Recycled castle gift or goodie bag

Here is a fun little gift bag I created. My son loves it so much that he took it off my craft table and ran off with it. He occasionally reappears swinging it by the top string. I think it is perfect for a small gift or make multiple for a goodie bag.

Materials:

4 empty toilet paper tubes

1 paper lunch sack

pen

scissors

hole punch

about 2 ft of ribbon

Directions:

cut top notches of paper tubes, be sure to have an even number of cuts
fold down every other tab

cut a vertical line 3/4 way up each tube
turn 1/4 turn and make parallel cut
draw castle walls, windows and drawbridge on bag

keep in mind about an inch out from the corner will be covered with the

cut 1 inch in from each corner where there is a natural horizontal fold in the bag

thread the paper tubes through the holes

fill bag

fold upper corners of bag down so the overlap

fold top corner down

punch 1 or 2 holes through overlap

1 hole - feed the middle of the ribbon through the hole then bring the ends through that loop creating a closure for the bag

2 holes - string each end of the ribbon through a hole and tie closed

paper beads

My son wanted to make a necklace for his stuffed animal. He wanted to use my glass beads. I compromised and we made these lovely paper beads and strung them together for his stuffie.

Materials:
paper - magazines or newspaper ads work well
round chopstick
glue stick or white glue
paintbrush is using white glue
wax paper
scissors

Directions:
cut paper width way in about 3" lengths
use a length of wax paper as a place mat to keep from gluing paper to table
start rolling 1 corner or edge onto chopstick
spread glue on rest of paper. I used watered down white glue. that was too hard for my son so he used a glue stick.
continue rolling, be sure edges are well glued
slide paper tube off chopstick
repeat
let dry
when all tubes are dry, cut in 1/2" - 1" lengths
string together for necklace or garland

This would be a fun activity to do during winter break. Also could string together a garland to decorate the tree.

organic u-cut tree

Braved the freezing cold to cut our tree this year. I was grateful that the ground was frozen instead of ankle deep mud. But my new daughter was confused and grumpy. I think this is her first experience with freezing weather. She would hold out her hands or a foot scream like she was being stung. So we picked the 3rd tree cut it down, strapped it to the top of the car and were on our way. Oh yeah we paid for it too. Last year we got a funky tree for a very good price. This year we got a normal noble.

We went back to the organic u-cut tree place we got our tree from last year

orange display

One of my favorite things about winter are Satsuma Oranges. The fragrance sprayed when peeling reminds me of the wonder and joy I felt as a five year old pulling a satsuma from my stocking.

I fill my vase and by the end of the week it is empty and ready to be filled again.

See vintage post for how to...