Decorating for Christmas is so fun, but it can also get a little pricey. I don't like to spend a lot of money on things that will only be up for a month, so I made this paper Christmas tree for almost nothing.
Showing posts with label DIY Christmas decorations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DIY Christmas decorations. Show all posts
DIY Cupcake Ornaments
Friday, November 8, 2013
Wahoo! I don't know about you but I am super excited about Christmas being right around the corner. Yes, I do celebrate Thanksgiving but not in the normal way. Last night I took down all of my Christmas decorations from the attic and my goodness I was overwhelmed. But once I put my cupcake tree up everything got better.
Let's go make some Cupcake Christmas Ornaments!
DIY Embellished Holiday Letters
Monday, December 17, 2012
DIY Embellished Holiday Letters
Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy Holiday Letters
Margot Potter for iLoveToCreate
Cheap and Easy (Crafts)
I bought these wonderful FOOT TALL paper mache letters on super sale recently at Consumer Crafts. It took me a while to decide how I wanted to embellish them and then it hit me. I began with silver spray paint and a touch of gold to give them the effect of mercury glass. Then I added some layers of color with stamps (I used a paint pouncer to evenly apply paint to my stamp) and then edged them with multiple sizes of faux rhinestones. These are super easy to make and the cost is minimal for maximum impact, now that's my kind of cheap and easy craft! iLoveToCreate has an array of fabulous products that took these letters from drab to fab in a flash.
Large paper mache letters to spell: "JOY"
Large faux rhinestones in various sizes
Silver spray paint
Gold spray paint
White Crafty Chica acrylic paint
Aleene's Spray Sealer (gloss or matte finish)
Aleene's Tacky Glue with brush
Tulip Glitter Spray
Swirly stamp or stencil
Tools
Tulip sponge pouncer
How to Make Paper Snowflakes Embellished Gift Bags
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
How to Make Paper Snowflake Embellished Gift Bags
Our favorite holiday movie here at Casa de Potter is Elf. (We watch it all year round!) In fact, we just watched it this past weekend. One of my favorite scenes is when Buddy decorates the department store and makes a flurry of fabulous paper snowflakes. It's been so long, I had to give myself a refresher course in how to make paper snowflakes. Once I had it down, I decided to make some using upcycled magazine pages, we have a lot of magazines piling up around here and I hate to throw them away.
Fair warning, this is very addictive. Why stop at hanging them from the tree, when you can layer them on plain kraft paper gift bags and tags? I am seriously smitten with these and plan to wrap all of our holiday gifts in snowflake embellished kraft paper wrappings this year.
(I guess I'm not the only one with snowflakes on my mind, Megan Nicholay made some seriously cute snowflake stencil t-shirts yesterday!)
Materials
Text printed magazine pages
Kraft gift bags
Kraft gift tags
Plastic rhinestones
White and Off White Buttons
Jute or hemp twine
Aleene’s Tacky Glue
Tools
Small paper friendly scissors
Hole punch
Paper plate
Tulip Sponge Pouncer
Cut standard size magazine pages into various sized snowflakes. Paper can be full size sheet or halves or quarters.
Fold paper in half.
Fold paper in half again, don’t score, just pinch edge to mark center point.
Fold right edge with bottom edge at center point on an angle that lines up with the top left corner.
Fold left side overlapping center as before with folded edge flush to edge of first fold, as in photo.
Fold this in half one final time. (The folds should be on the inside.)
Cut excess paper from above top of smaller interior fold.
Use a marker to trace a series of cuts or just roll freestyle, don’t cut too much off of folded edge, or your design may become too fragile. Simple, bold cuts work best.
Mark placement of snowflake on bag, cut off excess edge. Depending on size of snowflake, you can use the excess edge to make a second or third snowflake on bag. Cut them in different sizes for multiple snowflake bags!
Use spray adhesive or gently dab thinned Tacky glue from a paper plate using a sponge pouncer across back of snowflake, make sure to get entire snowflake covered with a thin coat of glue. Starting from the edge, press snowflake flush to bag using your fingers to remove any air bubbles. Take your time to prevent tearing paper. (You can also opt to use a brayer here.)
To embellish: Use Beads in a Bottle or a thin line of glue and loose glitter to add sparkling accents around the edges of all cut outs. Glue rhinestones and buttons to snowflakes with Tacky Glue. Allow bags to dry.
To create matching tags: Repeat process but use a smaller starting size of paper. Punch a hole in the top edge of tag and tie to handles of bags with jute twine.
Retrofabulous Yarn Wrapped Tabletop Christmas Trees
Monday, November 19, 2012
Bring on the holidays! Hooray! I'm so excited for year two of Retrofabulous Christmas Craftabration at Studio Madge! These Yarn Wrapped Tabletop Christmas Trees are vintage inspired, with a clean modern twist, which is the heart of all things retrofabulous. The cones are available for a song at Michaels as is this lovely Dew Drops yarn. Aleene's adhesives make this project a breeze to create. You can make a whole forest of these trees very inexpensively and quickly yet, they look so rich and opulent. This technique works well with papier mache or cardboard Christmas balls too. You don't need to spend a fortune to make your home cozy and chic for the holidays. And yes, it's obvious that my obsession with pom poms (or pom pons if you will) has not faded. Ho ho ho!
Love
Madge
1 large 13" tall cardboard papier mache cone
2 smaller 10.5" tall cardboard papier mache cones
3 skeins Dew Drops yarn in silver, taupe and electric blue
Aleene's glue sticks
Aleene's Fabric Fusion adhesive or Aleene's Quick Dry Tacky Glue
Tools
Clover pom pom maker (medium sized 2" pom poms work best with these cones)
Scissors
Aleene's glue gun
(Snip off yarn tail.)
Cut yarn wraps, tie pom pom center while still on tool with a knotted length of yarn, cut off tails.
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