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.
Since it's the beginning of December and the real count down to Christmas time - we decided to do TWO DIYs today. Earlier we did Glitter Trees, which are awesome, so check them out. And now, we bring you a DIY from Completely Coastal showing a step by step for beachy ornaments! Why not bring the beach feel into the cold weather season?
these leaves were made just like you used to make those stain glass windows with wax paper and crayon shavings.
cut
out wax paper approx letter paper size. with scissors start shaving
your crayon onto the wax paper. not too much we want it to be a pretty
thin layer of crayon melt.
once they are cool take your print out leaf, and your wax paper creation.
place underneath, it should be clear enough for you to be able to see your lines.
cut out your leaves.
admire your pretty leaves, that surprisingly are making you feel a little better about fall coming.
now
if you would like to hang them, i just got a needle and thread and made
a big knot at the end of my thread. i hung them in front of our window,
i hung them above our dinging room table, but in the end they ended up
taped up...
enjoy!
Start
with 2 different colors of yarn. I chose pink and red, because together
I think they look a little bit like a candy cane swirl.
Remember,
these are no-glue ornaments. I know that a lot of yarn wreaths are made
using hot glue or whatever, but I'm making these with my kids- so the
easier, the better.
See
what I mean? If not, then I'm sure you can figure it out as you go.
Really, all you're doing is wrapping yarn in a loop over and over again-
theres really no way to mess it up.
-Put your index finger on the back.
-Now take that piece of string that you just wrapped around, and put your thumb on it, like in the above picture.
See, like that. 
It should look something like that. 
-Cut another piece of yarn. Fold it in half. Tie a knot.
-Now tie that, around your wreath (and when you do, make sure that your knot is on the back, so you can't see it). Cut the ends-
And voila! 
You start with one color, tie it onto the wreath, wrap the yarn to cover the area that you want covered, tie it off.
But the front should look a little more tidy, like this...
Tie a string on, the way that I showed you up there with the candy cane style, and-
Another one done!
Remove hanger and cap from the ornament. Rinse inside of
ornament with alcohol. Let dry thoroughly. Start with one
color of Ceramcoat® paint. Squeeze just a small amount of the
first color into the ornament so it runs down the side (see
photo A). Rotate the ornament and squeeze a little more
paint down the side in another area until you've added about
three or four lines of paint with only a dime-size amount of
paint pooling at the bottom of the ornament.
Add the next color, squeezing out a small amount of paint in
between the places where you added the first color (see
photo B). Continue to add one or two more colors in the
same fashion.
