Elmer's #CanYouTopThis Challenge- Christmas/Birthday Countdown!

December is a really big deal in our house.  Not only is it Christmas time, but the boy's birthday as well.  This is the first year the boys understand that Christmas (Dec. 25th) & their birthday (Dec. 26th) are right around the corner.  Because of this realization, I am bombarded with questions on a daily basis.  Most of those questions are as follows:

• Is it Christmas time yet?
• Is Santa coming to my house today?
• Is Santa coming tomorrow?
• Is today my birthday?
• Am I 4 now?
• Am I still 3?

Since we have twin boys, we get twice the joy along with two times the questions. Every. Day. All. Day. Long. After a month of questions I decided that I would have to make some kind of Christmas/Birthday countdown in order to save my sanity.  I figured I could pull out the construction paper & Elmer's glue, making a paper chain with a star or something on top.  You know, like the one you made in first grade?  I thought that would be simple enough.  Then I saw Tonya Staab's Can You Top This Challenge.  This provided the perfect opportunity to do something more.  So I decided to take the #Canyoutopthis Challenge.

Supplies:

• 28"x40" Elmer's tri-fold board
• Elmer's Repositionable Glue Stick
• Elmer's Multipurpose Spray Adhesive
• Hot Glue
• Elmer's Construction Paper
• Fabric of choice to cover tri-fold board
• Scrapbook & Card stock of choice
• 24 Thumb Tacks
• Paint of choice (I use Plaid Folk Art)

Somehow between my birthday (I turned 29 again last week), Thanksgiving, tons of Black Friday shopping, & life in general I found the time to create a Christmas/Birthday countdown.  It started with purchasing an Elmers 28"x40" Tri-fold board at Walmart. 

 

We made a quick stop at Joann Fabrics where the boys & I picked out a light blue fabric from the remnant bin.   When we got home the boys & I pulled out my paper trimmer so I could start cutting out 3"x3" black squares.

Next I got out my Cricut so I could save time (and sanity) cutting out circles.  The boys helped me choose some red, green, & white scrapbook/card stock paper.  I cut out 3" circles for the calendar & 2" numbers for the dates.  So now it was looking like this...

 

While my kiddos were sleeping I glued the squares, circles & numbers together using my Elmer's Repositionable Glue Stick.  I LOVE this stuff!  It's the only thing I use on the boy's scrapbooks.  It's great because you can fix or change things if you do not like it (or if you goof up a lot like me).  No worries about permanent glue.

   

I also attached the light blue fabric to the tri-fold board so it could dry overnight.  I used Elmer's Multipurpose Spray Adhesive, which I had on hand, to glue fabric to front of the board.  Then I used some hot glue to attach the fabric along the edges on the back side.

Next was Black Friday shopping... I had to take a break from all the glue fun to go get my shop on...  After catching up on some sleep (we stayed up all night) & finding way too many good deals it was time to grab my templates, the Cricut, & get back to work.  I used some of our Elmer's Construction Paper that we had on hand for the Christmas tree & balloons.  The Cricut cut December out in 4" letters.  I glued everything together again using the repositionable glue sticks, even attaching the shapes & letters to the fabric using the same glue.  Found some Santa hat photos of the boys & added those to the Birthday side of the board (they love seeing themselves).  I painted some thumb tacks red & green so I could easily remove them from the board.  This is the final result:

If you are interested in the Can You Top This Challenge there is still time to enter.  View any of these blogs for entry rules:

• Create Celebrate Explore with Tonya
• Sarah's Deals
• Super Saving Sense with Sarah
• Dealusional
• Confessions of an Overworked Mom
• Mama Buzz

DIY Bird Cage Part 2

I finally finished the bird cage (as you already know if you read the previous post).  It was a fairly simple chore.  Jamie was lucky enough to get to help me.  First we measured out all the ribbons to the correct length.  Each ribbon was layered one on top of the other so it had this look:

Next step was to glue all the ribbons together.  We used hot glue & careful centered each ribbon.  When that was done I added the sign to the ribbon & glued it to the bird cage (again the lucky groom was my assistant).  Once the sign was secure I wrapped a red feather boa around the bottom of the cage & added two red feather hair clips to the top.  It's all done & looks like this...

Glitter & Glue: A DIY Cake (or Cupcake) Topper

After shopping for cake toppers & seeing how ridiculously expensive they are I decided to make my own.  We found some cute, curly, wooden letters at the store I practically live at (Hobby Lobby).  We also found a red, wooden heart.  After some black paint on the letters...

I coated them with glue...  For the first coat I used my fave, Mod Podge!

I coated the letters & heart in red & black glitter... What a mess!  This took a while to dry... Then they looked like this...

 Everything needed two more coats of glitter so I used Elmer's Craft Bond Spray Glue. That stuff is sooo sticky! If you use it be sure to cover your whole work area because you will spray everything in the general area...

When I was all done I used the Mod Podge to glue the 3 pieces together.  I still need to add a dowel, which I will pick up at one of my many future Hobby Lobby trips...  The almost finished project looks like this & the best part is I did it for under $10!!