Pantone's 2018 Color of the Year

Each September, Pantone announces the Spring Color Palette for the upcoming year. I love to see what colors are on the horizon and think about how they will be manifested in the craft industry. 

I also love to predict what Pantone will choose as the Color of the Year. My personal favorite is Meadowlark, but I was fairly confident Pantone would select Ultra Violet or Emperador. I've been anxiously awaiting the announcement, usually made the first week of December. Finally, after refreshing their page at least a hundred times a day for the past week, the Color of the Year for 2018 was revealed: Ultra Violet!

There is a full explanation of the color on their page, but this portion struck me:

".....Ultra Violet symbolizes experimentation and non-conformity, spurring individuals to imagine their unique mark on the world, and push boundaries through creative outlets..... The color is often associated with mindfulness practices, which offer a higher ground to those seeking refuge from today’s over-stimulated world."  

I'm very happy with Ultra Violet (frankly, anything besides the ridiculous twin Colors of the Year in 2016 would be fine). Purples don't usually play a big role in crafting, so I'll be anxious to see if Ultra Violet is evident at the Creativation trade show. I might have to do something fun like I did with Marsala.

What are your thoughts about Ultra Violet? 

Reindeer Gift Tags

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Add a dash of adorable to your Christmas presents by making your own reindeer gift tags.

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Reindeer Gift Tags

Supplies:

• blue cardstock 
• brown cardstock
• the world's best scissors
• hole punch
• craft glue
• tiny red buttons
• brown and black markers
• candy cane baker's twine

Steps:

Cut the blue cardstock and the brown cardstock into rectangles. If you make the rectangles 2" x 4", you'll get 18 tags from a 12" x 12" sheet of cardstock. The tags in my photos are actually 2.5" x 4" because I had scraps that size left over from a previous project. Basically, you can make your rectangles whatever size you want your tags to be.

Punch a hole in the top center of each blue tag and set them aside. Trim each brown rectangle into an isosceles triangle by keeping the base the original length and cutting diagonally up on each side toward the top center. Fold the top portion of the triangle forward and glue the bottom portion to a blue tag.

Use the black marker to add two dots for eyes. Then glue a button nose in place.

Use the brown scraps to cut a pair of ears for each reindeer. Glue them in place, tucking the ends just under the reindeer's head.

Draw antlers using the brown marker. 

Add some baker's twine and your tags are ready to go! That's Trevor's first tag on the left and my first on the right. Even when we follow exactly the same steps, our personal style still comes out in our crafts. Love that!

Looking for more fun gift tag ideas? Try these snowman gift tags! They're my most popular craft tutorial of all time. I have another idea for snowman gift tags that are almost as cute. These quilled holly tags always impress. Give one (or more) a try!

Exploring Delaware Through Little Passports

Our family thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Delaware in October. How fun to see some of the same things as we did a virtual exploration of the First State through Little Passports! And, as always, we learned a lot of things we didn't already know. I'm constantly amazed that, despite teaching about the 50 states and grading 32 state reports a year for 11 years, I still learn something new from Little Passports every single time!

We started our study of Delaware by building a catapult, inspired by the World Championship Punkin Chunkin competition held near Bridgeville. We did a logic puzzle to learn fun facts about the state insect, the ladybug. Did you know there are approximately 5000 species of ladybugs? And that they can play dead when in danger? I didn't! Delaware's state marine animal is a horseshoe crab. A rebus activity taught us all about these 'living fossils' that haven't changed much during their 500 million year history. Fascinating!

Trevor made the recipe, Chicken and Slippery Dumplings, for dinner. 

It was SO good! And it was easy to make. 

We'll definitely be including this one in our regular dinner rotation. Yum!

The next day, we finished up the rest of the Delaware activities. We solved a math-based puzzle to learn about the mile-long NASCAR racetrack in Dover called the 'Monster Mile.' Next was an activity about the 13 original colonies and Delaware's pride in being the first to sign the Constitution. This was familiar to Trevor because I taught it to his 5th grade class last year. We read about famous events in Delaware's history and followed grain through the Oliver Evans Mill, invented in 1784 as the first automated flour mill. We followed the step-by-step instructions to draw a C-5A Galaxy plane, which we saw in person during our visit to the Air Mobility Command Museum! We did a cross-out activity to decode Delaware's state motto. 

Finally, we did a neat art project, inspired by the beautiful beaches of Delaware. Their project was called Sand Art Bottles, but we used a different material. Can you tell what it is?

Sugar Sprinkles Art Bottles

Materials:

• small transparent bottle or jar with lid
• sugar sprinkles in various colors
• funnel

Steps:

Wash and thoroughly dry the container. Place the funnel in the container and pour a layer of sugar sprinkles in. Repeat with another color, tilting the funnel to create variation.

Keep adding layers. There's no right or wrong!

  

When the container is full, remove the funnel and add the cap. Admire your work for as long as you want, then use it to decorate cookies or cupcakes! It's lots of fun to see what colors fall first as you pour or shake the sprinkles onto a treat. 

Thanks to Little Passports for another fun and educational virtual voyage!

Tissue Paper Advent Wreath

Yesterday was the first day of Advent and the first day of the church year. I love the season of Advent, even if it drives me crazy that so many people mistakenly think we're currently celebrating the Christmas season. (If you haven't read my rant about Advent and the Twelve Days of Christmas, take a moment to do so.) Anyway, Happy Advent!

As he's gotten older, Trevor has started taking a more grown-up role in church services, including reading the lessons in front of the whole congregation. But he still loves the first job he ever did during a church service, which is lighting Advent candles. Starting at age 4, he has had the privilege of lighting the Advent candles at least once each year (depending on how many other kids wanted the job too). Even at age 11, it's one of his highlights each December. I was inspired by Trevor's love of Advent to make and display this wreath.    

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Tissue Paper Advent Wreath

Materials:

• cardstock (green, white, purple, pink, yellow, and red)
• multiple shades of green tissue paper
• scissors
• white glue
• small circular punch

Steps:

Start by cutting the green cardstock into an oval shape. Tear the darkest green tissue paper into roughly 1" pieces. Squirt glue onto half of the oval. Using one piece of tissue paper at a time, scrunch it up and stick it to the glue. 

When one half is filled in, add more glue and finish the second half. Don't worry if you can still see cardstock. 

Tear the next lighter green tissue paper into pieces. Dot glue randomly on top of the darker green tissue paper and add the lighter green pieces. 

Tear the lightest green tissue paper into pieces. Dot glue anywhere that you can see the green cardstock showing through. Add the tissue paper to those spots, or place it randomly if the cardstock is already covered. 

Hold the oval vertically to make sure everything is glued down. 

Use the white, purple, and pink cardstock to make candles. I chose to make the Christ candle twice as wide and a bit taller than the other candles. I put the candles approximately where I wanted them, then cut them to the length I liked. There's no right or wrong. You can even make four candles the same color, leave out the Christ candle, or otherwise alter it to fit your denomination's traditions. Cut thin strips of white for wicks and glue them to flames cut from the yellow cardstock. 

Glue the flames to the candles, then glue the candles to the wreath. Nestle them down amongst the tissue paper greenery as best you can. Finally, punch small circles from the red cardstock and glue the circles in groups of three to make holly berries. Tuck some behind the candles to show that they're evenly spread throughout the wreath.

 Technically, an Advent wreath would not be completely lit until Christmas day. One option for your wreath, and the one we are using, is to fold back each flame until the appropriate day. Then unfold it to light one candle each Sunday (purple, purple, pink, purple) and the Christ candle on Christmas day.

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This Advent craft gives me a good excuse to promote my book, currently on sale. It makes a wonderful gift for Christmas. Thanks for your support!

Christmas Card 2017

This is our family's 2017 Christmas card. I am ridiculously happy with it. 

My sister-in-law took the photo of us during our nephew's wedding, then I designed the card using PicMonkey. Each of the colors is pulled from the photo. The blue background is the same as Trevor's shirt. The red is from his tie. The darker blue is from Steve's tie, and the greens are from the trees behind us. The card was really fun to make, and easy too. And I think it looks better than the ready-made templates that are available online. I uploaded the flattened image to Costco.com and got 50 cards for $15. Custom cards for 30¢ each? Quite a bargain!