Friday, December 27, 2013

Wreath project

My daughter and son-in-law were given a large 'N' (first letter of their last name) and wanted to do something with it. I suggested hanging it above their fireplace    The previous owners had put two good sized hooks in the wall but the N was not wide enough for those so I started looking for ideas. 
The idea my daughter liked was a wreath with the N in the center and decorated for the season.  So I hit up Michael's after Christmas sale and found a 3 foot wreath 50% off. 
I had some snowflake wired ribbon left over from some project years ago and just enough to make a nice bow 

The N is silver/chrome and the ribbon had white, turquoise and silver so thought that would go well 
I then cut out snowflakes with my Big Shot and larger ones by tracing around a cookie cutter that I have and planned to layer them to add to the wreath. I thought they needed some mid-sized piece between them so used a flower punch that was 6 sided. I tried both turquoise and silver for the mid-sized piece and let my daughter choose which she wanted. 
Here they are all scattered on my dining room table. I used some stickles glitter on the largest pieces. 
Here are some of the layered snowflakes on the wreath. 

Here is the finished wreath above their fireplace. We all liked it and I'll help her change out the ribbon and snowflakes in the spring. My granddaughter's first birthday is in early April. Maybe we'll add some die cut balloons for her party. 

Christmas crafts

AllI've done a couple unexpected Christmas crafts and it's only Dec 2!  
The first was a new wreath for our porch. The old one had the red styrofoam berries on it and several years ago the birds had tried to eat then exposing the white styrofoam centers. It was looking pretty bad. 
And last year or the year before the lights on it stopped working. So while us was shopping on Dec 1 I found a plain lit wreath for under $10 and brought it home to decorate. 
All I had to do was add some ribbon. This is a candy stripe ribbon I had. I think it turned out cute. Simple but festive 

I was given the task for the second craft by my boss. This year they are asking each dept in the hospital and medical group to create an ornament inspired by the 'healing arts' to help us focus on the positive. I was automatically delegated. 
They gave us a flat acrylic disc and we could use whatever supplies we liked. 

Here is what I came up with. I work in Information Services and wanted something that was related to our dept. I cut it in pieces and taped the two ends together then covered my tape with the banner. 

And since the disc was clear the adhesive showed through on the back so I had to decorate it too 

I think it turned out pretty cute. We will all gather in the lobby next Monday and hang the ornaments on a tree. 

Monday, December 2, 2013

Happy anniversary to us!

Our church has a cake and pinch reception for those couples hitting milestone anniversaries. Since we had our 25th on 11/26, our reception was 11/24. 
Here we are with the cake.  Tom got to bring home about half of that cake (white) and a couple pieces of a second smaller cake (chocolate).  
Tom's brother, Jeff, and his parents joined us for the celebration. And of course our two daughters, son-in-law and granddaughter.  Adelyn is trying to get my earring :-) 

On our actual anniversary, we went to see Catching Fire.  I loved it -would go again if I get a chance.