GRINCH CHRISTMAS BOOK COUNTDOWN
I actually got around to wrapping 25 of my Christmas books to do a Grinch countdown advent for Christmas. After seeing several versions floating around on Pinterest I've been wanting to make my own. We have 70+ Christmas books so I still have 3 baskets out for the kids to browse but they sure do love having a present to unwrap every night. Even though they have read the books in years past, they love the excitement of a surprise gift. (I really should have wrapped them all because the three of them have a hard time taking turns.) The Grinch protects our books and I move him around like a puppet and make him say "only one book a day." He's such a Grinch.
GRINCH GIFT BAGS:
This past year I made Grinch gift bags that we leave out for Santa to fill. I found the red Santa bags at a Pottery Barn return/outlet store in Salt Lake City for $3-8 a bag. Some had embroidered names on them so I ordered Robert Kaufman Grinch fabric on ebay and sewed them on the bags as pockets so you can fill the pockets too. All those bags under the tree were made with scrap Christmas fabric. We use them every year.
GRINCH CHRISTMAS TREE
I found this fun Grinch Christmas tree on a friend’s facebook page. It is from a Festival of Tree fundraiser in Wyoming.
GRINCH CRAFT ROUND-UP
Here are some of my favorite Grinch crafts I’ve seen on Pinterest, Instagram and Etsy.
- I saw this Grinch Knit Hat on instagram and found out Anna makes these and sells them for only $10.00 + S&H at Mama’s Lil Monkeys. Her Christmas order cut off was this past Monday but you can always order one for next year.
- You can buy the Grinch Knit Hat pattern with ear flaps for $2.00 at Ravelry if you have the ability to make it yourself.
- The kids will have an afternoon of fun with the Grinch Goo Sensory Bag by Crystal at Growing a Jeweled Rose.
- How cute are those Grinch Photo Booth props? For only $4, you get the pdf files to cut out. Just add sticks and you’ll be ready for your Grinch party. By Chela Williams on Etsy.
- Kids can use Pearler Beads to make the Grinch. You could turn this into an ornament. Made by April Hannah as seen on her Artwork Pinterest board.
- Try making delicious, cute and healthy Grinch Grape Party Poppers by Amy at Creative Kid Snacks.
- Find out how to make these simple furry Grinch Gloves by The Crafty Scarlet Raven.
- If you have a fireplace, make the Grinch Hands stick out by Rachelle Yakubu Photography.
GRINCH LINKS:
Click on pictures below or blog name above for more details on each project.
GRINCH APPS:
- Have you seen all the fabulous Grinch Apps from Oceanhouse Media in the itunes app store? All of their holiday apps are on sale 40-50% off from Dec. 5-11th. See the list here. and I am giving away the How the Grinch Stole Christmas book app to a reader this week.
I’m also giving away a copy of Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? (This is my all-time favorite Dr. Seuss book. It just came out as an app this week and I love the message about being grateful for all that you have because you could be much worse off.)
{Record your own voice} Grinch Story App Review:
The Grinch Who Stole Christmas has been out for a little while but this last week they just added the feature to record your own voice as the narrator. My family tried it out this week and had so much fun. We each took a turn reading a page. Even my two-year-old added sound effects. I like that when you listen back to the story they still have the sound effects with your voice for each page, like wind blowing, music and toy noises too. I even got my family to sing Fa-who-fores, Da-who-dores with me. The sad part is, I paused it in the middle of recording and tried to re-do a page and from that point on our story didn’t record even though the red-flashing light said it was recording. I’ll have to figure that out next time. It is a long story so if you don’t have a way to go back and fix a page easily it makes it tricky and frustrating after you spent 10 minutes thinking you were recording. I also tried to send the recorded story to my email or to another device (it gave those options at the end) but it froze and I had to exit back to the story several times. These are just glitches I’m sure they are working on fixing. I did get through recording it once by myself and my kids have had fun listening back to me reading the story to them in my sing-songy narrator voice.
TO ENTER:
Rules: Must be 18 years or older. Must have a valid email address. App codes are for the itunes store and work on apple devices. No purchase necessary. Retail value of prize is $11.97. Giveaway closes Midnight PST on Sunday, Dec. 9th 2012. Winner will be selected by random.org. Odds of winning determined by the number of entries.
*Disclosure: I was given codes for the three apps I’m giving away for the purpose of review and three codes to giveaway to a reader. I am not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.
The winner was the #1 comment from Joy.
Sharing these Grinch ideas at JDaniel4's Blog featuring more Christmas crafts.
