Merry Homemade Christmas

You may have noticed from our 12 Days of Christmas Craze, but just in case, I'll go ahead and tell you that I'm pretty into Christmas.

I get so excited about it every year and I start to go handmade crazy. This year I crafted up my fiance a sweet little book of cards, made my mom a birdhouse out of pottery and baked like crazy!

I'm sure no one out there is still making any Christmas presents, but most of these are universal for any time of year, so I thought I'd just share my version of a homemade Christmas!

You may have seen some version of a 52 Things I Love About You book before on Pinterest. This is the one I was inspired by.

For my book, I just flipped the cards over on their pretty sides and wrote in a Sharpie. Then I cut up paint chips and glued them in between the cards onto paper and put them in a photo album. My fiance (and his whole family) loved it.

For his family, we did a ton of baking because really, who doesn't like a bunch of junk food for Christmas?

We made peanut brittle, rocky road fudge, sugar cookies and chocolate peanut butter cookies. We also geniusly took the caramel popcorn out of one of those popcorn tins (because they always have way more than the butter and cheese popcorn) and drizzled it in melted chocolate.

The recipes for peanut brittle and rocky road fudge can be found here. The chocolate peanut butter cookies are ritz crackers with peanut butter in them dipped in melted chocolate. Brilliant, delicious and so simple!
The sugar cookie recipe is a family favorite, but I forgot to bring it with me so I'll blog about those cookies later. We painted brown bags and packaged up all the goodies in there.

Finally, I took a pottery class last year from my friend Walter Black. He doesn't have a Website yet, but when he gets one I'll probably blog about how cool his work is. Anyway, I made my mom a birdhouse because she likes them, and it's a sweet tradition she and I have where I get her birdhouses at Christmas.

 How has your Christmas been? Did you give away any handmade presents this year?

-Holli Anne

Christmas Craze Recap

Christmas Craze may be over but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy our 12 days of holiday DIYs!

Here's a recap!

Enjoy!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Christmas Craze: Super Thick Hot Chocolate

With Holli from We, Vagabonds bringing in the last day of Christmas Craze, I can't help but be sad it's over! However, it's a great, yummy note to end on! Plus tomorrow we will recap all 12 days of Christmas Craze!

Until then enjoy Day 12 of Christmas Craze here with a nice mug of super thick hot chocolate!



Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11

Christmas Craze: Candle Holders

To say I'm not really pumped about Day 9 of Christmas Craze is a bold face lie. I've been wanting to make these candle holders for a long time and finally got down to it! They make my inner child do the happy dance and the adult that I try to be smile. So it is my pleasure to show you this very easy DIY for candle holders that can bring a unique look to your home for the holidays and make your young visitors smile!

Enjoy!

What you need:

• Plastic toy animals that are hollow! I got mine from Target for $3 each in the $1 bin section.
• Scissors!
• Free standing candles! I went for the long and skinny ones!
• Felt!

So the big move happened yesterday and I was just plain optimistic with thinking we would get everything moved in one day. The town house looks like a tornado went through it--the only room with semi order being the kitchen. However, I made sure to bring one of my craft boxes with me so I could do this Christmas Craze. The picture above is a good stretch of Chevron fabric I bought at Hobby Lobby a while back. I plan to make a table runner out of it for Christmas in the next few days. The candle holders I made, I knew I'd want them in the center of the table so I made sure I liked how they all went together.

I loved these two toys from Target and new immediately they would be fun as funky candle holders. I also liked the way they looked on top of the chevron pattern! Also since they aren't really "Christmas" animals they can be used year round!

To make these into candles holders you need to first MAKE SURE they are hollow inside. It's the easiest way to make this DIY work. 

Then you take your scissors and make a wide enough X where you want the candle to go. Now, fun fact: I am a pack rat. I try not to be but over the years I've collected odd things. The two candles I have (pictured up top) were given to me at a college assembly years ago. Since I didn't use them up then I put them in the side of my bag. For YEARS people have asked why I hadn't thrown them away to which I always said "I might need them one day!" Well, that day arrived! I got those candles out of my bag and decided they were perfect!

I made sure the cut was big enough that I could just push the candle inside of the toy. Now, if you really want, you can cut a circular hole and then glue the bottom of the candle there. I didn't want to do that if only for the fact that I want to change out candles eventually.

(Note: Milo sleeping in the background. Once I started working he refused to move!)

With both candles snug I wanted to make them look just a bit more festive but with nothing permanent. That's when I got out my nifty felt! (If you want to know how much I like felt go here.)

Again, I wanted to make sure everything matched to my liking. I had a sheet of glittery green felt that did just the job for me! (Hobby Lobby has a lot of glittery felt!)

Happy with the color, I folded the felt in half and cut out two shapes that I would use as "saddles" for the animals. I then made a hole in the middle just big enough for the candle to fit through!

Then I was done!

Easy, affordable, funky, and unique holiday candles that can be used year round!

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8

Christmas Craze: Candy Craze

Day 8 of Christmas Craze is (was) here! So very sorry I didn't post this last night but yesterday was moving day and I passed out so very early in the evening! Good thing We, Vagabonds are awesome people and aren't mad! Check out Day 8 here if you want some very yummy (and easy to make) Christmas candy!

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7

Christmas Craze: Coaster Craze

Christmas Craze? More like Coaster Craze! See, I've been kind of addicted to making drink coasters lately. It's not that I drink an abnormal amount and need extra coasters around the house, I just WANT tons of them all different!

So I figured if I want them so badly, then maybe other people will too! So here's Christmas Craze Day 7! (Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6)



This Christmas Craze DIY is all about designing & making coasters as a personal, awesome, inexpensive gift for Christmas!

If you know me then you probably have picked up on the fact that I'm semi-obsessed with Design Love Fest. I check it everyday and often am absolutely inspired by the creativity of it. So when I read Make It / 25 I instantly fell in love and knew I HAD to do it. All credit for this idea definitely goes to them!

Now, to the Batcave everyone!

What you'll need:

• A design for your coasters! Mine can be found below. You can simple click it and save it to your desktop then print.
• Access to a printer! Make sure you have enough ink!
• Cork coasters! I got mine from Hobby Lobby. $2.77 for 6.
• Mod Podge Matte
• Spongey brush
• Photo paper! I got soft gloss photo paper from Target. Letter size to make it easier.
• Scissors
• Tacky Glue
• Felt

What I did first was come up with a fun color scheme and font. Since I have recently found M3 Design and this lovely post with a lovely font, I used the Ostrich Sans font family! Then the colors from this pin! (I used Adobe Illustrator to make my design. If you have that and aren't sure how to use it, leave a comment and I'll make another post about how to do it! I would do it now but I need to pack up the apartment something fierce!)

Once you have your design, print it out onto your photo paper! Then with scissors (or X-acto knife if you can cut circles like a pro...I really can't!) cut out your designs. Now, I created and printed my design out then put my printer into a box BEFORE I actually bought my coasters. I downloaded Design Love Fest's pretty designs (again, go here to see) and was using those sizes as a template. However, the coasters I got from Hobby Lobby are a tad bigger BUT it's an easy fix!

Take your mod page and, using your spongey brush, cover the coaster thoroughly. Then take your design and place it onto the coaster. Make sure to get the bubbles out by running your finger over the design. Then put it under a book while it dries. Do the same to the rest of your coasters and designs!

After they are dry, put a coat of mod podge over the design. I did three coats each.

Now, if you are using the coasters from Hobby Lobby that are a tad too big, just take your scissors and cut off the excess cork. It cuts really easy unlike its brother, the cork squares!

If you don't want the bottom to be cork (I LOVE CORK) take your felt and use tacky glue to glue it to the bottom of each coaster!

I hope you enjoyed this DIY! Once I'm unpacked in my NEW place (hopefully tomorrow!) I'm going to set up my studio and be able to make another round!

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6

Christmas Craze: Centerpiece Fun

12 of Christmas Craze is brought to you by Almost There and We, Vagabonds!

Since I made the these festive acorns for a Thanksgiving centerpiece I've had acorns on the brain! So I decided to make centerpiece acorns and lollipops (WHAT?!) to be a part of my Christmas centerpiece that I'm planning. 

Enjoy!

What you need for lollipops:

• Air Dry Clay!
• Circle Cookie Cutter
• Bamboo Skewers
• Paint
• Glue
• Glitter

What you need for acorns:

• Paper Mache Eggs
• Glue
• Glitter
• Hemp/String/Yarn! It's up to what you want to use for the acorn top!
• Hot Glue Gun & Glue Stick

First you need to make your lollipops the night before so they can completely dry. It's simple--using a roller flatten your clay and use your cookie cutter to make your circles. Snap your bamboo skewer in half and stick the skewer in the bottom of your circle.

Then let them dry over night!

The next day you can finish the lollipops while making the acorns! Be be warned...SO MUCH GLITTER!

First I picked out two colors for my lollipops. I went with a pretty pink and a bright green. Paint all of them and set them aside to dry.

Next take your glue and paint it on a majority of the egg. You can leave the top of the future acorn alone. 

Now, since I had to cover six eggs with glitter I decided to do a shake-and-bake type deal. I took a big freezer ziplock bag, filled it with the glitter colors I wanted and dropped the egg in. Then I danced around, shaking the bag. This alarmed Milo the cat. He walked away from me with an annoyed look.

I used bottle caps to put the eggs on to dry! 

Finally to finish these festive acorns, find a starting point at the very bottom of the acorn's top that will cover up the parts of the egg not glittered. Use the hot glue gun to dab some glue on that spot and then put the beginning of the thread/hemp/yarn on it. Let it dry and then wrap the egg in spirals until you make it to the very top. You can make a stem with the yarn but I liked making a little loop, using the hot glue gun to seal it. If you want these eggs to be Christmas ornaments this loop comes in handy!

To finish the lollipops, use glue to make a spiral on the top and then sprinkle your glitter on it! Let them dry and then you're finished!

Keep up with Almost There to see my finished centerpiece (once I get settled in my new place!)

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Christmas Craze: Salt-Dough Ornaments

Can I get a "yaya" for Day 4 of Christmas Craze? We, Vagabonds made some nifty ornaments that you need to check out! Go here for Day 4!

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

Christmas Craze: Handmade Wreathes

12 of Christmas Craze is brought to you by Almost There and We, Vagabonds! Check out Day 1 and Day 2!

I have never had my own wreath. SO THIS IS WHAT I DID TODAY!

Instead of one large wreath I wanted two smaller ones because right now there's not a lot of space in the apartment and I'm moving next week so I thought it would be easier!

First I decided to make a clothespin wreath. I had seen a lot of them on Pinterest and wanted to make one with my own flare.

What you need:

• Clothespins! I used about 23! You can get them at Walmart or any craft store for really cheap!
• Paint! I used black paint and metallic paint.
• Wreath frame! Craft store!
• Clear Chalkboard Coating
• Paintbrushes! 

First I went ahead and clipped the pins on the frame and decided what pattern I liked. Then I painted every other pin black. I used my clear chalkboard coating after the paint dried so I can use chalk on each one. Then I let it sit.

Next I decided to go with metallic gold paint for the rest of my pins.

While I let them dry I wanted to give the wire frame a touch of green. So I got my green hemp and did this little goofy move!

I let everything dry for about an hour! Then I got my chalk out and made little doodles on each black pin! 

This wreath is funky but I have to say I'm very pleased! What I like the most is that everything that was used to make it can be reused after the season!

Next I wanted to make a super simple but pleasing to look at wreath with string!

What you need:

• A Styrofoam Wreath! Get some tape to close the gap at the top!
• String/Hemp! It's up to you!
• Scissors
• Hot Glue Gun & Glue

This wreath is super simple to make. It took me about thirty minutes to wrap the whole thing. 

I found it was easier to wrap it in sections rather than try to do the whole thing in one go. I used dabs of hot glue to keep the string on each end.

To add some color to my simple wreath I got my green hemp and did another little goofy loop around it.

So there it is! Two handmade wreathes that are easy to make and are fun to add to your holiday decorations!

Hope you enjoyed!