Adventures in Craftiness: Simple Paper Hearts.

Our little palm tree we used for our Christmas tree this past year is still alive and doing very well. That’s saying a lot because I’m not good with plants. I decided that while it’s still around I was going to decorate it for different holidays. Since Valentine’s Day is coming up I decided to make some creative paper hearts for our tree. I have a ton of cards from different occasions that I hate to see just sit in a box, so I used them, as well at other scrap booking paper to create fun little decorations!

Supplies:
Scarp paper, magazines, or old cards
Floral scarp booking embellishments, buttons, and/or glitter
Scrap booking tacks (“Brads”)
Scissors
Mod Podge or your favorite adhesive
Ribbon, string, or yarn



Step One
Cut out small heart shapes that will be the center of your ornaments.
Step two
Trace a larger heart around your small heart for the outside background.



Step Three
Glue smaller heart shapes to the center of the larger heart shapes and let them dry.



Step Four
Take your tack and put it through your embellishment as well as through your glued card cut out.



Step five
Cut your ribbon to your desired length and push your tack through both ends of the ribbon. Open and fold down the ends of your tacks when you’re done.



Then presto! You have lovely heart ornaments just in time for Valentine’s Days! These would also make really great kids crafts or even bunting! Have fun and great creative!!

Adventures in Craftiness: Mini Wreath Ornament

I have been kind of obsessed with ornaments this year for whatever reason. You may have seen my past two Do it yourself darn it! Take One and Take Two and this is my contributions to your holiday DIY festivities. This could be great as last minute hostess gifts or perhaps a craft for the little bit older kiddies to do during holiday gatherings.

Things you’ll need:
*Floral wire
*Wire cutters
*Your favorite adhesive (I like E600)
*Ribbon or Yarn
*Scrapbooking goodies, buttons, stickers, feather or whatever your decorating heart desires.

Cut a length of floral wire to your desired amount. The more wire the thicker it will be. You can free hand the circle you’ll be making for your mini wreath ornament or you can use of cup to guide you.

Next start wrapping your wire around itself until you get reach the end of your cut wire.

When you have wrapped all of your wire cut off any excess that you don’t need and it should look something like this:

Wrap your desired yarn or ribbon around what will be the top of your wreath. Make sure to leave some some length to create a loop for hanging your mini wreath.

Now comes the really fun part! Decorating! If you needed a great way to keep some of the older kids in your life occupied during holiday celebrations you could pre- make the wreath and let them decorate like crazy! I picked out a really great scrapbooking flower and sticker (A for our last name Amelio). I also sewed two buttons together with embroidery floss. Play with your decorations until you get them where you like them and glue them down.

Let dry and TADA! Your very own holiday goodness!

Have fun with your design too. Make it as colorful and unique as you are!

Happy Reindeer Trails!

Do it yourself darnit! Ornaments Take 2

The holiday season is in full swing now, have you finished your decorating? Well if not I have a whole new batch of goodies lined up for you. My first ornament post seemed to be pretty helpful and with all the good stuff out there I had to share more of my favorites. Some are do it yourself ornaments and some are from great artists over on Etsy. Either way I hope it brightens your holiday spirits!

Do it yourself darnit!

Yarn Ornament tutorial from Violet Bella

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Drawing-Free Glass Ornament from Etsy

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Candy Cane tutorial and other goodies from Art as Usual

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Five paper ornaments from Shimelle

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Not interested in DIY? Why not BUY?

(Yeah, I know that was pretty cheesy.)

Owl Christmas Tree Ornament from xhochixx

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Green cozy home ornament from Petite House

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in the navy blue log ornament { bug miscellany }

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Set of Three Mustard and Green Hat Snowmen-clay ornaments from indigo twin

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I also have a litte treat for you later. Here's a little sneak peak for you:

Until then... happy trails!

Do it yourself darnit! Ornaments

‘Tis the season for tickling lights, wreaths, decorations, and ornaments! Being the craft lover that I am I searches far and wide through cyber land and found some adorable DIY ornament tutorials for all the crafty folks. Maybe I’ll even throw one together here myself shortly… we’ll see!

If you follow “A Beautiful Mess” you may have already seen this but I thought it was so creative I had to pass it on! I really need to try this and cakies did a wonderful job of illustrating the step by step of making these unique wrapped decorations.

cakies blog

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Over on a new blog, Pear and Peacock, I discovered on my search you can get a little groovy with this awesome DIY Sequin Ornaments!

Pear & Peacock Blog

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Design*Sponge has a great tutorial to get a little earthy with your holiday with this terrarium ornament.

Design*Sponge Blog

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How can I not use an Etsy tutorial? Reduce reuse and recycle with this cutie miniature stocking ornament!

Etsy from Sweater Renewal

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Looking for something a little less in depth? I love this idea from little chief honeybee. Make your Christmas tree a little more personal this year with photos! They really don’t HAVE to be instant photos. Super cute +super easy = A++ in my book!

little chief honeybee blog

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I’ve talked about little dear’s shop before and I’m still loving everything she does. She just put up a great Christmas star ornament tutorial on her little dear tracks blog. One wonder: adorable!

little dear tracks

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Don’t want to make anything for your tree this year? No sweat! There are tons of great ornaments on Etsy.com! I highly recommend the ever so talented Skunkboy Creatures. Her line of little stuffed ornaments is fabulous!

Skunkboy Creatures Blog

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Do you have an ornament tutorial to share? Or do you make ornaments that are for sale…? Perhaps I’ll do a round two!

Happy Trails!