This is basically your Christmas Bucket list. 25 days till Christmas with 25 new things to do every day! This is perfect to go along with the Christmas Advent calendar you should have made! (previous blog post)

Every day you do one of these things tell us about it. Take a photo, post on Instagram (#PenBladeChristmas) You will see our journey as well! Alright so here is your list

1. Give a friend a small and simple gift
2. Hang mistletoe
3. Random act of kindness
4. Bake cookies for a neighbor
5. Zoo Lights
6. Have a Snowball Fight
7. Donate a toy
8. Make a Christmas tree ornament
9. Listen to Christmas Music allllll Day
10. Write a letter to Santa
11. Go sledding
12. Make a Gingerbread house
13. Drink hot Cocoa
14. Make Snow angels
15. Read Christmas Stories
16. Go Ice Skating
17. Sit by the fire
18. Take a picture with Santa
19. Build a snowman
20. Watch Christmas movies
21. Wrap presents
22. Wear an ugly Sweater
23. Drive around in your pjs, looking at Christmas lights
24. Leave cookies for Santa
25. Remember what today is all about

So there you go! That is your wonderful list of 25 things to do with your loved one, your boyfriend, your family, your girlfriends, Doesn't Matter! Just do it and have fun!

Merry Early Christmas!

p.s today is giving a small gift. So head over to our Etsy shop and buy a triple get a single for free! 
Ends 12/1 @ 11.59pm

Christmas Advent Calendar

You know those chocolate Advent calendars? Well they are great and all but wouldn’t it be better if you could make your own? I will go step by step and show you how to make your own amazing Christmas Advent calendar! YAY!

Materials:           

Metal sheet as your backdrop (You can even use a metal flat cookie sheet)

Tin cans (we got our from pick your plum)

Triple pack of PenBlades (DUH)

Lots of Christmas Craft paper

Sticker Numbers and letters (countdown and the letters December)

A Cricut (If you don’t have one, you can still do it! Just give yourself more time)

Glue dots or strips

Washi tape (not totally necessary)

Ribbon

Magnets

Hot Glue

Once you have your base measure it out and see how many squares you can fit across it. Mine was big enough I could fit 5 down and 5 across. Yes, you’ll need to do all 25 days! I was lucky enough to have 25 different colored/patterned papers. But please, make it your own! Be creative! 
Create a template for your squares depending on how many and how big you can make them to fit on your backdrop. Then whatever tins you have trace those and make a template for your circles. They also have square tins too. So take your pick or get whatever you can find.
 

Use your template and your #11 PenBlade to cut your squares and then your #10 or #15 to cut your circles. With your tins that you get, trace that and just have the whole circle cover the container.

With my card stock I cut the square and circle on the same page right next to each other. Use the #11 blade for your squares and the #15 or #10 for your circles. Those have an easier time with curves.

Once they are all cut out, glue the circles onto your containers using the glue dots or strips. Hot glue could work but it will make your paper uneven.

Then place your squares however you would like them and use the glue strips attach them to the base.

Next I used Washi tape to make a grid line. It breaks it up a little nicer and adds sparkle!

Now grab your magnets and hot glue those to the back of your tins and let those sit. It’s surprising how long it takes a magnet and hot glue and metal to all stick together.

So now you have your base finished and your tins almost finished. Now for the top DECEMBER part. You have a few options. 1. You can buy some blank tags and add your letters to them or 2. You can cut out your own tags.

All right once you have your tags cut, place your sticky letters that you got before onto the tags and then grab some ribbon and thread it through. Then glue strip those on your backdrop as well. All right, now stick everything in its place. Add your magnetized tins to wherever it looks good and then you’ll add your sticky day numbers to each tin. These stickers were a pain in the butt! So I used the #10 blade to help get the stickers to peal from the sheet and strategically place them straight on the tins.

 Well, Congrats! Now you have your Christmas Advent Calendar!

So cute I know.

Soon to come is a list of things you can put inside your tins!

M.I.C.K.E.Y M.O.U.S.E

In honor of mickey mouses birthday I have decided to make a super easy craft for your little girls hair! Its seriously so easy. 

The things you will need are:
one sheet of black felt
hot glue
a barrette

See that? How simple is that list? Okay well you also need to find some circular shapes around the house to use as a template.  So go find an circular object that is about 1in. in diameter and another with about a half in. in diameter. The big one will be the head, the little one will become Mickey's ears. 

Trace 4 head sized pieces on your felt and 8 ear sized pieces from the felt.  Once they are all traced begin to cut them out. The easiest way I found was using a PenBlade. The number #11 was my favorite for this. It is able to cut through felt so easily. You'll see. 

Alright now for the instructions:

1. Grab a head circle and place a drop of glue in the center then fold the circle in half
2. lay a different head circle flat and glue the half circle you just made on half of the flat circle
3. Grab a third head circle, glue in center, fold in half, then glue in center of the half and fold in half again. (should make a quartered circle)
4.  Place a glue drop on the center of the flat head circle with the half head attatched, and stick the quartered circle in the center so the folds stick up
5. Glue your last head as you did in Step 1 and glue on the other side of the quartered circle as you did in step 2.
6. You will Repeat steps 1-5 for the ear circles.
7. glue an ear to each side of the head
8. Now glue your Mickey Mouse to the barrette

 
Boom! Cuteness has arrived!! It may sound a little complicated but just read the instructions a lot and you'll be fine. Now your girl or even yourself can wear a cute little mickey mouse hair barrette anytime you want!

Cleaning that fridge of yours!

Happy national Fridge Cleaning Day!

Please come forward if you created this day! I would like a word with you! Seriously though, who created this day?! I want to ignore this day like the plague. But I’m sure if I didn’t clean my fridge it would probably be able to cause the plague.  Cleaning your fridge may seem like a daunting task but fear not! This blog post will save you!  

Alright So first off give your fridge a break! You think YOU never get a break? Your fridge really doesn’t! So lets give it a break while we clean it.

Get a cooler and place all your contents into it, Make sure they say cold! While your taking everything out look at all of your food! 

Go through these questions as your place each thing into your cooler:

Has it expired?

Does it smell funny?

Are you really going to use it?

Then find your circuit breaker or fuse box and flip it off. Your fridge will thank you later.

Get the shelves and drawers at a good room temperature before you wash them.

First things first, DO NOT USE SOAP. The scent can stay behind and then your food will absorb it...Gross.  So mix 2 tablespoons of baking soda and 1 quart hot water. Grab a sponge, a NEW sponge and start rubbing down the entire fridge. If you have those annoying spots just get some of the mixture and layer it on soon it will crack off. If it doesn’t try a little clump of toothpaste!

Clean the walls and the door. Don’t forget the shelf seams and the rubber door seal!

Make sure everything is dry. The drawers, shelves, and walls!

Find the water filter. You should be changing this every 6 months. If you’re a slacker like me it happens when I do this fridge cleaning once a year! So find it and replace it.

When you’re ready, turn your fridge back on. Make sure it’s a good 37 degrees.  As you are putting everything back into your fridge get a damp towel and whip down every bottle as it goes back to its place!

BOOM! Congrats! Your fridge is now clean. Easy huh? Well just make sure you do it every year for a good ol’ deep clean.

We Give YOU thanks

Alright All. I finally decided to finish the We Give thanks project. You all helped me decide what background and then I went to the store, grabbed a frame and then cut it down. Whala!? Is that how you spell it? Anyways, like what ya see? I do too! Here are the instructions again on how to make it just in case you are too lazy to go to our previous post. But really, Just go look...
Fine. Here you go.

Come up with a saying. It could be simple with 3 words or very very simple with 1 word or you can create a sentence. But beware! Your cursive has to be on point! Ha I lied. I do a mix of cursive/normal curly letters. But you DO need to have all the letters connect! Oh and try to avoid the letter i. It’s a pain because of the stupid dot. So some examples: thankful, give thanks, we give thanks (this is the one I used), we are thankful, blah blah blah create your own! Realizing as I typed this I chose the only one with the letter i. If you can figure out a way later tell me!

Okay, grab a piece of construction paper and computer paper and make sure they are the same size. 

Give them each a one-inch boarder around the sides.

Then grab your saying and write it out. Have the letters connect all the way across. Once you’ve got your letters laid out just go and make ‘em fat! Nice and thick letters=easier slicing. 

Take your construction paper and have the good side facing the table and the “ugly” side facing you. Lay down your pencil writing of your saying kissing the ugly side. Make sure they are centered and straight. Then grab a pencil and scribble over the lettering that way the pencil rubs off onto your “ugly” side of the construction paper. It will be backwards and this is what we want!

Once it is all rubbed off, grab your cutting matt and start. You basically trace your wording and deleting the background image. Be calm and go s   l   o   w. If you mess up, your cute little project will be not so cute. There you go! Just use the #15 blade to go around the curves and when you get to a sharp little corner use the #11 blade and make a precise cut. You’ll be fine. Trust me.

 

We Give "unifinished" Thanks

Warning! We Give Thanks project is unfinished!

What?! You say? Well yes I know I have it almost finished. I just couldn’t decide on one little tiny part of the project. So…I need your help! 

p.s. Soon you will realize that taking step by step pictures is not my strong suit. Maybe its because I find projects to be self explanatory once I see the picture of the product. So I guess you will have to actually read words this time as opposed to just looking at the picture.

Okay so thanksgiving is coming up and we don’t have many decorations for that season. Sometimes we just leave the Halloween ones up a little longer. So, I decided that we could create a picture. It can go on your counter or on a wall or even a desk. Where ever you would put a picture frame. I also wanted to use a blade that I haven’t used a lot of…the #15. But I also used the #11 for the super pointy edge!

Come up with a saying. It could be simple with 3 words or very very simple with 1 word or you can create a sentence. But beware! Your cursive has to be on point! Ha I lied. I do a mix of cursive/normal curly letters. But you DO need to have all the letters connect! Oh and try to avoid the letter i. It’s a pain because of the stupid dot. So some examples: thankful, give thanks, we give thanks (this is the one I used), we are thankful, blah blah blah create your own! Realizing as I typed this I chose the only one with the letter i. If you can figure out a way later tell me!

*Okay, grab a piece of construction paper and computer paper and *make sure they are the same size. 

*Give them each a one-inch boarder around the sides.

*Then grab your saying and write it out. Have the letters connect all the way across. Once you’ve got your letters laid out just go and make ‘em fat! Nice and thick letters=easier slicing. 

*Take your construction paper and have the good side kissing the table and the “ugly” side facing you. Lay down your pencil writing of your saying kissing the ugly side. Make sure they are centered and straight. 

*Then grab a pencil and scribble over the lettering that way the pencil rubs off onto your “ugly” side of the construction paper. It will be backwards and this is what we want!

Once it is all rubbed off, grab your cutting matt and start. You basically trace your wording and deleting the background image. Be calm and go  s...l...o...w. If you mess up, your cute little project will be not so cute. There you go! Just use the #15 blade to go around the curves and when you get to a sharp little corner use the #11 blade and make a precise cut. You’ll be fine. Trust me.

Okay so this is the part I need YOU for. It’s the background. I narrowed it down to two different backgrounds so help me.

Once you all help me choose, I will post the finished project up!     

National Dessert Day

Today HAS to be one of the greatest days! National Dessert Day! Who doesn't love desserts? If you are one of THOSE people who doesn't shh keep it to yourself. I don't want to know!

Anyways, My favorite dessert is Strawberry Shortcake. Super Simple, and Super Scrumptious.  (did you notice all those S's!)  This dessert actually is my Dad's favorite. He wants it for his birthday cake and his father's day cake every year. When I was younger I soon began to love it just as much as he does! p.s father's day is in June, his birthday is in July and so is mine! that is now 3 Strawberry Shortcakes in a two month period. That's pretty Stupendous! It is now something that I request my mom to make whenever she can. Also my grandma makes a mean shortcake and her cream is Spectacular! My mom has of course taken over the recipes so i can enjoy them more frequently. And guess what!? Just for you on this Special day I will Share with you the recipe.

Okay so my new favorite way to do Strawberry Shortcake on cake side is to go to Costco and buy the pound cake muffins or the angel food cake muffins I can't remember which. It's so smart!

Get your lovely Strawberries and wash 'em nice and good and cut the tops off. Then get a chopper. I use the one from The Pampered Chief. Or just go old school and use a chopping knife. Then cop those Strawberries! I like when it's not perfect because I get the big chunks and I get some juice too!

Now it's time for the CREAM RECIPE! mmm.. yummm.. So delicious. But you have to promise that you will keep this recipe a Secret (: Yes I know I just published it to the internet but still shhh... Alright the granny/mom recipe from their notes:

I usually use about 1/2 quart of heavy whipping cream, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and 3/4 - 1 cup of sugar. Make sure that cream is very cold!  You whip the cream and add sugar to cream quickly so the cream isn't granular in texture. Add vanilla and whip until desired texture.

Very specific huh? Well if you are not a baker like me it's not a whole lot of help. But you may have to try it a few times. My mom told me that to some people this may be a lot of sugar but HEY that's what makes it good!

How to assemble your glorious cake: So you take those yummy muffins and cut the muffin in half the horizontal way, that way you can almost make a muffin sandwich with yumminess inside! Then you place a layer of the Strawberries on top of the bottom muffin then add some cream, then put your muffin top on and add some cream and then a few Strawberries on top for beautification purposes. Now I understand some of you will be disappointed in that I didn't show you my final result but hey, I get too excited for it and eat it right away! So you can just deal with looking at someone else's photo!

Anyways enjoy your yummy desserts today! Eat Lots! Call your grandma or your mom and bake something with her!

- A