Santa's Helper Blog

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Check out Amazon's Great Toy Bargains this Christmas!

Electronics are the #1 gift this year. Browse below!

Why not get you and your entire family a really great gift this Christmas? Instead of buying many small, maybe under-appreciated gifts for each member of the family, why not buy a single, large family gift that everyone in the house can enjoy? Just a thought. Check out these deals below:

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Colorful Angel Christmas Decoration I

Here's a really cute and easy craft to help decorate your home in time for the Christmas holidays. This looks really quick and even a novice crafter can work with styrofoam, so there is no excuse not to try this! I found this tutorial at FaveCrafts.com, so please visit them and check out some of the other wonderful ideas to help make this a happy holiday!

With inexpensive foam materials and foam paint, create a this lovely Christmas angel. The colorful angel is perfect as a table-top decoration or mantel piece.
Colorful Angel Christmas Decoration

Materials:

STYROFOAM Brand Products:
- Sheet: 1" x 12" 18"; 1/2" x 12" x 18"
- Ball, 2"
Wooden dowels: 1/4" x 9"; 1/8" x 2"
One gold Chenille stem
Two 6mm black beads
Acrylic craft paint: metallic gold, ruby, blue, emerald, barn red, peach, pink, brown
Fineline marker
Serrated knife or utility knife
Old candle
Paintbrush
Low temperature glue gun and glue sticks

For pattern, click here.
Steps:

To cut foam sheets, use serrated knife or utility knife; wax knife blade first for smoother cuts. From 1" foam sheet, cut 8" x 3-3/4" rectangle for angel's dress and 5" x 7" oval for base. Using patterns, cut two feet and heart (wings) from 1/2" sheet. Cut foam ball in half. (NOTE: bold lines on pattern are cutting lines, fine lines are decorative glue lines.)
Glue half-ball on wings; glue wings to dress. Glue feet to gown as shown, with one foot positioned on top and in front of the of other; when gluing, insert toothpick between feet and dress for enhanced hold.
The golden highlights on the angel are created with low temperature glue. Using black, fineline marker, transfer design lines onto dress, shoes and wings. (Do not draw face and hair.) Draw wavy line around edge of base; add dots to top of base. Practice gluing technique on scrap of foam; squeeze glue gun in steady, controlled manner to create fine, even lines. Trace over design lines with glue. Let dry.
Paint dress, wings and base following colors used in photo. Let dry. Paint all glue lines and dots on gown, wings and shoes with two coats of gold paint; paint wavy line around base gold and dots on base barn red. Paint dowels gold.
Glue beads to face for eyes, pressing into foam. Using low temperature glue, make a small dot for nose and two larger dots for cheeks; when glue is almost set, press cheeks with fingers to flatten. Paint nose gold and cheeks pink. Paint red smile.
Make hair with glue, adding glue in several layers to build height. Before hair is completely dry, insert small dowel in top of head. Paint hair brown. Bend 4" chenille stem into circle; glue to top of dowel to make a halo.
Insert large dowel into center of base; remove dowel, fill hole with glue and replace dowel. Repeat, pushing dowel into center bottom of gown.

®™ Trademark of The Dow Chemical Company ("Dow") or an affiliated company of Dow. For more project ideas, please see styrofoamstyle.com.

If you like this project, we also suggest:
Colorful Christmas Angel Decoration II
Americana Angel

Thursday, November 18, 2010

More Black Friday Ads!

This year Target is kicking off Black Friday on Sunday with a huge pre-Black Friday sale. We just received a copy of the sales circular and wanted to share some of the items in it. One of the best deals we could find in this circular is on an Acer 10.1" Netbook with 1GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive, and Windows XP. You will be able to get this during Target's 4-day pre-Black Friday sale for only $179.99 saving $50 off the normal retail price. While this netbook is significantly dated compared to current models on sale this year, it's still one of the lowest prices we've seen so far. Another deal you will find in this ad is the Nintendo DSi gaming console for only $119.99. These typically retail for $149.99, so if you're on the market to buy this console, we suggest doing so during this early Black Friday sale.

View the Target 4-Day Pre-Black Friday Ad Black Friday ad:
http://www.black-friday.net/bf/target-4-day-pre-black-friday-sale-black-friday.html

View the Acer 10.1" Netbook for $179.99:
http://www.black-friday.net/follow/4879

View the white Nintendo DSi gaming console for $119.99:
http://www.black-friday.net/follow/4896

To see even more check out www.black-friday.net

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Are you ready for Black Friday?

We all know that the day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the Christmas season. Well, here are some of the Black Friday Ads:

Harry & David Black Friday ad:
http://www.black-friday.net/bf/harry-and-david-black-friday.html

Joann Fabrics Black Friday ad:
http://www.black-friday.net/bf/joann-black-friday.html

PepBoys Black Friday ad:
http://www.black-friday.net/bf/pepboys-black-friday.html

HH Gregg Black Friday ad:
http://www.black-friday.net/bf/hhgregg-black-friday.html

ShopKo Black Friday ad:
http://www.black-friday.net/bf/shopko-black-friday.html

Tractor Supply Company Black Friday ad:
http://www.black-friday.net/bf/tractorsupply-black-friday.html

Modell's Black Friday ad:
http://www.black-friday.net/bf/modells-black-friday.html

Navy Exchange Black Friday ad:
http://www.black-friday.net/bf/navy-exchange-black-friday.html

Also, tomorrow Walmart will be having another pre-Black Friday electronics sale. They plan to offer a LG BD530 Blu-ray Disc Player for $65 along with other discounts on HDTVs and Blu-ray movies. Right now the Walmart sale page lists the products at their normal retail price. We expect this to be updated very early in the morning on Wednesday when the sale begins.

View the Walmart.com Amazing Electronics Sale Event on Wednesday:
http://www.black-friday.net/follow/4794

View the Walmart.com Amazing Online Specials:
http://www.black-friday.net/follow/3808

View the Menards Black Friday ad:
http://www.black-friday.net/bf/menards-black-friday.html

Over the weekend we also added copies of the AJWright, BJ's, and Zales Black Friday ads to the site and you can find links to them below.

View the AJWright Black Friday ad:
http://www.black-friday.net/bf/ajwright-black-friday.html

View the BJ's Black Friday ad:
http://www.black-friday.net/bf/bjs-black-friday.html

View the Zales Black Friday ad:
http://www.black-friday.net/bf/zales-black-friday.html

Monday, November 15, 2010

Dorset Button Christmas Decoration

Here is another easy, quick Christmas craft that you can do while watching television. But, you end up with really lovely tree ornaments! Enjoy.

I found this tutorial at Trishalandesigns.

I made them for a Blog Swap.

In the original post I briefly explained how I made them.

And then finished the post with a promise to post a step by step tutorial.

As we are all starting to think about the holidays now is a good time to deliver on my promise.

Step 1: You will need a wooden curtain ring with the screw eye attached. Thread, tapestry needle, beads(optional), ribbon to hang.

Step 2: How much thread you will need depends on how big the curtain ring is and how much filling of the centre you plan to do and type of thread. For the orange one I used 2.5 skeins of Stranded Cotton. Unravel the skein so the thread pulls freely. Hold the tail of the thread as in the picture.

Step 3: Make a loop over the tail of the thread. Pull the remaining thread through the loop (imagine a button hole stitch).

Step 4: Pull the "knot' firmly capturing the tail of the thread securely.

Step 5: repeat this step a couple of times then cut off the excess tail.

Step 6: Repeat this step until the entire ring is covered. Make sure that you roll the 'knot' to the inside.

Keep going.

Just a little bit further.

Step 7: Now we are going to make the spokes. I thread the needle (with this thread) before starting this step as its easier than stopping a doing a bit later. Wind the thread around the outside of the ring, down the front side, around the back. You need to be careful here that the point where the threads cross on the top is centred. Ignore the back for the time being.

Step 8a: The photo below shows and even number of spokes on the top. You need an odd number.

Step 8b: Bring the thread from the back onto the front side. Instead of winding completely around push the needle down to the back at the half way point.

Step 9: Now you are going to secure the centre point and at the same time bring the back threads into alignment with the top threads. With the needle threaded criss cross across the centre point pulling the back threads into place as you go. Continue until all are aligned. This is important. If you don't make sure that they are aligned before beginning weaving your button will be off centre. Try and keep the centre neat but don't stress too much as it can be covered by beads or sequins.

Step 10: Now we are going to starting filling in the centre. This is a basic over, under weave. This is why you needed an odd number of spokes. I always start at the top near the scew eye.

Over.

Under

Continue over, under until you get back to the top. The odd number automatically makes sure that the next time around the moves are the opposite.

Step 11: Now is when you get to start to personalise you decoration. There is no need to completely fill in the centre. You can see by the samples that I decorated all differently.