25 Days of Crafting

 

 

As I am doing a bunch of simple little Christmas crafts during this holiday season, I realized that since there are so many and most have few steps, they don't really qualify for their own pages, so I am now presenting:

 

THE 25 DAYS OF CRAFTING!

 

Which is basically just a summary page for me to post different crafts from this holiday season. :)

 

For the ornaments, stop by your local craft store to pick up some empty ornaments that you can fill.  I chose to buy all plastic ones, that way if I drop them they don't shatter all over and spill whatever is inside (sand, pearls, etc.) all over the floor!

 

 

Alright, let's get to the crafts!

 There's not actually 25 crafts.... Yet! :)

 

 

 

 

Vacation Sand Ornament

 

My first craft took a bit of planning ahead of time! When my boyfriend and I went on a vacation to the Bahamas in May, I took along a container to save some sand and shells from the beach in:

 

 Click here to see this on Pinterest

 

 

 

All that was left was to write down the vacation location and year on my plastic ornament (discussed above), and pour the sand in! Now every year that we hand the ornament on the tree we can remember our amazing first vacation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ribbon Pearl Ornament

 

Next was this cute little pearl ornament:

  Click here to see this on Pinterest

 

 

 

 

Simply fill up one of your plastic ornaments (discussed above) with fake pearls from your local craft store and add a ribbon! A monogram on the front would also be very cute.

 

 

 

This actually took two bags worth of pearls, which for some reason I didn't expect, so I had to go back and buy another bag at a later date!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Graduation Tassel Ornaments
 

 Click here to see this on Pinterest

 

I don't know about you all, but until I came up with this idea my graduation tassels were just sitting in a drawer somewhere being completely useless.  Now they are decorating my tree!  Finally, another use for them! 

 

Using the same plastic ornaments described above, I slipped in my tassels (with some fighting involved to get the big gold sections through).  Unfortunately, the "08" on my high school graduation tassel would not fit, if any of you also have a similar situation I am thinking about buying an ornament that opens in the middle like this:

 

Saw a large pack online here

 

 

Which would make this little craft still do-able!

 

Also, if I had nice hand writing I might write "University of Washington" and "University of Washington Master's in Public Accounting" etc. on them with some sort of pen...

 

JOY to the World!

 

Alright, I think I am done with ornament crafts for the year (but don't hold me to that!)

 

Next came my JOY sign!

Click here to see this on Pinterest

I had this bulb wreath from a prior year, but since I decided to make a new wreath this year (post coming soon), I decided to convert this into a sign to say "JOY" instead. I simply purchased wood letters from my local craft store for the "J" and "Y" in about the same size as the wreath.

My only problem was every inch of the walls in my condo are covered with Christmas decorations so I had nowhere to put it - but it found a nice home on the wall at my boyfriends' condo:

This could also work with other holiday sayings with an "O" in them, such as "NOEL," and basically any type of circular Christmas wreath- including a real pine one!

 Santa Letters!

Click here to see this on Pinterest

I spy my little ombre ribbon tree! Click here for the tutorial. :)

To make these cute little Santa letters, I started with wood letters from my local craft store. I chose these ones because they can stand on their own, and don't need to be hung on a wall or anything.

If you're trying to figure out what these cute little Santa letters are spelling out, you're not alone! However, they are just the first initial of my name, my boyfriends' name, and my roommate... Mystery solved! :)

The first step is to apply two coats of red paint, and after that dries, apply two coats of black in strips across the center. Then, use some glitter glue to make rectangular belt buckles!

I bought some fake snow cotton stuff they are selling at craft stores right now, and simply glued it on to the letters using Mod Podge- and they were done!


P.S. Having a "J" name is no fun- the belts look so much cuter on the K and A! :(

 

Christmas Bulb Light Fixture

Click here to see this on Pinterest

I spy my wine cork hearts- Click here for the tutorials!

So last year I used my excess bulbs to make THIS window display, but to switch it up this year I decided to make this light fixture design instead!

I used some "invisible thread" that I had like this to tie the ornaments to my light fixture. However, ribbon would also work, or anything else similar that you have laying around!

Christmas Light Wine Bottle

Click here to see this on Pinterest

I have tried every technique to cleanly remove a wine label, and failed. I don't know if maybe it's just the brand of wine I drink, but there is ALWAYS stick icky sticker glue left behind that won't come off. So I suggest buying some Goo Gone, it works like MAGIC at getting it all off.

 

 

After the labels are off, this craft is as easy as buying some paint pens that say they work on glass, and just drawing on the design! I used these pens by craftsmart:

Christmas Tree Skirt as a skirt!

Click here to see this on Pinterest


Wanting to do something a little different for the Ugly Christmas Sweater parties this year, I decided to turn my mom's old tree skirt into an actual skirt! I mean, it was literally under the tree... And then I stole it. Woops!

All this required was about 15 safety pins to pin the skirt to my $6 shirt from Old Navy. I also ended up cutting the tree skirt because it was about 4 inches too long when it was wrapped around me... I think this could also be done without cutting it, but since my mom gave me permission to do whatever I wanted with it (of course I had to buy her a replacement tree skirt), cutting was by far the easiest option!

Here are a couple of pictures of the tree modeling the skirt before I stole it. :)

Who wore it best?!

I also bought a thick gold ribbon to tie around the top of the skirt to hide the safety pins!

Hanging Christmas Presents

This is something that I've done the past two years, and it's very easy. Simply take down your hanging pictures from your walls, and wrap them like you would a present! Tape the wrapping paper to itself so you don't damage the back of whatever is hanging.

This year I also wrapped five little frames we have hanging:

Here's what it looked like last year:

Click here to see this on Pinterest

 

 

 

Although not technically crafts.... Christmas treats are just as important!


  Strawberry and Banana Candy Cane! 

  

 Click here to see this on Pinterest

 

 I'm not sure if an explanation is really necessary for this, basically it's strawberries and bananas sliced up and then laid out in the shape of candy canes! It was very popular at our Christmas party, as people don't want to be only eating the cupcakes and cookies :)

 

 

 Veggie Christmas Tree

Click here to see this on Pinterest

 

We made this tree out of broccoli, baby tomatoes, cauliflower,  pretzel sticks, and the star is pieces of yellow pepper! It was ALSO very popular at our Christmas party, as a break from the cupcakes and cookies. :)

 

Interested in more Christmas crafts? Check out my others ones that have their own separate tutorials: