Kris & Larry at Scrapwarrior

Nativity History

A manger scene is the primary decoration in most southern European, Central American, and South American nations. St. Francis of Assisi created the first living nativity in 1224 to help explain the birth of Jesus to his followers.

Over two thousand years ago a young woman by the name of Mary lived in the small town of Nazareth. Mary was to be married to a carpenter named Joseph. She was unaware of the significance of her life until one day an angel sent from God appeared before her. The angel Gabriel had good news for Mary. She had been chosen by God to have a special baby. The baby was to be God’s son and she would name him Jesus. Mary told Gabriel she would do whatever God asked.

Not long after the angel’s visit, Mary and Joseph were married. Together they made a long journey to Bethlehem where Mary was to have her baby. When they arrived in Bethlehem they did not have a place to stay because the inn there was full. The kind innkeeper told them he had a stable where the animals lived that they could stay in for the night. Jesus, God’s Son, was born that night. Mary wrapped baby Jesus in a small cloth and placed him in a manger of hay.

That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, gathering their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel from God appeared before them in a bright light. They were afraid but the angel reassured them. He said he has brought them good news that will bring great joy to all people. He told them that the Son of God has been born today in the city of Bethlehem. The angel told them that they will recognize Him by this sign; he will be wrapped snugly in cloth, lying in a manger.

The shepherds hurried to go to see Baby Jesus. When they found him in the stable in Bethlehem, they were filled with great joy at the sight of God’s Son. They kneeled before the baby and worshipped him. After seeing the baby, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and that the angel appeared to them and told them that Jesus was God’s Son and to be Savior of the World.

The same night far away in the East, wise men were traveling on their camels when they noticed a very strange bright star in the sky. They knew that this star meant that the King of the Jews, the One who would save the world had been born.

During the time that Jesus was born, a very mean king by the name of Herod ruled the land. The three wise men decided to go to the king to learn where they could find this special baby: the King of the Jews. When King Herod heard this, he got very worried as he thought this new king might take his throne away. King Herod called a meeting with all of the other important people in the area and asked them to find this special child so that he too, could worship this special baby.

King Herod told the wise men to go and find this child. After they had spoken to the King, the wise men left to find the baby. They did not know where to find the baby, but at night they followed the star in the east. They followed the star until they found the very place the star hung over in Bethlehem. When they finally arrived, they were excited and happy. They found baby Jesus laying in Mary’s arms and they kneeled down and worshipped Him.

The wise men brought gifts for Jesus of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Mary thanked them for bringing the gifts for Jesus and the wise men left to find a place to sleep for the night. As they were sleeping, they each had the same dream . The wise men were warned by an angel not to go back to King Herod and tell him about where they found the Jesus as King Herod had intended on killing him.

The wise men returned to their country without going to see King Herod. Soon after, Joseph also had a dream where an angel told him to take Mary and the Baby Jesus to Egypt as King Herod was to order to have Jesus be killed. They left Bethlehem for Egypt immediately. When the wise men did not return to King Herod, he ordered that baby boys in Bethlehem be killed. They never found Jesus as he was safe.

The above article is copied in full from http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com

Time to start (or finish) making gift for Christmas time. Shelby is working on gifts for people in her youth group and was going through my book of ideas when she came across these. So, I thought that I would post them.

Shrinky Dink Earrings
You will need the following

• Shrinky Dink
• your computer with a color prints (or you can rubber stamp images onto the shrinky dink),
• hole punch
• scissors
• needle nose pliers
• earring fish hooks
• (and your oven!!!)
• clear spray paint (not necessary however, if the earrings get wet they might smudge without)

Yes, these are all things that I have at my house (remember I am an all-around crafter) but your can easily get them at Walmart or any craft store.

Directions

Draw, print or stamp your image. Cut them out (I did a circle on each of these so there would only be smooth edges). Punch a hole in the top and heat in the oven per the directions on your shrinky dink. Once done shrinking, spray with clear paint and add your fish hook. You have a FAST and FUN gift ready to give!!! ***TIP: watch your finger prints when cutting or it might smear!!***

Happy Pearl Harbor Day! Remember our fallen soldiers today!!!

This was an item that I created LAST December and I wanted to share with all of my faithful readers again. Make sure that you follow our blog or enter your email address in at the upper right to get our blog delivered right to your email every post.

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I have created a cut out… You can glue these to Popsicle sticks and make a “play” for your kiddos. We have a new member of our homeschool family. A little boy (3rd grader) named Dylan is going to join us several days a week to do his lessons here at our home.  (This project is on our list for tomorrow!!)

Click HERE to Download FREE until Christmas!!!

UPDATED LINK as of 10/31/12

Password – swmazy123

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I also just added the individual files in the AZScrap.com Shopping cart for free until Christmas for all of those scrapbookers out there:

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREEBIES IN THE CART: http://scrapwarrior.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_3&products_id=37

There are so many things that are important to me – God, my family, my friends, my health, my happiness. When it comes to happiness, I always laugh at what other people deem in that category. To be rich does not make you happy.

Here are some FRUGAL ways to create your own advent calendar for the holidays.

For about $40 you can purchase one from a store like Costco or Target that you can use over and over and over again. We bought one about 5 years ago at Costco and it lasted until our move. One of the doors is off and I have to figure out a way to fix it.So we are doing the next best thing. We are making our own today.

T0 make your own Advent calendar, you are going to need the following:

• about 18 sheets of scrapbook paper (I used 16 sheets of Christmas printed cardstock and 4 sheets of plain Bazzil that matched)
• adhesive
• cutter or scissors
• To hang this you will need clothes pins, string and some of those 3M Command hooks that you can remove after the season is over.

I purchased a set of paper from my local craft store. It is a pack of 54 sheets of cardstock 12×12 patterned paper. I cut my patterned paper with my paper cutter into strips – 6 – 6×12, 22-4×12, 4 3×12 and 16 2×12 (these numbers can differ for your needs and you may have left over paper). I then glued a smaller strip on a larger one (see the photo)

Once you are done with the gluing on the patterned paper, it is time to fold. You are making a folded “card”. I actually made 2 folds on each card to have a closure. I used my score pal to score the cards, you do not need to use anything. I clipped together the cards, folded with clothes pins.

Once you have gotten each of the 24 cards folded,  you will need to cut out and glue numbers to the front of them. I am using my Cricut, but you can use rubber stamps or foam stamps and paint. I switched up the size of the font on them.

Next, you will want to add inside of them a daily activity or scripture. We have added BOTH. I used WackyTac to add removable notes so that I can use my advent next year as well.

GIVEAWAY!!! Add a comment for a chance to win a bottle of WackyTac removable adhesive (Drawing to be held on December 10, 2010) Tell me what you would use your WackyTac for.

November to me represents everything that I am thankful for. The leaves are changing colors, fall is HERE! Time to start baking, and using those apple sauces and canned foods that we worked so hard to create over the summer. I love pumpkin and cranberries with a touch of cloves and cinnamon.

• This year, I am thankful that we are in our new bigger house.
• I am thankful that God is in our lives.
• I am thankful that Lar has a job in this economy (even if I have been eager to disagree about the cuts that he received).
• I am thankful for my family, my friends and my health.
• I am thankful that we have the options to homeschool even with the harshest criticism from people who *were* our friends.
• I am thankful that I am so close to finishing my art degree even with the battles that I have fought!
• I am thankful that food is plentiful and that I can feed my ever-growing family and have learned to coupon shop to the fullest extent.
• I am thankful for the followers of my blog and hope that I can continue to serve your throughout the upcoming year.

So the project for the day: OUR THANKFUL JARS

You will need a mason jar (or a recycled spaghetti sauce jar from your kitchen) and a lid, plus some paper (construction or scrapbook), glue and embellishments.

My kids used glitter, fake flowers, stamps and ink, decorative scissors and ribbon.

We spent about 90 minutes cutting gluing and decorating our jars.

Then, I cut 2 12×12 scrapbook papers into 1×6 strips. Every day between now and Thanksgiving, each person in the family is going to write 1 thing on a strip and drop it into their jar – their name gets to go on the back and the thankful on the front of the strip. On Thanksgiving, we are going to take them out and staple these together and make a paper chain to hang in our school room.