No mantel? No problem! The stocking tutorial on making and hanging those socks for Santa.

Stockings hung by the chimney with care? Not in this house of crafty loons. 

Christmas is slowly approaching and to me this is the saddest week. Soon all the fun crafts, food, and that joyful magic will evaporate and we will have a long wait until the next Santa season. 

Lets make our stockings. God bless black Friday at Jo Annes Fabric! They had comfy fleece for $1.49 a yard. We went to Wal-Mart, Toys -R- Us, and Target that morning and nothing was as brutal as all the vicious ladies in the fleece section going bonkers. We picked half a yard of fleece for each Scaff. It was fun picking the prints according to personality.  You'll also need some white felt for the cuff.

I free handed a basic stocking on paper, but if you want yours super perfect there are loads of free patterns online. Trace, cut, and sew. 

I just drew a rectangle for the cuff and hot glued it to the stocking after I turned it right side out. 

Don't forget your little tab for hanging! If you are really loading your stockings you might want to sew in place of hot gluing. I sewed the stocking but I really LOVE my sewing machine and I get kinda hissy about sewing thick materials, crafty and crazy persons problem. 

Now as you saw above we hung our stockings in a different way, so like the perfect dress this outfit needed some accessories. These were also black Friday finds, with coupons!

Even though I would have loved to take 3 hours and paint these perfectly, kids love to help and be included. Since this would be something meaningful to us I wanted it to be made by MY greatest creations. 

I just put some paint on a paper plate and let those creative fingers do their thing. Nothing makes a kid happier than showing off what they made all by their selves.

Even the baby got to paint a bulb in her choice of color; orange. What a cute Christmas Elf.

So as I said before; no mantel, no problem! We went adventuring and found this cool branch. A few nails and ribbon to secure it to the wall and some push pins to hang the stockings on, and we ended up with a piece we are all proud of. 

It is much easier to buy these things, but it is defiantly not cheaper or more special. My kids get such a kick out of explaining whose stocking is which to our visitors, and they take tremendous pride in knowing they helped!

Thanks for reading! Merry Christmas!

Scrap Fabric Christmas Tree

Got a fun and easy one for you tonight. I saw this FABULOUS set of lights made by a talented girl on a blog and had to try her technique. Whiteney Caroline Desings did this but used ribbon, I am far too conservative with my ribbon (two beautiful girls with beautiful hair need all the hair bows this mama can crank out) so I used some scrap fabric. 

All you need is some scrap fabric or ribbon and some Christmas lights. I think you should use mini lights because they don't get as hot, and during the Christmas season fire is this Poor Badgers biggest fear. 

You basically just cut you some strips, the length and width is all determined on how you want it to look, I liked the shaggy look so I think I cut mine 7 inches long by 2 inches wide. After you cut your strips just tie a plain knot onto your lights. Easy as pie. 

By the by, the star that you saw was made by my oldest badger. She is turning out to be a super crafty gal and I wouldn't trade her not a gosh darn thing. Notice the hair bows on her head? That is where I got the fabric for this project, from some old yo-yo hair bow projects last year.  Poor badgers craft on a dime.

I used my strand of fabric lights to fashion myself a little tree to place in the house that could have used a little extra light. I used thumbtacks (we are planning to paint in the Spring anywho) to fashion the outline of the tree and my sissy cats star made the tree just poop.

Thanks for reading and I hope everyone is enjoys the blessings of our saviors birth as much as the Poor Badgers are. Merry Christmas! 

Meet our family elf; Alabaster Snowball!

Oh how my kids LOVE this new Christmas tradition called Elf on the shelf. I wanted to blog about this in time for you to adopt your own family Elf. Christmas is about celebrating the birth of our savior, but I really feel strongly about incorporating fun family traditions that foster imagination and family bonding.

First you need to go adopt your own Elf. These are pricey, around $30 a kit. But you only have to buy them once and thankfully we got ours on Black Friday with a 10% discount and a $5 off coupon. Book stores,  pharmacies, Target, and Hallmark stores carry them. They come in this cute box that you save each year to announce the coming of your family Elf!

Your kit comes with a story book you can read to your kids explaining the story of the scout elf. In a nut shell the second you first get your elf home you must name them, that is how they get their magic. Then read you kids the story and let the magic happen. 

Santa needs help figuring out what kids are good or bad, so these scout elves watch your family. Once an elf joins the family, they are bonded for life. Once the holidays begin the elf you had last year reappears at your home with his book and he/she begins taking note of the kids.

Every night once your kids go to sleep, your elf uses its magic to fly to the North Pole and tell Santa all the good things and bad things they did for the day. Then your elf zooms back home before morning and hides in silly places. It becomes a game to see who can find the elf first and see what silly thing your elf did. 

Only two elf laws; elves can only listen to you. They will take note of what you want for Christmas and relay the message to Santa, but they can not talk back. The second is VERY important; if you touch the elf it will lose its magic. No more flying to Santa. Proudly I can say that after a month, no Scaff kid has touched our Alabaster. 

Our Elf is Alabaster Snowball, he is a Southern Gentlemen with a pension for the ponies. He enjoys the formalities of a polite and proper phone conversation but also is frisky and likes to do some very wonky things.

One morning we awoke to this bit of cheekiness. We blocked the number. We think this was a bit of elf revenge. 

On Christmas Eve night, your elf leaves your family for the year. He joins Santa and his buddies but will return promptly once the Christmas season comes back around.

We love that our family has adopted this proper little trouble maker. Alabaster Snowball has made this month so fun and it will be sad when he leaves. There is a website that lets you share the stories and pics of your elf; elfontheshelf.com.

Thanks for reading! We hope you have enjoyed Alabaster as much as we do. 

Poor Badgers first product review and first lesson on being a DIYer!

Yea! Excited to do this and I want to just jump right in. One of the main principles of Poor Badger was to be crafty on a dime. God Bless Martha Stewart, but we all can not afford her craft supplies. So I am excited to do this product review to let others know some of the crafting tricks of the trade.

I'm going to take a moment and say very loudly; 'God bless spray paint!' If you haven't visited the spray paint isle, you have no idea how things have changed. Spray paint is not just for men, it comes in WAY MORE colors than it did 10 years ago, and the quality has changed by leaps and bounds. 

Spray paint has become the new DIYers trick of choice. Wood, plastic, wicker, glass, and almost any other surface type can be spray painted. There are also spray paints that replicate mercury glass, various metals, and gravely textures. 

We found this wonky wicker stand at a yard sale for $1!!! I used the Krylon from our local Wal-Mart (around $4). Make sure you clean any surface before you spray paint it, and also do the spraying outside. We don't need you sniffing the funny fumes.

After just two cans, our one dollar find became the cutest stand for Gumball the underwater hamsters cage. Visit your local Goodwill or yard sale and buy those pieces of furniture that looks neat and hit it with some color. Best DIY tip you'll find!

The next review is for the Martha Stewart acrylic paint line. You can find them at Micheal's craft store. They cost around $3 per bottle and you can ALWAYS find coupons for the store or Martha products online or in her magazine. 

I found these at the same store for a buck and wanted to use them as my tester. I thought copper would look nice.

In addition to the crosses, we found this picture of Jesus at a yard sale for $1. The frame was in poor shape and had stickers all over it. I knew with some DIY TLC, it would turn out nice!

So over all I give the Martha paint a good paws up. It did require a few coats, but the bottle was still pretty full after I painted all three crosses and the frame. Her color selection is to die for and the price isn't that bad. (But in all honesty I had coupons, I would probably not purchase any without a coupon)

The Krylon also gets a good paw up because of the low price point, HUGE selection, and the ease of use. 

Not too shabby! Besides the product review I really wanted this to be a helpful craft lesson. Goodwill, flea markets, and yard sales are the BEST places to find things for your home. Now you know how to spiff it up, infuse it with YOUR style, and help the piece fit into your home with either spray paint or acrylic paint. 

Thanks for reading!

Crepe Paper Ruffles

Got a super easy project for you. It cost only two bucks and is something you can do in less than an hour. This is a craft that has been HUGE this year in the craft world, and I thought I'd take a swing at it and use it for toddler and puppy friendly Christmas tree garland. 

You'll need two or three rolls of crepe paper in two different colors. I'm using this nice cherry red and apple green I found for a buck a piece at the yellow dollar store (when you live in a sleepy town like ours you'll have a red dollar store and a yellow dollar store). 

For thread choice you'll need any all purpose thread in either a contrasting color or the same color as crepe paper. You'll also need to set your tension setting on your machine to the highest setting possible.

You'll also need to turn your stitch length setting to the highest setting. On some machines and brands of crape paper this will be enough to create the ruffle, but on this one I had to also hold the thread at the top of the machine tight to create the ruffle. The material is cheap enough you can play around. 

Now you just lay the paper on top of each other and sew as normal. Like I said above, you MIGHT have to hold the tread at the top with one hand making it pull tight to ruffle. 

Keep sewing! My crepe paper was 81 feet long, so it took a while. But oh what fun it is to sew!

When you are done you'll have the cutest crepe paper ruffle perfect for birthdays, baby showers, prom, or any other celebration. 

Our house has two toddlers, a baby, and a new puppy. So I thought this would be a fun and safe garland for those who can not keep curious hands off new things.

We are not quite done decorating the tree yet, but I think it is coming along. Apple green, cherry red, and turquoise are my favorite Christmas color schemes. 

This would be the perfect time to introduce the craft world to the newest Scaff, Daisy. She is a Weimaraner and is already a full member of the Scaff clan. 

All three Scaff kids thinks she is the greatest thing since sliced bread. She was an anniversary gift for my husband a few weeks ago (our seventh year of marriage!), but the kids have claimed her as their own. God has blessed me with the perfect family; a great husband I've known since middle school, two beautiful and crafty daughters, one precious son who thinks his mom hung the moon, and now the perfect family dog.

God is good and I hope many blessings upon you this Holiday season as you celebrate the birth of our Savior.

Thanks for reading!

Wreathing Nuts!

Okey dokey smokey, I know that it can be quite offensive to Tom turkey when we still his gravy and thunder, but women who take Christmas decorating seriously need all the time they can get. So giving my condolences to the bird, but Poor Badger is kicking off the most coveted time of the year for craters with a wreath.

First lets start this off with a MAJOR tip. Instead of spending $10 or more on foam wreaths at your local craft haunts, go to Lowe's and in the plumbing section find foam pipe insulators. I got a 9 foot tube for only 97 CENTS! I cut it in half and now I have two wreaths for pennies compared to the foam wreaths. When you cut them in half just tape the ends together, duct tape would work better, but a Poor Badger uses what she has. Also the 1/2 inch wide tubes seem to bend better then the 1 inch wide tubes.

While grocery shopping I found these cute mini cupcake wrappers for $1.98 for 100. To make this wreath you can use the mini, the full size, and any color or style you want. This wreath is so easy to suite the different Christmas themes out there. 

Take your cupcake liner and using a glue gun put a dot on the bottom and start smushing these suckers on your wreath. My cupcake liners were white on the inside so I flipped them all inside out, but you decide what looks good for your wreath. Another tip; I used my thimble when smushing the liner onto the wreath after putting the hot glue on. Hot glue burns, you gals need watch those fingers. 

Keep adding until you get the wreath you want, then when you are done you can add a fun bow or maybe an ornament to complete the look. Easy, right?!?!

1 - 1/2 inch copper tube insulator - 97 cents

1 - Pack of 100 mini cupcake liners - $1.98

Now that is how a Poor Badger does Christmas. 

Thanks for reading!