Christmas Garland/Banner

All the ladies I read in "Blogville" are such an inspiration to me!  The banners and garlands are so neat and the directions always look doable, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  So...I've been making banners since I did a very basic one for Malia's shower here and one I did for my nativity scene here and they have gotten progressively fancier and more complicated.  Here's one I did last week to hang over our fireplace.

I used some old wrapping paper to fan fold into circles. I then glued letters, snowflakes, and holly onto the circles that I'd cut out with my Cricut.  Man I love that thing!!

The most work came when I had to fan fold the wrapping paper for each circle!

I am happy with how it turned out!

The last thing I did before stringing them up on some jute was to add a few buttons here and there.

Hanukkah 2010

We were invited to celebrate Hanukkah last weekend with my SIL's family.  What a wonderful time we all had.  Great food, super company, and the different traditions we observed were very special.  Thanks, Harriet, for a special evening!

Nativity Scene Redux

I decided that the nativity on the coffee table was just not a good idea so I made myself a banner to go along with it and put it in the dining room.

Before:

After:

I cut the tags on my cricut and glued the letters down after using a little stain on the edges.  Hung everything up on some twine.  My daughter (Punky Poo) says my "t" is backwards and I guess she's right but I don't think I'll change it.  Lazy I guess.  ha!

Nativity Scene

     So this morning I finished putting away all the Thanksgiving/Fall/Autumn decorations and began to get out my Christmas stuff.  Several months ago I purchased this wonderful manger scene here on Etsy.  She isn't showing the set at this time, but maybe you could ask her to make you one.  At one time she was offering the patterns for free, too.  I love it so much but it falls over with just the slightest bump so I got my craft on and got to work.

     Here are the cast of characters.  Large white server, glue gun, wooden manger set, crinkled up shredded paper.

      Glued everything in place (not the paper) and I think it looks good!

      Then added a little more shred and ...  voila!