Thanksgiving Craft Explosion

So I have been up to crafty no good... yet again. They are just fun easy things that the munchkin and I have been doing together. Last week when we went grocery shopping we went to the commissary and as always we end up with about 15 paper bags, I usually use these paper bags for the kiddo to draw, doodle, paint or just play with but this time I thought why not try to upcycle them into a craft? I must have stood there for at least 15 minutes trying to figure out what I could use them for that I hadn't already done... and then I got it! I thought, how about a Thanksgiving leaf bunting?! Sounds pretty cool so far right? Basically I just took the same maple leaf pattern as I use from the craft where I made a felt window decoration (which my neighbors just happen to LOVE... I have gotten sooooo many compliments on it, you should see their faces when I tell them how much it cost me to make it LOL!) and cut out the pattern on back side of the bag (the one that doesn't have the ads on it for militaryonesource.com) you can get about 4-5 leaves on there. After cutting out each leaf I then glued some fall colored glitter on the front of each leaf out lining the leaf and then wrote out 'Happy Thanksgiving" on the front with a sharpie. Now here comes the craft FAIL part... as I stood there and hot glued each leaf to my wonderful, yet again useful, hand dandy fishing line, I thought to myself this is gonna be pretty cool... until I flipped it over and realized I placed each damn leaf backwards (which would have been ok had we had Thanksgiving in Japan, where they read right to left!) I then proceeded to smack my forehead and give a great big Homer type of DOH! while my hubs snickered from his spot on the couch. At this point I had already had the sign up and cleaned up my massive pile of glitter mess (did you know that glitter is a real pain in the ass?) and then it occurred to me... why not just paint over the sharpie letters and then paint in new letters? Heck yes! So there I stood like Michael Angelo painting my buntin up near my dining room ceiling for about 20 minutes. It goes to show though, even with a craft FAIL you can still make it work. ;)

The leaf bunting after I corrected my FAIL :)

A close up, if you look at the lower left corner of the G you can see just a bit of the sharpie letter shining through still... thank god no one will be this close while looking at it... at least I hope no anyway... But on the back the munchkin and I both wrote all the things we were thankful for. Among the things she wrote were; Daddy, Mommy, Both sets of grandparents, Her friends, The Air Force, Her toys, Her room, Her Cape (yes, the one I made her) , and of course Batman.

Today the munchkin and I decided we would make Thanksgiving Thank You cards for the Airman that will be coming over for dinner. Just something for them to know we were thankful for them to come to our house, have dinner and spend a little time with us. I know it can't be easy being away from family and especially during the holidays so I like to do what I can for them to make it just a little easier. Though nothing can make up for being home for the holidays but I do hope they will have a good time with us. After all isn't that what Thanksgiving is all about?

The front of the kiddo's card. We made hand print turkey cards for each both Airman.
She is soooooo excited that we are going to have "new friends" over for dinner, and I'm so proud that she is eager to spend time with them. I hope her generous nature stays with her always.

What she wrote on the inside to each of them.

This program which is "Home away from Home" is sponsered by the Chapel at Keesler AFB and really is a great program, if you ever get the oppertunity to do something like this for someone in any branch, I urge you to try it... nothing will give you a better feeling of hospitality :)

And finally... my Thanksgiving wreath! That cost me a whopping $3.00 (including the over the door hanger!)

All the materials used for this came from the dollar tree store. Yup, even those pretty, shiny, sparkly gourd's. Its really easy to make too! I had left over fall leaves from my Halloween Candelabra project and I just hot glued them to the wicker wreath that I bought then I hot glued the gourds on top and... Wah-la! Instant Thanksgiving wreath for your front door! ;)

A little close up of the shiny sparklies... say it with me... oooh ahhhhh... LOL!