I almost forgot... ($65 Winner)

...to announce the winner of the $65 CSN stores gift card!!

The lucky person is #14 - KARI!!! She said:

i follow via gfc (shining2save)
kari(at)shining2save(dot)com

Woohoo for you Kari! Maybe you can pick some puzzles up for your son. On a side note, I love puzzles! Here's a puzzle for all of you to figure out where I will be spending my New Year's Holiday...

I want to wake up in that city that doesn't sleep

Happy New Year and thanks for reading RHCMF! See ya next year, my friends!

PS: Thanks CSN stores! It's always such a pleasure to work with you!

Merry Christmas to You!

Merry Christmas!!! There was no time to send Christmas cards this year (must have been crafting too much- oops), so I quickly made this picture up. Have a great day!

Bird Ornament

This past Thanksgiving, my Aunt had a great idea for a craft that the family could do to remember my Grandma. She gave each of us a bird ornament (the kind that clips on to the tree).

We removed the old tail feathers of the bird by gently pulling them out. Then we replaced them with feathers from an old hat my Grandma used to wear. We used glue to make them stick where the old feathers had been. I love how it turned out and it is an extra special way to remember Grandma at Christmas time this year.

CSN Stores $65 Giveaway!

In honor of my 700th follower and because Christmas is just around the corner, I have been shopping around the CSN stores for you, my friends. Yup, that's right, I have been looking at flat screen TV stands, cookware, shoes, you name it!

I am so thankful for all of the wonderful people who read my blog, that I thought it would be fun to do a giveaway with the lovely people at CSN stores! So, whether you save this $65 gift card for yourself (after all that hard Holiday work, you do deserve something nice, right?), or guarantee yourself a spot on the nice list by buying something for someone else, CSN stores has it all!

So thank you for reading my blog and for being so nice when you leave comments and for making me feel special all the time! You really are so sweet. XOXO.

GIVEAWAY

For a chance to win a $65 gift card to CSNstores.com, simply become a follower of Red Heads Craft More Fun blog and leave me a comment telling me you follow (don't forget to include an email address so that I can find you) (current followers can leave a comment and let me know you are already following).

Want more ways to win??

• Visit CSN stores and leave me a comment telling me what you would purchase if you had an extra $65.
• Like/Fan Red Heads Craft More Fun on Facebook
• Follow Red Heads Craft More Fun on twitter (RedHeadsCraft)

Please leave a separate comment for each entry

The giveaway ends Tuesday, December 28 2010. The winner will be chosen by random.org.

Open to U.S. and Canadian residents only.

PB Glitter Birds

PB had some adorable German Glitter Birds this year!

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Even though they weren't expensive, my Mom and I still decided we would try to make our own version. I warn you, this gets very messy. Like Kindergarten-hands-covered-in-glue-and-glitter messy. Very. Messy.

Find a package of white birds in the wedding section of JoAnn's or Michael's. (Don't forget to use a 40% off coupon!)

Use spray adhesive to coat the birds, (we left the clips on and all). Then sprinkle glitter all over them. Turn them and reapply glue and glitter a million times.

You might need to scrape the beak and eyes after they dry to clear away the glitter. Touch them up with a black permanent marker. Then you have an adorable bird for your Christmas tree or a PB inspired Apothecary Jar.

PB Christmas Apothecary Jar

I told you recently that I had one more Pottery Barn knock-off to show you. This one has a few components to it. First, you need to find an apothecary jar. I got mine at Michael's with a 50% off coupon. My mom found hers at JoAnn's with a 50% off coupon. We both got them for around $14. That already beats the PB priced version at $69.

This was our inspiration picture straight out of the PB manual, er, I mean catalogue.

Next, you need to glitter some birds. The "German Glitter Bird Vase Filler" at PB weren't really that outrageously priced, but the principle of the matter is you can't just order them when you can make them yourself. I will write a tutorial on how we made ours and try to get it up later this week.

Then you make the cute little "Paper Music Star Vase Filler." This is easier said than done. Permission granted to just buy the darn paper stars at PB, I mean seriously, mine did not turn out half as good, and my time was worth more. But my Mom and I had some awesome laughs at how our "Epic fails" turned out. And you know who was actually good at making these? The hubster! Yup, you heard me, he saw me doing some "origami" and he took one try and his turned out way better than mine! (There will be no tutorial on how to make the paper stars. I went to this website and tried my best. Best of luck to you there!)

Then you throw it all together and wish for the best. Now if only I had mad PB photographer skillz to know how to photograph my version with perfect light so that you could see perfectly into the glass jar.

I also added a cute white velvet ribbon bow to the top of mine.

The star shaped glitter ornaments with all the points on them are from Walmart. $1 each, so I figured it was worth it instead of making them.

Moral of the story is that this one might have been better off left to the professionals (aka PB), but I took a good try. Happy Holidays!

PS: If I feel like it, I am going to link to these parties, will you please join me?

Cranberry Vases

Every year my Mom puts out her beautiful Christmas decorations. One of my favorite decorations is probably one of the easiest to make. She buys a bag of cranberries and uses some of her glass vases that she has around the house.

She puts the cranberries in the vases and adds water, then tops it with a floating candle. A very simple, yet beautiful holiday decoration.

Christmas Tree with Vintage Buttons

My Mom has a GIANT collection of buttons! A lot of them are really cool vintage buttons. This year, we decided to make button Christmas trees.

We started with frames and painted them bright red. Then cut out scrapbook paper to use as the background. Place the buttons in the shape of the tree and the scrabble tiles for the base. They are so simple and cute!

I will be linking to these parties this week. Happy holidays!

Holiday Memo Board

Remember my memo boards that I've decided to re-do for each holiday and season? Well, here is my Christmas one!

PS: I made one of these for my Secret Santa at work and I also thought it would make an excellent teacher or neighbor gift! Go here for the tutorial.

New 'Do

What do you think of my new blog makeover? Kelsey over at Kreated by Kelsey was the Mastermind behind this beautiful, warranted re-do. She was SO nice and easy to work with and made everything go smooth as butter! Woohoo! I do hope you enjoy the new look.

Feel free to grab a button (it's over on the left-hand side)...

...and let your inner *Red* soar!

PB Inspired Rattan Star Christmas Tree Topper

I have been inspired a lot lately by a certain catalog with the initials PB. However, I am never inspired by their prices.

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I love this beautiful tree topper, but for $29.00 plus s&h, I don't love the price. My tree needed a new topper since I added this to it, the old topper just didn't quite match the theme.

Source

Off to Michael's I went to pick up these supplies. PS: Use a 40% off coupon on both and it will be golden! You can make this for around $6! You're also going to need a bottle of hot sauce- lol. I decided that I didn't want to add the berries and greenery to mine, but it would be so simple if you want it on yours!

Here is a close up of the wired twine (this stuff is pretty cool).

I cut a piece of the wired twine and began wrapping it at the bottom of the star to provide the stability for the tree topper.

After the star is stable, begin to wrap the twine around the hot sauce bottle (any other bottle will work).

Every so often, I used a vertical loop of twine on the back of the topper to help stabilize and keep the "circles" of the topper together, otherwise they kind of want to bounce apart. Look closely at the picture below, the first eight circles of the twine have a vertical loop twisted around them. The other piece of twine is being worked through the bottom half.

Here is the "messy" back of the topper with the vertical loops.

Let the topper sit overnight to form its shape to the bottle.

Then place the topper on your tree and sing a song about how much money you saved and how awesome your tree looks.

If you like my PB inspired Merry Christmas banner above, click here to see how I made it.

I will be linking to these parties this week. Be sure to check back next week when I hack one more PB inspiration!

Shattered Ornaments

So last week I began putting my Christmas tree up. The hubby and I have a tradition of watching Muppet's Christmas Carol and putting out the decorations. However, this year, we decided we would put the tree in our front living room. This means no Muppets and no help from hubby (he was busy working on a few things of his own). Things were going great, but I must mention that I was having the type of day where you injure yourself repeatedly (stubbed my toe, hit my funny bone, bumped my head, etc). I was just thinking about how lovely some of my ornaments are and what great memories they bring, when CRASH!

Bye, bye ornament. At this point, I just wanted to cry. Do you get attached to your ornaments like I do? It really made me think about traditions and ornaments and how a lot of Christmas trees tell a story.

My husband and I pick out an ornament every year. We date the bottom and hang it on the tree. It's a tradition my mom started when my brother and I were born and I used to get SO excited to pick out my ornament every year. It is fun to look back at some of the ones I picked out and remember the things I was doing at that time in my life. There are Barbie ornaments and lambs and ballet shoes and teddy bears and so much more. At least this particular ornament wasn't one of our "special" ones, but it still hurt to watch it shatter.

I cleaned up my ornament and told my husband I was giving myself a time out. At which point the dog ran under the Christmas tree and decided she had to use the Christmas tree skirt as her puppy pad. Hopefully that will not become a yearly tradition.

What are some of your holiday traditions?

Merry Christmas Banner

I have been eyeing this garland from a certain (over-priced) store with the initials P.B.

(Source)

Here is a zoomed out version. So pretty. So expensive.

(Source)

I knew I didn't have enough room (because of this) to make a whole garland, so I just made a banner instead. Besides, it's easier to make and doesn't take as long.

I also switched mine up a bit and used some old music I found at Goodwill for .49 cents. I used my Cricut Schoolbook cartridge to cut out the letters in black.

Cut a sheet of music in half (hot dog way) and glue together at the seam.

Use the same Cricut cartridge to cut the scalloped edges. If you don't have a Cricut, use those fancy-schmancy scrapbooking scissors instead! Glue it all together.

Set up your Christmas tree and place the banner on it. (Never leave paper on the Christmas tree with the tree lit unattended, I would hate to have your craft (among other things) go up in flames. Yikes!)

So pretty. So NOT expensive.

Just wait till you hear what happened when I started hanging the ornaments on the Christmas tree... At least my banner is pretty! I am going to link to these parties this week.

PS: I am linking this to the Christmas Craft Contest at Poppies at Play. If you like my banner, head over there and vote. Thanks!

XO,