Christmas advent calendar craft

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I love crafting with my kids and Christmas is my absolute favorite season, everything from the giggles of excitement that waft through the house (the kids and mine) to whipping up new treats to share with neighbors and friends.

So last week while we were wrapping up our final Christmas collection photo shoot, I took a little time to plan this fun and easy Christmas tree advent calendar craft. Make it over the Thanksgiving holiday and be all set to count down the days to December 25 by decorating a mini Christmas tree each day!

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Here’s what you’ll need:

  • 24 Christmas trees (8 to a sheet of regular scrapbook paper)
  • 9′ of ribbon to hang, another 3′ for push pin bows
  • 24 mini clothes pins (wood working section of your craft store)
  • 24 stars
  • sheet of number stickers
  • ornaments (aka hole punches out of coordinating scrapbook paper)
  • 1 sheet of vellum (for the mini envelope)
  • 6 push pins
  • glue (to attach your vellum pocket and for the kids to decorate with)

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And here’s how you pull it all together:

  1. Cut out 24 trees, stars and vellum rectangles.
  2. Punch out lots and lots of ornaments (a regular office hole punch works just fine).
  3. Using stickers, number each of the stars 1 to 24.
  4. Attach the stars to the tops of the trees and then flip the trees over.
  5. Sprinkle some ornaments in the center of each tree, pipe three lines of glue (Elmer’s glue or a glue stick) leaving the top open, attach the vellum rectangle over the ornaments and allow the trees to dry for 5-10 minutes.
  6. Hang three 3′ sections of ribbon with push pins. (Optional: Tie bows in coordinating ribbon to the push pins to help hide them.)
  7. Attach the trees on the ribbon using mini clothes pins.

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Now, starting on December 1, let your little ones take down a tree each day and decorate it using the hole punch ornaments from the little vellum envelope in back. As you can see, we’ve got a jump start! As always, I hope you’re inspired!

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introducing BELIEVE

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I’m so very proud to introduce BELIEVE as our 57th collection! BELIEVE offers an elegant palette for cookie parties, cocktail parties, family gatherings and even charitable events. In addition to the custom invitations and thank you cards, and silver square dinner and dessert plates, this collection has several printable components as well. Above you can see our 8×10 “BELIEVE!” mat, which we used on our dessert table flanked by two silver serving trays topped with shimmering Christmas trees and our ”BELIEVE!” tag, perfect for favors or even Christmas presents from Santa!  

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Our beverage wrappers are not only great for wrapping wine and water bottles, they are also perfect for embellishing your centerpieces. We chose silver branches from the craft store to give the table a little pop. We also designed beverage markers so you won’t lose your glass of wine and beautiful placecards to help your guests’ find their seats.  

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Who said favors had to be expensive to be dazzling?! I chose a simple ornament favor idea to showcase our square “Thank You” favor tags for this collection: silver and red glitter ornaments tied with beautiful shimmering ribbon.

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And if you’re a hostess that likes to have an activity or two up her sleeve, my ”Fondest Christmas Memory” printable kit (includes 5×7 mat, the square BELIEVE favor tags and blank snowflake cards) will help get all your guests in the spirit. The idea is that everyone writes down their fondest memory, places it in the jar and then later in the evening you can read them aloud and let everyone guess who wrote the memory. Mine is from the Christmas just before I turned nine. My brother and I sat at the kitchen table for hours coloring pictures from a coloring book. Then we cut them all out and hung them on the tree as ornaments. They clashed a little with all of my mom’s lovely ornaments, but in true mom style she left them on the tree for the entire holiday season and still has a few of them in her holiday ”happy boxes” as she calls them. 

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And what dinner party is complete without a dessert bar?! Our collection offers a “Warm Up” beverage mat perfect when you’re serving hot cocoa or even a warm toddy, dessert labels (six pre-filled plus a blank sheet so that you can overprint your own desserts), and cello toppers embellished with “Thank You” so you can send your guests home with a few sweet treats, like the yummy hand-iced melt-in-your-mouth butter cookies from our partners at Sweet Tooth Cottage. You’ll find these lovely cookies with the rest of the collection in our shoppe. (Read more about cookie sizes, ingredients, shipping and packaging on our About Us page.)

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And it just wouldn’t be complete without cupcake picks and wrappers! Look for the entire collection in the shoppe with 50% off the printable collection original price through Cyber Monday! As always, I hope you’re inspired.

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crepe-paper bell craft

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With Christmas decorations about to come out, this weekend I decided to relax for a few hours and look through some old Christmas ideas. This little crepe-paper bell treasure was from the Martha Stewart Living December 2008 issue.  I love how simple, yet completely beautiful this is, especially as shown on the candle. I could even see making larger (using layers of crepe) versions of these for decorations on a mantle or stairwell. Hop over to MarthaStewart.com for all the how-to details!

And by the way, a little organization tip: Keeping magazines can quickly become cumbersome and messy. Tear out your favorite ideas and file them away under categories that mean something to you, like Christmas crafts, spring decorating. This practice will help you reduce clutter AND make it easier for you to find great ideas when it’s project time!

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fresh Christmas wreath ideas

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I love fresh wreaths at Christmas, especially cedar with cinnamon sticks woven in. I can just smell Christmas writing about it! There are so many wonderful and creative ideas out there, and some not so very traditional. Each of these wreath ideas is from Sunset magazine, from left to right.

  1. Bay and Rosemary
  2. Cedar snowflake 
  3. Douglas fir snowflakes
  4. Red carnations
  5. Eucalyptus
  6. Spanish moss, canella berries, and pincushion proteas

I believe I may just have to try those cedar snowflakes this year. I’m sure I can position a cinnamon stick or two in the center. {wink} As always, I hope you’re inspired!

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sneak peek at BELIEVE

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Those who were around last year might recall the BELIEVE cupcake picks and wrappers that we gave away in December. Well this new collection is an extension of that design and I couldn’t be more proud of how beautiful it turned out. I received such sweet notes from so many of you last year, because of course BELIEVE doesn’t just have to refer to believing in Santa. It can be more profound. Believing in yourself, believing in His grace.

With the season of giving upon us, I urge all of us to reach out and do something kind, no matter how small, for those around us. A can of food, an outgrown coat, monetary donations if you have it. No matter the gift, give with your heart and BELIEVE!

Much more to come on this collection shortly!

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introducing mod candy cane

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The Mod Candy Cane collection is the first of two Christmas/Winter collections that you’ll be able to find in The Celebration Shoppe this season. This collection offers a whimsy, yet sophisticated, take on the candy cane. I’m still very much in love with the luxury of the red and Tiffany blue palette. Isn’t it lovely!

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Once the invitations are mailed (already in the shoppe waiting to be customized), start planning a fabulous “Sweet Spot” on your table for all the fabulous goodies you’re going to share. 

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Like Peppermint Bark,

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Peppermint Sandwich Cookies (super easy DIY way to pull these off: buy tea cookies from the bakery, fill them with vanilla icing and roll the edges in crushed peppermint or sprinkles… YUM!),

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 Soft Peppermint,

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Peppermint sprinkled cupcakes (picks come with Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a full sheet of snowflakes; shown with foam adhesive square for 3-D effect), and

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fabulous snowflake and Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday (your choice) butter cookies from our partners at Sweet Tooth Cottage and available with this collection!

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 Here’s a closer look at the lovely and melt in your mouth cutout snowflake and whimsy frame, which you can personalize if you like (see below).

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And don’t forget that your guests might want to ”Warm up” with a little hot chocolate or maybe even a toddy! You can be preppared with soft peppermint sticks for stirring and peppermint schnapps for extra warmth. {wink}

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And a personalized cookie as a placecard or with your guest’s mug could be an adorable touch, don’t you think!

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If you’re guest’s prefer the sparkle over the warmth, then label their stems to help them keep track with our beverage markers, and

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make sure you have plenty of bottled water on hand too. (These are beautiful as vase and votive wrappers too!)

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And you can’t let your guest’s go home empty handed, so make sure you pack up some goodies in these adorable take-out boxes (available at Dollar Tree) with our favor tags and red grosgrain ribbon, or

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send them home with prepackaged goodies in our cello toppers that say “Have a sweet day!” (Our partners at Sweet Tooth Cottage ships our cookies in heat sealed cello bags–for freshness as they have no preservatives–that are the perfect fit for our cello topper printables. All you’ll need to do is print and attach. And remember, shipping is included in our Sweet Tooth Cottage pricing as they ship directly from the bakery and separate from the rest of your order. E-mail us at customercare@celebrationshoppe.com with any quesitons.)

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Here’s a look at how beautiful your table can be with a little DIY inginuity. Our “Sweet Spot” sign is attached to a small white dowel wrapped in red ribbon for that candy cane effect. Much less sticky than the real thing. And our cake plate centerpiece is made of large plastic snowflake ornaments stacked on top of one another and balanced on a square white cake plate that was flipped on its end. In the top shot you see that we used the bottom tier for our cookie rounds (printed sugar paper with the same designs as our cupcake rounds). I also used those same large snowflake ornaments under and on several of the other plates on the table to break up the solid white tablecloth and hung them from the ceiling on clear fishing line to give the table height.

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Last in the line-up, but the first thing to greet your guests is our “Welcome” sign. It’s 8×10 and can either be trimmed out as we have done (hung with a beverage wrapper) or matted in a white frame. Or even hung over a beautiful white wreath on the front door.

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This collection will be in the shoppe on Monday, November 15 (new dates!) and then the printable collection will be 40% off through Wednesday, November 17! As always, I hope you’re inspired!

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new collection tomorrow!

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We wrapped up the photo shoot for our new Mod Candy Cane collection over the weekend and I was really hoping to be able to share the entire collection with you this morning, but alas photo editing work can’t be rushed. So I’m hoping this will be enough to tempt you to return tomorrow for a look at the entire collection and some creative DIY ideas on how to style your own “sweet spot” dessert table that won’t break your holiday budget! Oh, and did I mention the printable collection will be 40% off through Saturday! {wink}

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Okay, one more image… I just couldn’t resist! Happy Monday everyone!

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sneak peek: mod candy cane

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This is my favorite time of year, celebration after celebration! Now that Halloween is almost here it’s time to start pulling out the new Christmas collections! My modern twist on the candy cane has been on the inspiration board for months now and can be perfect for a cocktail party, a family open house, a whimsy kid cookie decorating party and even a winter birthday or baby shower (the cupcake picks come with a sheet of Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, and a sheet of solid snowflakes)!

I’m so excited to say that the invitation is already available in the shoppe as of this morning! And with the photo shoot for the entire collection including the printables scheduled for next Thursday, November 4, the rest won’t be far behind!

This storyboard only shows you snippets of what mod candy cane will offer: cupcake picks, cupcake wrappers, dessert table tags, whimsy dessert table beverage mat, cello toppers, favor tags, welcome door sign, beverage wrappers and so much more! I can’t wait to share it all with you! Join us on facebook and twitter for regular updates and a few sneak peeks of the photo shoot along the way!

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make it a snow day

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Winter birthday parties in some parts of the country can be tough. Some families even celebrate half birthdays instead so that their little bundles of energy can have an outdoor party. Well we say, embrace the weather and make it a snow day!

Our fun “snow day” invitation and decor is perfect for a brrr… birthday party. Fill the day with building snowmen, sledding or even hitting the slopes if you have trails nearby. The kids will have a blast; just make sure you’re out of the way for the snowball fight. {wink}

Once they’ve worked up an appetite, serve these cool snowman donut treats (Very Heatherly, Family Fun),

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or these creative snowman cakes (Family Circle… not that you could have guessed, Family Fun),

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and maybe end the fun with something crafty for them to take home (Parents magazine, Kaboose, Family Fun).

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As always, I hope we’ve helped inspire your next celebration. Enjoy!

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grinchy good time

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My dad’s favorite Christmas special of all time is The Grinch That Stole Christmas (you know, the old 30 minute animated one). When we were kids I believe he had more fun stomping around pretending that he didn’t like Christmas (and giggling each time we got grumpy with him about it) than he did eating Santa’s Reece’s cups. And if you knew my dad, you would know that is really saying something! {wink}

Anyway, in honor of my dad and all those wonderful Christmas memories, here’s a little Grinch Christmas party inspiration that I gathered up for my Christmas cookie decorating party next year… oh, yeah… I’ve already got plans!

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

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