Day 74: Rolo Pretzel Snacks

Today was crazy. We had to catch up on a lot of school that we had got behind on while Landon was sick. The house was a huge mess so I had to take time to make it a little more livable. And, I was all a bustle getting everything together for my 1st ever crafter meet up tomorrow! We also celebrated our family Christmas tonight. We were busy busy all day long. In the mist of this hoopla I once again forgot to work on a project for the blog. However, God knew I would forget and covered my back! I took pictures of the Rolo Pretzel Snacks that I made for the meet up tomorrow.
I had never made these before but when I heard the ingredients I knew I would love them!

All you need is:
A bag of Rolo candies
Pretzels
Pecan halves

Fill the bottom of a oven safe pan with a single layer of pretzels.

Unwrap the Rolos and place one on top of each pretzel.

Let the Rolos melt in a 250 degree oven for 3-4 minutes (depending on how hot your oven runs).
I did my first batch for 4 minutes and they melted a little to much so the next batch I left in for 3 minutes. I think 3 1/2 probably would have been ideal.

Working fairly quick after taking the snacks out of the oven, gently press a pecan half on top of each Rolo. It is probably best to let these sit for a while on wax paper and let them harden again. DO NOT put them in the freezer while they are on the pan. LOL, I speak from experience. They would not come off the pan after that. I had to reheat them and they lost a lot of the caramel the second time around.

I can not imagine these not being a huge hit at any party! They are SO good! They taste like chocolate dipped pretzel meets turtle candy! YUMMY!

Don't forget, any of you who live around Mt. Enterprise Texas Come out and see me tomorrow at the community center @ 1pm! We are going to have a great Christmasy time! Pin It

Day 73: Hot Chocolate Snowman

This hot chocolate snowman only had a picture not a tutorial. Honestly mine did not turn out as cute as the ones in the picture, but it was fun to try and with a little tweaking it would be great!
I started with 3 baby food jars.

Now, there has not been a baby in our house in about 6 1/2 years so it was definitely a flash back to buy baby food! I actually looked for something like pimientos or something else that comes in little jars so that I would have something usable. The only thing I could find was horseradish and it was more expensive than the baby food. I don't think we would have used that anyway. I ended up buying 2 regular size jars and 1 a little bit smaller for the head.
It wasn't a complete waste though because I bought apple sauce and bananas so I made Landon eat a couple of them for me.
After the jars were emptied I washed and dried them making sure they were VERY dry.
The snowmen in the picture looked like they were filled with hot chocolate mix, marshmallows, and peppermints. I decided to use red hot candies instead of peppermints.

I filled 1 of the regular size jars with hot chocolate mix, it took 3 packages. The other regular size jar I filled with marshmallows, and I put the red hots in the little jar because you don't need as many red hots as marshmallows and chocolate.

You may have to use a little rubbing alcohol to remove any of the paper that is stuck to the jars.
I set the jars aside and pulled out some felt. I cut a small circle and a larger circle and a long rectangular strip out of black for the top hat. I also cut a small strip of red and a little flower shape out of white to decorate the hat a little bit.

Using a hot glue gun, I glued the rectangle short end to short end to make a tube. Then I glued the tube on top of the larger circle and the smaller circle to top of the tube and trimmed the circles.

Next, I hot glued the red strip around the bottom of the hat and the flower on top of that.
I stacked the jars on top of each other and hot glued them, and then glued the hat on top.

Using a piece of fleece left over from another project I cut a long strip with fringe at both ends and tied it around the jars like a scarf.

Using orange paint I painted a carrot nose. With black puff paint I added eyes, mouth, and buttons.

I think that the red hots in the top jar made him look a little funny. Next time I think I will either go with the peppermints or put the red hots in the bottom jar. Pin It

Day 73: Polar Express Tickets

I am so excited about today's project: Polar Express Tickets!
This printable came from Confessions of a Homeschooler which is a really awesome website full of neat ideas and great printables! It is a safe bet to say that you have seen much of  Confessions of a Homeschooler's stuff on Pintrest. Which is where I first saw these completely awesome printable tickets.
There really isn't any crafting involved with today's project. Everything is done for you. Just print and cut. There are even instructions on how to make your little express trip fantastic!

We have a little Christmas fun as a family one night in December. Just us being together, exchanging one gift and an ornament, and watching a Christmas movie, before we start celebrating the holiday with extended family. We started this when Landon was little because even though I love everything that we do on Christmas Eve and Christmas day with Pete's family and mine, I wanted Landon to have traditions and memories of just us and him. It is a very special time for us.
This year we will do our little traditions of a gift, ornament, and movie, but when we send Landon to bed he will have a little surprise. A ticket to ride the Christmas express! I am going to have hot chocolate, blankets, and music (I have plans to download the Polar Express soundtrack off of itunes) all ready to pile in the car. Then in his new PJ's (shhh... that's a gift) we will all go driving around town looking at Christmas lights! I even have a small bell to give to him at the end of the trip!

 

Landon will love it! I can't wait to surprise him. It is a cute twist on a classic tradition.

Oh yes, and don't forget to punch his ticket!

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Day 71: Cozy Toes Slippers

Today's project was cozy toes slippers. This link will take you to a free downloadable pattern. Sounds great except it is ONLY a pattern. No instructions on how to sew it all together. It didn't look complicated so I gave it a try. I printed and cut out the pattern.

You have to piece some of the pattern together and the stopping point of 1 printed part of the pattern does not match up with the stopping point of the other printed part of the pattern so make sure that you overlap the papers until all the lines match up. Tape the pattern pieces together and cut out the size that you want to use. I cut out a size 6.
After you have the pattern cut out, cut 2 of the sole and top out of the material you are going to use. I have no idea what the material is called that I used... umm faux suede, fluffy stuff?? And cut 4 of the side pattern, 2 for each shoe.

To sew, I began by sewing my side pieces (right sides together) at the ends. When you open it up it should be a circle. Keeping the wrong sides out, I pinned the side edges to the sole edges making sure that the narrow end of the sides are at the front of the sole. I did sew this with my machine. It was very hard because it was so fluffy! I kept loosing my pins in all the fluff. (Just a note here: My slippers ended up being much smaller than a size 6. If I had sewn the slippers by hand with the seems on the out side, like the top is sewn, I believe they would have been truer to size.)

I turned the slipper right side out, and it was so wide! I didn't really know how to fix this problem. I added the top piece and made it overlap the sides and front of the slipper instead of lining up the edges. I did this to try to pull in some of the width. I sewed the top with a whip stitch on the out side so that the stitching shows. Then I turned the top of the sides over and made a little hem by hand. That is completely optional, I just felt that my sides were to tall and I wanted a cleaner look.
After all of this they were still to wide. So, my solution was to make a small pleat at the top of the slipper. This pulled in the sides and helped the slipper stand up more. I added a little bow to cover the pleat.

I only had one of the these done by the time I wanted to write my blog so this is it. I will be making its mate later! I hope this was helpful! Pin It

Day 70: Magazine Wrapping

Today we got all of our Christmas decorations out and put up our Christmas tree while watching Holiday Inn! Yay!
During the year I ended up subscribing to quite a few magazines because there were so many for free through out the year. I really don't read any magazines except for Family Fun so I felt like these were a waist even if they were for free. I was just stuck with a lot of magazines laying around my house. I have been looking for ways to use them for a while now. Then it dawned on me that instead of spending a lot of money on wrapping paper this year, why not use pages out of the magazines?
I picked out some of the winter magazines and pulled out all the pages I thought would make cute wrapping paper.

 

Then, I began piecing some of the papers together until I had a large enough piece for whatever gift I was wrapping. At first I was piecing pages together side by side but found that it looked better if I angled pages and overlapped them. Making it look more like a collage. This does take a bit more tape than regular wrapping so be sure and buy the cheap stuff!

I also made my own gift tags out of last years Christmas cards that were given to us.

 

All I did was cut around whatever small pictures I could get off the card and using a decorative edge hole punch, I scalloped the edges.

 

I threaded some ribbon through the tags and tied them around the gifts.

 

Funny thing is, our gifts look more uniform this year with the magazine wrapping than all the years I bought wrapping paper!

 

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Week 11 Project List

I am still 1 project down from week 10. The sock monkey has become my nemesis! I cannot find the right kind of sock anywhere! I thought that would be easy but apparently not. Anyone know where I can get a "sock monkey" sock for cheap?

This weeks list is:
Gingerbread Play Dough
Cozy Toes Slippers
Polar Express Tickets
Santa Hat Pretzels
25 Days Till Christmas Bucket
Nutter Butter Reindeer
Hot Chocolate Snowman (picture only)



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Budget Update: Week 10

This was a very pricey week! I was expecting some weeks to be like this and I haven't had one in a while so it is OK. But, definitely outside of my $10 goal!

Eggnog for cookies $2.50
Sugar Cones for cornucopia $1.50 X3 (had to make for 30 people)
Candy for cornucopia $5
T-shirts for Black Friday T-shirts $2 X2
Puff paint for Black Friday T-shirts $1
Bandannas for Black Friday T-shirts $2 (these shirts were a HUGE hit!)
Etching cream for Etched glass casserole dishes $6.50
Glass dishes for Etched glass casserole dishes $1 X5
Felt for Christmas tree skirt $7.99

And the large total is: $38.49
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Day 69: Etched Glass Cassarole Dish

This was a little bit of a disappointment. I waited to do this project until after Black Friday because I knew I could get a good deal on some Pyrex. Sure enough there was about 3 stores that were having good sales. I ended up picking up the last box at Wal-Mart. It was 24 pieces for $20. I didn't need this much and I knew that JC Penny's was going to have a set of 18 for $15. I waited for the JC Penny's sale. Big mistake! We were at the store for the opening and began to search for the Pyrex. That was in vain because when I finally got desperate and asked an employee where they were she informed me that their store did not receive ANY of that item! Ugh! I was pretty frustrated and really had to pray that God give me a good attitude, especially since I was wearing my black Friday shirt! LOL.
I ended up going to Dollar Tree and buying some glass bowls. I purchased the etching cream at Micheal's.

The Etching cream says that it does not work on some Pyrex so maybe God was just watching out for me. To start I took some Con Tact shelf liner with the sticky back and cut out a stencil for what I wanted to etch and placed it on the bowl.

Then I covered the stencil with etching cream The instructions said to wait 60 seconds and rinse with water. I did that and the etching was almost nonexistent. So I repeated the process, this time waiting 3 minutes. Not much better. I removed the stencil and free handed the writing once again with the etching cream and waited 10 minutes. This time it turned out legible although I was upset that it was not as deep of an etching as I thought it was going to be. Sorry about the angle, this is the best I could get it to show up in a picture. It says "From the kitchen of Erin P."

It is OK, and still makes an interesting gift. I am thinking about trying again and leaving it for an hour just to see what happens. Pin It

Day 68: Roll of Coin "Candy"

This roll of coin "candy" was so easy to make. I wanted to do this with Chuck E. Cheese tokens instead of quarters but I never got over to Chuck E. Cheese. I actually never got to the bank for quarters either. Instead, I scavenged the house for quarters. After all, a roll of quarters is worth $10 and that is a little pricey for a stocking stuffer.
After I found all the quarters that were to be found in our house I picked out some scraps of wrapping paper, tape, and ribbon.

Since I didn't have a roll of quarters I used tape to keep them in place.

I cut the wrapping paper a little larger than needed and wrapped it around the quarters leaving the ends open. I tied up the ends with ribbon, trimmed them down to look like a candy wrapper, and curled the ribbon with the scissors.

That's all folks.

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Day 67: Christmas Tree Skirt

Oh my, has this week ever been crazy! I am so sorry I have let this get so far behind! I started out the week behind and it was just down hill from there. I had every intention of catching up yesterday but ended up being sick all day instead. We were up all night with Landon coughing last night and even though I REALLY wanted to nap this afternoon instead of craft, I locked myself in my craft room with Christmas music and candy and went to work on the projects I missed.

 

The first project to be caught up on was the Christmas tree skirt. This link does not take you to a tutorial but instead to a store where you can order this skirt for, get this, $385.00!!!  Isn't that insane!
I don't think any tree skirt is worth anywhere close to that amount unless it is sprinkled with diamond dust and embroidered with gold thread. I liked the simple elegance of this skirt but the simplicity makes it all that much more crazy that it costs so much. But hey, I am just a DIY, penny pinching, couponing, kind of girl. Maybe paying that much for a tree skirt is something people do all the time. It, however, would not even enter my mind to pay so much! So, what to do? Make my own version!

I started with 2 yards of cranberry colored felt. I liked the cream color that my "example" used but our Wal-Mart is very limited in fabric and I wasn't making a trip out of town so I went with the cranberry. I actually ended up liking this color a whole lot and it won't show dirt as much as the cream.
I have never actually had a tree skirt for our tree. I always figure that the presents are covering enough. So, I used my sisters tree skirt as a pattern to know how to cut the felt. If you do not have a skirt to use as a pattern you can buy 1 for a $1 at Dollar Tree. Cheap pattern!

After cutting my basic skirt, I used the rest of the felt to cut leaves for the flowers that I would be placing around the edge of the skirt. Using a piece of felt that was folded in half I cut a oval leaf shape making a narrow stem shape near the fold. When the felt was unfolded I had a double leaf, one on each end. I made lots of these!

Next, I sewed a straight line down the middle of each felt leaf. I used the sewing machine because it is faster but by hand would give this a more rustic look.

After sewing down the middle I placed one of the felt leaves over another leaf, crossing the leafs in the middle so that it looks like a flower. And, sewed the middles together making a pucker at the back so that the leaves stand up slightly.

After all of the leaves were turned into flowers I used my ever handy fabric glue and placed the flowers along the edge of the skirt.

I only placed flowers in the front of my skirt but it would not be hard to cover the entire edge of the skirt with flowers if that is what you wanted.

My total for a knock off $385.00 tree skirt? $7.99 - not bad at all! Check out the link-it really looks like it! Pin It

Day 66: Black Friday T-Shirt

I have been operating a day behind on my projects all week. This is partially due to the fact that it is Thanksgiving week, and the lock-in threw me off. But, the main reason is that I haven't been able to get my hands on all the supplies I need for some of my projects this week. I have been looking for etching cream for my personalized casserole dish with no luck. I am going to look at Hobby Lobby on Friday. I really wanted to use Chuck E. Cheese tokens instead of quarters in my roll of coins "candy". We don't have a Chuck E. Cheese so that has to wait until Friday also. My projects are all out of whack and I am a day behind but don't give up on me yet! I WILL CATCH UP!
Today I decided to make Black Friday T-shirts for my sister and myself. We love to go Black Friday shopping every year! We say it is for the great sales but I think if we were completely honest we would have to admit that we just go because it is fun. Although, she does complain the whole time, but what else is new! Just kidding.
I really wanted to make these with black T-shirts and bleach pens. Dani had made some T-shirts like that before and they were so neat looking. However, when I went to Wal-Mart to buy the shirts I found white T-shirts on sale for $2. Who could pass that up?! So, I bought the white shirts and colorful bandannas to cut letters out of and black puffy paint to write with and out line.

I did a lot of research for cute black Friday sayings and came up with virtually nothing. The only one I thought was cute at all said, "I went. I shopped. I took a nap." Most of them actually sounded pretty mean and that is just not the message I wanted to convey to the high anxiety mob that is sure to be surrounding us at all times!
I began thinking about what message I did want to convey. I had wanted a funny shirt. Just something to identify Dani and I together. But, the more I thought about it, the more I felt like God wanted me to make a shirt to say something about Him. To identify us with Him. After all isn't He who we are celebrating? We face the crowds to buy the gifts but they are to represent God's gift to us right?
After I decided on my saying, I began cutting letters out of the bandannas and gluing them on with fabric glue. Using the puffy paint I outlined the bandanna letters and also wrote the parts of my message that I didn't make with the bandanna.
This is what I came up with...

What do you think? I wish I would have had room to put the whole Roman Road on the shirt! This may not touch anyone on Friday but I think it will help keep my focus in the right place. And who knows, It just may spark a conversation!

If you haven't received Gods awesome gift I strongly encourage you to find out more about it in His book to us, the Bible.

Here are some great verses to start with:

John 3:16-17

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Romans 3:23

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 5:8

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 10:9-10

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Romans 10:13

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Ephesians 2:8-9





For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast.

 

 

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Day 65: Waffle Cone Cornucopia

I like to do a little project with Landon every year to take to Thanksgiving lunch and share with everyone. This year I decided to make waffle corn cornucopia's. I saw this on, big surprise, pintrest and thought they were super cute. We had to go to 2 different stores to find waffle cones (we actually used sugar cones), and I am pretty sure the employees thought I was crazy for wanting them in November. The tutorial called for you to fill the cornucopias with trail mix. I really wanted to use M&Ms but we had to make enough for 30 people (BIG FAMILY!) and that was starting to look a little pricey. So, we went to Dollar General and found some Halloween candy on sale for 50% off.. YAY!

 

We set up our steamer on the stove and worked with 2-3 cones at a time. By the time we were done steaming and shaping 30 cones my fingers were on fire! Be careful when opening the steamer basket and when shaping the cones!

You have to work very quickly to shape the cones before they harden again, and also before the cones still in the basket get to soggy.

 

 

After the cones dried completely we stuffed them with candy and covered the opening with clear cellophane so that it wouldn't fall out. We used twine to tie the cellophane in place.

 

 

I think they will be a hit!

 

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Day 64: Eggnog Cookies

Today's project was supposed to be eggnog cookies, and even though the cookies were made it was not exactly according to recipe.
I went to the store and forgot to buy eggnog, so I had to go to another store and pick some up. I was pretty proud of myself that I found a way to guiltlessly buy eggnog. I am the only one in our house who likes to drink it so I can never justify the purchase.
When I got home I started to gather all my ingredients and realized I didn't have any butter or sugar. Who thinks you can make cookies without butter or sugar? Well, I wasn't going back to the store so I had to find a way to make due. I knew I had splenda in the cabinet and I use it to bake with all the time so I was comfortable with this choice in substitution. Now, to find something to substitute for butter. I knew that you could use apple sauce instead of butter but I don't keep that on hand. I ended up googling butter substitutions and found that you can use oil, 3/4 a cup for every cup of butter.
However, the recipe called for 3/4 cup butter... you do the math! NO, really do the math! I couldn't! Pete couldn't! We finally decided to just use 1/2 cup oil. (I know, I know, we need to get Landon a math tutor!)

 

This was a great chance to use my Mexico vanilla that was given to me by a missionary friend of mine. He actually gave it to me during our church association meeting last week. Look at the bottle - it was a hoot to try to explain to everyone walking the halls of a Baptist meeting that it was  JUST VANILLA!

 

 

After mixing up the dough the recipe said to form it into small balls because they would spread out very generously. This is where I found out what butter does that oil does not. Here is the precooked picture and the cooked picture. See a difference? Yeah me either.

 

 

Needless to say, I flattened the next batch. These little balls did taste just as good as the flattened version.

 

While the cookies were baking I made a glaze to drizzle over them.

 

 

And now I know something I didn't know yesterday!

(If you figure out that math question let me know!)

 

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Week 10 Project List

Week 10! WOW this has gone fast! I will be juggling all of these projects with Thanksgiving , Black Friday shopping and a Lock-in ... I am tired just thinking about it! It will be an adventure! Here are my projects for this week.
Egg Nog Cookies
Sock Monkey w/ tutu
Waffle Cone Cornucopia
Black Friday T-Shirts (Will need t-shirts and bleach pins)
Etched Glass Casserole Dish
Christmas Tree Skirt
Roll of Coins "Candy"

Are you doing anything special for Thanksgiving? How about Black Friday? Do you join the crowds?
Don't forget to take time to thank God for the wonderful gift of His Son, Jesus!
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Week 9 Budget Update

$2.97 Peppermint Kisses for Oatmeat Peppermint Dipped Cookies
$3 Borax for Snowflakes
$3.50 Fussy White yarn for Baby Elf Hat
Total = $9.47

Total for Challenge thus far = $93.27 Makeing an average of $10.36 a week! Pin It

Day 63: Crochet Baby Elf Hat

One of my good friends wanted to buy a baby elf hat for a little baby in her life but the site had sold out of the hats she wanted. So, she sent me the link and asked if I could make one. I took the challenge and began to search the Internet for a free pattern that was similar to what she was wanting.
At first I was searching Santa hats not realizing that the hats with long skinny tails are called elf hats. I finally found this pattern.
I made this hat to fit a 6-mo-old, about 15 in. in diameter.
The pattern calls for two different colors and is worked by dropping your yarn every so often to create stripes. Dropping your yarn is not hard so don't let this scare you. It just takes a little practice. However, I made my hat one solid color except for the rim. I used red Simply Soft for the hat and a fussy yarn for the rim and the pom pom. This was a little difficult to work with around the hat, but easier than I thought it would be. That being said, it was almost impossible to make a pom pom out of that stuff! I wasn't satisfied with how the pom pom turned out but I had tried making it 4 times and this was as good as I could get it.
I sewed the pom pom on the top and was finished.
I don't think I had ever seen an elf hat before now but they sure are cute!

*The pattern does not tell you how to make a pom pom so I used the tutorial found HERE. Pin It

Day 62: Christmas Yarn Wreath

I wanted to make a Christmas wreath for our door but I didn't want to spend a lot of money. So, I went searching on pintrest and found this yarn wreath. I had an old wreath that I had stashed away last year, so after digging it out this project would cost me nothing.

My original idea was to wrap the wreath in masking tape since it was an evergreen wreath and would be hard to work with. However, my house is ALWAYS tape poor so I used some crape paper that I had left over from something instead.

This worked much better than I would have thought, although if I would have wrapped it over lapping a little bit more it would have been easier to work with later.

After it was all wrapped up in crape paper I began to wrap the yarn around it. I chose 3 colors, grey, black with a sparkle, and a multi red and green.

I alternated the colors tying a knot at the beginning and the end of each color wrap.

When I got done wrapping I went looking for something to add embellishments.

This is what I came up with.

I used the black poka dot material and some stuffing to form a button of sorts by placing a small amount of stuffing in the center the material and gathering all the sides to cover it. Then I sewed the gathers in place.

 Next, I placed the fabric button in the middle of a 8x8 in. triangle of the the red fabric and gathered the sides of the red underneath making it into a flower shape. I sewed all the gathers into place and sewed the flower onto the wreath.

Then, I cut 2 strips of the grey felt and sewed 1 strip on each side of the flower. Giving the felt a rippled look.

Lastly, I cut a strip of the flowered material and sewed the edges with right sides together. I turned the strip right side out and sewing down the middle made a gather. To finish off, I sewed both ends of the strip to the edge of the wreath just under the flower.

I wish you could see it better in this picture but the lighting is really bad in here and it is dark outside. I may have to update this picture tomorrow because I am pretty proud of my wreath and you just can't see it here.

The great thing is that I could use what I had on hand! What do you have that is just waiting to be something fantastic?

 

*Here is a better pic*

 

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ANNOUNCEMENT!

Crafter Meet Up!

 

I am so excited to announce that I will be hosting my very first crafter meet up!

The meeting will be held on December 1st @ 1:00 pm

in the Mt. Enterprise Texas Community Center

and will be hosted by the Mt. Enterprise Library.

We will be making modge podge Christmas plaques, snowman kits, and nutter butter reindeer!

You don't need to bring anything but a smile!

There will be snacks, Christmas music, lots of fun, and maybe even a few extras!

So, if you live in the East Texas area head on over! What a perfect way to get in the holiday mood!

 I can't wait to get crafting with you!

 

If you have any questions feel free to contact me via this blog, or call the Mt. Enterprise Library @ 903-822-3532 ask for Dani.

 

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