Christmas Cleanout

In life my husband and I have been truly blessed.  We have

3 beautiful, healthy children,

a house in a lovely community and wonderful friends and family.  So throughout the year I like to go through what we have and try to donate what we have outgrown, don't use or just don't need to those less fortunate. 
So today was the first day of what I refer to as "Christmas Cleanout".

Here is my progress thus far..

1 garbage bag

2 boxes of books

3 bags of donation toys

And of course one clean bedroom

 and one organized bookcase!

Oh yeah.. and I also do this because every year this big guy in a red suit stops by my house and dumps all this STUFF under my tree

 and I have nowhere to put it ALL!

Love,

Pinkaptoamus

Believe Sign

For Christmas I TRY to make handmade gifts for my family.  Sometimes this is HARD.  It is hard to come up with something different every year and it is hard to find the TIME to make the gifts.  Here is my first handmade gift for this year.. a Believe sign for my Mommy.. so Mom if you are reading this.. step away from your computer.. NOW!

Ok .. if you are NOT my Mom.. here it is!

Want to make one?  It was super easy and fun!

Here is what you need:

Scrapbooking Stickers

Acrylic paint

Glue

Wood Letters

A few side notes on this project:

I was lucky enough to score my letters at the dollar store so total cost $7.. you can get them at Michaels.. but they are $3 per letter.

The scrapbook stickers are from a card making kit.  The cool thing about using them is that they were on sale for $6 and I only used less than 1 sheet of stickers for the project.  I have enough leftover to make a second sign, some cards and maybe some other cool stuff!

Now onto the tutorial!

Start by painting the letters.

Mine are red on the bottom and white on top.  Cute shoes too!

Next add your stickers.. I glued mine down for longevity!

Once I had them.. I wasn't sure how to display them.. so I went to the basement and found some leftover wood.

I cut it to the right size and then painted it blue with a little white distressing.

Last I mounted the letters to the wood and added a little glitter.. cause a girl can never have too much sparkle in her life!

Here's some close up shots so you can see all the little details!

Hope my Mommy Loves it!

Oh.. yeah and if you couldn't tell by the pictures.. this thing is HUGE.. probably 2 feet across!

I am sharing with

Love,

Pinkapotamus

Pink Hippo Party #59

Happy Monday Pink Hippos!  I'm sure that everyone is crazy busy with all of the Christmas and holiday activities, celebrations, shopping  and decorating!  I can't wait to see what you have been up to!

Last week we gutted our bathroom.. and this week we have a tile floor and half of one wall done!  Yay for Mr. Pinkapotamus!

This week's most clicked linked was from Kimberly at http://bktribe.blogspot.com/  who shared her family's tradition of creating Christmas gifts together

 and of course some of the gifts they created!

  Can I be adopted?

So now let's get this party started!

Love,

Pinkapotamus

Projects of Christmas Past

Here are some of the fun projects that I shared last year.. for those of you who forgot.. (cause I know I do) and for my new friends who haven't seen them!

Scrapbook Picture Frames

These were a great way to use pictures from past Christmases and great Grandparent gifts!

Holiday Door Bling

A fun way to ease sibling rivalry.. yes there was one for each of them!

Salt Dough Ornaments

An afternoon of baking, rolling and painting to create these fun and simple ornaments!

Christmas Card Paper Bag Album

This was made using all of my cards and some special things like the kids letters from Santa and their school pictures.   And because it has pockets.. I saved the cards and have the addresses for this year!

And last.. but not least my favorite Christmas project from last year

Snowman Countdown

He's still on the mantle.. counting us down!

17 more days til Christmas.. are you ready?

I am sharing with

Love,

Pinkapotamus

Waterless Photo Snow Globe

Michaels had this great waterless snow globe on their site and while I was there yesterday I tried to pick up some of the snowglobes.. but wah wah wahhhhh.. they were of course sold out!

But it did get my little brain a thinking that I could probably make my own.. so here is what I came up with!

It all started with this little old olive jar that I was saving for some unknown project.

So if you want to make your own .. here is your tutorial!

Materials

Clear jar

plastic beads

wood

pictures

glue

paint

snowflakes

glitter ribbon

scrapbook paper

styrofoam ball

I started by cutting my ball in half so that it had a flat surface and cut a slice in the middle so that it would hold the wood piece.

Then I glued a piece of scrapbook paper to the bottom of my jar lid.

Next I painted the ouside edges of my wood.

Then I glued scrapbook paper and my picutre on the wood. 

And of course I glittered all around the picture.

Then I added some snowflake embellishments.

Oh and did I mention that I made it double sided?

I filled the jar with the crystal beads and somemore snowflakes and then I placed the lid on top. 

Flip and enjoy!

And then turn it around.. and enjoy it some more!

This was a great project,.. easy, fun and of course it was made with stuff I already had.. so technically FREE!

And p.s. I like mine better than the Michaels' version .. 'cause it's BIGGER!

I am sharing with

Love,

Pinkapotamus