let down.  At least I would have recovery right?

Not quite.  She ended up being a weepy drunk.  She just kept tearing up and being really pitiful :) She really wasn't pleased that they put the IV in her ankle.

She was pinching the popsicle stick so hard the pulse ox kept alarming and she was totally confused when i kept telling her why.  She even looked sad at the popsicle.

She did great though except she heard the nurse telling what the possible side effects might be so of course she had ALL of them for DAYS!  Overall, Emmeline is the best post op patient in the family.

Animal Inside Out

Every other week Isa and I try to go the Perot Museum for science.  This week we included the traveling exhibit, Animal Inside Out.  Isa has been begging to go so I finally caved.  I knew if I kept waiting the exhibit would probably leave and she would never forgive me.  She loved it but I did discover that she REALLY doesn't like to pose with her back to the animals.  I think she thought it was going to turn into Night at the Museum and they might come to life.

First we came to the squid.  I think she was OK here because they were behind glass.

 They had these CT slices of animals hung all over the place.  They were pretty interesting.

 Isa really liked the ducks

 The reindeer. Notice that she is off to the side and slightly facing them. Apparently both male and females grow and shed their antlers annually.

 Camel mommy and baby.  Apparently they didn't know the camel was pregnant when they donated her. They sliced her head into 3 pieces so you can see all the layers. you can see behind Isa's once again sideways stance that there are three heads.

 This one shows their teeth and the little pods that cover their cheeks to protect them from cacti when they eat.

 Check out those lashes!  Much be a Harris.

 This picture does not do justice to the pure size of this bull.  There was no way Isa was standing anywhere near it!

 She loves giraffes and still wouldn't stand at the base of this.

 Sideways running shot.

It was really impressive.  They had a TON more that I didn't post.  There were some very interesting models of the circulatory system in the animals as well at specific organ comparisons.  We chose to skip the human at the end as it was a man and Isa wasn't very interested in the whole preserved genitals situation going on there.