Screen Printing Craft Night at Oh Happy Day!

Last weekend I attended a screen printing class at Oh Happy Day. There were 20 of us excited participants packed into her adorable studio in the Mission in San Francisco. We started off with introductions, received a delicious boxed salad from Green Heart Foods and given a goody bag on our way out after our class. 

Andy Kane gave us the perfect introduction to screen printing and taught us how to do it ourselves.  Jordan and her team had several presses set up with images already to go and then we got busy! We were given a t-shirt and a tote bag to print on and most of us had brought other items as well...cotton dish towels, onesies, even colored paper.  We got a kick out of taking pictures in the old fashioned photo booth, too.  

Thanks Oh Happy Day for a an amazingly fun and productive experience in screen printing!

Goody bags, lunch and minted water and lemonade were ready for us at the front door 

Look at all our fun printed items lined up to dry on the floor downstairs~

Great message painted on the wall next to the photo booth~

I made several tote bags for gifts and t-shirts, too.

Loved the goodies we got to take home!

Homemade Christmas Advent Calendar

Advent calendars can be such a fun part of December! I remember loving the anticipation of opening little "somethings" that were tied on rings to a beautiful embroidered Christmas tree that my mom made when I was younger.

This year, I felt inspired to create an advent calendar with small inexpensive gifts for my kids to look forward to opening together (some years I'm not as inspired to do this kind of thing, but this year I was...you know how it goes!)    I used a photo collage frame my daughters already had in their room. It had three rows of jute rope that were normally used to hang pictures which were perfect for hanging plain white lunch bags with mini holiday clothespins (found at Michael's craft store). These kind of bags could also be easily strung from a pretty ribbon stretched across a wall. Here are great free printable numbers that I used to mark the bags.

Even though my kids are teens, they have really enjoyed opening their little daily surprises.They wait to open the bags until they are all together at some point in the day and that can be tricky sometimes with their schedules.  Surprisingly, my son (who is 18 years old today!) just told me how much he has loved the tradition of our advent calendar which totally made me melt because this will probably be the last year I will be making an advent calendar for him...our kids grow up so quickly, we've got to savor the time we have together when we can!

You could even start a 12 day advent calendar today (if you are feeling inspired :)

A few ideas for what to put inside~

1. A Christmas movie your family can enjoy together 
2. Candy canes
3. Minty M&M's
4. Silly Puddy (my teenage kids still get a kick out of it!)
5. Holiday window decals
6. Crafting kits
7. Notes suggesting an activity, such as "Bake cookies with mom and bring some to our neighbors",  "Put on pj's, fill a go-cup with hot chocolate and drive around looking at xmas lights tonight", "Give a gift card for Starbucks to a homeless person"
8. Gum 
9. Pencils
10. Socks
11. Treats for their lunch like caramel popcorn or  Pocky Sticks
12. Toothbrushes :)

July 4th Decorative Banner

I think colorful banners of all sizes can make a wall or window festive for a variety of fun occasions like birthdays and parties. Susan Branch made a cute patriotic paper bunting  (which you can buy here) that inspired me to create some decorations to celebrate our country's birthday. We are lucky to have the opportunity to live in the USA and showing our patriotism is a perfect way to emphasize our appreciation for all the freedoms we are able to enjoy here.

All you need are three different colors or patterns of card stock, some bakers twine and a glue stick. Cut multiple diamonds about 5½  inches long, fold in half and glue along twine. You can hang your mini banner in a window, on a mirror, or wherever you want a little festive touch. I made some for our cabin in Tahoe and they were the perfect decoration for 4th of July!

All the materials you need to make a fun, decorative banner

Mini patriotic banner on our back door

My cute parents on July 4th in Tahoe with mini banners above the doors in the kitchen