#12 – PB&J Stories {The 13 Crafts of Christmas}

I’m so excited to be here and be apart of “12 Crafts of Christmas” with Rachel and everyone else!  I was so honored when she asked me to be apart of her Christmas line up. 

My name is Pamela and I’m from PB&Jstories where I write about DIY projects and tutorials with the occasional mention of life, love, and happiness.  I’d LOVE it if you’d stop on over and check out the rest of the projects I’ve done and continue on the journey with me at PB&Jstories.

 One of my favorite Christmas memories from childhood {okay besides the obvious opening of presents!} was the tradition of putting out cookies and milk for Santa.  Every year {even once I had it all figured out about who Santa truly was} we’d put out cookies and milk for Santa and include a little note for him.  And every morning there was always nibbled on cookies, left over crumbs and a half glass of milk left over, with a note back to us from Santa. 

So! I wanted my first Christmas craft of the year to bring that tradition to my three year old and thought it’d be fun if there was an official “Santa plate and glass” to set out for him each year.  This is a really super easy and fun way to make an easy tradition a little more meaningful to your family, and easy enough you can include your kids in to help too!

 The Santa Cookie Plate 

Materials:  A glass plate ($1.99 from Walmart)
Construction paper (I used a lightweight cardstock)
Mod Podge
Foam Brush
Scissors
Glitter. Cut out “S” from Vinyl {remember to reverse the image}.  I wanted a layer of glitter to be the very first thing you could see through the plate, so I started with a thin layer of Mod Podge over the back of the plate and applied it with the foam brush. When it was still wet I sprinkled silver & green sparkles over the plate.

 

Then I used my Cricut to cut out a “S” out of a speciatly vinyl that makes the lettering look like it was etched into the glass.  {Initially I thought this would stand out and be a “classy” effect on it but once I got further into the steps I realized it actually blended in too much, so I ended up changing it out for a black “S”}.   I let the first layer of Mod Podge dry, and then transferred the S onto the plate. {If you don’t have a Cricut or Silhouette this isn’t a necessary step, but you could even cut out an S from cardstock and apply it with Mod Podge too!}

 

 Next I cut out my circles from the red & silver paper, I just used a small opening of a bottle I had nearby for the stencil and cut out about two pages worth of red, and one page of silver.

 

I applied Mod Podge to one side of each circle and pressed onto the plate.  About every 10 circles had been pressed onto the plate I covered each of them with a layer of Mod Podge to ensure they would stick to the plate.  Once the entire plate was covered with my circles, I let it dry for about half hour. Then applied a final coat of Mod Podge as a protective layer over the entire back of the plate and let it dry for an hour.

 

{as mentioned, I ended up changing the “S” to black vinyl so it stood out more”}

To decorate the glass of milk, I used a wooden circle from Michael’s and painted it with Chalkboard paint.  Once it was dry I drilled a small hole to string ribbon through it and tie it to the glass labeled “To Santa”.

 

Now Santa has a personalized plate and glass for his special milk and cookies on Christmas night.

 

As I said a super easy and fun way to bring tradition into Christmas and easy enough to have your kids help you!  Thanks to Rachel for having me and to everyone for stopping by!