Paper Christmas Trees

A little late in the season to post these guys but time slips away so quickly lately.

This is my take on paper trees.

Below you’ll find a very basic tutorial as it really is up to you as to what paper you’ll use, what patterns, what shapes you’ll cut your paper and which embellishments you’ll find to use.

Basically I had a book of Christmas scrapbook paper and chose papers that had nice complimenting patterns.  The stars and any embellishments were bought at the dollar store.

The base of the trees are from Value Village.

Faux Fur Antler Wreath

Ever since I saw the fall  faux fur wreath at Pier 1 Imports, I’ve been wanting to do my own.   I wanted to do mine up for Christmas.

When I first looked for faux fur I couldn’t find it.  I even went to a fabric store but it was about $35-$50 per yard.   Thankfully I didn’t buy it from there.

I finally found the most perfect of all faux furs!  Faux Fur Ribbon.

You won’t believe where I found some of the other materials I used.

3 Tiered Platter/Stand

Just before Christmas I bought a 3 tiered stand that I wanted to use for Christmas Décor.  But even as I bought it, I knew exactly how I would use it after Christmas.  As a matter of fact, aside from these  two very different uses as pictured below, I also cant wait to use it for entertaining as a 3 tiered antipasto platter and even a beautiful display for desserts.  Perhaps I’ll  update this post as I get pictures of those.

Coffee Filter Snowman

Coffee filter wreaths are all over, especially at this time of year and I love them.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed making them also.

This year I decided to make something a little different with white, basket coffee filters.

All materials for this entire project came from the dollar store, which is always an added bonus!

Burlap & Twine Snowmen

I’m in full Christmas mode lately. 

There’s something about making snowmen that really makes me happy.  Last year I made some sock snowmen and as I put each one together they began to seem just like little people.

These Stately Snowgents are quite majestic themselves.

Made up mostly from styrofoam, burlap and twine, they come together in no time at all.

Sock Snowman & Santa

With so much to do in so little time I was looking for a simple craft to whip up this holiday season.

This craft is incredibly easy and really fun to do.  And with a very short list of supplies, you can round up what you need in a jiff.

I guess I should say, Sock Snowpeople. Cause our little Snowman has found himself a girl.

Coffee Filter Christmas Wreath

This simple wreath didn’t start out so simple.  

I wanted the filters to be green.  I used different paints but I didn’t like the way they looked.  I tried dying them with food color but I didn’t like that either. Several attempts later, I gave up and the filters stayed white.

The materials required couldn’t be easier to get.

A Styrofoam wreath form, about 200 coffee filters, hot glue and decorations of your choice.

Fold the basket shaped filter in half

Holiday Yarn Trees

A while back I was contacted by the good people at Lion Brand Yarns. 

After seeing  my Yarn Wreath, they were wonderful enough to send me a box of yarns to play around with this Christmas. 

The yarns are absolutely beautiful and even though I craft with them … it almost makes me want to pick up knitting needles again.

I have several projects I want to complete with these (time permitting), but this time I’m doing yarn trees.

I used 3 different sized Styrofoam cones and some white craft glue.

Apply some glue to your tree and spiral the yarn of your choice into different size spirals, then apply them to the glue.

Etched Cookie Jar

I wanted to personalize a Christmas gift for someone special this year. I found a great glass canister and thought it would make a terrific personalized cookie jar.

So here is what I started with.

 

Here is a sample cut before I cut the adhesive paper.

Again, I used my etching cream, and $1 adhesive vinyl shelf paper for the stencil.  Apply the etching cream on designated spots and leave for 10 minutes.  Rinse off, or as a reader mentioned in my previous post, you can scrape it off save it and use it again.  Good tip!

After the initial etching I etched a few little flower touches here and there.

I filled the jar with a variety of delicious individually wrapped Italian Biscotti.

Now since Angela reads my blog every day, she will surely see her Christmas Present early.

Merry Christmas Ang, I couldn’t ask for a better co-worker!

On a side note, I am very pleased to announce that Online Degrees has compiled a list of the Top 50 DIY Craft Blogs for University and College students looking for ideas for gifts on a budget.

I am proud to be included in the top 50.

Check out the site, there are 49 other sites worthy of a look!

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Etched Wine Bottle Candle Holders

I’ve been saving up some wine bottles for some time. I’ve also been wanting to do some glass etching for some time.

So here are my decorated etched wine bottles.

Here is what I started with. I had brown, green and clear. For this project I chose three clear ones.  Remove labels, and thoroughly wash bottles inside and out. (You might want to do this a few days ahead of time, as mine took 3 days to completely dry inside.)

I bought etching cream (which was.. uhh..slightly expensive) so to compensate for that, instead of buying vinyl, I bought cheap dollar store adhesive vinyl shelf paper and used that for my stencil.

  Attach the shelf paper with backing to the Cricut Cutting Mat and cut your letters.

Peel off backing and apply to your bottle, leaving no air gaps or bubbles around your letters.  Make sure your vinyl  is sealed. Apply etching cream over the cut outs, ensuring that none of the cream gets anywhere else on the bottle.. etching is permanent.  Leave it for  5-8 minutes. Keep your eye on it so that it doesn’t drip or run.  Oh, and don’t  get any on your arm, it burns. (yes, I know that first hand.)

  

Wash off the etching cream with cold running water.

My Christmas bottles will be decorated with the words

EAT      DRINK     & BE  MERRY

I’m telling you this now, because 96 pictures later I still couldn’t get a good picture of the etching.  In person, they look beautiful, but the pictures don’t seem to show it off.

Decorate with beautiful Christmas scrapbooking paper and some ribbon.   I found some paper that had some Christmas labels and sayings. I cut those out and applied them over the patterned paper.  All paper was applied with Modge Podge .

Add candles. Pour wine.  Admire.

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Christmas Letter Blocks

Last year I did some wood block letters for Christmas and I had a request to do some more this year.

You need some 2”x4”s, a sanding block, some scrapbooking paper, spray paint, modge podge, your choice of letters, yada yada yada…. and presto.
Recycled and beautiful.

You can use scrapbook paper, Christmas paper, left over Christmas Cards.. whatever you have.
Cut the 2 x 4's to about 6 inches tall and sand them down really well.  Don't want any splinters!  Paint them up with your colour choice, modge podge some paper on the side and add letters.

I got these little wooden letters from Michael's Craft Store.  The were hot glued to the dried  modge podge.

 

   

Thanks for stopping by!

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Paper Cone Favor Place Cards

This project started out as place cards for our office Christmas Party.  Place cards that were filled with goodies! I liked the project so much I used it for a birthday party for my mother on the weekend.  So many possibilities.

Here is a quick peek at the Christmas Cones.

My friend and co-worker Angela and I did these up on several lunch hours.

Here is a simple step by step.

Start out with some great scrapbooking paper, a template (which you can download here), some ribbon, a few embellishments, and some clear cellophane treat bags (not shown).  A glue stick or this handy dandy 2-sided tape dispenser thingy is needed as well.

Use your template to cut out the cones, then roll them up. We chose all different papers.

Oh, I should introduce you to Angela.  This is Angela’s thumb. Angela was not happy that her nail polish was in no condition for a photo shoot. (The next day she came to work completely manicured…haha!)

The snowflakes were cut on the Cricut machine to use behind the name tags.

If you decide to add the crepe paper to look like this, you might want to add it before rolling up your cones.  You don’t need it, but I think it adds some flair.

Place the treat bags inside the cone and fill with whatever goodies you like.  Tie up with ribbon.

Here is a finished cone (along with Angela’s newly manicured fingers.)

We mixed and matched all kinds of papers.  They’re really fun to look at.

Below is the birthday version of the favors.  These ones I filled with yogurt covered craisins, chocolate covered almonds and chocolate covered pretzels.

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