Christmas Cards

Hey Guys!

I am so sorry about the late blog post! I have been extremely busy with work, packing and a few of my girlfriends have been visiting for the past week that I haven’t had the time to do any crafts except my Christmas cards. This year I decided to spice up my Christmas cards by adding a little Christmas touch to them. I used crayons and some Christmas stencils that I made myself. These cards turned out a little cheesy and playful, but I’m sure my receiver’s will appreciate my Christmas touch.

Items I used to make these Christmas Cards:

Christmas Cards purchased from Target

Crayons

Black Sharpie

Transfer Paper

Printed Stencils

**Majority of these items should be laying around the house! If not, they can be purchased from the dollar store. 

Step 1: Once you have purchased your Christmas Cards its time to spice up the envelopes. I printed 3 different types of Christmas images off the Internet and then used my transfer paper and traced the images onto the envelopes. I did each card differently depending on their names and addresses. I used red and green crayons and a black sharpie to color and bold the envelope. This craft is really fun and easy to do; it’s a great starter craft for the holidays!

Hope you guys enjoyed, and more Christmas crafts to come!

Christmas images I used for my cards

Costume Time!

My costume was pretty last minute this year…. Although, it turned out great! I was a blonde Mary Poppins. If you’re in need of any last minute costumes, my coworkers and myself, whipped up some pretty good ones that were almost effortless to make but ended up looking point on. 

Items you will need to become Mary Poppins:

Black Skirt

White Blouse

Thigh High Socks or Nylons

Red Bow Tie

Top Hat (add red flowers)

Umbrella

Black Purse

Black Heels or Combat Booties

Red Lips and Nail Polish 

Delicious Pumpkin Seeds Recipe

Are you wondering how to make some delicious pumpkin seeds that don’t exactly taste like pumpkin seeds? Then you must try my recipe!

Prep Time: 10 Minutes

Bake Time: 1 Hour

Total Time: 1 Hour and 10 Minutes

Ingredients:

Pumpkin seeds from an actual pumpkin

Olive Oil

Sea Salt & Pepper

Garlic Salt

Parmesan Cheese

Step 1: Preheat the oven to Bake 250 F. Usually you make pumpkin seeds while carving a pumpkin so use those seeds afterwards! Put these seeds into a strainer and rise until all the pumpkin guts have washed away. Dry seeds with a paper towel afterwards.

Step 2: Put the seeds into a bowl and add about a tablespoon of olive oil depending on how many seeds you have. Remember you don’t want the seeds to be too oily. Now you can add sea salt, pepper, garlic salt and parmesan cheese. Basically you add as much as you desire, just taste to test. I shredded my parmesan cheese up very finely and added about 3-4 tablespoons, again depending how many seeds you have.

Step 4: Put tinfoil on a cookie pan so that the seeds don’t stick. Spread the pumpkin seeds out on the cookie pan so they can cook evenly. Cook the seeds for 1 hour, tossing them every 15 minutes until they are golden brown. Cool the seeds before eating!

Enjoy! 

Valentines Day Banner

I decided to decorate my condo for Valentines Day. I didn’t want it to look too cheesy, so I just made a simple heart banner. I cut out enough hearts that I was able to place heart banners in a few places. The banner looks very pretty strung across the fireplace mantel, bed headboard, windows or walkways.

The items you will need to create this cute heart banner are:

Red and pink construction paper

Brown Twinge (String)

Red Sparkles

Scissors

Glue

**These items can be purchased at Michael’s or any craft store.

Step 1: Cut as many red and pink hearts out of the construction paper as you want. You can than use the glue and sparkles and decorate the hearts as you wish. I put sparkles on every other red heart, and around the edges.

Step 2: Once all your hearts are cut out and glittered, use the scissors and string to poke holes through each heart. Then string the twinge through each hole and your valentine’s heart banner will be completed. You can now place it anywhere you’d like.

Hope this was an easy and fun Valentines Day project! 

Crow Silhouette Painting

This week I wanted to make something spooky and festive for Halloween, but I also wanted to be able to use this piece all year long. So, I was looking on Pinterest and I seen a crow silhouette painting that I just had to have, so I decided to make it!

Items you will need to make the crow silhouette painting:

Thin piece of wood

Tracing paper

Transfer paper

 Pencil

Sander

Black/dark aqua blue/brown acrylic paints

Thin and thick paintbrushes

Varnish

**All of these tools can be purchased at any craft or hardware store.

Step 1: Once you have found a thin piece of wood use the sander to sand it down to make sure it’s completely smooth. Next use a thick paintbrush and paint the entire piece of wood dark aqua blue.

Step 2: Once the paint is dry, dip your thick paintbrush into the brown acrylic paint. Dab the brown paint on the edges and corners of the piece of wood to give it a dark vintage look. Over coat the brown dabs with black paint and keep blending the colors together for an even spookier look.

Step 3: Now choose a set of crows that you’ve seen on the Internet or draw a set of you’re own. I found a set of crows online and then enlarged the photo as big as I wanted it to be. Then I used tracing paper and traced the crows from the computer screen onto the tracing paper. Once this step is completed, you can now use your transfer paper and place it onto the piece of wood with the crow pattern on top. Use a pencil and trace the crows onto the piece of wood. The transfer paper transfers  the crow pattern onto the piece of wood.

Step 4: Once the crow outline is on the piece of wood use a small paintbrush and paint the crows in with the black paint. Once the crows are painted and totally dry use your large paintbrush to paint a coat of varnish onto the painting. This allows the painting to look shiny and sealed! Once the varnish is dried you are all done your crow silhouette painting.

Any questions let me know guys!

Enjoy J

Festive Mini Pumpkin Candleholders

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Seeing how this weekend is Thanksgiving I decided to make something easy and very festive! I made pumpkin candleholders. These holders are easy and cheap to do. They can be left outside for decorations or inside on the table where they work as great centerpieces for turkey dinner.

What you’re going to need to be able to create these cute candleholders:

Mini Pumpkins

Sharp knife

Tea light candles

Sharpie

Water based varnish

Paintbrush

Step 1: You can purchase mini pumpkins or gourds from a farmers market or Wal-Mart. Cut the steam off of each gourd and use a marker to trace the outline of the tea light candle onto the top of the pumpkin. 

 Step 2: Take a very sharp knife and cut around the marker lines, which will look like a circle. Be careful, the mini pumpkins are extremely tough. Once the hole has been cut, use a spoon to dig all the seeds and guts out of the pumpkin. Do this for each pumpkin.

Step 3: After the seeds and guts have been removed wash the marker lines off and the inside of the pumpkin to make sure everything is looking clean. Dry the pumpkins off with a paper towel thoroughly.  

Step 4: Now take a paintbrush and the varnish, and do one coat of varnish to each pumpkin. This allows the pumpkin to look shiny and the varnish allows the pumpkin to last longer.

Step 5: Once the varnish has completely dried, you can place the tea light candles into each pumpkin. Now you are finished! You can place these festive candleholders anywhere you would like.

Hope you enjoyed, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!