Archive for ‘Holiday Inspiration’

December 10th, 2011

Getting Into the Holiday Spirit

I decided it was about time to spruce up our place. So I added a few super easy DIY decorations. Although I so admire this blogger for really getting into this year.

And while I’m not entirely done yet. Still have a few more Christmasy things to decorate. I thought I’d share a collage of what I’ve been up to.

This year we’re forgoing the Christmas tree – too much eco-friendly controversy. And just gathering together supplies we already have at home (except for the foam and silver pipe cleaners). I still have a few holiday decorations I want to DIM (Do it Myself). But truthfully, I got hit with the flu this week and I’m still recovering. Btw, it’s what I should be doing now instead of blogging…

 *From top left to right:

1. Mason jar + Target ornaments   2. Michael’s tree-shaped foam and silver pipe cleaners. I just wrapped them around the foam poking a hole in the beginning and the end of the pipe cleaner to keep it together. 3. Mason jar + foam balls + floral wire + confetti from this project. 4. Heart-shaped vase with Christmas ornaments.

 

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December 9th, 2011

Holiday Creative Friday: 3 Ways to Reuse Your Wedding Invites

It’s been 3 years since my wedding and I still have a plastic bin stuffed with hundreds of wedding invitations. Scratch that. I got rid of all my wedding invites. In fact, I didn’t even have one left to save for myself.

What I got a ton of is save the dates. Hundreds of Tiny Prints photo cards that I’ll never use again.

But they were too pretty to toss. And too sad to recycle. So I decided that today would be the day that I finally did something with them. With Christmas coming up, it was the perfect time to upcycle them.

Here’s what I started out with:

After a few minutes of mulling it over, I realized that all I really wanted to keep was our photo. So a haphazard cut and a little help from this guy later…

Go bunny! Go bunny!!

And this is what was left: I thought it looked pretty cute with the mini clothespin I recovered here. In fact, I sort of wish we did this at our wedding too with our guests names or interesting couple fact on the back.

Then, I thought Christmas ornament!

But my favorite DIY ideas for our save the dates was to reuse them as Christmas gift tags. Not everyone may like having their photos on a gift. Feels a little narcissistic does it? But I think it’s a great way to help the little ones who can’t read yet, remember who gave them their gift.

Plus, it’s a great DIY homemade gift tag with a space to write your holiday message on the back.

It’s almost enough of a reason to order personalized cards just for that reason. Almost…

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December 2nd, 2011

Creative Friday: DIY Snow Globe

On a jaunt to Anthropologie a few weeks ago, I was mesmerized by this:

I stared at it, picked it up (saw the $25 price tag), scratched my head and had a sudden exciting thought that maybe, just maybe I could do it myself.

And I did.

If you want to re-create the project, check out my recipe below:

Basically, I took this mason jar:

And I stuck double-sided tape on the cover:

Grabbed these twin trees from Michael’s:

Here they are sans plastic container. Aren’t they cute?

Glue gunned them.

Pushed them down onto the lid with double-sided tape for good measure.

And grabbed some snowflake sprinkles.

I simply poured a handful on the lid and voila!

After carefully twisting the cap on it, it was finished.

Happy Fridays are days when I get to be crafty. Did you DIY any holiday crafts lately?

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November 24th, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

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November 18th, 2011

Creative Friday: Crafty Clothespins

Have you noticed my laziness lately?

I haven’t been crafting as much as talking about crafting. It’s something this guy reminded me of recently. How much of us are “hiding” behind easy, comfortable tasks because we’re afraid of confronting what’s really important and meaningful in our lives?

{hand raised.} I’m guilty.

I finally decided to bite the bullet and return to my creative ways.

There are so many reasons to do so.

Let me count the ways:

1. It’s good for my mental health.

2. It’s good for my self-confidence.

3. It’s fun!

4. It’s the holidays and there are so many things to be inspired by. {I recently wrote about holiday inspiration and writing for The Writer magazine here.}

But I’m procrastinating again. Could you tell?

Here’s just one more diversion.

I’m obsessed with Pinterest and have been cataloging all of my to-do one day craft list. It’s small, but you can kind of see it here. It’s among the growing list of ways I want to creatively express myself. If you’re on there, look for me here.


Anyway, I finally got to do a super fast and easy craft last night. And it was invigorating. I created crafty mini clothespins from reusing a 2009 Snow and Graham mini calendar, a pair of scissors, hot glue and a bag of leftover mini wooden clothespins.

Here are the results:

It’s not perfect. When have I done anything perfect? But it was fast, cheap and I was able to reuse an old calendar and some leftover clothespins so I’m pretty happy with the results.

One lesson I learned?

Next time, I’m going to try double-sided tape. Less hot glue burns.

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