Super Cool Earrings!

These are seriously super incredibly easy to make!

Here's the link from a lady I found through a Pinterest browsing adventure. :) Have I mentioned how much I love that site?? ;)

Here's my spin on them. I decided to make a pair of festive trees. :) Evie's blog has a great tutorial for a more mod looking earring. So hop on over there and make yourself a pair too! :) I whipped these up in about an hour. I used 2 paperclips, some embroidery yarn, beads and a pair of earring wires- all stuff I had on hand. :)

Have a wonderful Christmas! :)

Dollar Tree Fashion

So, I recently found Pinterest through one of my friends on Facebook. If you haven't heard of Pinterest, or you haven't had the fun of going through all of the ideas on there, you need to. It is so full of fun ideas that honestly, I'm embarrassed to say I stayed up way too late last night going through 'pins' for inspiration. ;)

Anyhoo... today's project is inspired by a 'pin' that I found fairly early on. It is for a sun catcher ornament thing-a-majig that I had to put my own spin on. These are so simple to make, and you can make a bunch of them for hardly anything. Less than $5 and some time will get you 20 of these little gems to give out as gifts.

If you are making these with children, please use caution. I am going to be making this project with my Girl Scout troop to give to their mothers as Christmas gifts this year and will have them assembled into kits as pictured below.

What you need:

Bag of flat marbles from Dollar Tree

Crimp Cord ends (bag of 20 from Hobby Lobby- on sale for 75 cents; normally $1.47)

2 little coils of Hemp cord (Hobby Lobby- on sale for 75 cents; normally $1.47)

1 pack of Wooden beads 10mm (40 in pack at Hobby Lobby- on sale for 75 cents; normally $1.47)

E-6000 glue or other epoxy (hot glue will not work)

Oven- Preheated to 335 degrees F

Cookie Sheet

Oven mitt/pot holder

Sink or bowl of ice & water (I used my kitchen sink, but a bowl would work too.)

Pliers


Step 1: Place all of your marbles on cookie sheet. Put cookie sheet into oven and bake your marbles for 45 minutes. ** If you are doing this project with a child, please use caution with the hot oven to avoid burns. **

Step 2: When marbles are done "baking," remove from oven and immediately put into ice bath. I literally dumped mine in to my sink from the cookie sheet. Let cool for 10 minutes in water. ** If you are doing this project with a child, please use caution with the hot oven to avoid burns. **

Step 3: Remove marbles from water and dry thoroughly. They should look similar to the photo below. Each marble will crack differently; which adds to the charm. :)

Step 4: Cut your hemp cord into desired lengths. I cut mine into 45" and got about 10 from each coil.

Step 5: Flatten all of your crimp cords. This becomes your bale for your pendant. If you want to purchase bales and skip this step you can. Using the crimp cords is just a more affordable way to make a bunch of bales; since bales are fairly expensive.

Step 6: Place a small amount of epoxy to the flat side of your marble. Place bale on top of epoxy and let cure. Note: If you can't wait for it to dry the 24 hours, wait for at least 1 hour before proceeding, or your bale will not stay in place. :) Your marble pendant should look similar to photo below when complete.

Step 7: Fold hemp cord length in half- first photo below. Thread through bale on marble pendant- second photo below.

Step 8: Thread one of your wooden beads on to the hemp cord- first photo below. Slide bead to the top of your marble pendant- second photo below.

Step 9: Separate hemp cord, thread one more wooden bead on loose end as shown in photo below. You can adjust the length of your necklace at this point; however, make sure to add 1 inch to the length to make sure you have enough cord for the next two steps. :)

Step 10: Tie a knot on loose end. Place a drop of epoxy on knot and slide wooden bead over knot to secure in place.

Step 11: Tie knot on looped end of cord. Make sure it is large enough to slip over wooden bead.

That's it! You're finished!

Repeat process for as many necklaces as you want to make. :)

Candy Cane Reindeer

This project brings back so many childhood memories. :) My mom used to make these with my younger sister and I to give away as gifts to friends in school. Now my own little girl is going to continue the tradition and pass them on to her entire class Friday. :)

This is a very inexpensive project for a classroom- it could even be done as a classroom take-home project. I bought the candy canes at Wal-Mart for 88 cents; the rest of the items I bought at Michael's. The pom poms have 100 in the package for $2.49, the 7mm wiggley eyes were on sale for $1.49 and have 282 in the package, the chenille stems have 25 in the package for 99 cents.

If you wanted to make more than 1 dozen reindeer, you would have to buy 1 package of chenille stems for each 1 package of candy canes; you have enough pom poms to make 100 reindeer and enough eyes for 141 reindeer. :)

Supplies (will make 12 reindeer)
1 box of the larger candy canes- we used peppermint, but any flavor would work for this
1 package of beige chenille stems (pipe cleaners) you could also use dark brown (or any color- red, green, white, black, etc.)
1 package of 7mm wiggley eyes
1 package of 10mm red pom poms (you can use any color- I've used different colors with different candy canes to make them coordinate.)

Tools:
Glue
Scissors



For 1 reindeer you will need:
1 candy cane
2 chenille stems
2 wiggley eyes
1 pom pom




Step 1: Fold one of your chenille stems in half.

Step 2: Hook your candy cane through your folded in half chenille stem. Refer to photo below.

Step 3: Twist your chenille stem (like a bread bag twist tie) until secure, should be about 3 times.

Note: Make sure you twist close to the candy cane, but be careful not to snap the candy cane.)

Step 4: Bend each half in half again. (It should look like rabbit ears.)

Step 5: Twist each of your chenille stem halves (like a bread bag twist tie) until it is entirely twisted. Refer to picture.

Step 6: Take the remaining chenille stem, cut in half. Cut each half in half. You should have 4 pieces that are the same size.

Step 7: Fold each of the 4 pieces from Step 6 in half.

Step 8: Place one of the folded pieces from Step 7 around one of your chenille stems. Refer to photo below for clarification. Twist this smaller piece (like a bread bag twist tie) in place.

Step 9: Repeat Step 8 only this time place smaller stem higher on the same side. This is your reindeer's antler on one side.

Step 10: Repeat Step 8 and Step 9 for the other side. Refer to picture for clarification.

Step 11: Glue your eyes and nose in place.

That's it! :) 1 down... 23 more to go! ;)

Dough Ornaments

Today's project was inspired by the cookie baking going on in our house. :) This project does have quite a bit of "down time" between steps; so it can easily be done over two days or early in the morning and then finished later that afternoon.

The dough can be eaten but it tastes really yucky, and I don't think your child will swallow any little bit that may happen to get in to their mouth.

Supplies:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup iodized salt

1 cup water

1 tablespoon canola oil (vegetable oil can be substituted)

Wax paper

Ribbons

Paints

Acrylic Sealer spray

Tools:

Rolling pin

Cookie cutters

Drinking straw

Paint brush

Pre-Heated oven at 200 degrees F

Step 1: Mix flour and salt together, until well combined. I used my stand mixer with the paddle attachment. If you don't have one, you can use a large bowl with a regular electric mixer or you can do this by hand.

Step 2: Slowly add oil to mixture of flour and salt.

Step 3: Slowly add the water to the flour, salt and oil mixture. It will start to look like little peas, and then it will bind together and make a big mass.

Step 4: Let the dough rest in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Step 5: Place dough between wax paper and roll to 1/4" thick.

Step 6: Use your cookie cutters to cut out desired shapes.

Step 7: Use your straw to make a hole at the top of your shape to hold ribbon later. (You can also use the end of your paintbrush.)

Step 8: Bake ornaments in oven for 2 hours (or until completely dry- will depend on your thickness and size of ornament.)

Step 9: Let ornaments cool completely.

Step 10: Paint your ornaments how you like! :)

Step 11: After ornament's paint is completely dry; spray with acrylic sealer to preserve ornament.

Note: An adult should do this step because of the fumes. Please do this step outside or in a well ventilated area to prevent injury.

Step 12: Thread ribbon through hole at top and tie knot for hanging.

That's it!! :)

Reindeer Brooch

This is an idea that my mother-in-law told me about as a great craft project for this blog. This idea is not mine- although it is really cute and I had to make it once I heard about it. ;)

This project really depends on how fast your paint and glue dry. If you get impatient you can dry your paint with a hairdryer and have this entire project completed in about 15 minutes or less! Your child can paint the puzzle pieces while you get the antler's formed and make some bows for some crafty teamwork!! :)

Note: If your child is doing the painting and you choose to use craft glue instead of hot glue, this project will take a bit longer due to the craft glue's drying time.

Supplies:
Brown Acrylic Paint (can be beige if you choose brown for the antlers)
2 puzzle pieces (one needs to be an edge- not a corner, the other a middle piece)
Scrap of 1/8" green or red ribbon (less than 6")
Red pom pom (1/4")
2 wiggley eyes 7mm size
1" straight pin with closing mechanism (I didn't picture it in the supplies below, but it is shown in the last step)
1 Chenille stem (can be beige or brown- I used beige because I painted the reindeer brown)
Hot Glue gun (can use a thicker craft glue)




Step 1: Trim your edge piece of puzzle to have only the two tabs left. These will be your reindeer's ears.



Step 2: Paint back of puzzle pieces brown and let dry.



Step 3: Tie ribbon into a bow. Trim excess.

Step 4: Cut chenille stem in half.

Step 5: Fold the stems in half.

Note: Do this to both of them at the simultaneously so your antlers will look the same.

Step 6: Fold the chenille stems to make your antler's forks.

Note: Do this to both of them at the simultaneously so your antlers will look the same.

Step 7: Pinch your antler's forks together.

Note: Do this separately now, you don't want to bind them to each other. :)

Step 8: Twist (like you do a twist tie for a bread bag) the end of the chenille stem together to finish your antlers.

Step 9: Glue your 2 puzzle pieces together as shown below.

Step 10: Glue your wiggley eyes to the face of your reindeer as shown below.

Step 11: Glue your red pom pom to your reindeer's face as shown below.

Step 12: Flip your reindeer over, and place a drop of hot glue to place your antlers on, as shown below.

Step 13: Flip your reindeer over to look at the face, and glue bow from Step 3 as shown below.

Step 14: Flip reindeer over and glue pin in place.

That's it! :)