Sunday, December 30, 2012

Easy Glitter Candle Holders

If you're like me, you have barely recovered from Christmas when you realize that New Year's Eve is like, tomorrow! If you're also like me, you may not have made anything crafty for New Year's. Well, worry not because these candle holders take all of 7 minutes to make and only require 4 ingredients!

Supplies
  • Small tumbler or candle holder
  • Tea light
  • Double sided tape
  • Glitter
I got everything at the dollar store (or had it on hand from a previous dollar store trip) except for the tumblers, which I picked up at Wal-Mart for $2 for a set of 4.

Instructions:

Step 1: Apply double-sided tape around top of tumbler.

Step 2: Apply glitter.

Step 3: Press glitter down with your finger before shaking off excess.

Step 4: Apply double-sided tape to tealight.

Step 5: Roll tea light in the excess glitter from the tumbler.

Blinged out tea light:
Step 6: Insert into the tumbler, light and go!

Don't just stop at using these for New Year's decorations. Use pink and red to make pretty valentine's candles. Green for a little luck o' the Irish in March. The possibilities are only limited by your glitter supply!

Monday, December 24, 2012

Impressive Dollar Store Gift Wrap Ideas: Blue, Silver and Snow



It's Christmas Eve. You're supposed to be wrapping presents but you're trolling Pinterest and the blogosphere instead. Don't worry. It happens to the best of us.

Get something done while you're here and learn how to wrap impressive looking presents with dollar store materials! While these presents look fancy, they are very easy to execute.

Supply List:
  • Silver wrapping paper
  • Silver and blue jingle bell garland
  • Snowflake ornaments
  • Blue and while crepe paper
  • Glitter pipe cleaners
  • Doily
  • Blue and silver wire ribbon
  • Hot glue gun and glue sticks
All of the above supplies were purchased at Dollar Tree and provided enogh supplies to wrap about 15 presents with lots left over.


Did you notice that I had a glue gun on the supply list? That's right! All of the accessories on these gifts were adhered with hot glue. It's faster, easier and more secure than tape. I did use tape to wrap the paper wround the boxes but I do have a friend who uses hot glue for that part, too!

Supplies used:
  • Silver paper
  • Jingle bell garland
Just cut a piece of the garland long enough to string across the front of the package and secure on the ends with hot glue.

Supplies used:
  • Silver paper
  • Glitter pip cleaners
Twist 4-6 glitter pipe cleaners in complimenting colors together in the middle. Then twist the ends around a pencil to make them round. It looks kind of like a firework, it's dimensional and it's more sturdy than ribbon if you need to travel.


Supplies used:
  • Silver paper
  • Blue crepe paper
  • White crepe paper
  • 3 Snowflake ornaments
Wrap two pieces of blue crepe paper around your package to make a double-wide strip of blue. Wrap one piece of white crepe paper around the center over the seam. Add three snowflake ornament across the front.

Supplies used:
  • Silver paper
  • Doily
  • 1 glitter pip cleaner
After wrapping your package in silver paper, wrap a doily around the front. Twist the pipe cleaner into the first initial of your gift recipient and glue to the doily.


Supplies used:
  • Silver paper
  • Blue and silver ribbon scrap
  • Snowflake ornament
Wrap a scrap of wide ribbon (or use crepe paper) around the width of your box. Add a single snowflake ornament.





Saturday, December 22, 2012

How to Make Envelopes from Magazine Pages


I have a confession. I suffer from DCMS - Dysfunctional Card Mailer Syndrome. I'm not too bad at acquiring and writing cards but boy do I have a hard time getting them in the mail. I've had my Christmas cards ordered since before Thanksgiving but it's the week before Christmas and the only ones that have been mailed, have been sent in boxes with presents. So, uh, five of them. My reason? No envelopes.

My Christmas cards are 4 x 6 and between funds being tight and being super busy, I just haven't had a chance to go buy the right sized envelopes. Well tonight I decided: No more slacking! I whipped up some envelopes with old magazine pages. I used a December issue of a magazine to have holiday-centric images. You could also use this technique with scrapbook paper or old calendar pages.

Supplies:

  • Magazine, calendar or scrapbook pages
  • Card or letter to mail
  • Glue stick
  • White out tape
  • Self adhesive gift tags
  • Pen

Make the envelope:

Step 1: Pick a magazine page you like and turn it face down. Center your card on the page

Step 2: Fold in the long sides of the page against the sides of the card

Step 3: Dog ear the corners

Step 4: Using the bottom of your card as a guide, fold the bottom edge up. Mark the diagonals with a pen.

Step 5: Apply the glue stick on both sides from the line down to the fold (as indicated by the blue arrows)

Step 6: Fold the bottom up and press along the edges to seal.

Step 7: Dog ear the top edge. Fold the top edge down against the side of the card and crease. Open and apply glue across the top and on the dog ears (as for the flap of an envelope)

Step 8: Fold the flap down to close. Press to seal

Address the front:

To make festive holiday labels (and to create a clean space to write the address if mailing), apply a self adhesive gift tag to the front.

If you are going to mail your cards, be sure to avoid confusion with the post office by whiting out the "from" on the tag before writing the recipient's address. Use another label for a return address in the traditional place, or write it along the envelope flap on the back side.

Now you have envelopes that will stand out from the crowd as well as save you money and help save some trees!


Thursday, December 20, 2012

Make Glitter Dinosaur Ornaments

Join me over at Dollar Store Crafts where I teach you how to take small plastic dinosaurs and transform them into fun ornaments for your tree. This technique, of course, works with all manner of plastic creatures including bugs, zoo animals, horses and more. If you find that your tree is a little on the full side, these also make great present toppers - plus your recipient gets the bonus gift of a sparkly dinosaur friend. {Learn how to make Glittered Dinosaur Ornaments Here}

Friday, December 14, 2012

Make Reindeer Pom-Pom Magnets

My son is 2 and a half and has been getting more and more interested in making crafts with me. In a search for kid friendly crafts (which I admittedly have very little experience with), we have been experimenting with pom-poms. They are soft and kid friendly. And my son has a lot of fun fluffing up his "puffy balls" as he calls them before we start crafting.

This particular guy is stuck to a magnet from the dollar store (you can get a package of 8 magnets that look like buttons in the school supplies section of Dollar Tree). They also make fun tree ornaments if you stick them to a painted clothespin instead of the magnet. Just clip it onto the end of a branch!

Supplies
  • 1.5" or 2" brown pom-pom (pictured craft made with 2" Pom Pom)
  • Googly eyes
  • Small sparkle pom for nose
  • 1 tan "chenille stem" AKA pipe cleaner
  • Magnet or clothespin
  • Wire cutters
  • Hot glue gun and glue sticks
  • White glue** (if crafting with kiddos)
**When I make these by myself, I use hot glue for the whole thing. If crafting with kiddos, you can use white glue to attach eyes, nose and antlers - although this method will require drying time before it will be ready to attach to a magnet or clothespin with hot glue. If you do this, be generous with the glue because the large pom-pom with absorb a lot.


Step 1: Make the face
Attach googly eyes and sparkle pom to large pom-pom using your preferred gluing method. If using white glue, be generous in your application and allow to dry overnight after attaching antlers.

Step 2: Make the antlers
Cut the chenile stem into 6 lengths (each approximately 2" long) using the wire cutters. If you end up with slightly shorter lengths at the end, use these for the top rack of antlers. Make two sets of antlers as show by twisting 2 sections around a length of stem. Attach to large pom-pom using preferred glue method.



Step 3: Attach the magnet
Regardless of your face/antler attachment method, you'll want to use hot glue to attach the magnet to the back of the reindeer. I prefer the dollar store magnets over the small kind you get at the craft store because not only are they less expensive (8 for $1), but they are a more substantial size. Look for them in the school supply section.


That's it!
Alternatively, you can also glue your reindeer to a clothespin. I got a large package of clothespins at the dollar store and painted mine red with red sparkles. Glue the reindeer upright on top of the pincer end and then just clip him onto the end of a branch




Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Five Ways to Wrap Gifts with Kids (that still look great)

SPOILER ALERT: This post shows pictures of real wrapped gifts for family members.

I've been so blessed to be working with Dollar Store Crafts lately. I started working for them as their Newsletter Manager and was recently invited to start writing for the site itself. Not only is that an awesome honor but the owner as well as the site editor are fabulous to work with.

My first post went live yesterday, showing you five great ways to wrap gifts with kids that look awesome instead of....well, you know...like a kid wrapped them. Of course these use dollar store materials so they are super affordable (in most cases you can wrap 3 or more gifts for $1). Come visit Dollar Store Crafts to read the full article. {Five Ways to Wrap Presents with Kids (That Still Look Great) }

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Tute-Less Tuesday: Pom-Pom Ornaments

Materials:
  • Glass Bulb Ornament (6 for $2 and up)
  • Sparkly Pom-Poms ($1 and up)

Some crafts are so easy they really don't need instructions. This is one of them. But in case you need them:

Step 1: Remove top from ornament
Step 2: Insert pom-poms (AKA "puffy balls" in our house)
Step 3: Replace top

You can, of course, do this with any color but red and green were my choice. These sparkly pom-poms were in the $1 section of Jo-Anns near the registers.


Monday, December 10, 2012

Make a Melted Snowman Christmas Ornament

I found the instructions for this clever ornament via Dollar Store Crafts (where, by the way, I'm now a Contributor as well as the Newsletter Manager. Pop over and subscribe by e-mail and get a cleverly written newsletter from me in your inbox each week).

I made mine with a small bulb ornament, chunky epsom salt, black peppercorns, a scrap of ribbon and a scrap of orange fleece for the nose. {Get the full melted snowman tutorial here}

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Easy Glitter Candle Holders

If you're like me, you have barely recovered from Christmas when you realize that New Year's Eve is like, tomorrow! If you're also like me, you may not have made anything crafty for New Year's. Well, worry not because these candle holders take all of 7 minutes to make and only require 4 ingredients!

Supplies
  • Small tumbler or candle holder
  • Tea light
  • Double sided tape
  • Glitter
I got everything at the dollar store (or had it on hand from a previous dollar store trip) except for the tumblers, which I picked up at Wal-Mart for $2 for a set of 4.

Instructions:

Step 1: Apply double-sided tape around top of tumbler.

Step 2: Apply glitter.

Step 3: Press glitter down with your finger before shaking off excess.

Step 4: Apply double-sided tape to tealight.

Step 5: Roll tea light in the excess glitter from the tumbler.

Blinged out tea light:
Step 6: Insert into the tumbler, light and go!

Don't just stop at using these for New Year's decorations. Use pink and red to make pretty valentine's candles. Green for a little luck o' the Irish in March. The possibilities are only limited by your glitter supply!

Monday, December 24, 2012

Impressive Dollar Store Gift Wrap Ideas: Blue, Silver and Snow



It's Christmas Eve. You're supposed to be wrapping presents but you're trolling Pinterest and the blogosphere instead. Don't worry. It happens to the best of us.

Get something done while you're here and learn how to wrap impressive looking presents with dollar store materials! While these presents look fancy, they are very easy to execute.

Supply List:
  • Silver wrapping paper
  • Silver and blue jingle bell garland
  • Snowflake ornaments
  • Blue and while crepe paper
  • Glitter pipe cleaners
  • Doily
  • Blue and silver wire ribbon
  • Hot glue gun and glue sticks
All of the above supplies were purchased at Dollar Tree and provided enogh supplies to wrap about 15 presents with lots left over.


Did you notice that I had a glue gun on the supply list? That's right! All of the accessories on these gifts were adhered with hot glue. It's faster, easier and more secure than tape. I did use tape to wrap the paper wround the boxes but I do have a friend who uses hot glue for that part, too!

Supplies used:
  • Silver paper
  • Jingle bell garland
Just cut a piece of the garland long enough to string across the front of the package and secure on the ends with hot glue.

Supplies used:
  • Silver paper
  • Glitter pip cleaners
Twist 4-6 glitter pipe cleaners in complimenting colors together in the middle. Then twist the ends around a pencil to make them round. It looks kind of like a firework, it's dimensional and it's more sturdy than ribbon if you need to travel.


Supplies used:
  • Silver paper
  • Blue crepe paper
  • White crepe paper
  • 3 Snowflake ornaments
Wrap two pieces of blue crepe paper around your package to make a double-wide strip of blue. Wrap one piece of white crepe paper around the center over the seam. Add three snowflake ornament across the front.

Supplies used:
  • Silver paper
  • Doily
  • 1 glitter pip cleaner
After wrapping your package in silver paper, wrap a doily around the front. Twist the pipe cleaner into the first initial of your gift recipient and glue to the doily.


Supplies used:
  • Silver paper
  • Blue and silver ribbon scrap
  • Snowflake ornament
Wrap a scrap of wide ribbon (or use crepe paper) around the width of your box. Add a single snowflake ornament.





Saturday, December 22, 2012

How to Make Envelopes from Magazine Pages


I have a confession. I suffer from DCMS - Dysfunctional Card Mailer Syndrome. I'm not too bad at acquiring and writing cards but boy do I have a hard time getting them in the mail. I've had my Christmas cards ordered since before Thanksgiving but it's the week before Christmas and the only ones that have been mailed, have been sent in boxes with presents. So, uh, five of them. My reason? No envelopes.

My Christmas cards are 4 x 6 and between funds being tight and being super busy, I just haven't had a chance to go buy the right sized envelopes. Well tonight I decided: No more slacking! I whipped up some envelopes with old magazine pages. I used a December issue of a magazine to have holiday-centric images. You could also use this technique with scrapbook paper or old calendar pages.

Supplies:

  • Magazine, calendar or scrapbook pages
  • Card or letter to mail
  • Glue stick
  • White out tape
  • Self adhesive gift tags
  • Pen

Make the envelope:

Step 1: Pick a magazine page you like and turn it face down. Center your card on the page

Step 2: Fold in the long sides of the page against the sides of the card

Step 3: Dog ear the corners

Step 4: Using the bottom of your card as a guide, fold the bottom edge up. Mark the diagonals with a pen.

Step 5: Apply the glue stick on both sides from the line down to the fold (as indicated by the blue arrows)

Step 6: Fold the bottom up and press along the edges to seal.

Step 7: Dog ear the top edge. Fold the top edge down against the side of the card and crease. Open and apply glue across the top and on the dog ears (as for the flap of an envelope)

Step 8: Fold the flap down to close. Press to seal

Address the front:

To make festive holiday labels (and to create a clean space to write the address if mailing), apply a self adhesive gift tag to the front.

If you are going to mail your cards, be sure to avoid confusion with the post office by whiting out the "from" on the tag before writing the recipient's address. Use another label for a return address in the traditional place, or write it along the envelope flap on the back side.

Now you have envelopes that will stand out from the crowd as well as save you money and help save some trees!


Thursday, December 20, 2012

Make Glitter Dinosaur Ornaments

Join me over at Dollar Store Crafts where I teach you how to take small plastic dinosaurs and transform them into fun ornaments for your tree. This technique, of course, works with all manner of plastic creatures including bugs, zoo animals, horses and more. If you find that your tree is a little on the full side, these also make great present toppers - plus your recipient gets the bonus gift of a sparkly dinosaur friend. {Learn how to make Glittered Dinosaur Ornaments Here}

Friday, December 14, 2012

Make Reindeer Pom-Pom Magnets

My son is 2 and a half and has been getting more and more interested in making crafts with me. In a search for kid friendly crafts (which I admittedly have very little experience with), we have been experimenting with pom-poms. They are soft and kid friendly. And my son has a lot of fun fluffing up his "puffy balls" as he calls them before we start crafting.

This particular guy is stuck to a magnet from the dollar store (you can get a package of 8 magnets that look like buttons in the school supplies section of Dollar Tree). They also make fun tree ornaments if you stick them to a painted clothespin instead of the magnet. Just clip it onto the end of a branch!

Supplies
  • 1.5" or 2" brown pom-pom (pictured craft made with 2" Pom Pom)
  • Googly eyes
  • Small sparkle pom for nose
  • 1 tan "chenille stem" AKA pipe cleaner
  • Magnet or clothespin
  • Wire cutters
  • Hot glue gun and glue sticks
  • White glue** (if crafting with kiddos)
**When I make these by myself, I use hot glue for the whole thing. If crafting with kiddos, you can use white glue to attach eyes, nose and antlers - although this method will require drying time before it will be ready to attach to a magnet or clothespin with hot glue. If you do this, be generous with the glue because the large pom-pom with absorb a lot.


Step 1: Make the face
Attach googly eyes and sparkle pom to large pom-pom using your preferred gluing method. If using white glue, be generous in your application and allow to dry overnight after attaching antlers.

Step 2: Make the antlers
Cut the chenile stem into 6 lengths (each approximately 2" long) using the wire cutters. If you end up with slightly shorter lengths at the end, use these for the top rack of antlers. Make two sets of antlers as show by twisting 2 sections around a length of stem. Attach to large pom-pom using preferred glue method.



Step 3: Attach the magnet
Regardless of your face/antler attachment method, you'll want to use hot glue to attach the magnet to the back of the reindeer. I prefer the dollar store magnets over the small kind you get at the craft store because not only are they less expensive (8 for $1), but they are a more substantial size. Look for them in the school supply section.


That's it!
Alternatively, you can also glue your reindeer to a clothespin. I got a large package of clothespins at the dollar store and painted mine red with red sparkles. Glue the reindeer upright on top of the pincer end and then just clip him onto the end of a branch




Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Five Ways to Wrap Gifts with Kids (that still look great)

SPOILER ALERT: This post shows pictures of real wrapped gifts for family members.

I've been so blessed to be working with Dollar Store Crafts lately. I started working for them as their Newsletter Manager and was recently invited to start writing for the site itself. Not only is that an awesome honor but the owner as well as the site editor are fabulous to work with.

My first post went live yesterday, showing you five great ways to wrap gifts with kids that look awesome instead of....well, you know...like a kid wrapped them. Of course these use dollar store materials so they are super affordable (in most cases you can wrap 3 or more gifts for $1). Come visit Dollar Store Crafts to read the full article. {Five Ways to Wrap Presents with Kids (That Still Look Great) }

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Tute-Less Tuesday: Pom-Pom Ornaments

Materials:
  • Glass Bulb Ornament (6 for $2 and up)
  • Sparkly Pom-Poms ($1 and up)

Some crafts are so easy they really don't need instructions. This is one of them. But in case you need them:

Step 1: Remove top from ornament
Step 2: Insert pom-poms (AKA "puffy balls" in our house)
Step 3: Replace top

You can, of course, do this with any color but red and green were my choice. These sparkly pom-poms were in the $1 section of Jo-Anns near the registers.


Monday, December 10, 2012

Make a Melted Snowman Christmas Ornament

I found the instructions for this clever ornament via Dollar Store Crafts (where, by the way, I'm now a Contributor as well as the Newsletter Manager. Pop over and subscribe by e-mail and get a cleverly written newsletter from me in your inbox each week).

I made mine with a small bulb ornament, chunky epsom salt, black peppercorns, a scrap of ribbon and a scrap of orange fleece for the nose. {Get the full melted snowman tutorial here}

 
Design by Free WordPress Themes | Bloggerized by Lasantha - Premium Blogger Themes | Facebook Themes