DIY Christmas Ornaments

Hi everyone ~  and a happy lovely Holiday season to you all. I'm afraid I may have been a tad bit over zealous in believing that I would have enough time to DIY my Holiday all while trying to get this house packed up and ready to move. What a total bummer to be moving during Christmas again. However, I have made a few gifts for the kids, reupholstered a favorite thrift store chair, and I made a new tutorial for the Gossamer Blue blog.  (Things are getting done, just at a much slower rate than I had originally anticipated!) 

We're keeping the Christmas decor really simple this year with 1 tree and minimal decorations throughout the rest of the house. I went with a silver and gold theme again this year and decided to make embellished ornaments as part of a tutorial. They are super simple to make but sparkly and pretty ` the perfect combination for any project! 

To start with, you’ll need a small collection of glass bulb ornaments, word stickers, craft glue, glitter, spray paint, and a paint brush.

I decided to spray paint my stickers first with a gold paint to match the the glitter. It only takes a minute to dry and if you end up with a little too much paint on the sheet, simply wipe away the excess with a paper towel.

Next, working with one sticker title at a time,  use the craft glue and dab a few small amounts of glue onto the sticker. Use a paintbrush to spread the glue along and be sure to cover the entire area of the sticker. Once your sticker is covered with glue, sprinkle the glitter, enough to cover the entire sticker. Let the glitter set into the glue and dry before peeling it off of the sheet.

Once the stickers are dry you’ll be able to peel them right off and add them to the glass ornaments. Be sure to gently position and press the sticker on the glass bulb.

I ended up leaving a couple of the stickers plain without the glitter. Since the stickers are textured I found that the gold paint really added dimension to them even without the added glitter. 

Hopefully your week is off to a wonderful start! Have a lovely day~ Tara

DIY Holiday: Embroidered Makeup Bag

Hi everyone! So this year instead of buying a bunch of gifts - I'm planning on making them! At least some of them! I've been jotting down different ideas this past month and gathering up supplies to make the kids and friends more personalized gifts that I think they will like. This way, I use up things in my craft room that have just been sitting for way too long and hopefully gift-giving will be a little more meaningful.  

Today I'm making a few Embroidered makeup bags, or clutches - they can be used for almost anything! In the Gossamer Blues Bits & Pieces kit   you'll find the Amy Tangerine accent Embroidery Stencil Kit and that's what I'll be using along with the gold and silver zippered bags - found at the Dollar Tree store for only.... $1 each! (I love that store, you can always find little things to DIY!) 

Here's what you'll need for this project! 

 a bag or clutch and the Embroidery Stencil Kit 

The Stencil kit itself comes with everything you'll need to embroidery; the needle, stencil, rubber mat, piercing tool and even 3 types of string! I wrote down the directions on the photos themselves, if you've never given embroidery work a try, now is the time! It's one of those fun projects to grab, sit down in a cozy chair and just stitch. Simple as that! 

After I was done stitching the outside pattern, I knotted my string and thread a new piece of string onto my needle. I like to work with a shorter amount of string at a time. I find that it doesn't tend to tangle or knot as easily this way. Once your finished stitching the inside pattern, knot the string and trim and you're all done! I added a few handmade tassels to mine bags as well, just a little something to add some more color!  

Here is one more idea that kind of goes along with this DIY gift! I always seem to have a few left-over brads, buttons, little embellishments etc. from the kits I work with, and instead of just tossing them into my 'loose junk bin' I decided I was going to give them a new purpose. I used a package of bobby pin forms (purchased for $1.30 for 6) and a dab of craft glue and just added a little embellishment to each bobby pin. I think Alaina will these, they are dainty and perfect for a little girl who loves adding pretty things to her hair! 

Hope you enjoyed my first project! I have a whole bunch of DIY gift ideas to share this month as I make them. 

Have a wonderful crafty day! ~ Tara

Vintage Inspired Halloween Award Ribbons ~ Gossamer Blue Tutorial

It must be said: October is one of my favorite months! 

For this month's blog post over at Gossamer Blue I knew I wanted to do something Halloween themed. The problem was just deciding what I was going to make. :)  I played with a few ideas but kept coming back to crepe paper rosettes, and the idea of making them into vintage inspired award ribbons just seemed like the right fit! Plus I would get to pull out all of my decorations and set up the front entry table! (It's so exciting to see all of your stuff again after being packed away for 11 months!) 

Since Alaina is now in 5th grade, she's no longed able to participate in the Halloween parade at school, but as I suspect, she'll still want to wear something special for the Holiday.  We have plans to pin a very large award ribbon to her for the day, and I whipped up a few extras for friends. She chose the largest one of course, the Wicked Witch! 

I posted a tutorial for how to create the rosettes on the Gossamer Blue blog. It's really simple and the rest of the award ribbon will come together quickly using things that are probably already in your stash of scrapbook supplies! I made my rosettes from crepe paper, book pages and clothing pattern tissue. The tutorial is super basic and hopefully easy to follow and once you've made one you're going to want to make more! 

I made Peter drop me off at the Dollar Store so I could run in a pick up a few crows for my table. At only a $1 each, they are the perfect little starting point for a Halloween DIY! I made tiny fringed party hats (made with the left over book paper from the rosettes) and then added a little rhinestone necklace and flower. I think a whole group of dressed up crows would be super cute especially if they were perched in some cut tree branches! 

Have you started to decorate for Halloween? I know Chase and Alaina are ready, we're just waiting for the rain to let up and then we'll set out to create a pretty Halloween porch! 

xo~ Tara

diy ideas: holly leaves & gift wrapping

Here's a quick idea for gift wrapping, especially if you made one of the previous projects using the cut-out holly leaves and you happen to have a few extra leaves left-over! 

When it comes to gift wrapping, I love layering! It's my secret weapon to making my gifts look presentable. I'll layer, ribbons, bows, leaves or flowers, gift tags and everything gets clipped together with a little clothespin. 

To make the sewn holly leaves, I cut out 2 different sizes to use, one small and one large. Sew 2 leaves together and look for little pieces of trim, fabric or ribbon to use for the middle of the leaf. Once you have a few leaves sewn, gather materials to layer together and a gift that needs some embellishing! (I think these holly leaves would be really pretty if you used vintage sheet music - I may try that today!)

I have a to-do list a mile long today! It may be a tad overly ambitious for a single days work, but I'm going for it - and, with a little luck, I'll hopefully have a new tutorial and giveaway to post this weekend. 

Happy Friday to all!  xo ~ tara

diy ideas: Holly Wreath

Make a simple & pretty holiday wreath with just a few paper leaves and a coat hanger! 

Just like yesterdays project, we'll use similar products as well as the technique to make a really simple wreath to hang up this holiday season! 

{I had intended getting this posted last night, but instead I ended up needing to design Ben Franklin with Alaina for a class project. There's always something to do!} 

To start, you'll need a few supplies:

wire coat hanger

wire cutters

gun gun & glue sticks

paper (I'm using a dropcloth)

scissors

You'll need to create a holly leaf template. (Search online for a printable one, or just draw one, like I did, onto a folded piece of paper.) Cut out leaves from paper, I used about 40 leaves total for my wreath.

Use a pair of wire cutters to cut the top part of the hanger off. Carefully bend the wire into a circle and use pliers to twist the end pieces together. 

Start to glue the leaves on to the wire. Add a leaf to the back of the wire, add glue and then place a leaf over the wire and on top of the first leaf. You'll want to cover the wire completely with paper leaves.

  

Once you've finished gluing the leaves onto the hanger, let the glue dry completely and then you can remove all of the glue strings. (I love using hot glue, but really dislike all those glue spider web strings that end up being left over!) Create a bow using string or ribbon to hang up and your paper wreath is complete!  

I have another gift wrap idea to do with the same holly leaves, and then I want to do something with snow globes! Everyone loves snow-globes this time of year! 

xo  ~ tara

diy ideas: holly leaf garland

Holly leaves, like snowflakes, are one of my favorite holiday embellishments to use! I've created a few quick diy projects that make the most of these little paper leaves! Here's my simple how to: on making a holly garland that you can use for decor or even giftwrapping!  

 First to get started, you'll need to create a template of a holly leaf by either going on line and finding one or by creating one by freehand.  Last week I needed to get some painting done and Chase and I made a quick run over to Home Depot to pick up a few supplies when I came across this kraft like paper. It's called Eco Drop, it's actually a paper dropcloth for painting but it's comparable to a thin kraft paper. Plus it's eco friendly and recyclable - the best of both worlds! I paid about $4.00 for 216 square feet. I'm also planning on using it to wrap presents this year, just dressed up a bit with bows and other pretty embellishments!

You'll also need; a glue gun, glue sticks, some craft or floral wire (mine was really thin and easy to bend) and cut holly leaves. Start by spreading out newspaper under your glue gun, to keep your work space safe, and letting the glue gun heat up. Stretch out the wire and lay out flat. Place a paper leaf under the wire, add a bit of glue and sandwich another leaf on top. I left about an inch space in between each leaf. Continue gluing leaves to the entire length of the wire. 

Once you finish gluing the leaves on, you can hang your wired garland up as a holiday decoration or use it as part of you gift wrap decor! Here's how I used it to wrap up a simple gift card!

 I stared with a little teal box, a gift card, glittered pine cone, holly garland, a small typed tag and some string or a clothespin. Tuck the giftcard into the box, wrap the garland around the box, snipping off the extra and twisting the wire together to hold in place. I used a clothes pin to hold the gift tag and pinecone in place, just clip to the wire garland - you could also use the string to tie everything together. 

It's a pretty presentation for a small gift! I have another 2 projects using the same leaves that I'll post a little later today. I'm off to get some Etsy stuff done this afternoon and then back to crafting! Enjoy your Wednesday! 

xo ~ Tara