Valentine's DIY

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and the convenience store seasonal aisle is overflowing with heart-shaped boxes of chocolates.  The cartoon character cards from elementary school were always my favorite.  But now that I’m older, I realize I could craft something cuter with better puns.

A great idea is to make cut-out cards.  All you need is some card stock, glue, scissors, a small paintbrush and loose glitter.  If you don't want glitter everywhere, make sure you put some newspaper down for quick and easy cleanup!

1. Fold the card stock in half and draw a heart on what would be the front.

2. Cut out the heart, and lightly trace another heart through it on the inside of the card.

3. Drop a large dab into the center of the drawn heart and use the paintbrush to fill in the heart.

4. Sprinkle glitter all over the glue, shaking loose glitter onto the newspaper or off to the side.

5. Let the glue dry and write your message on the inside!

Tip: Spray the heart with a sealer like mod podge to set the glitter before putting it in an envelope.

SUPER Easy Holiday Decor DIY

Ok folks - today I have a super easy holiday decor diy for you. I don't know about your holiday traditions but my family always does self-timer portraits in front of something festive - the tree, dinner table, etc. This year the main gathering is at our house so we decided to dress up the door that will be used for this portrait session. I found a whole pile of metallic wrapping bows on sale at CVS, scooped these puppies up and used them to create a photo frame. Super simple - here's what you do:

- wrapping bows (in line with the rest of your decor color)
- wall/door

Now all you do is peel and stick. I decided to create a little diagonal pattern but you can do whatever you want - stripes, chevron, clusters, etc

 

This is good for Xmas and New Years, and some of you might consider including it year round. The uses are so versatile - create a gorgeous piece of art above the mantle, design a photo booth backdrop, or use this to frame your windows. I kept all the bows the same size but image a white wall with clusters of various size gold bows - so chic!

*Money Saving Tip: if you're using this for a photo booth backdrop you don't need to do bows all down the middle back as this will be covered up by bodies anyways.

DIY Tuesday: Vintage Book Page Tree Topper

This week we've got another simple holiday DIY project for you. If you're looking to add a little vintage flair to your holiday decor, this tree topper is perfect!

Materials Needed:

-Several vintage book pages

-Three different patterned scrapbook papers

-Holiday scrapbooking embellishment

-Scissors

-Glue Stick

-Hot Glue

-A small piece of wide ribbon, about 6 inches long

How-to:

1) Using the book pages, follow the steps from our previous tutorial on how to make accordion paper decorations (each section should be made with half a sheet of book page).

2) After completing the book page accordion circle, use a small drop of hot glue to attach it to a slightly larger circle you've cut from one of the papers.

3) Repeat this step, attaching this circle to a slightly larger circle cut from the second paper type. Cut small triangles out of the entire edge to create a "sawtooth look."

4) Attach a final circle to the last one, cut from the third paper type.

5) With hot glue, glue a small ribbon loop to the back for placing the topper on the tree. Just make sure it's large enough to slide over your top tree branch.

6) Finish off the topper with a scrapbooking embellishment, placed in the center of the book page accordion circle.

Tradition Thursday: Family Baking Traditions

At The Baker's Bench

It's Tradition Thursday, but instead of a wedding tradition, today we're sharing a family Christmas tradition with you.

Baking together is part of many families' holiday traditions, and this recipe is always part of my family traditions at Christmas. In my grandparents house, my grandfather always does all the cooking and this is one of the recipes I associate with him most. These cookies are perfect for the winter season and I guarantee you will not be able to eat just one! They're great for giving to friends and neighbors, especially if you wrap them up in something festive like this...

Martha Stewart Crafts

Molasses Sugar Cookies

3/4 cup oil or melted shortening

1 cup sugar

Extra sugar for rolling

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ginger

1/2 tsp. cloves

Beat together oil, sugar, molasses and egg. Add remaining ingredients. Mix well and chill thoroughly. Form into 1" balls. Roll in granulated sugar and place on greased cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Do not flatten. Bake at 375 for 8 to 10 minutes.

DIY Tuesday: Christmas Countdown Calendar

We've got another holiday DIY project for you this rainy Tuesday! Here's a modern twist on the holiday advent calendar.

We found this little project via Country Living. It turned out to be ridiculously inexpensive and very simple to make, and would be a great project for doing with kids. It's really easy to personalize and could be easily altered for other celebration countdowns, like kids' birthdays.

Materials Needed:

-25 small matchboxes, matches removed (found near the grilling supplies in the grocery store)

-5 sheets of patterned paper, each in a different pattern

-Pen or marker or number stamps

-Scissors

-Glue Gun

-Small individually wrapped candy

-Optional: Scrapbooking elements, like stickers

1) Label the "drawer" of each matchbox, 1-25. Make sure the box is vertical before labeling.

2) Glue boxes #1-9, #10-16, #17-21, #22-24 together. Don't glue #25 to anything.

3) Wrap each glued "tier" in a different type of paper. You only need the top and sides to be wrapped. It doesn't take much hot glue to glue the paper to the boxes.

4) Glue tiers to each other in ascending order, #1-9 on the bottom with #10-16 glued to it and so on. Glue #25 to the top.

5) You can accent #25 with scrapbooking elements, stickers, etc. to make it stand apart a bit.

6) Fill each drawer with a treat!