Monday, December 12

Pinterest Christmas

I have a mostly love, but sometimes hate relationship with Pinterest.  Mostly I love all the super creative, delicious, adorable ideas that come my way.  But sometimes it's a vehicle for making me feel lazy and not creative--I pin a lot of things that never see the light of day.  But man, have I got my Pinterest on for Christmas!  I've made quite a few Christmas crafts (mostly out of felt, strangely) that I'm excited to share.  Also, because I think HTML is so nifty sometimes, I think I may have created little buttons that make little unique pins for each craft, if you are so inclined to pin it.  Fancy, right?

Craft #1:  Scalloped Christmas Tree Skirt
This was so easy.  I bought 1.5 yards of gray wool felt with a 50% off coupon from Joanns's--making this project cost me about $6.  I followed Martha's directions and had the pieces cut out and sewn together in under an hour.  Hints: use a rotary cutter to cut the straight edges.  I'm in love with the contrasting white zig zig stitching holding the pieces together.  It's a bit smaller than I should have made it, but I still love it.






Craft #2:  Advent Calendar
Welllll... this one was not so easy.  It was time consuming.  And made my hands cramp up.  And still is not finished.  But I beyond love it.  I still need to make eight more ornaments, but I love love the ones I have so far.  I'm surprised I actually made it--from stitching all the number to cutting out the tree and making all the little ornaments--I don't think I would have made it if I realized how big of a project it would be.  But I'm glad I did.  Here's my inspiration. I'm a little depressed after I look back at how much awesomer hers is than mine. I kind of envision switching out a few ornaments every year as the boys get bigger and understand more about Christ's birth.  Now that I look at this picture, it's glaringly obvious that my white backing is not at all rectangular.  Yikes.  I'll do a better post on this once I'm actually done (which may be never.)





Craft #3:  Play Christmas Tree
This one took a grand total of about 30 minutes.  My pal Jenae posted about it on her fabulous kid's blog and I thought Finley would love it.  He kind of does--he loves taking the ornaments off, "wrapping" them and saying, "Here you go, Mama!"  But it's cute and will last us for awhile.  And hopefully it will encourage him to keep his paws off my tree.  And for those of you interested--it stayed up nicely using some 3m tape--the white sticky strips you'd use to hang up posters!










Thanks, Pinterest, for filling my house with Christmas cheer. And felt trees.

And one more note about Pinterest.  As much as I love it, I've occasionally wished that there was a way to post "private" pins--so when the guests arrive for Finley's mustache bash they haven't already seen all the decorations.  Or when I bake something for a friend they won't smile at me knowingly and say, "Pinterest, huh?"  The gig is up--all my followers officially know that I don't have many creative ideas all on my own.  And I'm ok with that.


76 comments:

  1. I LOVE your Advent calendar! It is simply amazing!!! Maybe next year I'll get my act together and attempt an Advent calendar like that. :)

    I wish there was a private function too! Especially for gift ideas! :)

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    Replies
    1. you can make secret boards now and only tell the people you want to share how to get into them.

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  2. This is an interesting post because it ties DIRECTLY to two posts I've got in the works for the next ten days. Seriously. Also, how come that's not a rectangle? I swooned at the Christmas tree skirt.

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  3. I agree about secret pins! Especially since it might be weird to your friends (and you) if they see you pinning about major life events that aren't yet in the works... eg pinning a wedding dress before you're engaged or a baby blanket before you're pregnant, etc. Too many awkward questions could ensue!

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    1. I was thinking the same thing about party planning pins and gift ideas! Now Pinterest has what they call "secret boards!" Problem solved :)

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  4. ummm, both amazing.

    i mostly hate pinterest. it's so neat. yet uggg, so much so little time. and also it's a time sucker.

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  5. Rach, the advent calendar is amazing. I'm serious that you need to pitch it to Pottery Barn Kids. Immediately.

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  6. Ive just found this tree and think it is cool, can I just ask how you got it to stay on the wall?

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    Replies
    1. I used 3M tape and it helped up well--until my two year old wanted to pull it off.

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  7. Do you have a template for your tree shape? I like it better than just using a triangle.

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    Replies
    1. I don't--I just kind of freehanded it. :)

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    2. If you're really afraid you'll slaughter it, you could do the shadow trick. Basically make a projector and project a tiny image onto the felt while it's tacked up on the wall, or use a helper to shine it down on the floor from on-high. A bright light + dark room + (optional: funnel-ish thing to funnel light, a box or cone of paper) + small tree shape. The shape will be blurry, but enough that it will still help. If you have access to a transparency sheet or something similar, you can also draw the tree small and use a fat black line.

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    3. Fold newspaper into different size triangles and lay them out how you want them on the felt, trace and cut!

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  8. Love the tree...sooo cute. It is only July but I am making that this weekend!

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  9. I came here from Pinterest for the felt tree, however, I really like your calendar. My grandmother made a similar thing for me long ago. She used Velcro pieces - but over time they peeled off and we were too lazy to glue it back on so the tree is less decorated each year... It didn't have a pocket for each ornament, the ornaments had numbers on them. I really like the button idea because:
    1. It's cuter when an empty space shows (vs. velcro)
    2. Unlikely to break/fall apart.
    3. You can just use regular ornaments! Use small ornaments that fit in the pockets, or you could even just make one big pocket.

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  10. Awesome idea, I share your post on my Christmas Blog, I am sure a lot of young mums will find it handy

    ....http://christmasbyromanticflairoriginal.aussieblogs.com.au/2012/07/27/play-felt-christmas-tree-super-ideas-for-your-toddlers/

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  11. Love this, great activity for the young kids to do while you do the real tree. Thanks for sharing. Pinned!

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  12. I can't make ANYTHING!!! You could sell these on Etsy - I've looked for them there and can't find anything similar. I'd by 3 at least!!! sarahmlennox@yahoo.ca if you'd like to sell some felt trees to me!!!

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    Replies
    1. You are so sweet! I'd love to sell them--but they take so long to make that I don't think I could charge enough to make it work my time!

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  13. Hello! I love your tree, especially as mine was a climbing frame last year! What did you use to make the decorations stick? Also the 3M tape was it the simple double sided stuff?? Sorry just 100% making it this year! :D xXx

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  14. The decorations stick on their own--felt sticks to felt! And the 3m stuff was the things you'd use to hang a poster--they are sticky white strips. DOuble sided tape would work too!

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  15. So how did you hang your felt tree to the wall and have it stay up?

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  16. Where in the world did you get a peice of green felt that big and wide for the Christmas tree
    Just thought...you could use the big tree as an advent calender and number the big decorations.
    It would be fun to have a nativity in felt on the wall too.
    You have inspired me! I have all kinds of ideas coming to mind! :o)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. you can buy polyester felt at joanns up to 72 inches wide.

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  17. I love the felt Christmas tree, I'm going to have to make one for each of my kids this year.

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  18. Where did you get such HUGE green felt for the tree? My local hobby lobby only has small paper sizes of felt. =(

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    Replies
    1. Ordered from here: http://www.joggles.com/

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    2. Went to Hobby Lobby and they sell felt like this also!

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  19. Hi Everyone saying they wish that they could "private pin". That's what the "bookmark" function on your browser is for. It's what I used to use before interest. Sure you don't have the pretty visuals of thumbnails but it is exclusive to you :)

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  20. Hello. Have you ever hear of Gimme Bar... It's basically Pinterest only you can choose whether things are public or private. You can also share with collaborators. I haven't used it that much yet but it may be a good option for you!

    gimmebar.com

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  21. How in the world did you get the felt tree to stay on the wall???

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  22. So I just learned the other day that if you "like" a pin on Pinterest it will place the pin in your "like folder" and no one sees that. It doesn't let you categorize the pins but at least the pins are hidden and you can keep your surprises a surprise :)

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    Replies
    1. If you go to anyone's Pinterest profile, you can view their likes. It's not displayed in their home page, but it's not private.

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    2. If you go to anyone's Pinterest profile, you can view their likes. It's not displayed in their home page, but it's not private.

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  23. I agree on the private pins!! I'd love to pin ideas to make for my daughter but she follows my pins. :S

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  24. Do they sell Felt pieces that large or did you use several green pieces!

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  25. New follower! Love the xmas tree idea!

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  26. Lovee the Christmas play tree! Going to share on Facebook @AZNannies

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  27. Favorite cookie: molasses crinkle!

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  28. Making a tree this weekend. What is you wall color that the tree is on? Need to paint and love the color.

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  29. Just a heads up, my pinterest says they are working on secret pins! up to 3 secret boards that only you and people you invite can see. your wish has been granted! :D

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  30. Such and Awesome Giveaway! Can't wait to make the felt tree for my 16 month old.

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  31. Pinterest is now starting secret boards, so they have listened to you for private boards!

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  32. Do we leave the comment here? My favorite cookie is good old Chocolate Chip :o)

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  33. My favorite cookie is chocolate chip : )

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  34. On your felt tree the little on is decorating how do u get the ordiments to stick to the tree it's self?

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  35. My favorite cookie is Oatmeal Raisin!!

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  36. Favorite Cookie is Chocolate chip.. wish I had time to make them more often

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  37. My favorite cookie is snickerdoodle.

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  38. Dont ya love how pinterest has 'secret boards' now :-)

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    Replies
    1. Yes! I was just going to say, "Yay for secret boards now!"

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  39. Love your felt tree. I made one yesterday and it was lots of fun. Since I'm not very crafty it took me three hours and the tree shape isn't exactly symmetrical but it turned out great. My kid loves it and I had a blast making it!

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  40. Showing our tree on my blog rasingameliarose, thank you for your creative idea (even if it was pinterest inspired, as are all of mine!)

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  41. Love the felt tree. I want to do one in our classroom, where do you get big pieces of felt though? All we have at school are paper sized pieces, my coteacher tried to make one out of the big sheets, but it looks kind of ghetto...

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  42. Someone mentioned above... but Pinterest is now allowing three private boards per account. Go check it out! :)

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  43. The 3M tape didn't work well at all. It stuck to the wall, but not very well to the felt. My daughter barely touched it and it fell down. Any other ideas of what to use? Also what did you use to embellish the decorations? Did you use a special glue or are those all just felt to felt as well?

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    Replies
    1. Try thumbtacks? Just make sure the kiddos don't pull them out! I just hot glued the pieces together.

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  44. HI! I just post your felt christmas tree in my blog: http://nuncaestarderecicladosconamor.blogspot.com.ar/2012/12/arbolitos-de-navidad-originales-que-vi.html (is in spanish, but is a blog about recycling and DIY and this post is about alternative and originals christmas trees)
    Of course I provided a link to your site.
    Regards from Buenos Aires, Argentina!
    and Happy Holidays!!

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  45. Hi! I also just posted your felt Christmas tree in my blog: http://ricehouse3.blogspot.com/2013/01/52-weeks-of-pinterest-week-1.html
    Thanks for the GREAT ideas! :)

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  46. The felt christmas tree is such a fantastic idea to try and keep the littles away from the real tree.

    Thanks for sharing.

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  47. How big are the felt tree and your advent calendar? I would love to make them but I am not sure how large to cut the trees. Thanks

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  48. I'm sure you know this by now, and maybe they didn't do this last year, but you can make "secret" boards now on Pinterest. Saw the felt tree there! Making one this weekend!

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  49. I just came across your blog through Pinterest. I like your tree activity for children. Thanks for sharing.

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  50. Love the felt tree for the children. I'm making one this weekend. I'm just wondering what you used to attach it to the wall?
    Thanks

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  51. I didn't like the idea of using the double sided tape and use a stapler instead. Worked great! We hid most of the staples with the garland you can put on a regular tree. Plus, the smaller holes compared to tacks won't be too bad a problem on my wall after Christmas. We decorated the "presents" under the tree with real bows we put on regular gifts to give it a little 3D touch. Also, "decorated" the ornaments for the tree with glitter glue for some glitz. Our 3 yr old daughter loves it and our 6 yr old grandson even does something with it from time to time!

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  52. Forgot to say that I bought the felt from my local fabric store where they sell it from a bolt by the yard.

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    ReplyDelete

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