DIY: Balloon False Ceiling

Wants and Wishes blog has a fantastic last minute idea for that New Year's Eve party!  If you've been debating how to jazz up the home for the festivities - here you go!!  Visit them for more ideas.

 

 1. Blow up all of the balloons you would like to use. I wanted a variety of colors of balloons so I used 2 different colors of purple, 3 different blues and silver. I think it turned out really well to have the mix of colors.

2. Roughly arrange the colors the way you would like them, this will help when your tying them together that you don't have all the same blues together, but a even mix of colors. (Note I used almost double the amount of silver balloons since I have different shades of blues & purple balloons).

3. Tie them together with string or curly ribbon. Don't tie them too close as they need a lithe room in between. I tie them together so you have 2 rows of balloons- one hanging on the right then one on the left.

Here is a picture with one strand hung up so you can see how full one strand can be. You can add as many strands of balloons you need to create the depth of your area.

DIY: Anthropologie Inspired Snow Globes

Zomoc.com has a wonderfully easy DIY - there aren't really any instructions, but these look pretty self explanatory!  We could see us whipping up a few of these wonderful gifts for far less than what Anthropologie is charging for them....

DIY: Santa Belt Napkin Rings

Kaboose's blog has these adorable (and crazy easy to make) Santa belt napkin rings that would be ideal for your holiday table!  Wouldn't you just love to sit down to these cuties at your table?  We think that they are very whimsical and fun!  

 

What you'll need:

• Cardboard tube
• 1 sheet each of red, white, and black felt 
• Gold chenille stem
• Scissors
• White craft glue

How to make it:

1. Cut cardboard tube into 1-1/2-inch segments.
2. Place one piece of the tube onto the red felt and cut the felt just slightly wider than the tube. Wrap the felt around the tube and trim off the excess, leaving enough for a small overlap. Glue the red felt around the cardboard tube. (See photo.)
3. Cut a strip of black felt, about 1/2-inch wide, and glue it around the red tube, lining up the seams. (See photo.)
4. Cut two strips of white felt, about 1/4-inch wide and glue them around the outside of the red felt, overlapping the edge a little.
5. Cut a 3-inch piece of gold chenille and bend it into a square for the buckle. Glue the buckle to the black felt, be sure that the seam is on the opposite side. Let everything dry completely. (See photo.)

Tips:

1. These can also be made with construction paper or craft foam.
2. Instead of gold chenille, you can use gold glitter glue, but you will need to take into account the drying time needed.
3. These will look just as good on fancy napkins as they will on rolled up paper towels!

DIY: Ribbon Christmas Trees

Whipper Berry has kept it simple, but stunning!  We love her tutorial on making these great ribbon trees!  We can totally see these being a year round home decor project.

Instead of folding the ribbon in half (picture on left), I looped it around (picture on right).

             

First I spray painted my Paper Mache cones black. Then I cut black and white stitched grosgrain ribbon into pieces ranging from 2.5 –4 inches. I started with the longer pieces at the bottom. After looping the ribbon, I secured each piece with hot glue, and finished row by row, shortening the ribbon lengths as I got higher.

On one tree I alternated colors every row, and on the other I alternated each piece.

I finished the top with a bit more ribbon wrapped around the tip.

Now I have two beautiful trees that go perfectly with my new décor!

DIY: Cone Santa Hats

Thrifty Decor Chick took her Stein Mart inspiration to a whole new level!  These wonderful Santa hats look just like the ones from the store and we think they'd look awesome in our foyer...hmmm!

I saw some cute Santa hat/suit decor things in Stein Mart a couple months ago and Tweeted about them, saying I could totally make them for cheaper. Well, I decided to go for it, yes. I. did. I started with three foam cones, in different sizes:

I got them all for about $10. I think I used a coupon on the largest. If you can catch them on sale, you could spend even less!

I found red velvet at Hob Lob for less than $5 – I only got 22 inches (the width is 54”) and didn’t even use all of that. I figured out the size by rolling the cones and then cutting the fabric:

I hot glued the fabric down the back and then on the bottom and top to secure the ends:

I almost used sparkly red felt, but went with the velvet to the get look I really wanted. Either would be adorable and the felt would be even cheaper!

Then, I got four inches of vinyl (that looks like leather) to make the “belt.” This was less than $2 and I didn’t even need four inches…I only ended up making it 2.5 inches wide:

Again, just with some hot glue, I wrapped it around and secured it. Then, the fun part – the fur. I got some fluffy stuff in the ribbon section at Joann’s to use for this:

Isn’t it adorable? It looks like Santa’s beard! I’m dying.

For the buckle, I found a package of little square crystals. This package had 52 and I used most of them. I figured out the size and shape I wanted before I hot glued them on:

A fluffy puff ball on top, and it was done. And I squealed! I did!:

I wasn’t happy with the old Christmas candles I had in this tray (which was a $1.99 tray I got at Goodwill and spray painted white) and I hadn’t even spray painted the bottom of it well enough yet, so I just filled it in with some Dollar Store ornaments:

My favorite part is the blingy buckle!:

What do you think? The Stein Mart version is on the left, mine on the right:

(Mine are looking a little pink in this pic, but they are a deep red.)

Stein Mart had three sizes – I think about $9, $15 and $20 each. My three cost about $25 total. (And I had fun making them!)

DIY: Christmas Present Topiary

That Village House has a wonderful idea for decorating either the inside of your house or outside of your house with a large topiary!  We could totally see this being made in a mini version using dowels and smaller boxes as a great center piece for a table!

pletely done, but I thought I would share it with you anyway.

I started with 3 different sized boxes...9, 12 & 14 inch cubes.

I used an ice pick to punch holes in each of them so that I could run a rebar through them. (It's easier to do the holes first, before getting them all wrapped & pretty.) For the smaller boxes, I slightly off-centered my holes, so that the boxes would tilt on each other.

Then I wrapped them and made bows for each.

Tip: Keep your wrapping paper pattern running the same direction.

Tip #2: Before you poke holes through the paper, put a little tape on it. It will help the paper from ripping.

I also made sure my seams were right down the middle of the boxes so that the ribbon would cover them up. And I used double-sided tape to hold the ribbon and bows in place. I'd love to take credit for these tidbits, but again, I straight up copied this idea!!

DIY: Reusable Felt Christmas Gift Bags!

Blueberry Junkie has a great idea for keeping down the amount of wrapping paper thrown away this holiday season.  We love that these bags are so cute and completely reusable!  It's like putting a gift inside of a gift.  Check out their blog for more DIY.

It’s that gift giving time of year again, which means a lot of wrapping. Last year, tired of all the waste in packaging during the Holidays, I decided to stop using wrapping paper, boxes, and other materials that get discarded. Instead, I decided to sew several simple felt bags to present my gifts in. Yes, this requires some work, but these gift bags are extremely easy and quick to make, you will have several in no time. The best part, once you make them, you can keep reusing them year after year.  They make a great environmentally friendly alternative to paper wrapping.

Felt is a great material to work with, as it doesn’t fray, therefore, it requires minimal sewing. This tutorial is for a bag that measures 8.5 x 11in (you can use a regular printer paper as a template) but you can make it as bit or as small as you need to.

Materials and Tools

- red felt 2 (8×11.5 in), scrap of off white felt and pink felt
- embroidery floss in black and pink
- embroidery thread
- scissors, pins, ruler, chalk pencil
- sewing machine
- ribbon

Gather all your supplies and materials. The sewing machine is optional, as you can easily do this entire project by hand. I like to use it to save time.

How-To

1. measure carefully and cut two pieces measuring 8.5 x 11in out of the red felt. If you want to skip the measuring, just grab a sheet of paper (printer paper will do the trick), pin it onto the red felt and cut around it.  Put the red felt aside for now.
2. Take your cookie cutter shape (I chose a star for this project) and trace it onto the off-white felt.  Cut it.
3. Pin the star felt shape into place on the lower part one of your 8.5 x 11 piece of red felt. I chose to use my sewing machine to stitch on the star, but this can easily be done by hand using a running stitch.
4. Once the star has been stitched on, it is time to add some details. With embroidery thread and an embroidery needle I added eyes and a mouth.
5. Cut 2 small circles out of pink felt and using a running stitch them, secure them onto the star.  Almost done.
6. Take your 2 pieces of red felt, align them carefully and pin the edges. Using your sewing machine (you can also do this by hand), stitch around the sides and the bottom edges. Leave the bottom edge open.  Voila! your reusable felt gift back is ready.

All that is left to do now is insert your present, add a pretty ribbon to close the bag and you are done.  Customization options are only limited by your imagination. Instead of a star, try monogramming it with the recipient’s initial.  You can also make bags in other colors to match you Christmas color scheme.

DIY: Upcycled Felted Ornaments

Here is another wonderful tutorial from Dollar Store Crafts blog!  We love them - you absolutely need to check them out...now.  Go on, you won't regret it.  Then come back here and enjoy the felt ornaments.

I made these tree ornaments from a felted/fulled wool sweater last year and gave them to my family members for their handmade gifts (we try to exchange primarily handmade). You can find wool sweaters by the dozens at thrift stores (although, I admit, they are probably not commonly represented at dollar stores!). Wash in hot water and dry in the dryer to shrink them into fabric that can be cut and sewn and won't unravel. These cute trees are a great way to show off your button stash, too!

Handmade ornaments are also a great gift for co-workers or people who you need to give a token gift to, but who you don't want to spend a lot of money on.

Project Estimate:

• Wool sweater, $3-5 at thrift store
• Assorted buttons, on hand
• Embroidery floss or ribbon for hanging, $1

Total cost: $4 for about a hundred ornaments (if you use the whole sweater to make them)!

To make:

1. Wash and dry wool sweater to felt it. Repeat if necessary.
2. Cut tree shapes (triangles) and trunk shapes. I used the contrasting cuff cut in strips for the tree trunks. Use two matching triangles and one trunk piece for each tree.
3. Sew buttons as desired on front tree triangle piece.
4. Sandwich tree trunk piece at bottom between front and back tree pieces, and ribbon for hanging at top. Triangle pieces should be placed with right sides facing out. Sew around perimeter of triangle.

DIY: Pine Cone Garland

Twig & Thistle's blog has a great DIY that has a simple but elegant look.  I love the way that it has a natural look but really brings the holidays into the home.

Also, I spotted this door decoration that uses the same materials that would make a lovely companion to the garland. Instead of stringing the pine cones to the ribbon simply tie a ribbon to each hook then tie all the ribbons at the top and hang!

What You’ll Need:
Pine Cones
Ribbon
Screw Hooks
Hole Punch
Scissors

Instructions:
1. Begin by measuring your mantel or space that you’d like to hang your garland and cut your ribbon. Remember to leave extra for hanging. Once you’ve determined the length, space your pine cones out as you like on a flat surface. The pine cones I used were fairly large so I kept about 4 inches between each one. On the back of the ribbon discreetly mark where each pine cone will go, then punch a hole with a small craft punch. I used an 1/8″ round circle punch like this one.

2. Once you know how many pine cones you’ll need, screw in one screw hook into the top of each pine cone. This takes a little practice and you may need a little elbow grease but once you get the hang of it it goes pretty quickly.

3. Poke each hook through the hole you’ve made in the ribbon and hang! Easy as pie and something that will last for seasons to come!

DIY: Crochet Acron Cap Necklace

A Foothill Home Companion has inspired us to get back into crocheting.  We are excited to do this one and can't wait to pull out some yarn and search the yard for acorns missing their caps!



We set about gathering acorns to make more necklaces, but found that most of our acorns are loosing their caps on the way down, or on the way home in Aidan's pockets. So I reverse engineered Resurrection Fern's pattern for acorn baskets to make acorn caps.




Materials Needed:

fine gauge crochet yarn
small crochet hook
hot glue gun
acorn

Step One:



Chain desired length of necklace. Mine was close to 24 inches. Keep in mind that it will go over your head.

Step Two:



Chain five more, slip stitch to fifth chain from needle to form circle.

Step Three:



One single crochet stitch in each of the five chain stitches to make first round.
For the second round, crochet two single crochet stitches in each of the five stitches to make ten stitches.

Step Four:



Single crochet one stitch in each of the ten stitches; work two to three rounds until cap forms and reaches desired size. Slip stitch to finish cap and weave in yarn.

Step Five:



From inside cap, pull the end of the chain through the middle of the cap with the hook, slip stitch inside cap to anchor and weave in end of yarn.

Step Six:



Use a hot glue gun to attach cap to acorn.