Easy Jingle Bells

Our school was participating in a Christmas parade and the kids wanted to sound "jingly" while walking the route.  I thought about making a small jingle bell wreaths for them to hold, but sometimes life gets busy and there's no time.  Especially when the kids ask for something last minute.

I had already been at the store and bought some bell ornaments (for what?  I don't know... something made me buy these) and I already had the jump rings at home. 

It really doesn't get any easier than this:  hook the jump ring through the bell and attach it to a jacket zipper.  Done!!!

If you have extra time and patience, you could also hook in some smaller bells and make what the kids call, a "Mickey Mouse".

Sometimes crafting doesn't have to been overtly complicated.  I love the fact that these went onto the zippers (all 4 of them) and I didn't have to hold anything.

In the end, the kids got to sit on the float so there wasn't much jingling going on.  Afterwards, they met up with Santa who was very kind, and spent quite a bit of time chatting with his two little elves.

As I write this post, I can't help but hum...  Jingle bells, jingle bells...

DIY Ornament Wreath

I made this wreath in under an hour with the help of my two little monkeys. I have a beautiful wreath that my mom made years ago, but I like to keep that one inside the house vs outside.  This year, we haven't had any snow yet but I really do like the look of red on white for Christmas.

I had seen this wreath at Ikea  but didn't like the colours. 

Photo Credit:  Ikea Canada

So, I went to the Dollarama and armed myself with a bunch of red Christmas ornaments.  I chose some small ones, some medium ones, and some patterned ones for texture.  I then took an old dry cleaning hanger (white), opened it up, bent it into a circular form, and had the kids insert the ornaments from both ends.  When the ring was full, we twisted the wire back up.  I also added some gold ribbon to the top to cover some of the hanger as I ran out of ornaments.

Here it is from street view:

So easy and a nice addition to our front door! 

Happy decorating!

DIY: Remembrance Day Poppy Conversion Updated

It's been 3 years since I posted a DIY Remembrance Day Poppy Conversion.  Now I have 2 kiddos going to school with poppies and hoping they don't poke themselves OR someone else.  We like to support the Royal Canadian Legion by purchasing a poppy from one of the cadets at the mall.

I've made a small modification to my previous tutorial to allow the kids more independence.  The safety pin was hard for them to put on.    The solution?  Flat-backed pins. 

The method to attach is the same as before.  Just remove the long pin, glue the black centre back onto the poppy and sew on the pin. 

It's so fast to do and will keep the poppy on a shirt for more than a day.

Honouring Veterans is #OurDuty - click here for more information on the Royal Canadian Legion

Lest we forget,