Handmade Holidays at a Glance

 

Well, friends, I hope you've thoroughly enjoyed this year's Handmade Holidays {on the cheap} series!  Here's a quick recap of the ideas just in case you missed some!  Clicking on each title will take you to the post with a full tutorial.

 

 

HANDMADE GIFT IDEAS

 

Stenciled Mugs

 

Personalized Photo Frames

DeDe's Reindeer Dust

Blythe's Photo Coasters

 

Kadie's Fleece Blankets

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HOLIDAY HOME DECOR

DIY Stenciled Tableware

Advent Wreath

 

Sheet Music Star Bowl

 

JOY Canvas

 

Erin's JOY Votives

 

Leslie's Christmas Card Banner

 

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HANDMADE ORNAMENTS

Felt Owls

 

Felt Monograms

 

Trees for Kids {Great first sewing project}

 

Stenciled Glass Ornaments

 

Bottlecap Snowman Ornaments

 

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TASTY TREATS

 

Sugared Mocha Cookies

 

Thanks for reading along throughout the series and giving me your great feedback!  And thanks to my series contributors: Kadie, Blythe, DeDe, Erin, and Little Crafter!  Which project is your favorite?  What's your best Handmade Holidays tip?

 

Love and glitter,







Handmade Holidays: Personal Photo Frames

Still looking for cheap, easy DIY gift ideas?  Yeah, me too.  Here's one of the ideas I came up with for hubby's dad.  He absolutely loves photos of Little Crafter, and I got a really great one of the two of them together at an Orioles game this summer.  I wanted to make it a little extra-personal, so I came up with this idea.  LC calls him "Poppy," and of course you can never find gifts with that name on them...it's always "Grandpa," so I decided to do it myself!

 

 

Materials:

- photo frame, any size {you can get nice ones for just a few dollars at Walmart, Target, or the Dollar store}

- Martha Stewart glass or multi-surface paint

- sponge dauber

- Martha Stewart adhesive alphabet stencils

 



STEP 1: Clean your glass.

STEP 2: Position adhesive stencils.
I actually found it easier to do when I left the glass inside the frame.  That way I could use the edge of the frame to help me line them up, and I knew that none of the letters would get cut off by the frame when I put it together.

STEP 3: Use sponge dauber to fill in stencils with paint.  Remove while wet.

STEP 4: Once your paint dries, you can insert your photo, and voila!

I also used the same technique to make a special Christmas gift for my friend who has three gorgeous children.  I got a frame that holds three photos, "borrowed" some of her pics from Facebook, stenciled their names, and ended up with this.



What do you think?  Easy?

Love and glitter,

Handmade Holidays: DIY Tableware

 

 Are you all enjoying the Handmade Holidays series?  I wanted to share with you another budget-friendly idea I came up with, and this one can be used all winter long!  Here's how to make your own beautiful and totally cheap holiday dinnerware!

 

Materials:

 

- Martha Stewart glass paint in your desired color{s}  Make sure you get opaque paint rather than translucent if you want it to show up really well.  If you want an etched look, I recommend Frost Translucent.

 



- paintbrushes/squeegies

- Martha Stewart adhesive stencils and/or silkscreens

- glassware

 

Let me talk for just a second about the glassware...you can find all kinds of things really reasonably priced at Walmart, Target, or the Dollar Store.  I found glasses for 50 cents or a dollar a piece, depending on the style, and these square plates for $1 as well.  I got salt and pepper shakers for less than a dollar at Walmart, as well as a glass jar and a few other glass items.

 

I'm going to walk you through how I made the plates first, then show you a few other options.



 

 STEP 1: Clean your glass surface with rubbing alcohol.

 

STEP 2: Place your adhesive silkscreen in the center of the plate on the bottom side.

This glass paint is non-toxic, but not officially food safe, so make sure all of your stenciling goes on the bottom of your plates and the outside of your glasses with a 0.8" space from the rim of the glass to the design.

 

STEP 3: Use squeegie to apply glass paint to silkscreen.  Pull image off while the paint is still wet.

STEP 4: Use adhesive stencils and glass paint to stencil a snowflake in each corner and polkadot/snowball pattern along each edge. 

 

Finished pieces will air-cure in 21 days, or you can bake them in a 350 degree {F} oven for 30 minutes.  Don't preheat the oven, let the glassware heat gradually and then let it cool in the oven too so it doesn't crack.

 

Here's a look at a coordinating glass.  To make these, I used a smaller silkscreen from the same pack as the larger one and stenciled it four times around the glass.  You could also just do a single snowflake, or snowflakes all over! 

 

 And here are my bargain salt and pepper shakers!  I stenciled the S and P first, then used small snowflake stencils in translucent frost, metallic gold, and silver paint all over the rest of the surface.

They look so festive on the table, and I can keep them out until winter weather {finally} goes away in March!

All three of these projects were super-easy to make and didn't really take much time at all.  The glassware, since it was just plain and clear, was really affordable, so I found this to be a much cheaper way to get some new holiday tableware.  Plus, it's exactly what I want since I designed it myself!  I love things that are elegant and wintery looking this time of year!  What kind of holiday tableware do you like best?

Love and Glitter,

PS: Just four more days until my BIG BIRTHDAY BASH with THREE huge giveaway packages!



 



Handmade Holidays: Advent Wreath {Box}

Hey, friends!  How many of you all celebrate Advent?  I grew up in a very traditional church where we went through the church calendar, so I was very familiar with the idea of Advent from an early age.  Now, we go to a very opposite-of-traditional church where the pastor is introducing the idea to many people for the very first time. 

In case you've never heard of it, Advent is a four-week period leading up to Christmas that focuses on preparing for the coming of Christ.  In one sense, we prepare our hearts to remember and celebrate the incarnation on Christmas Day.  But we also look forward to when He will come again.  Many people celebrate by lighting candles in a wreath of some sort...typically there are four around the outside, one for each of the four weeks of preparation, and one in the center which is a Christ candle to be lit on Christmas Eve/Day.  Some traditions assign colors to the candles {usually three purple, one pink, and white in the center} and some give the candles particular meanings, but the universal idea is to set aside time to reflect and repent and prepare our hearts to celebrate Jesus' coming.

{Credit to Megan Walker @megmwalk for the photo!}

Here, you can see our church's setup last Sunday morning, complete with the really cool giant advent wreath that our worship leader, Joe, constructed from wood.

We always have an advent wreath in our home each year too, so that we can light the candles and celebrate as a family.  This is the one we used last year; our friends bought us the gold base and I wrapped the berries around it.

This year, we got to participate in a really fun event called Igniting Advent where we were given the opportunity to make a gorgeous advent box and let me tell you, I love it for so many reasons!  One is that since the candles are in mason jars, I don't have to worry about wax dripping all over my table!  Another is that it's just so pretty!  And I love having the words on it!  I love everything about it...including that I can use battery operated votives and you can't really even tell.

The even was run by Music With Monte family ministries, and Monte himself did the hard part of breaking down old pallets and constructing the boxes themselves.  I can't give you a tutorial for that because I have no idea how he did it...but I'm sure some of you crafty-with-wood and pallet types can figure it out.  Here's what you need to do the rest:

- wooden box
- four small mason jars
- one large mason jar
- five votive candles
- dried corn or beans
- stencils {Monte printed words out on cardstock and painstakingly cut them out to create stencils for us.  Those of you with Silhouettes, well...you know what to do}
- Sharpie markers
- cut greens
- ornaments or berries {optional}

Each family gathered our materials.  The first step was to put corn in each jar to act as a stabilizer for the candles.  That was Little Crafter's fave job.

While one person is doing that, someone else can stencil the words onto each side of the box using the permanent marker.  Of course, you could use paint or vinyl too.  Ours says "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" and "Believe."  You can also use other words, like Rejoice, Peace, Faith, Hope, Love, Prepare, Savior, Jesus is Coming, or anything you can think of!

Once the box is stenciled, arrange your jars inside and fill in the spaces with greens and ornaments or berries.  That's it!

I absolutely love it, and I love that so many people from our church family made the same box and are gathering around it each day...it reminds us how connected we all are.  What are some of your family's favorite traditions?

Love and glitter,

Handmade Holidays: DIY Star Bowl

When we got together a few weeks back to play with all of my goodies from Martha Stewart and Plaid, one of the surfaces Erin brought along was this cute star shaped dish she picked up at Walmart.  In fact, well, this is what happened:

First, we had this conversation via text messaging the night before our crafty date...

Erin: I got 3 glass votives that might be cute as a collection, and the cutest glass star dish!

Me: Ohhh!  Where'd you get a star dish?

Erin: Walmart :)

Me: Gah!  How did I not see that?

Erin: It was with all the candles - the vases and votives and stuff.

Then, we had this text-versation the next day right before she came over...

Erin: Now I'm behind schedule...but as soon as I'm done I'm coming!!!  And you'll be jealous of my star dish.

Me: I'm already jealous.  Went to my Walmart this afternoon and they didn't have stars...

When she showed up, she unwrapped it in all its star-shaped cuteness and taunted me with it before she pulled out a second one she'd bought for me.  I love this girl.  Anyway, we painted several things that day, but just couldn't decide what to do with our stars.  Here's Erin pondering...

What to make, what to make?  Then, all of a sudden, she got the idea to cover it with the text of the Christmas story.  Now, I'm all about book page crafts, but I couldn't reconcile myself to the idea of ripping up Scripture, even if it was scanned pages instead of an actual Bible, so we settled on the idea of Christmas carol sheet music instead.  We didn't have the time or the sheet music that day, so we scheduled another craft date {oh, darn, we had to get together and play again...} to make them.

Here's how we did it, and you can too!

Materials:
- glass dish {we love our stars, but any shape will do}
- printed sheet music
- Mod Podge {I used Gloss and Sparkle; Erin used Gloss and Antique Matte}
- Martha Stewart liquid gilding {I used silver; Erin used gold}
- paintbrushes
- filler...you can use ornaments, a candle, potpourri, candy, or anything else you like

STEP 1: Rip your sheet music into pieces.  Apply Mod Podge directly to the dish and smooth your sheet music down on top of it.

As you work, layer the pieces so that they go in different directions and have a good combination of notes and lyrics.  You can also feature particular things, such as the song title.  Erin used pieces from several different carols on her dish; I used the same piece of music, Away in a Manger, for all of mine.

Make sure you cover all the little spaces where the glass is still visible. The entire surface should be covered with sheet music.

STEP 2: Apply Mod Podge over the entire surface to seal the sheet music.  You can use any formula of Mod Podge for this step, depending on the look you want.  You can go with a simple Gloss or Super Gloss if you just want it to be shiny.  I decided to use Sparkle Mod Podge for mine...after all, glitter makes everything better!  Erin wanted to get an aged look for hers, so she used the Antique Mod Podge.

Here she is applying it, using one of the really nice brushes I got from Martha Stewart.  Not all paintbrushes are created equal.  Just sayin'.

STEP 3: Apply liquid gilding around the top edges of your dish.  Not only does it look gorgeous and metallic, it also helps to cover over the slightly rough edges of your sheet music.  A little of this stuff goes a long way.  I really love the effect!

I also chose to apply gilding to the bottom of my dish.  I did it on the outside rather than the inside just in case I ever want to put candy or food inside.

STEP 4: Fill!  I decided I wanted some bright colors in mine to go with my other Christmas decor.  Erin suggested adding the greens, which are cuttings from the Christmas tree we got that day.  I'm loving it!  Nice idea, E!

Erin filled hers totally differently.  She put a candle in a small votive holder, which she also gilded to match the dish.  Then, she put potpourri in holiday colors {which I thought was super stinky, but she seemed to like} around the candle.  *Edited to add this from Erin: "and hey, i didn't like the scent either. IN fact, i believe my exact words were 'you know you're a crafter when you get the potpourri because of its colors. Not because of its scent' "

I think it looks so classy!  The Antique Mod Podge goes really well with the gold gilding, doesn't it?!

I have a few favorite things about this project...one is that Erin and I came up with something totally original {we actually made something without having seen it on Pinterest first!!}  Another is that we both had the same supplies available and did the same basic steps, but our dishes turned out looking so very different!  And the third is that I got to have a fun afternoon with one of my favorite friends!

 What do you think?  How would you fill your dish?

 Happy Crafting!