Snow Man Handprint Ornament

My MIL & Baby B made us a super cute gift this year! A snowman hand print ornament!

I LOVE how it turned out, and it was pretty easy to make. The only tricky part was getting a legible - er, distinguishable? - hand print from Baby B. :)

She used a dark blue ball ornament as the base & used white acrylic paint to make Baby B's hand print on it (kind of wrapping around the bottom, so the fingers reach up the sides towards top). Which was about a 3 person job, I believe! She said a black sharpie was perfect for making the eyes, mouth, and buttons on each snowman, and she used colored puff paint to add hats and scarves to each little finger. She also wrote his name and the date on the bottom so we can remember when we're old. :)

Super cute, right? Do you have a favorite hand print ornament?

Christmas Jammie Jams

Sometimes Pinterest lies. Can I get a "Boy Howdy"? This is one of those times. After seeing all those posts about how easy it is to make pajama pants, I was all like "Hey, I'll just whip up some special Christmas jammies for the whole family!" Oh. My. Word.

I started with a trip to Joann Fabric for some fuzzy flannel. The Christmas prints were 50% off so it was about $2.50/yard (I think). Cute, right?

Then I "just turned a pair of pj pants inside out and traced them onto the fabric." You know.  Like easy and magic and stuff. Then just pin the pieces together, sew it up, and wa-lah! A wonky pair of pants-ish. Just like that. Sigh. I ended up declaring N's red pants and B's moose pants "the learning pants" and buying new fabric to start over.

The good news is the new fabric gave me a chance to make super cute matchy pants! (notice how I picked plaids lots of and stripey fabrics? Fail.) Plus I got the fabric on black Friday for 75% off. That part was a win. Except that I had already bought fabric once so really it's still a fail. But who's keeping score? Anyway, I finally ended up with a decent pair of pants for each of them.

And then I spent a while trying to get a picture that good. ^ And ended up with a lot of this:

And these:

I also pulled off a pair for myself. I'm still not sure what I was doing wrong most of the time. The legs came out all twisty on the first two pairs, so I lined them up a little different the second time around and it turned out okay. I still wouldn't say great. But if anyone wants to take a swing at the tutorial I tried (and please. please tell me how to do it) it's at Dana Made It. And for the record she has very successfully made pants. So..... let's not draw any conclusions from that, k?

In the end, we did enjoy the pants very much and wore them ALL DAY on Christmas. To the family parties and everything. It was both fun and comfy.

I'd love to hear your successful pants tips, or your biggest Pinterest fail!

Snow!

Baby B fix! Again! It's like my Christmas present to you. ;) This time, we observe Baby B breaking in some new snow toys....

"Come on, Mama! Let's shovel!"

"Where did I leave that shovel?"

 Run away, RUN AWAY!

Cheeser.

"Hey Da! Wait for me!"

Getting a nice big scoop. But then he can't decide what to do with it. So....

...he gives it to Da da!

Sweeter than ice cream!

Uhhhhh... not so sure about this whole sled thing...

He actually had fun, I promise. This was a happy squeal. He's not crying. Promise.

There's the smile! As soon as the Daddy stopped Baby would say "more! MORE!"

The Da da threw a snowball at Baby B!

"Oh no you di-n't!"

Bracing for another snowball.

Look out Daddy, he's got your number now!

The wind up...

... and the throw!

Daddy helped him make an itty bitty snowman. He wouldn't throw it. He decided it was too precious. :)

Been having any fun in the snow lately? We did... but seriously. I'm ready for summer now. Bring on the heat!

Footprint Ornament

More late Christmas projects - woot! ;) This one was an idea from a friend for making a footprint ornament for Baby B. It's nice and easy, just the way I like it.

We started out with some polymer clay (originally $1.99 but after a 40% off coupon only $1.20). I picked a plain white because I thought it would look good with my decorations. My friend said she did two feet with green clay and used some red clay to add little berries so it looked like a holly sprig. Super cute!

I used my rolling pin to roll it out. Baby B's feet are bigger than I thought, so I had to roll it kind of thin. Next time I'll buy two packs!

Then I got Baby B to step on it. He was a very willing participant, but we had a hard time making a good imprint because the clay is pretty stiff. I had to push his foot down to leave a mark.

Once we got a print, I used a paring knife to trim the edges down and make a nice shape.

I used my fingertip to round off the cut edges so it would be smoother. And I used a straw to poke a hole in the heel for hanging.

Next was baking. There actually weren't any directions on the package (weird?) so I asked my good friend Google and came up with 10 - 20 minutes at 275 degrees. I started with 10 minutes and that was perfect for my footprint, but a few smaller things I'd cut out of my left-over clay came out brown around the edges so cut the time down if you're doing smaller pieces.

After it cooled I wrote Baby B's name & the date on the back with a sharpie, strung it on a piece of raffia, and hung that baby on the tree.

I'm a little undecided about the polymer. It was hard to get more than a faint print (I know with salt dough I could get a much more defined imprint) but the print I got is SO detailed, you can see every little wrinkle in his toes (which wouldn't show up with salt dough). So maybe I'll do it again, maybe I won't. :) All I know is I'm really happy to have another reminder of how little Baby B's feet are. I know I'll love it when he's all grown up.

Let's talk! Any favorite polymer projects? Or a fun way to make memories with your kids? Or a favorite keepsake you have from a child who's all grow-ed up?