Show Off Your Stuff Party # 187

Welcome to our Show off Your Stuff Party!  

Every week we come together to show off our stuff!

 It is time to party!

Here is the run down:

1. Pay attention! There are 4 categories to link up:

Crafts and Sewing

DIY and Home Decor

Recipes

Inspirational/Creative Writing

pick one and go with it!

{If you pick the wrong one... you can delete your own and add it to the right one! :) }

2. Add a link to your specific post, not the main page of your blog.

3. Please do not link up to something that you are just trying to sell, other link-up parties or your pinterest page.

4. Link to this party from your post so everyone can get in on the fun. You can just grab my button!

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A Fun Christmas Tradition.

Here a fun Christmas Morning tradition from my childhood.

Growing up we did gift opening a bit different than most houses! Most people would wake up and find all the gifts under the tree on Christmas morning. Not in our house. There would be NO gifts under the tree. Instead there would be a note with instructions on how to wake up our parents to find out where our gifts were.

Usually the instructions included:

1. We must wait until 7 AM to wake them up.

2. Start the coffee (when we were a bit older)

3. Sing a Christmas carol all together to wake them up.

Once my parents were awake. They informed us that our presents were hidden around the house. They would tell each child how many gifts they each had to find. The rule was you could ONLY take the gift from the hiding place that had your name on it and you could only help someone else if the wanted the help. We would set off around the house looking for our gifts and piled them up in the living room.

When we were younger the gifts would be pretty easy to find and just on the main level of the house. As we got older, the hiding places got harder, and they could be on ALL levels of the house.

My Dad would be totally into finding the best and hardest hiding places. Some years his hiding places were so good that we would not be able to find all our gifts. Some gifts would remain hidden until spring when we would would accidentally find it!

My sibling and I would have a blast running around the house trying to find our gifts, trying to be the first to finish our pile!

I know that it sounds like we got Christmas mixed up with Easter, but we loved it!  It put some adventure and fun in to the Christmas morning.

Here are some tips to help you start this fun tradition:
1. Clearly mark WHO the gift is for when wrapping them. Some years my parents would just have our names on them, other years they would wrap each kids gifts in a different wrapping paper.

2. Make sure that every one has about the same amount of gifts. It will not be fun if kid 1 is looking for 3 gifts and kid 2 is looking for 10 gifts. Kids can count at very young ages! And we were always looking to see if things were fair.

3. Start out hiding the gifts in easy places. The point is to have the kids find them. : )

4. Remember where you hid them. You could make a little map if you need too. This will cut down on the "lost" gifts!

5. If kids are having a hard time finding the gifts you could help by using "hot" and "cold"  to give them hints.

Christmas TP!

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™ and Cottonelle, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #CottonelleHoliday  http://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO.

Everything at our house gets into the Holiday spirit! Even the Toilet Paper!

There is nothing worst then being stranded in the bathroom with no toilet paper!  Thank goodness my 5 year old can now go and get me a roll when I need to!  With a 5 year old and a 3 year old... we go through A LOT of TP!  They think they need the whole roll to wipe their booty!  And who do you think ALWAYS has to change the roll?  Yep - me!  

And the holidays means hosting parties and having guest and you don't want them to be left on the toilet with no toilet paper!  That is where Cottonelle comes in... with their triple roll, it last longer, which means you need to change the roll less!    I went to Target to buy my 12 pack so I would be ready for the holidays!  

I like to leave a few rolls on the back of the toilet... and since it is Christmas time they got a holiday make over!   

Here is how you make them:

First for the bands:

1. You will need: Felt, scissors, elastic,  glue gun, sewing machine, and Toilet paper.

2. Cut out a felt strip that is 2' X 12', and a piece of elastic that is 5"

3. Sew the elastic to the felt strip to make a circle.

Now you can decorate them:

Make some holly and hot glue it on one of the bands.  

To make an easy flower:

1. Cut a piece of felt that is 12" X 4" and put a line of hot glue across the bottom.

2. fold in half and cut slits across.

3. Put another short line of hot glue on the bottom.

4. Roll the flower over the hot glue.  repeat all the way down the flower.

5-6. Hot glue the flower to one of your bands.

To make the bow:

1. you will need a long strip and a short strip.  My long strip was about 12" X 3" and the short one is 1.5" X 3" (but you ca experiment with the size to see what you like as the bow.) 

2. On the longer strip- fold the two sides to the middle and hot glue.

3. Hot glue the middle together to make the bow shape.

4. wrap the short strip around and hot glue in the back.

5. Hot glue to one of your bands.

Snowman:

The snowman is so easy!  Just use some sharpies to draw a snowman face and buttons on the TP and stack them up! 

Now your toilet paper is so festive and ready for when you run out! 

Use THIS TARGET COUPON to buy a Cottonelle Triple Roll 12 pack or larger and get a FREE box of Kleenex - while supplies last! (RevTrax system will only let you click on this coupon twice  per IP address so do not click on it till you are ready to print please. )

Easy DIY Felt Silverware holders for a holiday place setting (12 Months of Martha)

For this months of 12 months of Martha post I am making some cute felt pockets to hold silverware.  We don't do fancy too often at our house (hello- 3 kids under the age of 5!)  but the holidays are just the time to add some flare! 

They are easy... here is how

1. Supplies Martha Stewart Holiday Icon Stencils, Martha Stewart craft paint, Dabbers, and felt.

2. Cut your felt so that it is 9" X 4.5".

3. fold in half so that it makes 4.5" X 4.5" square and sew up the 2 sides.

4. Your choice you can leave the raw edges or flip it right side out.

5. place a piece of paper inside the pocket so that the paint doesn't seep through.  Place your stencil on the pocket and use the dabber to dab the paint on.

6. Let dry.

And - your done... so easy right!  

Here are the Reindeer and Christmas tree ones too:

The great thing about this stencil set is that it covers all the holidays so you can make these silverware holders for any holiday - a heart for Valentines day, fireworks for the 4th of July...

Check out more fun projects on the 12 Month of Martha Pinterest board!

***Disclosure: I was supplied with the Martha Stewart craft supplies but my opinions are always honest!***

Tulle Twist Christmas Trees Tutorial

Here is a quick easy craft you can still fit in for Christmas Decor! 

Tulle Twist Christmas Trees

Here is what you will need: Styrofoam Trees Tulle in 3 colors Hot Glue gun with hot glue Ribbon {not pictured}    1. Cut your tulle into 3 inches wide strips.  My Strips were about 19 inches long for the tall tree. (I cut them in half for the smaller tree)  Fold your strips a couple of times.

  2. Put a dab hot glue on the bottom and glue and glue the end of the tulle to it.  Twist it around your tree, up to the top and hot glue it to the top, leave a little tulle sticking out at the top.

3. Repeat with your two other colors.  I used red, green and white.  I also twisted some red and white ribbon about the tree to give it some added detail and to help hold the tulle in place.

I love how these trees turned out!