Christmas Crafts!

Hello, Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?  Mine is SPARKLES!  Ok maybe I'm not that extreme, but I have no shame in getting started on Christmas things a bit earlier because 1. Momma has a busy schedule and 2. It was an excuse to have a few quiet hours with friends on a Saturday.

Fist up, a tasty but unfortunate looking pinstrosity in the form of an apple tart.  It had all things fall going for it, but with a phyllo dough crust it just didn't break up into squares well.  You know what would be fun and evil?  Putting out this beautiful dessert and letting your guests feel the guilt of massacring it.  Then you don't have to make any half-hearted attempts to say how pretty it was when it came out of the oven.

Before cutting.  Oooh, ahh, the beauty!

After cutting.  Why do you hate us?

Next up is the insanely simple and adorable batch of Christmas cards I made.  I found a pack of 50 blank cards at Michaels- already with a fold in place and envelops and everything!  I thought I was going to have to use raw card stock for these, and it was a happy surprise to find a kit all ready to go.  Drew on the cute lines and bows with thin sharpie, wrote Merry Christmas with a nice thick silver sharpie, and hot glued red and green ornaments all over the place.  Ta da- adorable and simple.

Last up was my wreath.  I made this wonderful candy corn wreath for Halloween, and really loved the technique.  I had a clear vision of a similar wreath, all in white, with these squares of shiny patterned snowflake fabric interspersed throughout.  A pretty red ribbon gives the idea of a candy cane without being precisely literal.  Now, I was only able to get about 1/3 of the squares pinned during the party.  The rest were done catching up on The Vampire Diaries, SNL, Big Bang Theory, and watching what was left of The Dark Knight Rises because I was too indifferent to channel surf much.  Anyway, end result is pretty adorbs.

And last up, this was a Sunday craft that I didn't get to during the Pinterest party.  Happy buttons hot glued over a foam ball, in a couple strategic layers to cover up the gaps.  That thing is heavy.  I could whack a burglar pretty hard and at least give him a black eye if he gets too close to my Christmas presents.  You know, once I have a tree and presents out.  Christmas ornament/mace: what every crafty mom needs.

Ok, time to put down the peppermint mocha.  This Christmas/winter-time post has gotten me too wound up!