Fstop Memories

Jesse Tree

Papertrey October Blog Hop

It's time for our annual Holiday Hop!  Show us your best upcoming holiday plans for cards, gifts, wraps
or whatever else you have up your sleeve!  With everyone's cumulative efforts the participant list will be
an amazing resource!

 

Last year my family started the tradition of the Jesse Tree to help keep the focus of Christmas on Christ our Saviour. This year I wanted to create a box and some new ornaments that hopefully will last for a few years.

 

I wanted to keep the ornaments simple but elegant. Though I will have to draw some of the symbols I have found quite a few stamps that will work.

 

In case you are wondering what a Jesse Tree is it's an advent tree that takes you on a journey through the Bible starting with creation to the birth of Christ. It's a family tree of sorts showing the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Each night in December we read a passage from the Bible, talk with the kids about the connection it has to Jesus and pray. We then hang an ornament on a tree branch.

If you are looking for more information on the Jesse Tree here are a few sites I've come across.

Jess Tree.com

RCA Discipleship

Jesse Tree (when I save up my pennies I'd like their Heirloom set) 

 

Thank you for stopping by my blog. Enjoy the rest of the blog hop. If you are not visiting from the Papertrey blog hop you can find more Christmas crafting goodies here.

May your week be filled with peace, love and joy!

God Bless and Happy Creating!

J@

Thoughts and Prayers

This is a quick post. We are busy, busy at the new house painting and removing carpet....but I wanted to share a project I made last week. This went out to a friend that has been dealing with a great deal of physical pain lately. I just wanted to let her know that she was in my thoughts and prayers.

Supplies used: Stamps;Verve and Stampin' Up. Paper;K&company and Papertrey.Ribbon; Papertrey and Flourishes. Ink; Papertrey

Hope you all are having a wonderful week! Happy Creating!

J@

Gift Card Holders

Here are a few fun gift card holders. I got both patterns from Nov/Dec  Paper Crafts magazine.

Products: Basic Grey Paper and stickers, Papertrey ribbon

Products: Basic Grey paper, Papertrey ribbon, cardstock and Silent Night

Here are direct links to the patterns I used. Both were quick, easy and fun to make!

Stocking

Ornament

My family and I just returned from a trip to Shippensburg, PA. We took a little house hunting trip that was very successful! In February we will be moving because Frank will be teaching ROTC at Shippensburg University. I will have more on our trip later in the week. Until then have a very blessed day!

Happy Creating!

J@

Working on Christmas

I know it sounds crazy that I'd be working on my Christmas gift list this early. However I am determined to make the majority of our gifts this year and Christmas is less then 10 weeks away! In an effort to keep things simple I'm creating gifts each family can enjoy together rather then individual gifts.

Some of my siblings will be getting set similar to this one:

All of our family lives in other states. So, I though instead of just filling the book with recipes I add some of my favorite photos of the kids from this past year.

Products used: Papertrey; First Fruits, Summer Sunrise ink, cardstock & ribbon, Dark chocolate ink, cardstock and ribbon, Father Knows best paper. Stampin Up Linen 6x6 ring album and naturals ivory cardstock.

The kids and I are off to enjoy a fall fest our community is putting on. I suppose I should shower and dress.

Enjoy your weekend! Happy Creating!

J@

Pumpkin Poop

I made these quick and cute little pumpkins for my kids teachers. Inside the little felt bags are Cello bags with chocolate covered popcorn mix. I traced the rounded Cello bag shape on two pieces of felt and stitched. Quick, easy and ready to stuff with goodies!

Products used: Orange felt. Papertrey Spooky Sweets, Spring moss ribbon, ink & cardstock, vintage cream cardstock,Palette noir black ink, Stampin up black cardstock and pumpkin pie ink.

Chocolate covered popcorn mix:

air pop 1/2 cup popcorn kernels

Remove unpopped kernels

Melt 1 bag of Wilton Candy melts in your choice of flavor and color (I used 1/2 bag of orange and 1/2 bag of dark chocolate).

Mix melted chocolate into popcorn.

Place on wax paper to dry.

I'm a little snowman round and fat

 

Papertrey has put out a challenge this month to share your holiday inspired projects. Thanks to all the great products this company has been producing my head has been full of holiday ideas. I'm so excited to share with you the gift set I created using Made of Snow.

In my former life I was a preschool teacher. Now I am a proud Mommy to two preschoolers. I often pull out the file folder games and finger-plays that I used as a teacher to entertain my kiddos. My project is a traveling game set. This particular set is intended for my three year old. While working on this project I have jotted down ideas for an advance version for her older brother.

 

Here is a closer look inside:

This is the build a snowman folder. It comes complete with three hats and scarves to mix and match.

(Please forgive the dark blotches on some of the photos. I'm not sure what happened. They are not on the project.)

Here is a pattern matching game.

And this final folder is my favorite. It's songs and poems with finger puppets I made.

 

This little set is great for holiday travel or quiet activities in church. I also thought about putting in a small ziploc with white play dough. It's also a good idea to laminate the items to give them some longevity.

Hope you have enjoyed your visit here at Fstop Memories. Enjoy the rest of the Blog Hop!

Happy Creating!

J@

Jack and Frank

When I saw the cute terra cotta jack-o-lanterns my friend Chris made I knew I had to give it a try. Unfortunately the day I went to Wal-mart they were packing up the lawn and garden area. No terra cotta to be found. Ugh!

So I got some inexpensive plastic pots and some orange spray paint. I knew I wanted the kids to help so I had them help me cut out the face pieces. We used some glittery foam from their craft supplies. I also grabbed a few green pots and made Mr. & Mrs. Frankenstein. I think they turned out pretty well. Thanks Chris for the great idea!

Have a great weekend and Happy Creating!

J@

Let it snow...let it snow...let it snow

My son's preschool is having a Fall Fest fund raiser. One of the activities is a silent auction of gift baskets. Each class has a theme (his class is doing Snowmen/winter). They ask for the parent to bring in items to fill the basket. Here is what I worked on this weekend to contribute.

 

I decided to keep it simple and just recreate things I've done in the past. The snowman soup template can be found on Nichole Heady's blog here.  All cardstock, ribbon, stamps and ink are Stampin up. The pattern paper is Reminisce.

I used a homemade cocoa recipe for the tin. So, I thought I'd share it with you.

Mix together:

5 1/3 cups of dry milk

1 cup of Nestles's Quick

1/2 cup of dry coffee creamer

1/2 cup powdered sugar.

Add 1/2 cup of mix to 2/3 boiling water and cool with milk.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Don't forget to leave comment on the previous post for a chance to win my idea book giveaway.

Happy Creating!

J@

JAFA

Today's project is a simple piece of framed art I made for my kitchen. I used the first initial of each family members name. For those of you who know me from Splitcoast it's also part of my SCS name (cupoJAFA). I really like how it turned out. I used a light canvas fabric as my background, some of my favorite ribbon and voila!

 

Most products used are Stampin' Up: Baroque Motif, Priceless ("kissed" on the monograms), kraft cardstock, chocolate chip and real red ink. I'm not sure about the doted and red ribbon. The coffee cup stamp is Inkadinkado. You can always click on an image to get a closer look.

Enjoy your weekend! Happy Creating!

J@

My heart in a box

Here is one of the mini albums I started working on towards the end of my 30 day challenge. It's filled with images of a weekend getaway my husband I took on his R&R in April (Thanks Mom and Tim!). There is journaling on the opposite sides of the photos about how much I cherish those alone times with him. Which turned into mushy gushy thoughts of how much I love and adore him. This mini album was for me...for me to create a piece of art that expressed just a smidge of what my heart feels.

The clock is a photo I took. I printed it on mulberry paper and decoupaged it. Products used are mostly making memories. The felt flowers are Stampin Up.

 

Here is a peek at the inside.

Happy Creating!

J@