Christmas with Santa Breakfast

The PTO sponsored a breakfast with Santa this December.  We had pancakes, sausage, and lots of different drinks to choose from.  The theme of this year's breakfast was "Twas the night before Christmas".  Santa gave each child a "Twas the Night Before Christmas" book.  We had a picture spot set up with Santa and Mrs. Claus so the parents could take pictures and the kids could sit on Santa's lap.  We had an ornament station where we made Mouse ornaments out of pine cones and felt.  We also set up  a reindeer food station where Mrs. Claus helped the children make up food food the reindeers for the Night before christmas.  We decorated all the tables in the gymnasium to look like beds complete with headboards, pillows, teddy bears, and sheets out of tablecloths.  The kids had a really great time and the breakfast turned out great. 

PTO Christmas Party - Breakfast with Santa

Here are some more details from the Candyland Christmas Party we had for the students.

Candy Cane Lane: We collected 2 liter bottles, wrapping paper rolls, and quilt batting for the Christmas party for the school's Breakfast with Santa. We cut the bottom of the 2 liter bottles off to use for anchors for the wrapping paper rolls to create Candy Cane Lane. The 2 liter bottles were filled with sand and paper and then we stuck in the "wrapped" recycled paper rolls to create the peppermint sticks.

Chocolate Woods: In the middle of the candyland board we created a chocolate woods scene. This consisted of Candy boxes that we obtained from Sam's Club, large hershey kisses, M&M's, tulle, tissue paper, and some wooden trees. The large hershey kisses were made from the top of the 2 liter bottles that we cut off to make the base of the candy cane lane anchors. The tops of the 2 liters were wrapped in aluminum foil to make them look like hershey kisses. The M&M's were made from foam cut in circles with painted on M's. Someone thought it was a chocolate train when they looked at it. That would have been really cute. I wish I would have thought of it.

Fireplace: The fireplace was made out of boxes, brown lunch bags, mailing tubes, wrapping paper, and tissue paper. The brick pattern was made from brown lunch bags overlapping. The main fireplace was made from a flat screen TV box. An opening was cut out and filled with black paper to make it look like the inside of a fireplace. Mailing tubes were covered in wrapping paper that looked like wood and bundled together with tulle and tissue paper to look like a fire. The mantle was made by wrapping the foam from the TV box with paper and placing it on top. Then finally the stocking were hung to give it a little something extra.

Milk and Cookie Mountain: We initially collected Milk Jugs to create an igloo of some kind. When we didn't have enough we came up with this idea. We would create giant cookies and make a mountain out of the milk jugs. The cookies were created using deli cookie tray lid and tray and cardboard cake rounds.

I plan to post more details about the party soon. I hope you are enjoying the pics as much as we enjoyed creating this candyland(mostly out of recycled items).

Candyland PTO Christmas Party

For our breakfast with Santa this year we decided to go with the candyland theme. This theme can be pulled off using mostly recycled items which is great for the PTO budget. About a month ahead of time we asked for donations of boxes, 2 liter bottles, wrapping paper rolls, toilet paper rolls, lids, egg cartons, cellophane, milk jugs, wrapping paper. We had a lot of fun coming with ideas for these items. We had several activities during the Breakfast with Santa to create a fun atmosphere and keep the kids busy. We created a candyland board on the floor in the gymnasium with wrapping paper and scrapbook 12X12 papers so we could have a donut walk during the breakfast. We bought several dozen donuts at krispy kreme and played christmas music. We picked a number out of a hat to see which child landed on the square in order to win a donut. We also had Santa there so anyone could get pictures with their child and Santa. We had a write a letter to Santa station as well complete with a santa mailbox created out of donated boxes. Around the candyland board we created several stations for the kids to look at. We had a gingerbread house made from boxes, a box replica of the elementary school decorated with christmas theme, and many other decorations sprinkled throughout the gymnasium. Overall it was a success and we had a really good turnout. I will post more pictures of the event soon.

Workgroup Gift

My husband and I work at a utility company and most of the guys and gals we work with drive company vehicles and are out in rural areas frequently. I bought a 24 pack of Toilet paper and wrapped them festively for a quick little "gag" gift this year. They got a kick out of it. The little tag says "Keep in truck in case of Emergency". Sometimes it's the thought that counts and not the gift....or at least I hope so in this case.

Burlap Christmas Ornament

I created these Burlap tree ornaments for a swap I was in. I first sewed on lots of different ric racs on the burlap and then cut them into tree shapes. Then I stuck on a hanger and a cinnamon stick for the trunk. Very fast, easy and cute. This would make a great gift tie on as well.

Christmas Card Display - Shutters

I found some shutters in my craft room and dusted them off to use for my christmas card display this year. Very cute and easy. I really love how it looks, how about you?

School Snack - Snowman poop

Here is another quick and cheap standby for a school snack. I found this great little poem. It's not the typical poem that most people use but it's really cute for first graders.

School Snack - Snowman on a stick

I created this school snack for Natalie's class for Winter. Here's what you need to make your own:

wooden skewers

large marshmallows

food icing writers

orange tic tac

hershey kiss

fruit rollup

Here's what you do:

place 3 marshmallows on stick and top off with hershey kiss

write on face and buttons onto marshmallows

cut fruit rollup into strips before removing from plastic

stretch out the fruit rollup a little

wrap around 1st and 2nd marshmallow

make hole with toothpick and place tic tac for nose

bag up with baggie

The teacher told me the kids loved these. I would love to see your versions if you make some.

Now hop on over to Todays creative blog by clicking link below to see other fabulous projects.

Chalkcloth Gift Tags

Turns out chalkcloth gift tags are very easy to make. All you have to do is buy some chalkcloth, some double fold binding tape and some eyelets. Cut the chalkcloth into a rectangular shape. Sew on the binding tape on both of the short sides. Cut to fit. Then sew the binding on the long sides. If you doing a bunch of them at one time just daisy chain them through with the binding tape. Punch a hole into one corner of the chalkcloth with the top of a pen. Then hammer the eyelet in. Thread a ribbon through and you have chalkcloth gift tags. Reusable and very cute. I will be using these for Natalie's teachers this year for their Christmas Gifts. Try it you'll like it :)

Felt Snowman Ornament/Gift Tag Tutorial

I didn't want to be the only one without a tutorial on their blog so I put this one together last night. It's my first tutorial so be gentle :).

Step 1 - Gather your materials. You will need one piece of white felt and small piece of orange felt, ribbons, buttons, scissors, and a round object to make a circle. Mine is about 4 to 5 in in diameter but you can play around with the sizes.

Step 2: Fold the felt so you can make two circles at once and draw a circle using your round object.

Step 3: Cut out Circles. Cut out nose shape from orange felt. Cut 10 pieces of various ribbons about 4 inches in length. I like to use 2 of each type of ribbon but you could use all the same ribbon if you would like. He's your snowman make him however you want :).

Step 4: Play around with nose placement and draw different types of mouths to see which one you like best.

Step 5: Take one piece of white circle and sew on button eyes. You can refer to my soon to be tutorial on how to sew on buttons with your machine or sew them on by hand at this point.

Step 6: Sew on carrot nose and sew over mouth that you drew.

Step 7: Stack 2 pieces of ribbon between the finished face circle and a blank white circle. Pin in place. Do this however many times you like. I like to do 5 sets of 2 ribbons. You will tie these two pieces together later on.

Step 8: Sew around using 1/4 inch seam allowance. Removiing pins as you go.

Step 9: Tie ribbons to form hair for your snowman.

Step 10: Enjoy! At this point you could place a wire in between middle set of ribbons to hang or place on package or bag. And don't forget, HAVE FUN!

Christmas Mice - Preschool Christmas Party

Thought I should give some instructions on the Mice posted earlier. We took these Christmas Mice to the preschool for the christmas party. They turned out really cute and the kids had a great time with them. They were chasing each other with them and talking to them. It was a lot of fun. To make these you simply need cherries with stems, chocolate for dipping, hershey kisses, oreo double stuff cookies, slivered almonds, and red glaze icing. You drain the cherries and remove as much excess liquid as possible, dip them in melted chocolate and place on half of an oreo. then you place 2 slivered almonds in between the hershey kiss and the cherry, draw on eyes with the red icing and there you have a cute little edible mouse. And it's fun to chase people with. Note**The one pictured apparently lost an ear!

Sewing Class: Potential Christmas Presents

I went to sewing class tonight to learn how to make this apron. From start to finish it took about 2 hours and that was cutting the pattern out too. I'm considering making some aprons for presents. I love how this came together.

Christmas Idea #2

I found a plain wooden holder and turned it into a candy cane stand to greet guests. Did you know you can get a whole bag of little wooden ornament like things with wire already attached at Micheals for around $5.00. I have been working on lots of ornaments with them. This little one I painted, stamped and added ribbon and glitter.

Christmas Idea #1

Here is a sleigh I made with my husbands baby picture. He was so cute wasn't he? The picture was the perfect pose to sit in the sleigh.

Ornament Swap - Done!

Yeah. I'm done with the ornaments for the ornament swap at 2peas. They are packaged and I'm going to be mailing sometime today. I think they turned out really cute. I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with. Here are a few pictures to share.

Altered Snowman Ornaments

This is for a swap at 2peas for an altered ornament. Which one do you like? I asked the family and I have a 3 way tie. The fourth is an altered CD. I used a cd, paper, glitter, buttons, and foam. The third is a felt ornament with ribbon hair, button eyes and foam nose with rosy red cheeks made from ink. The 1st and 2nd are both made from kraft paper, stamps, glitter, paint, buttons, and misc.

Neighbor Christmas Gifts - 2006

Just a quick update to show what I delivered to the neighbors last year for Christmas. I had a cookie exchange party and took the cookies from it and put them in a "new clean" dustpan and attached the poem tag. I found this idea from http://www.organizedchristmas.com/ I just love that site. So many great christmas ideas. You should check it out!

Christmas Tin Ornament set

Here is a Christmas Ornament Set I made last year. I took the paper mache stars and covered them with scrapbook paper by decoupaging them. Then I took an AOL tin and painted it with acrylic paint and decorated with coordinated paper and tied a ribbon around it. Cute gift and great way to recycle those tins that come with the AOL CD's.

Thinking of Christmas already

It's August and I've been thinking of Christmas the last few months. I want to get started on Christmas ideas but seems like there is always something running through my mind. Just thought I would share an idea I used a few Christmas' ago for office Gifts. Enjoy. Smore Kits with decorated large candy bar, graham crackers, and the small bags of marshmallows.