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: Snowman Cups

Well hello there November!  We would like to welcome you into 2012 by featuring a snowman tutorial.  These festive favor cups are wonderful and CUTE!  Take these into work filled with hot cocoa packets and you'll be the hit of the office - or take them into school filled with candy treats for your children's friends and you'll be the hit of the class (maybe bring them at the end of the day so the teacher doesn't hate you for it).  ;)

Check out Blue Cricket Design's blog for even more fun DIY!!

Ever seen such an adorable little face! Well if you’ve been reading my blog for a while you may have remembered my “Chinese take out Snowman gift box” and these I guess you can call their little offspring!
I thought I could come up with a smaller version perfect for sending little treats to my girls school class rooms! These darling little Snowman fit the bill and were a breeze to create!
6 oz Styrofoam cups and lids found at Orson Gygi were just what I needed and you can’t beat the cost of this project. 25 pack of cups: $1, 100 pack of lids: $1.55,  stiff felt: $1. And we all seem to have paint on hand! Even if you make 100 little gift cups it would cost you about $7 before you fill them with goodies!
 
First things first! Fill all your cups with goodies and close them with the lids! This makes them easier to hold when you paint them giving the super light Styrofoam a little more weight and with the lids on you can stack them!
 
Using pink paint and a small round sponge, you’ll  add your rosie cheeks! Next you’ll use the end of a paintbrush and black paint to add your coal smile and eyes! Lastly you’ll hot glue on your felt nose cut from a sheet of stiff felt. I painted all my cheeks then all my mouths and eyes and then glued on my noses. By the time I moved onto the next step, the step I just finished was dry!

I loved this little army of smiling snowman!

It took me about an hour to create 75 Snowman cups! These are perfect for Holiday classroom party favor or little treats for your kids to pass out to their friends!

DIY: Snowman Garland

Craft by Amanda's blog has a wondrous tutorial on how to make some unbelievably adorable garland for the house or tree!  We cannot wait to make these and show them off in our office cubicle (Holiday Cubicle Decorating Contest, here we come)!

Check out her blog - she has some amazing things!

 

For this garland I used a bag of 2 inch Styrofoam balls and some Magikote. In case you haven’t heard of Magikote yet, it’s a product developed by Decoart that gives Styrofoam a paintable, sandable surface. I love working with these two items. 

 

For this project, I gave each ball a good coat of Magikote. Now Magikote requires a solid 2-3 hours of drying time, so plan ahead. After the first coat I added a second. When they were dry, I sanded the balls to get rid of the rough edges. Then I inserted a toothpick into each ball (which goes right into the Magikote without cracking or anything, just like corkboard) and placed them in floral foam blocks. And that’s where they sat for about 3 weeks!

 

I used some red Mardi Gras beads I had sitting around. I measured them first and figured out how many sections I would need. After cutting the beads into sections, I used my thumb to press the end bead into the hole that the toothpick had been in. To coax that bugger in there more, I applied firm but gentle pressure with the eraser of a pencil. Once it was firmly inside the ball, I removed it and added some hot glue.

Then I was able to easily press the end bead back into the hole. I did this for all of the balls. When done with each individual ball, I connected them all to each other using the same method. Then I looped some ribbon and inserted them into the end heads to create the hangers. To make sure that the faces were all facing the same way, I hung the garland up temporarily.

Next I cut orange toothpicks in half (I have several boxes of colored toothpicks, not sure if you can get them anymore, but you could always paint plain ones.) then trimmed them down a bit to get them to the size that I wanted. While the garland was hanging up I hot glued the noses on. Then I took the garland down to finish decorating. I applied pressure to the noses to create an indent and sink them into the ball a bit. Then I used a scruffy brush and Americana Pink Bubblegum paint to add the cheeks. I used a fine point Sharpie to add the mouths and eyebrows and the handle end of a paintbrush dipped in black paint for the eyes.

That’s it. Once they were dry I hung it up again and sprayed two coats (dried in between) of acrylic matte sealer.