1. Hot Cocoa Mugs
I have 20 fellow full time coworkers at my job. (I know, we are tiny!) Last year I got everyone a small, adorable poinsettia. I thought it was a cute gift from the horticulture person. Well, this year with paying for the house, Leia, and living on my own has left me a little more strapped for cash. My mom found a pattern on Pinterest for a cute, construction paper mug. She made them for a favor for a volunteer holiday party at her work. So I copied her idea and made them for my coworkers! I bought a pack of different flavored hot chocolate to put inside each mug.
2. Sparkly Santa Ornaments
I really like giving ornaments with Christmas gifts for some reason. But, again, money was a little tight this Christmas I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought I could give it a try! Here is the original pin I saw. My mom saw a picture in a catalog of making them into Santa bellies. Since I don't have any way to monogram, I thought this could be fun! I needed a pack of glass ornaments, Mop N Glow, red glitter, black ribbon, and gold paper.
- You fill the ornament with mop n glow, and swirl it around the ornament evenly
- Add a large amount of red glitter and swirl it around so it covers the entire ornament. Then pour out the access
- Let it dry upside for a few hours (I let it dry for a day before moving them around)
- Put the cap back on the ornament only AFTER the glitter is completely dried on to the ornament
- I cut a piece of black ribbon for the belt and glued on with two sided crafting tape
- I wrote the recipient's name with silver sharpie on the back of the black ribbon
- I borrowed a buckle punch and cut some belt buckles out of gold paper and glued on with two sided crafting tape
- Then I topped it off with a green ribbon to hang off the tree.
WARNING: I found if you wait too long between adding the Mop N Glo and glitter, the glitter doesn't set very well. Be quick between those two steps!
3. Christmas Cards
My wonderfully talented mom and aunt always make their own Christmas cards, and this year I wanted to send one from me and my house (and puppy). One thing I can't stand is tedious card making, so I spent a lot of time online looking for an inspriation for something that wouldn't take years and years for me to do. I found something similar to this and thought I could totally do it!
All I basically needed to do is find some green ribbon and some two sided tape! My mom, of course, had a hoard of green ribbon for me to choose from. I'm so bummed, I didn't get a picture of each type of ribbon! I used this organza, glitter, smooth, and ribbed for the trees, so there were 4 different trees you could have gotten! Then we found some sparkly silver, gold, and white stars. I found some wood-grain paper in my mom's craft room and cut stumps for the trees and finally added some Christmas gifts under the trees.
I was a little underwhelmed by the starkness of the card. If I could redo anything, it would be the color of the card. But live and learn!
What sort of crafty things did you do this winter?
