Blogposts #21 & #22 Our gift wrap+Levi's terrarium

Christmas post #21 Our Gift Wrap

Last year, we had a white Christmas tree with a bunch of colorful ornaments.

This year we opted for a green one and I felt like this year I wanted new gift wrap.

I wanted something simple and cheap!

So I opted for some plain brown butcher paper.

To coordinate with the ornaments on our tree, I got some pink and blue yarn.

Here's what they looked like.

If you see your gift in there don't start trying to guess what it is!

Instead of spending money on gift tags, my husband drew banners on the paper with everyone's name on them. The butcher paper rolls were about $4 each and we have a bunch leftover for our last minute gifts.

The large rolls of yarn were on clearance for only $2! 

That's it for our DIY wrapping paper. 

Hope you enjoyed!

#22 Levi's terrarium

We frequent thrift stores, as if you didn't know that.

Almost every time we go, we see these gold clocks.

I'm sure you've seen them before too.

Well, I've been going through a cloche faze.

They look like this.

They're around $15-$40 at Hobby Lobby and TJ Maxx but I'm reluctant to spend that much on one.

Since we were making our snow globes, Levi had the idea to make a terrarium out of that old clock that we found at the thrift store for $3.98!

It kind of reminds me of a cloche.

It's as close as I'm gonna get for $4!

Either way, this is how Levi turned that gold clock into a cloche lookalike/terrarium.

First, he gutted the clock.

Then, he painted the base white.

We just so happened to have some green floral foam and fake moss leftover from 

Mia's birthday party last year. Don't ask me why, we're just impulse buyers. 

He then shaped it to fit the base.

Then he stuck the fake moss to the base using some spray adhesive and added a cute little deer.

But that's not all!

He actually went a bit further and added a log to it.

There's his terrarium!

Isn't it so cute?

Apparently, my blog timer didn't work yesterday so I'll be giving you today what you should have had yesterday!

That's right, four posts in one day! Stay tuned for the next two posts.

I hope all of your Christmas shopping is done by now! 

If not, good luck and stay strong!

May the force be with you. 

#19 Christmas Card Holder & #20 Our Stockings

#19 My super easy Christmas card holder.

I didn't have many Christmas cards this year. 

I can't say that we sent any out either.

We still have our annual picture of Mia next to the Christmas tree, 

but we skipped the Christmas cards this year.

Mostly because Mia was a little freaked out about sitting on 

Santa's lap and I didn't want to force her to do it.

Where's the fun in that?

For the Christmas cards that I did receive and the ones saved from last year,

 I wanted to display them!

Here's the quick and easy way that I did it.

First I got a large, old picture frame.

We have a few in our garage.

Painted it white and hot glued some string in zigzags.

I used hot glue because it'll hold the string and once Christmas is over, I can just peel the glue off and use it for something else!

Here's what it looks like hung up.

And with our holiday cards.

Next year I may need a bigger frame, depending on how many cards I accumulate.

Well, that was a quick and easy tutorial.

The next post is:

Post #20 Our Handmade Stockings.

I started working on these stockings back in October.

I drew out a stocking on some butcher paper, pinned it to some fabric and cut it out.

Here's what they looked like after I cut out the fabric.

They're all facing inward.

Next I cut some felt for the hanging loops.

Folded that felt, then sewed it so it would be extra sturdy.

Then I got a sheet of white felt.

Folded it in half and placed it along the edge of the stocking.

Once it was pinned, I sewed along the edge of the top so that it would fold down facing the front of the  stocking.

I folded down the front felt flap, and sewed the front and back of the

 stockings together leaving it to look like this.

I also folded the felt loop and sewed it to the back of the stocking.

Next it was time to decorate the stockings.

I started to decorate Mia's stocking while Levi did his, but he did such a good job on his that I commissioned him to do mine and Mia's.

Levi's 

Mia's in process.

Mia's done.

Mine, finished!

Here's all of ours together.

Along with the dog's stockings.

Christmas is only five days away, can you believe it!?

Which means there are only five posts left.

I've figured out how to type out my blog at night and have it automatically posted in the morning!

So check back here every morning at 10am for a new post!

I'll still be posting on facebook, but I can't guarantee it will be in the morning! 

Hope you enjoyed today's posts.

Meet you back here tomorrow at 10 am! 

Christmas blog post #17 The Big Picture Frame & #18 painted candlesticks

It's Monday and I'm here! 

We had a great weekend filled with family and making tamales.

It's always nice spending time with family that you don't see often enough!

Mia had a blast with everyone and at the end of the day that's all that matters to us.

We're super excited to spend time with all of our family and friends on Christmas.

There's less than one week until Christmas and I don't know about you, but I don't want it to be over!

We're getting closer to our 25th Christmas blog post and that will be the last!

So without further ado, I'll start our 17th.

# 17 The Big Picture Frame

This project was the easiest because well.. I didn't do any of it!

Levi did all of the work, my only job was to remind him to do it.

You might remember the framed map that was at the top of our shelves.

It looked like this.

Well, I asked Levi to take out the map and draw something Christmas themed.

Finished product!

It can be seen at the top of our shelves.(which will be revealed in a later post)

Next to that picture are our newly painted candlesticks!

#18 Painted Candlesticks

We bought these candlesticks at the thrift store for Halloween and painted them black.

Here's a picture of what they looked like before painted black.

You can see them here painted black on our Halloween shelves.

Now here's a picture of what they look like now.

Those are the candle stems painted white with some sparkly silver candlesticks.

Below is a picture of one of the large candle holders after it has been painted white.

I made two more scalloped trees out of the punch outs that I had leftover from the sewn garland and placed them on top of the larger candle holders.

That's that, this post was quick, easy and painless.

These were two of our easier projects, but I love the outcome!

We're so excited for Christmas.

I'm a little sad that it's going to be over, but as luck would have it; once Christmas is over I have to start pinching some penny's to pull off a birthday party for my soon to be three year old.

I'm contemplating a handmade birthday party( decorations, food, cake etc.) so costs may possibly be cut!

But let me not get ahead of myself!

Christmas blog posts number 19 and 20 will be ready for you tomorrow! 

Have some hot chocolate for me!

#15  Advent calender and Felt bow

#15 Mia's advent calender

Keeping with the Christmas traditions, we wanted to make Mia an advent calender.

Instead of buying a cardboard/chocolate one (I couldn't find one anywhere) we decided to make one.

We got our inspiration from a tutorial from Design Sponge.

They have a print out of these little Christmas crackers on their site here.

So we printed out the template onto some white and blue card stock, 

cut out the crackers and tied them up.

We weren't sure how we were going to hang them up but then we remembered seeing some photo's of people hanging up their stockings on a tree branch so we decided that was going to be how we hung up our treats!

Here's what it looks like:

I also decorated it with a strand of sewn garland.

Here's Mia opening her daily gift!

Now Mia looks forward to opening her treat at the end of each day!

#16 Felt bow

Most of my Christmas crafts have been done using felt.

This is one more to add to the list.

This is going to be a felt Christmas bow.

All you'll need is a sheet of felt, a glue gun or a needle and thread.

I used a needle and thread but it may be easier to glue it.

First, I cut out three long strips, three more slightly shorter, 

two an inch shorter than that and one even shorter piece.

There's no definite measurement as long as you have nine strips.

First, you take one of the longer pieces and fold it so that the ends match, then sew it.

Then you do the same to the next piece, only add it on top of the first one.

Keep doing the same thing for the next pieces.

The last strip was tricky, but I just sewed one side first, then the other side.

That's it! 

You could also use fabric or paper for this project.

I'm officially caught up!

This is the 16th project on December 16th!

Have a great weekend! 

I'll meet you back here on Monday with some more crafts!

#13 and #14 Easy pop up Christmas card + Kix garland.

#13 Easy pop up Christmas card

This would be my second time making a pop up card.

The first card I made was for my sister's birthday.

I only wish I would have taken pictures of it!

Oh well, now I have a whole tutorial on how to make one.

I included this card with the gift that I made for the gift exchange.

The first thing to do is get a piece of white paper and a piece of construction paper.

You can use any color of construction paper.

(I chose blue paper, then changed my mind and used red.)

Next, I cut some slits into the white paper where the fold is.

Then you open the card and extend those tabs and glue the white paper to the construction paper.

This is where the decorating comes in.

I cut out some Christmas tree's out of card stock and had Levi make me a banner.

Then, I glued them to those tabs and they looked like this:

I also added some confetti around the edges.

The finished card looked like this.

I just added a personalized message to the bottom and it was done!

For my sister's birthday card, I added some balloons and a banner.

You can personalize it however you want!

#14 Kix Garland

I remember seeing Christmas movies where kids would make pretty

Christmas garland with their parents out of popcorn or kix.

So I thought this year Mia might enjoy doing it with me.

At first, I told her to try the kix cereal and tell me if she liked it.

But once she put it in her mouth she spit it out and said she didn't like it.

However, once I told her that her cousins like that cereal she stuffed her 

mouth and couldn't get enough of it!

So, for materials, I used:

A needle

Kix 

String

All I did was string the kix until they reached the knot at the end.

Once done it will look like this!

There you have it!

Two quick, cheap and easy projects!

Tomorrow, I'll have two more projects and will hopefully be caught up!

There's not much time left for Christmas!

Hope you're as excited as we are! 

See ya tomorrow!