Sparkly Christmas Card holder

I know I've posted many different ways to hang and display all those

Christmas cards you get over the holidays.

But this one I love best and I believe will be a keeper!

You may recognize this frame I picked up at a thrift store and made into a bulletin board.

I don't remember why I took that down and changed my mind.

But this worked out perfectly.

This was a quick and easy project.

I took a really large empty frame and simply used a staple gun to attach wired

star garland across the back.

Being that it's not Dec yet, I haven't received any cards yet (need to get working on my own!) so I used these vintage postcards from Anthro for display.

To attach them I used small clothespins with craft buttons glued on top.

To see other ways to display your holiday cards see here and here.

Crafty Christmas Houses

I think these are my favorite Christmas crafts yet.

Easy, cheap and involves glitter.  :)

I kept my houses pretty simple.

You of course could bling them up a lot more.

Also, I like to put a battery operated votive inside and they make them have a nice glow.

First I started with these paper mache houses I got at Hobby Lobby.

Super super cheap.  I think the large was $5.99 maybe.

Find them in the regular paper mache aisle instead of the Christmas aisle.

I started by painting them with craft paints.

A couple I left plain on the roof.

The large one, I glued down some scrap book paper.

The smaller one I glued buttons on the roof.

Then I also glued paper to the floors and back wall.

And finally the glitter.

For the plain roof houses I brushed on thick amounts of mod podge and glitter.

For the paper covered roof, I brushed the glue on all the edges and in the crevices of the roof where snow would likely stick.

For the button roof I did the same for the edges and top of the chimney.

For the largest house I also glued a little green wreath with a red yarn bow.

Added some white bottle brush trees (from Walmart) and a little snow bling.

Mantel done.

Subway art from last year.

Free printable here.

Oh and kids when they saw mommy's craft.

Thinking I will get some small ones to let them decorate and put in their rooms. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

We're stuffed and happy.

It was a beautiful day.

Family in town including husband's grandma the kids call GiGi.

And only one cousin to go around to share with the four.

Hope your day was as blessed as ours.

Tomorrow....leftovers!  :)

It's Friday, Friday, Friday.....

That is about all I know of that 'popular' song, but it gets stuck in my head every Friday.  :)

I love Friday's. ( I love Monday's too.  I know I'm weird.)

Today is actually on the cool side.

Rocking my momfit of fleece sweatpants and puffy vest.

Loving the smell of lit fireplaces in the air.

So here is a glimpse of our Friday. 

Little Miss Maressa is home with me on Fridays.

Love me some little girl thick tights and boots.

Today we went shopping. 

 One of our favorite places to go together is Target.

We had a birthday gift to get and did some Christmas shopping as well.

I LOVE children's books.  I go weak in the knees every time I spot beautiful picture books.

Got one for M's preschool book exchange and one for a cousin.

Maressa picked the little moving kitty for her cousin and we got this awesome table set for another.

Thinking I'll make a few dolls too.

We both were smitten with the newest Target designer collection...this time just for kids.

M picked this shirt and the socks.

Totally her and will go perfectly with her black tutu and black Converse sneakers she has.

Then we traveled across town (rare for me) to Michael's.

This is all we got.

M convinced me to get these small dollar wreath frames for them to decorate for Christmas. 

And we got Holiday Smencils for preschool party favors.

I was disappointed with the Christmas crafts selection.

I was looking for plain flat pieces to make some of these ornaments for my crafty girls party.

*****

Rex is having a grumpy day.

Thinking he must be getting ready to have a big shed again.

Last time he looked like he was wearing a tutu.  lol

We're a little addicted to LaLaLoopsy.

I won't say how many more are under my bed for stockings.

And I got one of the boy dolls today.

I love how I can throw these little dolls in my tote and have instant entertainment for restaurants or other places requiring little people patience.

Been getting a little Christmas craft on.

More soon.

Love no homework afternoons.

Just a little piano practice and we're free to play the rest of the day!

Love the smiles on 4 cutie faces when I serve hot chocolate for snack.

What are your Friday's like?

Super easy crockpot barbeque sandwiches--YUM!

One of our go-to kid friendly and easy dinners.

Here in the south everyone loves a pulled pork sandwich.

And cooked in the crock pot makes it practically like mom's night off.

Even the four finicky eaters in the house approve.

The 10 year old boy eats 2 whole sandwiches in a sitting.

Makes nice for leftover night too.

And make sandwiches and wrap in aluminum foil to take on the go (like to baseball games).
 

The 6 year old boy prefers to eat it without the bun and dipped in extra bbq sauce.

So here is how I prefer to make barbeque.

I buy the boneless pork rib ends.

The type of meat makes a BIG difference.

I place the uncooked meat in the crockpot and then fill the crockpot halfway with water.

Cook on low setting about 8 hours.

Then drain the water out.

Then I pour over the meat my favorite bbq sauce (if you prefer you can make homemade).

We LOVE the red sauce from a local bbq restaurant, Gibson's Barbeque.

Now use a couple of forks to shred the tender meat and coat with sauce.

Leave on low setting for a few more hours til dinner time.

And that's all there is!

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Winner of My Memories digital scrapbook software is comment #5, Crystal.

Congrats!

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Did you know that you can find all the pins from your blog on Pinterest?

Just put in the following address:

www.pinterest.com/ source/ nameofyourblog   --without the spaces.

If you'd like to see the 'best of" Just Deanna's projects check out what has been pinned from my blog here.  :)

Star Wars Crafts

I got this little book for my head child crafter in the house for his 10th bday.

Oh yes he liked it.

We spent one Sat afternoon making these finger puppets. 

I cut out the pieces and he did the sewing and gluing.

This project was not in the book but inspired, Kalla and I made this Princess Leia peg doll.

Then Zachary came home with this origami Yoda that a friend made him and he made some for his siblings.

And then Zachary went a little paper mini puppet crazy.

It started with this General Grievous (move over Darth Vader...this guy is my boys fav villian).

Shoe box x-wing plane with fighter.

Complete with cockpit made with a ziplock baggie.

And fighter pilot and droid.

Then there is the Millennium Falcon with Han Solo and Chewy.

And many other paper puppets.

I'm not sure who they all are.

I know there is Darth Maul, Obi Wan, C-3PO, R2-D2, Darth Vader, Darth Sidious, an Ewok, a battle droid (roger roger!) and more.

Zachary made these by drawing the character, then taping the back on and I think they are stuffed lightly with scrap paper.

They did use the Star Wars Encyclopedia book to copy the characters.

I tell you who needs toys when you have ample supply of copy paper, crayons, tape and shoe boxes!

Our Day Off, aka PJ Party

This past Friday the kids were out of school for Veteran's Day.

I knew immediately what we'd do with our day.

I looked forward to it all week.

It was pj day.  All day.

I even wore my matching jammies.

I pushed back the couch in the playroom and let them pile as many blankets, pillows and stuffies in the floor for movie time.

You'd thought I had bought them a pony or something with how happy this made them.

We watched one of my fav movies, Narnia, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

I had to forward through Aslan's scene.

At our very informal lunch time we mostly snacked on chex mix and nachos.

(If you knew how anal I am about my kids eating you'd know how very special this was!)

And we made crafts.

We attempted to make these adorable napkin rings, but some of the kids pooped out of gluing buttons.

They did enjoy making some turkeys.

We simply took some coffee filters, folded them in half and colored them.

I then took 2 extra filters and stuffed them in between the colored one and stapled them together.

Then we glued a clothespin for the turkey body and used wood markers to draw their faces.

Look mommy, we're Kuzco!

Squeeckity, squeeck, squeecken.

(This is one of our fav movies.)

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Don't forget to enter the giveaway for My Memories digital scrapbook software!!

Giveaway ends tomorrow!

Make your own custom printed cards and calendar and a great Giveaway!!

****Contest has ended****

 

Ok guys I've got another great giveaway for you!

My Memories wants to give one of my readers free digital scrapbooking software!

I have been playing with it for a little bit and it's pretty easy to navigate.

I'm not a scrapbooker personally, but I knew a scrapbook software would do lots of other things.

Like above I made my own Christmas card.

Just uploaded my pic and used the software to add the other stuff.

I plan to use this software to make my personalized calendars for gifts this year.

Every year I go to one of those photo sites to make them and they are very expensive and horrible to use their very limited templates.

With as many faces as I need to include for each page and finding just the right pic to fit those templates are a nightmare.

With this software I can create my own.

This took far less time than the traditional method and sites.

Then when I'm done I'll take it down to Staples to get it bound.

Simple.  :)

So to enter to win your free digital scrapbooking software from My Memories you need to do the following:

First, go to MyMemories.com and choose your favorite digital paper pack or layout, then come back here and leave it in a comment with your email so I can get back with you.

If you would like an extra entry you can like them on facebook, or follow them on their blog or twitter.  If you do just come back for an extra comment.

This contest will end in one week, November 16th.

Winner announced that next day, Nov 17th.

ALSO, I have a $10 off coupon to buy your own My Memories Suite Scrapbook software.

With that you get another $10 to use at My Memories store.

All ya need to do is copy and paste this discount code:

STMMMS76986