Day 11 - DIY Wrapping Paper

I found this little DIY project on pintrest, it's from the Martha Stewart Website.  This would be another great activity to do with kids.

First you cut out shapes from some tissue paper. I had a piece that had cute little owls and whales on it so I cut those out.

Then put the tissue shapes in between two pieces of wax paper and put that in between two tea towels.

 Then iron away.

When you are done the two pieces of wax paper should be stuck together. Then trim the edges and wrap. My picture of the final product doesn't really do it any justice (it looks really cute in person!) although next time I will add more tissue paper cut outs.

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Day 11 - DIY coasters

This is my favourite DIY project so far.  I made coasters and a hot plate out of plain white tiles and scrapbook paper. And the best part is the whole project cost me less than $2. TWO DOLLARS!

I started with four 4x4 white tiles that I bought for 0.29 cents each, a 6x6 white tile that I got for 0.48 cents both of which I purchased at my local hardware store, a piece of scrapbook paper at 0.25 cents and some glue/water mix and felt chair leg protectors both of which I already had.

I first traced the tiles onto the back of the paper (make sure you trace on the back so you aren't left with any pencil marks on the pretty part) and cut out each square.

Brush on some glue/water mix onto the top of the tile then put on the paper and brush more glue on top of the paper making sure you don't miss any spots.

Once the glue was dry I flipped over the tiles and attached my felt squares.  You could also use regular felt or cork board but I had these leg protectors already so that's what I used.

And that's it, you're done.

This project took me all of about 20 minutes (not including drying time). And did I mention that it only cost me $2!  This would be a great little housewarming or Christmas gift for someone.  And for all of those teachers out there this would be a great craft for your students.  You could have them draw a picture on a piece of paper and then glue that to the tile.

Day 8 - DIY Fall Door Decoration

This is a really simple fall door hanger that I made in about 5 minutes (plus a half hour hike with my husband and son to collect the items).  It's simple but pretty, I think.

Here is what you need.

I glue gunned some ribbon to the bottom of a couple of pine cones and then tied ribbon to the stems of maple leaves.  I tied them all together at the top and hung the finished product on my front door...Voila a simple but festive door hanger!

If you wanted to make it a bit bigger you could add more leaves and pine cones and a burlap bow at the top (if I had any burlap handy I would have added this to my hanger).

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Day 5 - DIY candle holders

This is a DIY project thought up by me and made by my husband.  I thought of this project while walking around a tree farm last Christmas and noticing all the tree trunk ends that people had cut off the ends of their trees and left on the ground.  They looked so pretty and rustic that I took one home and asked my husband to cut it up and make candle holders out of it.  I first let it sit out in a dry spot to try up the sap in the wood so it would not leak all over.  My husband then cut it into three different length logs and drilled a hole in the top of each big enough to fit a tapered candle.  Done! Just put some nice candles in them and put them on a pretty plate to display and to catch any remaining sap ( I also cut a piece of wax paper to go under each holder to catch sap)

I like to change out the colour of candles throughout the year. Red and green at christmas, orange in fall, green at St. Pattys's day etc. You could also make it big enough to hold a tea light as well, we didn't have a wood drill bit big enough for this though.

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Day 2 - Homemade Subway Art

Since being on pinterest I have come across several pins for subway art.  They seem really nice and a great way to decorate for the holidays without spending too much money.  While there are many sites that graciously offer their subway art for free I thought I would make some of my own.

The first one I made was for my son.  I wanted something personal that I could put up in his room.  It was really easy to make. I just used microsoft word and inserted wordart for each word.  I was able to change the size, colour and font for each word.

Here is one that I did for fall, my favourite season!

 Once done, all you have to do is put it in a frame and find a spot for it in your home.  You can get pretty cheap (but nice looking) frames at Michaels and if you happen to have one of their 40% off coupons, even better!  I plan on making a few more for other events, Christmas, winter, Easter, birthdays, etc. and keeping them all in one frame.  This way I can easily switch them out when needed.

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