My Memories Giveaway!

***Giveaway Now Closed***

Back in the day I scrapbooked all the time.  I loved developing my pictures (in the days before digital cameras) and then sitting down with my photos, some paper, and glue.  It was a great creative outlet.  But lately I've been horrible.  I rarely print pictures and have only done a single page for
A . . . baby H will be lucky to get any!  

I've always been skeptical of digital scrapbooking.  I like the process of sitting down with my paper cutter and arranging my stuff on the page.  But, like I said, I rarely print photos anymore!  Recently, however, I tried out the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software.  It was so much fun and easy!  In just a few minutes I was able to put together some Christmas layouts!

I think I could get used to this!

And the lovely people over at My Memories have offered to give away the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software to one of our lucky readers! To enter, visit My Memories and choose your favorite digital paper pack or layout, then come back and comment on our blog telling us which ones you loved.

For a second entry "like" My Memories on facebook . . . then come back and tell us in a separate comment.

And for all our readers we have a special $10 off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store!  Lucky you!  Just enter the coupon code: STMMMS54187.

Contest ends Tuesday, January 3rd, 11:59 MST

We will announce the winner on Wednesday, January 4th.

Good Luck!

Gifts Kids Can Make: Simple Puppet Tutorial

Alright . . . sorry it's taken me so long to get a tutorial up here! Here is a really basic tutorial for a simple glove puppet. First you'll take two pieces of felt and cut your puppet shape. I use this template.

Next, you'll sew those two pieces together making sure to leave the bottom open.

Now you'll need your creativity! You'll need to cut out pieces to embellish these little guys! For this one I made a really simple ninja (since that's what my boys love these days). Glue them on with some tacky glue and voila! You're done!

My two oldest are designing and making a few of these for A for Christmas. Here are a few of the puppets that we have finished thus far. Hopefully we can fit in a few more before the end of the week!

***For my first set of puppets I used wonder under but then Mr. A pulled a bunch of them off (it's his thing). I decided this time to just use glue even though it will make it a little more stiff.

Gifts Kids Can Make: Memory Game & Stick Puppets

My kids love Star Wars.  I'm not even sure how they learned about it in the first place, and they haven't even seen the movies until recently but have loved them just the same. 

I really like how Jeanine has her kids make each other gifts for Christmas (see last years here, here, and here) and decided that we would start that tradition in our family this year.  When I saw this adorable Star Wars preschool pack I knew it would be the perfect thing for my daughter to use to make my son a gift for Christmas.  When I shared the idea with her she was super excited.  We decided that we'd use some of the images to make a memory matching game and also some stick puppets.

We fist picked out some card stock and then printed the images on the reverse side.

After cutting out the pieces . . .

we laminated and cut them out again.

Perfect little matching game for any Star Wars lover.

A little jewelry box is just right to store the cards in.

And we've already had fun with the stick puppets (shhhh, don't tell).  My daughter insisted on putting on a show for me before we wrapped them up.

My daughter is so excited to give her handmade gift and I can't wait to see the excitement on my son's face Christmas morning.

And for all you Star Wars lovers out there here are some other homemade Star Wars crafts I've seen around:

 Finger Puppets

 Cookie Cutters

 Peggies

 Pool Noodle Light sabers

Otter Pop Light saber

Little Stuffed Giraffes

A couple years ago I saw these cute little stuffed animals over at Make It and Love It and have kept them in the back of my mind as a simple project I'd like to do someday.

Jeanine reminded me of them last year when she had her sons make one for a Christmas gift here. (And I just love the idea of having siblings make homemade gifts for each other.  I'm excited to start that tradition with my kids this year.)

Earlier this year I was in charge of coming up with a service project for the women in our church group to do.  I then remembered those cute little giraffes and realized they would be simple enough for the women to make together in one night and give to a local children's hospital.

I made up a few samples that I planned on later giving to my son and daughter.

Cute printed fabric on one side . . .

 . . . soft on the other.

I drew up a pattern for the occasion--which you're welcome to use if you'd like to make your own.

(Click on picture and then copy and save to your computer.  Open in a document and reduce your margins to zero.  Expand to 100% and print.)

For the service project I went with polka-dot fabric and a soft fleece on the other side.  So many women came to help cut, pin, sew and stuff these little stuffed animals.  We had a great time working on them together.

We were able to turn out quite a few in one night.  It turned out to be a great service project.

What color are you going to use to make yours???