Copy Cat Christmas

I’m going to let you in on a little secret.

All the creative talent you’ve been kindly accusing me of – well it’s not really mine. I’m a great copy-cat crafter. It sure beats trying to come up with wonderful ideas on my own. I love taking other people’s fabulous finds and tweaking them to fit my style.

So I’m back to the Christmas Countdown again this week.

If you’re one of the lucky few American’s that isn’t worried about the financial impact of our messed-up economy then this post might be too much work. However if you really need to focus on keeping those two pennies safely in your pocket, so you have something to rub together then these ideas might prove amazingly within your new price-range.

I’ve started up again, one of my favorite fall traditions. And what could that be? Well it's taking a walk after a storm’s blown through. You’d be amazed at all the FREE and useful stuff you can find. Pine branches, twigs, nuts, cones, wood.

This last weekend I was able to start my forest foraging and collected some of this…

And this…

No, I’m not a squirrel saving up my nuts for the winter. I’m a copy cat artist getting ready to repeat someone else’s crafty ideas. Maybe I'll try something like this.

Normally I'd also advocate for using reuseable shopping totes. However the one exception might be to use Brown Paper bags when shopping close to the holidays. They can be used for anything from wrapping paper to cards to crafts.

So the Main thing on my list this week is to…

1. Collect your Christmas Craft Supplies. – The Cheaper the better. I will definitely be trying the frugal crafts this year.

2. Decide on your Christmas Card Design – Handmade or Store Bought. Once you’ve come up with a design check your Christmas Mailing list and divide it into four groups. Then make yourself complete at least one group of cards every week for the next four weeks.

3. Start looking this week for your family’s traditional presents. Do they get an ornament every year Hummm, I wonder…?

Or Is it Pajamas? Well if traditional presents are part of your family holiday festivities – focus on earnestly looking for or making those items.

That, and keep working on Halloween as well. Have Fun!

I've decided that with the extra material from the Halloween costumes that I made for my girls, well, maybe I'll try and make mini versions of the same thing for their Build-A-Bears. FREE! Except for my time that is. I like Free.