Merry Christmas 2024!

Happy holidays from the deRosier family!

 

I will be taking my annual blog break and will return on January 1. Wishing you a wonderful holiday season.

The Best of 2024

Each December, I go back through all the projects I've made that year and pick out my favorites. It's a lot of fun to see everything I've made over a 12-month period. I almost always find that by the time December rolls around, I've completely forgotten what I made the previous January!

This was an unusual year, in terms of my crafting. First, my cancer diagnosis and treatment significantly reduced the amount of time I spent making stuff. I took six weeks off from blogging over the summer, which is potentially 30 projects that I otherwise would have made. Second, this year I've done a lot of posts that are travel-related (in addition to my usual trip reports). They include things like Fun Facts About US Airports and the State Name Quiz, as well as this book/puzzle review of Subpar Parks. I've focused on travel roundups, too, like the ones about the best Black History Museums or my favorite quirky museums. Finally, I've shared 38 (and counting!) pages I've colored using different art materials, which was time I wasn't making kids crafts or scrapbook layouts. 

With all that said, let's take a look at what I did make, starting with my favorite kids crafts from 2024:

Crayon Melt State Fruits

Atari Breakout Name Art

Salt Dough State Flag Heart Magnets

Grieving Tree

Cowboy Boot Craft

Mother's Day Fingerprint Magnet

Robin Diamond Art Ornament

These are my favorite scrapbook layouts from 2024:

A Taste of New Orleans

Grad Nite

Land (check!) Water (check!) Sky (check!) 

Licensed Driver

Congrats, You're An Aggie!

Celebrating 52 in Chinatown

Brayden's Adoption Announcement

I'm looking forward to seeing what 2025 brings, creatively speaking!

Fireplace Christmas Ornament

Part Two of my Pinterest challenge was to make a craft inspired by something on my Christmas Crafts and Gifts Pinterest board. I chose a super cute fireplace ornament by I Heart Crafty Things. I made a few tweaks and came up with this:

 

This is the original: 

As you can see, the basic concept is the same. I replaced the cardstock logs with mini craft sticks, which I decorated to look more like logs. I colored the main part of the fireplace like bricks and left the mantel wood. I shrunk the stockings significantly, added a third, and wrote in names: Trevor and his cousins, Timothy and Allison.

Below you'll find a tutorial that includes the changes I made. Definitely check out I Heart Crafty Things' detailed tutorial; Caroline includes a video plus photos for almost every step. And, of course, she is the original artist who came up with the idea. Affiliate links below. 

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Fireplace Christmas Ornament

Materials: 

• craft sticks (8)
• mini craft sticks (4)
• Folk Art paint (brown, red)
• cardstock (black, red, white)
• fine Posca pen (white)
• tissue paper (yellow, orange)
• Scribe-All pencil (white)
• colored pencil (brown)
• craft glue
• twine

Steps:

Paint three of the regular craft sticks and all of the mini craft sticks brown. Paint the remaining five regular craft sticks red. 

While the paint is drying, cut out the cardstock. Cut a black square that is approximately 4" and set it aside. Cut out however many stockings you want. Write the names on the stockings with the Posca pen, then glue white trim to the main part of the stocking. Tear the tissue paper to make flames. 

When the paint is dry, use the white Scribe-All pen to draw three lines down the length of each of the red craft sticks. The lines don't need to be perfect - freehand is fine. Then draw short vertical lines to represent the mortar between the bricks. Use the brown colored pencil to draw arcs at the ends of the mini craft sticks, as well as woodgrain along their length. 

Arrange four of the brick-painted craft sticks vertically to form the sides of the fireplace. Lay the final brick-painted stick across the bottom of those sticks and glue it in place. Then glue the remaining standard craft sticks side by side across the top. Allow the glue to set for a few minutes.

Glue the black cardstock to the back of the fireplace, then glue the tissue paper in place. Arrange the mini craft sticks over the tissue paper at the bottom of the fireplace. Glue the stockings to the mantel. 

Cut a length of twine and glue it to the back of the ornament to make a hanger. 

Winter Thank You Cards

One of my creative goals for the year is to try at least four Pinterest ideas: a craft, a recipe, a scrapbook layout, and a card. I needed to make a set of cards to use as this year's Christmas thank you notes, so I decided that was the perfect opportunity to get inspired by something on my Cards and Card Sketches Pinterest board. 

 

This is what I made:

Winter Thank You Cards (affiliate link)

And this is my inspiration: 

 

I really like this farm-themed card by Kristie Marcotte. Not only is it eye-catching, but it's a great way to incorporate a lot of different patterned papers and a fantastic way to use up scraps. I can definitely see myself using this design again. 

The paper I used for my cards is from a really old collection: Winter Song by SEI. It's so pretty, but I've struggled to use it over the years. It has some papers with large focal images that I tend not to use for layouts. Since I had the paper out anyway, I decided to finally cut into them to turn them into cards. Here are some of the additional cards I made:

I need to go through my older patterned paper and see if there are other papers I'm not using because of large focal images. I can always use more cards. 

St. Lucia Day Star Boy Hats

St. Lucia Day is a Swedish tradition, celebrated each year on December 13. It commemorates the martyr Lucia of Syracuse, who brought food to Christians hiding in Roman catacombs, lighting the way with a wreath of candles on her head. The modern celebration features a procession with Lucia, trailed by handmaidens, star boys, and gingerbread men. In addition to being the bearer of light, Lucia brings treats. These include gingerbread biscuits and S-shaped saffron buns. 

Many Lutheran churches in the United States celebrate St. Lucia Day, either annually or occasionally, on the Sunday closest to the 13th. I remember having celebrated it a handful of times in my childhood. On Sunday, my church will be celebrating St. Lucia Day, for the first time in many years. I was in charge of making the hats for our four star boys. Affiliate links below. 

St. Lucia Day Star Boy Hats

Materials:

• white poster board (one sheet makes two hats, 18" tall)
• scissors
• Treasure Gold paint
• binder clips
• hot glue
• yarn (I used the kind with gold tinsel in it)

Steps:

Tie the end of a piece of string to a pencil, then cut it so that it is 18” long. Hold the loose end of the string at one of the corners of the poster board, then use the pencil to draw an arc extending from one edge of the poster board to the other. If you need more than one star boy hat, repeat the process on the opposite corner of the poster board; it is large enough to make two hats. 

Cut along the arc. Draw or trace stars onto the center of the hat, then draw a 1.5" border along the arc. Fill in the stars and border with Treasure Gold. It will take two coats, but the shine is well-worth the effort. 

When the paint is dry, it is time to coerce your poster board into a cone. It doesn’t want to become a cone, so this is a little tricky. Once you get it into position, use binder clips to prevent it from springing open and trying to un-cone itself. Apply hot glue along the length of the seam, then remove the binder clips. 

Your star boys will keep their hats on with two pieces of yarn tied under their chins. Cut yarn into 12” pieces. Put a 1” line of hot glue on the inside of the side of the cone (where a strap would go) and place a piece of yarn there. Repeat on the process on the other side to make the second strap.