Be Still Life: christmas

Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts

Saturday, November 29, 2014

DIY Advent Calendar

DECEMBER IS ALMOST HERE AND WHO DOESN'T LOVE A CUTE, CHEAP, AND EASY DIY ADVENT CALENDAR!? GROWING UP, THE ADVENT CALENDAR THAT MY MOM WOULD PUT OUT WAS ONE OF MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE THINGS THIS TIME OF YEAR. IT WAS A SHELF WITH LITTLE DRAWERS AND SHE FILLED EACH CORRESPONDING DAY WITH DIFFERENT CANDIES. I WOULD ALWAYS TRY TO GUESS WHICH CANDY WAS GOING TO BE THE NEXT DAY. SHE STILL PUTS IT OUT, BUT NOW IT'S MY NIECE AND NEPHEWS WHO GET TO OPEN THEM UP. MY MOM SERIOUSLY IS THE BEST GRANDMA! <3

WELL LAST YEAR I DECIDED TO MAKE AN ADVENT CALENDAR FOR MY HUSBAND, RYAN. RYAN LOOOOVES CANDY, HOWEVER WE NEVER BUY IT, SO I DECIDED THAT THE MONTH OF DECEMBER COULD BE A TREAT FOR HIM. HE ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT LAST YEAR AND SO I AM DOING IT AGAIN THIS YEAR AND SHOWING Y'ALL HOW I DID IT!

FIRST, YOU NEED SOMETHING TO HANG EACH DAY ON. MY AMAZING BROTHER IN LAW, DENNIS, MADE THIS WOODEN TREE FOR ME FOR CHRISTMAS A FEW YEARS BACK BUT YOU HONESTLY COULD JUST GET ANYTHING TO HANG THEM ON. HERE ARE A COUPLE PICTURES OF ONES I HAVE SEEN AND LIKED THAT ARE SO EASY AND CHEAP! MARTHA STEWART ADVENT CALENDAR + THE MERRY THOUGHT ADVENT CALENDAR

I THEN TOOK SMALL KRAFT ENVELOPES THAT I HAD LEFT OVER FROM MY WEDDING AND SEALED THEM SHUT AND THEN CUT THEM IN HALF SO THEY WOULD BE LITTLE OPEN POCKETS. THEN ON THE COMPUTER I MADE DIFFERENT DESIGNS FOR EACH DAY AND PRINTED THEM OUT AND GLUED THEM ONTO THE ENVELOPES. YOU COULD ALSO JUST GET PLAIN WHITE ENVELOPES AND COLOR ON THEM WITH SHARPIES OR WHATEVER. YOU COULD EVEN JUST MAKE POCKETS YOURSELF OUT OF THICK CARDSTOCK! POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS! AFTER THAT I JUST FILLED EACH POCKET WITH DIFFERENT CANDIES. RYAN LOVES GUMMY WORMS AND GUMMY BEARS SO FOR THOSE I BOUGHT LITTLE PLASTIC BAGS TO PUT THEM IN FIRST BEFORE PUTTING THEM IN THE ENVELOPES SINCE THEY ARE STICKY AND NOT ALREADY WRAPPED. YOU REALLY COULD PUT ANYTHING IN THE ENVELOPES- IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE CANDY. A CUTE IDEA ARE LITTLE NICE NOTES OR SOMETHING DIFFERENT TO DO EACH DAY. AGAIN, THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS!

AFTER THAT ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS HANG THEM UP HOWEVER YOU WANT AND YOU HAVE A CALENDAR! YOU COULD ALSO ADD A STRING OF LIGHTS IF YOU WANT BUT MAKE SURE IT DOESN'T GET TOO HEAVY!

I HOPE YOU ENJOY MAKING AN ADVENT CALENDAR! HAVE A HAPPY DECEMBER AND A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!! <3

Monday, September 23, 2013

I won an Editor's Pick!

A while back I explained how I joined a design community through Minted which is a lovely stationary and greeting card website that holds design challenges for indie designers to create different cards and what not. Well If you enter a design and it is picked then you will win a sweet cash prize PLUS your design will be sold on their website and you will get a percentage of every purchase! Soooo... the cool news is that one of my Holiday photo cards that I entered won an Editor's Pick and is now available for purchase!!!! How exciting!!! So if you would like to purchase this card just go HERE! Below are pictures of some of the different options of colorways of the card, labels, and liners. Thanks for taking a look and special thanks to all who voted for me!!!

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

I'm a Mintie!

So as I was perusing on Pinterest one day I noticed one of the ladies I follow posted a picture of a Christmas photo card and asked for pinners to vote for her design in the Minted Design Challenge. So me being a person who loves challenges and contests AND the stationary website, Minted, just had to look into it. To my pleasant surprise, I found out there is a whole Minted Design Community where they hold challenges for indie designers and award winners with awesome prizes! So I decided, even though I only had a week till the deadline to submit, that I had to do it. So I am asking you, my reader, if you wouldn't mind voting for my designs!

Below are my designs. The first one is my favorite so if you only want to vote for one, vote for this one! =) All you have to do is click on the picture and it will bring you right to the website to vote! They will close the polls next Monday, June 24th so make sure you vote before then!! Thank you so much!