Christmas Advent Calendar

Rachel at One Pretty Thing has been doing a bunch of Christmas themed round-ups, pulling together nifty projects she's posted for past Christmases as inspiration for getting started now. It did inspire to draw a Santa head and make an advent calendar.
The calendar works like those fliers you see posted on community bulletin boards. Print it out at 8x10 on a sheet of paper, trim the edges, cut up the lines. If you pre-fold each tab, they will be easier to pull off.
I also included a transparent PNG with the numbers and words that can be used for your own designs, so if you're an avid digital scrapper, you could make a personalized version using your digital scrap sets and photos from previous Christmases. Click on the images for larger versions.
The font used is Bolton by Paul Lloyd.

Links and stuff

Rachel at One Pretty Thing keeps finding the best of the best links. Really truly. Like miniature caramel and chocolate apples. We got apples and caramels and we are using cut down skewers  instead of lollipop sticks. (My Homespun Threads- includes a printable bag topper)
Or Edible eyeball eggs which just thrill me on so many levels. (A Bit of This and A Bit of That blog)
And this free pattern for a bat is so cute it's just irresistible. (Whosies)

Speaking of bat patterns, I have one here for this crocheted bat. Works up super fast and also works well in thread. My son has a tiny thread bat on his keyring.

We are planning to make dry ice ice cream this weekend, and possibly frozen hot cocoa using the same method.

Still working on a collection of shortbread recipes that will be available as an e-book in the next couple of weeks. My family is starting to get sick of shortbread I think.

Pretty little cards

I love One Pretty Thing's collections of inspirational links, and I like the idea of one pretty thing. The idea just got stuck in my head. I like doing little pretty things for my family and loved ones, and one of my favorites is little cards that are unexpected. I have an "I love you" note stuck to my monitor that my daughter left on my keyboard one day.
So with those two thoughts in mind, I made up a template for an atc sized envelope and card, then I had to decorate them.
Science is always inspiring to me. My husband and I watch Nova and Nova Science Now pretty regularly, we read science magazines and physics books together. So using a quote from Carl Sagan seemed like a natural to me for this project, but I included a blank card and a completely blank template. I hope you like them.
As usual, click on the images for the full sized version.