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: Candy Cane Mice

Thank goodness for Martha Stewart around Christmas time!  I hope you love her crafts for the holidays as much as we do.  I think pretty much everything she has on her site is adorable and / or gorgeous.  

These are such fun little mice candy cane covers it is a touch ridiculous how much I love them.  I can't wait to give these a shot!  What do you think?  Can you see yourself making a dozen of these cuties and giving them to co-workers as a surprise on their desk for the holidays?

Click the link to get the full directions on making these!  Be sure to Pin It and Stumble It for others!

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: Embellish a Plastic Storage Container

Make and Takes blog has a great embellishing tutorial for those $1 containers you can find at most stores.  We love the idea of using all of our various ribbon pieces to make these pretty!!

Supplies for Ribbon Container:

• Ribbon: 3 – 3ft long pieces or 1 long 9ft piece, any color
• plastic basket with holes – mine was from the good ol’ Dollar store

Take your cut ribbon and start at the top, weaving through each hole. Make sure to leave at least 4-5 inches at the outer end to tie into a bow when it’s done. I chose to do three colors of ribbon, one for each level of holes on the container. But you can easily use one long piece of ribbon for the whole thing.

Weave the ribbon all throughout the container. Once the ribbon has gone through each hole, tie the two ends together in a bow. My son made one for his room to hold his CDs. He liked threading his green (always the color green) ribbon through the holes, making sure not to miss one.

These are easy to create and would make great gifts for anyone needing a container. I’m thinking teacher gifts!

DIY: Ornament Party!

So, now that we have done several DIY Ornament Tutorials, you can have an Ornament Party!  We can't wait to get together with friends and sit at the table and make ornaments!  Ring in the holidays with your own craft party.

Here is a the link to all of these fantastic DIY Ornaments below - and be sure to check out all of our DIY ornaments from earlier this month!  We will definitely be doing more, but this should be more than enough inspiration to get you moving in the holiday direction.