New Project.....??

Thanks to those that guessed at our latest little project. You all were pretty good at guessing that our fun project is an advent calendar! But this is not your normal advent calendar where you open a little box for each day. My friend Carmen just did a beautiful one based on Beate's demo at SCS though. But getting started late and not really wanting to find yet another storage spot for a Christmas decoration, I opted for a new idea. The reds and I are making 24 advent TAGS that will fit onto a metal ring that will be attached to this little yard sale suitcase. The girls will get to pick out the tags they want to make, maybe 1-2 each day, and then we'll add all the tags to this ring when we're done. The tags are all the same size and feature 24 different patterned papers. The only rules are that the tag must stay the same size and must feature a countdown number on it. The prizes, lessons, blessings, etc will be inside the box. I've made a list of fun things for the girls to do and little prizes. I'll list some from mine in the days to come as I'd love to keep showing you our tags as we progress. In the meantime, I'd love to hear what special things you do with your advent calendar since I'm new to this. I want to have fun with it but I also want the girls to be reminded of the reason for the season and to be thankful for our blessings and to help others out that are less fortunate. Here's a close up of my first tag. I just love being able to create one little piece of artwork like this. No pressure, no guidelines, no deadlines.....just something fun to get the creative juices flowing. My favorite part of the tag is the wet look to the numbers. I inked white chipboard letters with red Brilliance ink then added Ranger Glossy Accents on top. Such cool stuff!

Okay, I'll be back soon with some more tags....hopefully the girls won't have much homework and we can work on some tonight. I'm off to light a nice cozy fire so dear hubby can warm up after deer hunting. And......I just got my goody box from Karen Lockhart and it's full of all the new stamp images that were just released at Ellen's online store. They are SO CUTE, I must stamp with them soon or I'm gonna bust!

Oh and please visit one of my BFF's blog by PINE (Heather Nichols). She is doing her 3rd annual Christmas book. I stalk her blog daily to see her new creations. She's so awesome......and she loves winter, go figure! If you leave a post tell her I sent you!

The post below was from earlier in the day. The stuff above was added later:
Hi everyone, it's colder than a well digger's behind in Kansas this morning!! Brrrr, somebody bring over the hot chocolate!! What was supposed to be a nice relaxing morning of letting my girls sleep in and I'd take them to school turned into a big mess. I got a flat tire from a chunky gravel road and it ruined my brand new tire! DH called our tire friend guy and he made a house call to change the tire! Woohoo for Todd the tire guy, he's getting a plate full of cookies this year!! Good thing I made it home before the tire went flat tool cuz I was in a tshirt with no bra, coffee cup flannel jammy pants and pink and black fuzzy paw print slippers. THAT would not have been a good sight walkin' up the road!! And no cell phone! Snort!

Okay onto today's post! I have supplies all set out here for a fun new project I'll be working on with my reds (my girls). Can you guess what it is? I have this old red travel case I bought at a garage sale this summer, lots of patterned paper and stuff to make numbers. I worked a little more and made all of these below.........
And this is a basket of supplies that the girls and I get to use. Buttons, brads, ribbon, red and green inks, punches and a few stamps and some Stickles.......we can't use anything outside of this basket for our project.
Soooooo, do you have any ideas yet? It's something to do with Christmas time. I'll let you make some guesses while I go sub this afternoon. I'll be back to show you my first completed **???*** And for making a guess you get...........well, you get nothin'..........but I thought you'd have fun playing along! LOL!!! I'll be back later so come visit me again this afternoon!!