The Crafty Christmas Tree Challenge!

Each year I try to decorate the Christmas tree a little differently. This year I thought I'd try to do a tree completely decorated with handmade ornaments. Fun right!

(Snowflake Ornament I made Last Year)

The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea.

It occurred to me that with the right parameters this could make a great crafty challenge so I started coming up with some "rules" for myself. Once I started, it seemed like this could be a fun craft-along so...

I'm inviting anyone who'd like to join me to play along and take The Crafty Christmas Tree Challenge.

I might end up being the only one to do it (and that's ok) but I'd love it if some of you out there in blogland joined me.

Here are the rules:

• $20 dollar budget
• The tree needs to be at least 4 ft tall
• If you have to buy a tree the cost of the tree and the lights don't count as part of the $20 budget
• Adhesives (tape, glue, ect) are the only stash item(s) you can use that won't count against the $20 budget). But adhesives must be used to stick other materials together. If adhesives are used in any other way (i.e duct tape ornaments) the cost of the adhesive will count against the budget.
• Fractioning the cost of materials is NOT allowed. (i.e. a pack of paper with 10 sheets costs $1 dollar, but only one sheet is used. $1 dollar should still be subtracted from the budget, rather than .10 cents).
• Coupons CAN be used to help the budget stretch farther
• Upcycling and Recycling are allowed
• Each ornament doesn't have to be different, you can make as many of one type as you want.
• Update- Just to clarify, any tools you have (i.e. knitting needles, craft knife, scissors) can be used and don't count against the budget. Only materials count.
• Update 2- Some people have asked about stash items and scraps. If you are going to use stash items just subtract the cost from a virtual $20 budget. Also scraps count as upcycling/recycling so scraps are perfectly acceptable per the rules!

I'm planning on doing update posts as I make ornaments. But I'll do a big tree reveal post on December 15th. If you'd like to join the challenge grab the button and leave me a comment with a link to your blog.

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I'm sort of making this up as I go along so if anyone ends up joining me I'll decide on how to include everyone in the reveal (maybe something like a blog hop, or a link party).

We'll have Halloween at Christmas?

Since we are apparently having Christmas instead of Halloween, maybe we'll have Halloween at Christmas.

If you don't live in northeast you might not know what I'm talking about. Saturday afternoon it started snowing- and I mean SNOWING.

We woke up on Sunday to a foot of heavy wet snow. It sure felt and looked like Christmas time outside.

Having Halloween cancelled in practically every community because all the power was out, trees and wires littered the streets, and some areas were digging out of almost 3 feet of snow instead of just the 1, also made it feel less like fall and more like winter.

Having my entire family camped out at my house because they still don't have power (which means no heat either) and all the schools canceled everyday so far this week made it feel like Christmas vacation.

I'll have a Christmas announcement later today but if you are in that Christmas spirit too head on over to Gingerbread Snowflakes. Pam has 3 great holiday giveaways happening right now.

P.S. My email is still out (the downside of hosting email locally) but at least I have power so I can check the blog.