The Ballard Bunch

When the home that my husband's great grandmother raised her family in

was about to be torn down, a few of us were able to

snag up a few items for our personal sentiment.

I happened to end up with one of these amazing wooden boxes

found in the back of the property.  It has turned into one of my favorite things in my home

and I find myself using it all of the time to display holiday items and everyday treasures.

Christmastime warranted some new decor for my beloved box

and after some serious Pinterest browsing, I had a plan.

Supplies:

Scrapbook Paper (your choice)

Scrapbook Embellishments

(your choice - be creative, check your local dollar store for different items)

Hot Glue Gun

Wooden Skewers

Floral Foam Blocks

Moss ( or another covering - your choice)

If you're like me, you probably had most of this stuff at home!

And the items I didn't have, I was able to snatch up for super cheap.

There is no rhyme or reason to my exact display,

but I will give you instructions on how to make the paper

accordion flowers and the paper trees - the rest is up to you!

Paper Trees

I thought about attempting a step-by-step tutorial of these,

but why reinvent the wheel?  Krokotak has a flawlessly executed tutorial

on their blog - and posting a link is way easier

than doing the work, right?

{click on blog name above for direct link to the tutorial}

Paper Accordion Flowers

These, on the other hand, I want to give specific

instruction - only because I have tried other tutorials and kind of

pieced together the best way I know of how to make them.  

1) Cut 3-5 strips of paper (the toppers for my trees are made

from 1 inch strips, the larger at the bottom are from 2.5 inch strips).

Depending on the length of your paper, you may only

need 2-3 - the more paper, the tighter the folds will

end up on your finished product.

2) Fold each piece into accordion strips (this can take some time)

and hot glue the end of one strip the the beginning of the next.

3) After you have glued all of your accordion pieces into one large strip,

hot glue the two loose ends together to make a circle.

Please note, as you are gluing pieces together, make sure that your paper

maintains it's accordion pattern - you may have to

overlap pieces at the end to keep the folding continuous.

4) Once you have a full circle complete, you are going to gently push

one end of the circle inward to make the flower shape.

5) Using scrap pieces of paper punch {or cut} out a small circle to use as reinforcement.  

6) Add a liberal amount of hot glue to the small circle cut out

and place it on the back side of the completed accordion flower to keep it's shape.

7) Once the glue is dry, you can start with the fun stuff - embellishing!

Once you have the trees and accordion flowers complete,

glue a wooden skewer onto each one,

place your foam blocks in your container and go crazy arranging it all.

Just for the record:  I am not bored.  

I am constantly doing laundry and washing dishes, mopping floors and wiping butts.  

I clean mirrors and windows more than should be legally allowed.  I sit with each of my children after school and help with homework, we eat dinner together every night (almost always a meal that I have prepared at home) and we read at least 20 minutes before bed.  

I make lunches, volunteer in classrooms, take the car for repairs, hold church callings, and run a part time business.  

I do all the grocery shopping, birthday shopping, Christmas shopping.  

I pay the bills and balance the checkbook.

I don’t always get a shower or a sit-down lunch.

I can’t remember the last time I went shopping for me.

I pick up, drop off, call ahead and plan. 

I am not bored, anything but.

Exhausted?  Sure, but I will continue to celebrate ‘silly’ traditions

with my family, because that’s what we do.  And we all love it.

I don’t mind a late night here and there to place green food coloring in the toilet and milk jug and leaving a small bag or ‘better luck next time’ treats after spending the evening with my children making a leprechaun trap that they are convinced will work this year (it never does).  I love waiting for the quiet sounds of slumber downstairs every night in December so my husband and I can think of another fun (and free!) way our elf can surprise the kids in the mornings leading up to Christmas.  And even more, I love hearing them remind each other to make good choices because their elf Kit Kat is watching.  I am as anxious for birthdays as my kids are and secretly love the sounds of early morning voices unable to wait any longer.  The magic that they see reminds me, even if it’s just for a short amount of time, that there is good in this crazy, scary, chaotic world we live in - good that they can always find in our home.

Is our world overly materialistic?  Absolutely.  I think we go way overboard with lavish gifts and money spent on children who will outgrow/break/tear/loose items in a shorter amount of time than I could have ever imagined pre-motherhood.  But giving your children a little something to look forward to, giving them traditions and memories that last much longer than their childhood will, seems alright to me.  And if you don’t maintain the same traditions in your family, that seems alright to me, too.

What I do mind, however, is the judgment from other moms.  How about instead of being upset that other parents do it differently than we do (don’t even get me started on how much people pay for teeth or jeans these days), we teach our kids that traditions are family specific.  How about we all teach our kids to quit asking each other ’what did you get for Christmas?’ and instead work on being kinder to each other.  How about we stop with the mom-bashing and start showing our kids how to value their own traditions and quit worrying about what others do.

I will not apologize for being fun.

Someday my house will be quiet, clean and leprechaun-free.

That’s when I think the boredom will set in.

Cheap and Easy!

{the snowflake, people}

All you need is:

package of jumbo craft sticks (found mine at Robert's)

small wooden discs (also found at Robert's)

white craft paint (you could spray, too)

a hot glue gun (have you gotten one yet?)

glitter (any color you choose)

Using hot glue put arrange craft sticks

following my pattern (or make your own!).

Tip:  The angles @ the center

(underneath the big disc)

should all be 60 degrees.

Once dry, paint with white glue.

While that's drying, paint your discs and immediately add glitter

(they'll stick to the wet paint).

Adhere painted and glittered discs with hot glue.

That's it.

You're done.

Really.

Inspiration found here.

{making mom late for church, or course}

So our Valentine's Day Craft Exchange

was such a success (love my crafts!)

that I'm putting together another for Easter.

Same as before: create a home decor craft,

make enough for each person to have one,

swap with everyone and leave with a great variety!

And this is the first of many projects

I have in mind before the 14th.

So I failed.

Although I had every intention,

there was no ornament exchange

organized at Christmas.

I wanted to. 

And I know there were those of you that did, too.

But never fear, Valentine's Day is drawing near.

So...why don't we do a Valentine's Day craft exchange?

We find 10 {maybe more?}

fabulously crafty and lovely ladies.

Each of them make some kind of

Valentine's Day home craft

and mail {or hand deliver}

one to each of the other ladies playing.

- mass production of crafty goodness

- mailing of packages to new {maybe old} friends

- receiving packages on your doorstep {always exciting}

- a home full of totally awesome Valentine's decor

And if we rellly like it,

Directions:

Arrange your scrapbook paper in the order you'd like it to be on the star.  For my spiderweb star I used the same paper throughout, but my year-round star {the one that hangs when I don't have a holidar star to display} is made of different patterns.  You can use as many as you'd like!

I suggest using a piece of paper bag to create a pattern of the shape for your star planes.  Keep in mind, each star tip has two planes - they face eachother to make one point.  So, if you're mixing papers, be sure you cut the pieces of paper in the right direction. 

Making the patterns is simple!  Just place your paper bag paper over the star and press into the creases.  Once you have a good idea of where to cut, simply use scissors and make your pattern piece.  I suggest making the pattern pieces just a tad smaller than the actual piece on the metal star so you don't have any overlap.  I tend to like to see a little bit of the metal star between each piece.  But, only a suggestion - it's all up to your personal taste!

Once you have all of your paper pieces cut, it's time to modge podge!  The easiest way is to work one strip at a time and then to work your way around the star one piece at a time.  Don't be afraid of the modge podge, either.  Cake it on, place your paper and smooth out any bumps.  You may have to watch the pieces and smooth them out as they dry, but the wetter the modge podge surface, the less bumps because it will all dry cohesively. 

After letting the paper pieces dry onto your star a bit, cover the entire star with one more layer of modge podge to seal the paper in.  At this point, if you want to add some glitter {like I did}, sprinkle it on while the top layer of modge podge is dry.  Once everything is dry, feel free to tie on some decorative ribbons, trim or tulle to finish the look.

And there you have it!