I need therapy

You know how you get to a point where you just need to do something for yourself or you feel like you will lose your mind? Maybe for you it is reading, blogging, cooking, watching tv, or exercising. You know; your therapy. Well for me it is crafting. And I need it...weekly to help me stay sane. Well this was last weeks therapy project, I just haven't had time to post it until today. My husband said he didn't really need to go to the basketball game tonight and I said, "oh yes you do and you need to take small fry with you because I need to blog (my other therapy)."
I just felt like I had to get one more Christmas craft project done before the big day. I have been dragging this garland around with me for years and finally decided I had to make it into something. So here is what I did.
My brother had given me this fun foam pack that he used last year that still had a few unused gingerbread men in it. I was assembling those hoping they would inspire me in some way and I got the idea for this garland.

To make my own gingerbread cookies I traced cookie cutters on a piece of brown fun foam. I also used trees, hearts and stars.

Here are all my "cookies"

Here is what small fry did while I was doing this. Don't worry the frazzled look on her face is not because she is malnourished or not taken care of. She just didn't want to be disturbed for a picture. She was actually playing in her corner quite nicely during this craft therapy session.

Next I wanted to decorate my cookies. To do this I traced the figures onto another piece of fun foam. In this case I wanted to make a dress for my gingerbread girl. I traced her body onto a piece of white fun foam. (In this picture the cookie piece is white also because I traced it onto a piece of fun foam that had an adhesive backing on it)

This is what it looked like when I was done tracing.

I then cut it into a dress shape. I also glued small ric rac to the hands and feet of all my ginger people with hot glue.

Then I added a face with a permanent marker and used some of the embellishments from the fun foam pack to decorate. You could easily make your own embellishments or use buttons and ribbon.

Here are all my finished people.

Another close up.

To make the frosting for the other shaped cookies I again traced the cookie piece onto another piece of fun foam.

I then cut it out but instead of cutting on my tracing line I cut inside it. I then glued it to my cookie piece like this.

I used extra fun foam pieces to decorate.

Next to make the letters to spell "Treats for Santa" I used some chip board letters that I had on hand and just painted them red. While the final coat of paint was still wet I sprinkled them with clear glitter.

I traced a circle for each letter on another piece of fun foam and cut them out. I punched a hole in the top with a hole punch and used a permanent marker to draw a dotted line around the edge. I then glued my letters to the circle. I used hot glue to do this.

Before putting anything on my garland I wove a strand of clear Christmas lights through the center of the garland. My lights weren't long enough to go along the whole thing so I folded the garland in half and my strand of lights in half and found the center of each and then wove the strand of lights down each side of the garland out from the center. Instead of gluing the letters on I just wove a piece of the garland through the hole on the circle and bent the wire.

I glued all my cookie pieces down the sides of the garland. I also glued some old peppermint sticks we have had in our candy drawer in between the cookies. Then at the last minute I added a few bows as well. I attached all of these things with my trusty glue gun. Here is one side.

The center.

And the other side.

Here is what it looks like from a distance.

And in the dark.

Another great craft made with fun foam and I finally used that garland. It was some much needed therapy. I can't believe how much better I feel if I just stop, do a little project for myself and then get back to life. I am not ashamed to admit I need therapy.