DIY Keepsake Ornament Gift Tag

Every year at Christmas we put up our white tree covered in snowflake ornaments.  We also give a snowflake ornament to each of our nieces and nephews so they can have a collection of snowflake ornaments of their own!  

I usually buy an inexpensive multi-pack of ornaments from Hobby Lobby and embellish them with ribbons and stickers to spell their names and the year. I use the ornaments as gift tags so they also serve a purpose, and look great under my tree until they're ready to give.

DIY Halloween Kids Activities

Since it's no secret that I LOVE Halloween, I like to send Halloween treats to our nieces and nephews to share the love!  Here are a couple of easy activities I made for the kids inspired by pinterest! 

The bowling set was made with leftover craft paint and 2x4's we had in the garage.  I just had to buy an 'eye' bowling ball at Walgreens and the kids can enjoy this for years!

For  a more simple activity, I used a sharpie to craw on some paint chips and cut them up for instant Halloween puzzles! Perfect for toddlers since you can make the pieces big and easy to put together. Easy to mail too!

Personalized Onesie Using Cricut

We've had a lot of friends have babies in the past year. A lot.  So the crafter in me has been trying to keep-up by making personalized onesies as gifts!  It's simple to do with a Cricut machine and I love that they're inexpensive and personalized!

Creating Iron-on Letters with Cricut

Use Cricut brand iron-on paper, available in plain or glitter

High Blade Setting: Med Speed, Med Pressure, Blade @ 3

1.     Test what you want to cut on regular paper before raising the blade to make sure you have the correct sizing without wasting iron-on paper

2.     When ready to cut iron-on paper, place iron on paper on mat plastic cover side down.

3.  Press the ‘FLIP’ button and type the word you want to cut backwards, so you would type ‘DEBBIE’ in as ‘EIBBED’

4.     Make sure the blade is set on ‘3’ and cut

5.     If using a large sheet of iron-on, cut around the image you cut with a scissors

6.     Remove negative space so only what you want to keep remains on the sticky plastic cover

7.     Stick cut-out onto material and iron right over the plastic.

8.     Peel off the plastic, and the letters will be stuck to the fabric! If there are any loose corners, simply iron them back down.

DIY Vacation Ornament

Since we got married we've always had a snowflake themed Christmas tree to go with our holiday decor.  While collecting snowflake ornaments I've also collected meaningful Christmas ornaments, including ones from our vacations.  When we were in Aruba last year I couldn't find any ornaments I liked so I decided to bring back some things to make my own.

While walking on the beach we collected a bag of sand and some shells.  When we were in town I bought a small turtle that said 'ARUBA' to put in the ornament as well. When we got home I picked-up some glass ornaments, stickers, and ribbon to make my own ornament.

I used a funnel to get the sand inside of the ornament and dropped in some shells.

Using scrap booking letter stickers I wrote 'Aruba 2015' on the outside of the ornament.  Tape worked well as a guideline.

I kept the box the glass ornament came in for storage, and to hold the extra glass ornaments until I get back from more trips!

DIY Wood-Burned Cutting Board Gift

My parents recently remodeled their house so I thought it would be fun to burn a picture of their new house on a cutting board.  I figured it would be fairly easy since a house is straight lines.  It turned out so well that I made one for myself and my sister-in-law!

I started with an inexpensive cutting board from Home Goods.

The rest of the process is similar to the deck step I wood burned a few years ago. First, take a photo of the house and use powerpoint to make it the desired size and print.

Rub the back of the paper with oil pastels to turn it into 'tracing paper'.

Place the photo where you like on the cutting board and use tape to secure in place.

Use a pen to trace the outline of the house.

The oil pastels will transfer to the board on the lines traced. Use various wood burning tips to fill in the lines, and that's it!

Here is a close-up of the finished product. It was so easy to make a such a custom piece.  This would be a great gift for a house warming or any occasion!

DIY Dress-Up Kit Gift

 If there is someone in your life who would love some dress-up clothes, now is the best time of year to buy them! Last year around this time I stocked-up on dress-up clothes for my niece Lyla.  I thought it would be a fun Christmas gift that would inspire creativity and that she would get a lot of use from.

My original plan was to get a lot of Halloween costumes on clearance, but they were SO cheaply made that they weren't even worth buying new! Instead, I found a lot of really, really nice dance outfits at Goodwill.  They tend to hang onto these donations and only set them out prior to Halloween, so go get them now!  Here are a few that I found:

During the Halloween season you can also find a lot of jewelry, crowns, and wands in dollar bins that made great additions to my gift.  

I purchased a purple storage bin from Target to store it all, and used my Cuttlebug to add the words 'Dress-Up' and my Niece's name to the outside.  I would have loved a box of fun like this when I was little! 

Wine Cork Rug

 Thanks to the admin ladies at my husband's office, I had piles of corks in my craft closet that kept reminding me I was overdue for a wine cork craft.  

Since I've have already made ornaments and decorative letters out of corks, I was searching for something new to make.  When I came across the idea for a cork rug I thought it would be perfect to put by our patio door.  Since the door is in our living/dining room most rugs look out of place, but we still needed something to hold a pair of shoes for quick access to the deck.

The rug base started as the Nackten rug from Ikea, which I think is $2.

Before I started I painted the edge of the rug dark brown to match our floors incase the edges would show. Then I began hours of hot gluing 200+ corks to the rug.  (This is a two-movie project).

After the rows of corks were glued I went pack and painted the additional white space.

In hindsight, I would have used a rectangular rug with straight edges as it got awkward trying to make the rounded border out of corks.

The finished rug is definitely unique!

Here's how it looks placed by our patio door.

Scrabble Letter Necklace Pendants

After seeing Scrabble Tile Necklaces at many gift shops, I wanted to try making some myself. Since I had leftover Scrabble pieces from my Scrabble Wall Art project and vintage atlas maps left over from my We Met, We Married, We Lived project, I knew I could easily make some cool, personalized pendants for next to nothing.

Start by brushing some Mod Podge to the back of a Scrabble letter (I chose to use the first initial of the person I was giving it to). This is just to glue the paper/map to the Scrabble piece, so it doesn't matter if its glossy or matte.

While the Mod Podge is wet, place the letter on the back side of the map (do not cut to size yet).  You may want to hold it up to a window while you do this so you can see what area of the map will show on your pendant.

I found it was easiest to trim the paper after it was glued to the Scrabble tile using a rotary cutter and a rubber mat.

After trimming the paper, sand the edges to the paper is flush with the Scrabble tile.

I used Mod Podge 'Dimensional Magic' to seal the maps and create that 'glassed over' look.

Do not shake the bottle as it will create bubbles that will dry into the pendant. Apply to the edges first, being careful to seal the edge of the paper to the tile without it dripping down the side.

When the tile is completely covered, it will appear milky as shown but will dry clear.

When the first coat has dried, you may need to glue down any corners that curled up as shown above.  Mod Podge and a Q-tip work well for this.

Apply a second coat the same way as the first.

When the Dimensional Magic has dried, use superglue to apply a flat bail to the back of the pendant.  The bails can be found at Michael's.  Use any chain you like, and the necklace is done!

Here are a few that I made using maps and collegiate scrap booking paper.  Photos would also work great!

Memory Wire Bracelets

When the girls at craft club were making memory wire bracelets, I knew I had to make some too! They are so simple and easy to make, a great craft to do while watching a movie. Since any color beads can be used they're great to make in the colors of your team or school.  This would also be a great craft to do with a group of friends. Simply supply memory wire and a variety of beads and see what combinations everyone comes up with!

The wire used is called memory wire, which holds its round, coiled shape making them perfect for bracelets. Simply cut to the desired length depending on how many times you want them to wrap around the wrist, and string with any beads that will fit the wire.

To finish, use a pliers to make a loop that will keep the beads from falling off.

On some bracelets I added a charm to the finishing loop for some extra 'bling'.

Here are a few bracelets that I made.  These make excellent stocking stuffers and would be a great post-Thanksgiving dinner craft.