This post is actually from one yer ago today. I put it together for a different blog that I no longer update. I am no longer using the same camera and no longer a nanny. Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas! I hope everyone has a wonderful God-filled day today. The months leading up to today, I had been looking forward to getting a real camera for Christmas... but I will have to wait another year to improve my blogging photography skills. The closer we got to Christmas, the more my husband and I realized that we were too wrapped up in the consumerism celebration of Christmas, or really, the consumerism lifestyle in general. I am surrounded by stuff and more stuff that I don't actually need. I want things to be different, and I can see how they need to be different for me to live out God's plan for my life, but it's a lot harder to do than it is to say. Small steps I guess. My small step right now is giving up my Christmas gift. Instead of the camera I knew my husband was planning to get me, my husband agreed to let me have the money for that gift to go to any cause I wanted. I wouldn't tell this to brag- there's really nothing to brag, I am a very selfish person in general, and it is a small step- but I still feel the need to share how wonderful this has been. I have been given so many blessings, and even though I'd always known "it's better to give than to receive", it has never felt quite as true as it does now. To give something up, a real thing that I wanted and craved, to provide for someone else- it has made me realize how little I know about what makes me happy. How badly I need to forfeit my will to God, because He knows so much better than I do what is good for me and what will make me and others happy. It's not possible that the camera could have filled me with this amount of feeling that the act of giving it up has... and that's not even counting the benefit the money can make to the someone(s) who need it. So... right. Merry Christmas. God Bless. Now on to crafting:
For my brother's birthday I made him "Homerazzi Yahtzee" (pronounced Homer-AHT-zee). The picture on front and the characters on the dice come from the Simpson's episode entitled Homerazzi. I bought a plain wooden box from Hobby Lobby. I used tracing paper to get the picture and words on the box. My husband gave me his old soldering iron, which I used for wood burning. After a while of being on, the soldering iron got too hot, so using a real wood burning tool is probably a safer idea. I used an inexpensive gel wood stain sold at Hobby Lobby. I chose the lightest color they had, and wiped it off as quickly as possible. I would have preferred a lighted color so the wood burning would show up better, but oh well. I finished by coating the entire box with clear acrylic spray.
Inside the box I included a Yahtzee scorepad, ($4.00 at Walmart) a red cup, ($1.00 at Walmart) and character dice. The dice are little wooden blocks (available at Hobby Lobby) painted white. On each of the 5 five dice I picked Elton John to represent 1, Martha Nephew for 2, Capital City Goofball for 3, Captain Lance Murdock for 4, Paul McCartney for 5, and Duffman for 6. I used some thinned out white glue to affix the pictures to the dice. After they dried, I wrote the appropriate numbers in the corners of the dice. Voila!
I also made a Yahtzee game with my afternoon nanny family. They made a Thanksgiving/ Pirates of the Caribbean version. One set of dice had all thanksgiving themed stuff, one set had characters from Pirates of the Caribbean. Jimmy (age 9) really enjoyed finding pictures online, cropping pictures, and designing the cover of the game. Pinky (age 7) used her wonderful painting skills on the box and dice. I did not even attempt to do wood burning with them. I can only imagine the state their fingers would be in afterward. I love creating holiday stuff with the kids because by the time the initial excitement of the creation has passed, the item has already been packed away to return next year. Then when it comes out of the box a year later, the excitement is back.
Slice 9 one-inch strips from your 12x12 scrapbook paper. (you should end up with a few inches left)
Leave 3 strips at 12 inches, on 3 of the strips cut off 1 inch, on 2 of the strips cut off 2 inches, and on the last strip cut it down to around 4 1/2 inches.
Twist and staple 8 of the strips as shown. The smallest strip should be stapled in a circle shape. This will become the center loop of your bow.
Staple the 3 biggest loops together, evenly spaced, as shown. The magazine bow tutorial uses glue dots, but it wouldn't hold well for me because of the stiffness of the paper. 
Repeat for the next 3 loops.
Repeat for the last 3 loops.
Attach your 3 sets of loops together. I used Elmer's glue here because I couldn't get the stapler to fit in the bow. I had to hold the bow together for a good 5 min for the glue to set. This turned out to be the most time consuming part of the project, and I'd love to hear any suggestions anyone might have.
Voila! I love the way bows turned out when I used double sided paper. so much more interesting to see a bit of color or pattern inside the bow instead of just plain white. I know it's hard to see, but the subtleness is what I love about it.
