The Thanksgiving Tree

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Looking for a fun quick craft? The instructions for this felt turkey were very straightforward. I did it all with glue, two staples, and two quick hand stitched spots to avoid having to break out the sewing machine. This little gobbler covers a star on a photo holder tree.

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I was looking for a way to incorporate something daily into our November- kinda like an Advent calendar for Thanksgiving- so each day we write a few things we've thankful for on leaves and slide the leaves into the photo holder spots. Tomorrow we start adding some yellow leaves too! I made a little word file with the leaves so all I have to do it print on colored paper. Email me if you'd like the file, I'm happy to pass it along!

How did this all come about???

I recently stopped by a client's house and noticed her Christmas tree was up. I'd LOVE to have mine up but my hubby has this crazy rule about waiting until Thanksgiving is over. So I quickly said, "I love that you have your Christmas tree up!" She sweetly told me it was actually their Thanksgiving tree and on closer inspection I realized that all the decorations were, in fact, fall-ish! The lights were orange and brown, the glass ornaments were fall colored, and under the tree she had a cute little scarecrow and some pumpkins and a fall leaf garland. It was perfect!!!

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I texted a photo to my husband before I left, but he still wasn't sold. We'd been talking about how part of what makes me want to put up the Christmas decorations early is all the wonderful holiday traditions that make it a month long celebration! We started doing an advent calendar a few years ago and we all love it. Each day we read a little devotional and scriptures together and then open a door in the calendar. Each door holds one little piece of a manger scene- baby Jesus comes on Christmas day! The kids really get into it, even if they have a hard time sitting still for the full devotional and it's great family time. I'm hoping this Thanksgiving tree turns into an equally well loved holiday tradition!

kid-friendly fall card

I did several cards similar to this one for a few friends with kids. I really like the funny little turkey!

more fall cards

...again, playing with the tinted vellum, but this time with my mother-in-law's leaf punches as well! I cut the tree out using a Cricut machine and then made it metallic useing the new Perfect Pearl Pigment Powders that my sister got me for my birthday!

another fall card

A friend gave me some tinted vellum a few weeks ago and I've really been having a lot of fun with it!

Fall Cards

I recently made a bunch of fall cards to send out to friends and family with NJ's 2-year old photo, so I thought I'd start posting photos of them here, even if I am too lazy to write about them!

Productivity

My good friend came over the other day for a scrapbooking date and I had such great productivity that I just had to share. Here are the 4 cards I made while she was here. The best part about it was that our two boys played together while we worked! How great that NJ's getting to the age that I can work while he plays! Of course I wasn't quite as productive as if he'd just slept the whole time, but still- the fact that I got anything done at all amazes me! I suppose I better enjoy it while I can- according to my weekly Baby Center email, I only have 91 days left until baby #2 is here! eak!!!

Sell it or Give it Away??????

It's strange, but it's hard not to just post every card I make for sale on etsy.

When I started selling cards on etsy, I wasn't sure I could charge enough to make it worth while. Making a card takes way too much time and most people would just as soon have a bought card, so how could I ever put a price on one?

Then I had my first sale and the buyer (and every buyer thereafter) mentioned how lovely they thought the card was! I was hooked! It turns out that it's rewarding to give it to someone who appreciates it so much they're willing to pay for it!

My sister was recently at my mom's house and noticed a stash of all the hand made cards we'd given her. My mom's not really the type to keep everything, so it means a lot to me! :) (Mom, don't feel like you have to keep them all forever! I'll understand!) All that in mind, after selling four Mother's Day cards on etsy, (almost as soon as I listed them) I decided that I should make 6 for the moms in my life and hold them in reserve, to give them away (even though I was really tempted to sell them all).

Once I got going on the card making, I really got going and made some birthday and thank you note cards too! I think I made 18 cards this week!!! This is especially crazy to me because I usually really struggle to make more than 2 in one night!

Here's a collage of some of the cards. I'm really enjoying working with fabric, felt, buttons, and ribbon. I think I have my sister to thank for that- she's always encouraging me to put more stuff on each card!
It's so exciting to be on a roll, and it's so hard to get there, but now every other part of life has piled up and is waiting on me! So, I am reluctantly breaking my card making streak and resolving to focus on all that other junk.