Photo Advent Calendar

Materials:
*Photo frame approximately 8" x 16"
*10" x 20" piece of fabric
*Ribbon in two different colors
*6 sheets of Christmas themed patterned paper
*Glitter glue in two colors
*24 mimi clothespins
*All purpose adhesive
*Mounting tape or mounting squares
*Printed numbers or number stickers
*Scissors
*Computer with printer/scanner
*Photo paper

Directions:
*Lay fabric face down on a flat surface and place the glass from the photo frame on top of the fabric(if you would prefer not to use the glass for the base of your calendar, you can use cardboard or foam board instead).
*Run all purpose adhesive along the edges of the backside of the glass and adhere the fabric to this.  Make sure to pull the fabric as tight as you can while gluing so that you won’t end up with bunches of fabric on the front side.  Let the adhesive dry.
*While the adhesive is drying, cut four 1.25" x 1.75" rectangles from each sheet of patterned paper.  You should end up with 24 rectangles in total.
*Affix numbers to the rectangles such that each rectangle has a unique number from 1 to 24.
*Find 24 old Christmas photos and, if not already digitized, scan them into the computer.  Crop the photos into squares, then shrink each square to 1.25" x 1.25". 
*Import the photos into a word processing program and arrange the photos such that there is half an inch of white space above each photo.  Print out the photos and cut out 1.25" x 1.75" rectangles consisting of the photo squares and the half inch of white space.
*Decorate the white space on the photo rectangles with glitter glue, then set aside to dry.
*Cut four lengths of ribbon about 9.5" in length.  Clasp 6 clothespins on each length of ribbon.  Place one ribbon on the fabric covered glass about 1" below the top.  Glue one end to the back of the glass, then pull the ribbon tightly across and glue the other end.
*Glue successive ribbons in the same fashion about 3.75" to 4" below the previous ribbon.  Set aside to dry.
*Once the adhesive on the ribbons has dried, place the fabric covered ribbon back inside the frame.
*Once the glitter glue has dried on the photo rectangles, adhere using mounting tape numbered pattern paper rectangles and photo rectangles together so that one side of the resulting rectangle depicts the patterned paper and the other side shows the photo.
*Attach rectangles to the ribbons using the mini clothespins with the number side facing out.  Turn each rectangle over to display the photo when the designated day in December arrives.

Duct Tape Wallet

If your old wallet wears out, or your wallet gets lost or stolen, instead of buying a new one try making one out of duct tape.  If you already have duct tape at your house it's a very cost effective solution.  Here's a link to the video tutorial I worked from when making my duct tape wallet.

Materials:
*Duct tape
*Scissors

Directions:
*Cut four strips of duct tape about 8.5" in length and overlap the pieces slightly, sticking them together with the sticky side facing up.
*Cut four more strips of duct tape about 8.5" in length and lay these strips over the four strips already stuck together, with sticky sides touching.  This will form the duct tape "fabric" of your wallet.
*Fold your "fabric" in half (the hot dog way) and trim off any uneven duct tape edges. 
*Take a strip of duct tape that is 9"-10" in length and cut it in half.  Use each of the pieces to cover the edges of the top part of the wallet.  Trim off any excess duct tape.
*For the pockets, cut off three 16" strips of duct tape. 
*Take two of the strips and stick them together to form the material for the pockets.
*Cut the third strip in half and use it to cover the edges of the pocket material.
*Cut the pocket material into four equal pieces and arrange the pieces on your wallet as you would like the pockets to be arranged.
*Tape the edges of the pockest down.  Make sure not to tape too far over or otherwise you won't be able to fit your ID's, etc. into the wallet.
*With the pockets facing outward, tape the sides together.
*Fold in half with the pockets facing in toward one another.  Now you have your duct tape wallet.
*If the wallet won't stay folded, set it under a heavy book for a little while.

Duct Tape Rose Ring

Materials:
*Duct tape in two colors (one color for the flower and one to wrap around the ring band)
*Cutting board
*X-acto knife
*Ring base
*Ruler

Directions:
*Center a 12" strip of duct tape on your cutting board so that it falls directly between the 4" and 6" marks.
*Using a ruler to keep your cut straight, cut the strip of duct tape in half lengthwise.
*Cut the duct tape strips widthwise at each 1" mark.  You should now have 24 duct tape squares that are approximately 1"x1".

*Wrap some duct tape of the color that you plan on wrapping around the ring band around the center of your ring base, then take a thin strip of duct tape at least the same width as the roll of duct tape and center it around the ring base, taping the ends together.  You will now have a duct tape protrusion on the ring that should look something like this:

*Wrap a couple of pieces of duct tape around the duct tape protrusion.

*Take a piece of duct tape in the color that you plan on using for petals and fold it over the protrusion.
*Peel one of your duct tape squares from the cutting board and fold it not quite in half diagonally so that it looks like the duct tape piece circled in red:

 

*Fold it again so that you end up with a triangle that looks like these:

*Attach the sticky part of the duct tape triangle to the duct tape protrusion on the ring base to form a petal.
*Continue folding duct tape triangles and attaching them to the protrusion until you have a flower large enough for your liking.
*Optional: wrap duct tape around the ring band.  If you do want to cover the ring band in duct tape, make sure to get ring bands that are at least a size too large for you because when you wrap the duct tape around the ring it will become a much tighter fit.

Duct Tape Covered Letters

Materials:
*Foam board
*Letter templates
*X-acto knife
*Pencil
*Duct tape in various colors/patterns (can use patterned paper in place of duct tape if you don't have duct tape in numerous colors/patterns)
*Scissors

Directions:
*Trace letter templates onto the foam board.
*Using your X-acto knife, cut out the letters.
*Cut out a strip of duct tape and place the duct tape strip over one of the letters.  Trim excess duct tape, leaving some to wrap around the edges, if desired.
*Repeat until the letters are covered in duct tape
*If you are using patterned paper in place of duct tape, trace letter templates onto the patterned paper, cut out the paper letters, and glue to the foam board.

Bonus: Duct Tape Decorated Box

Use your leftover duct tape scraps to decorate a box.  Cut the excess duct tape into small pieces and arrange on a jewelry box.



Candy Wrapper Decorated Journal

Instead of throwing away your candy wrappers from Halloween, use them in a craft.

Materials:
*Spiral bound notebook
*20 Tootsie Roll wrappers (or similar wrappers)
*White paint
*Paintbrush
*A brad
*Iron
*Glue
*Scissors

Directions:
*Iron candy wrappers on low heat (only if you are using waxy wrappers like Tootsie Roll wrappers) to flatten them out.
*Snip off the ends of the wrappers and set aside.
*If your wrappers are somewhat transparent and you have a dark colored notebook, paint the backs of the wrappers white so that the notebook cover won't show through the wrappers.  Set wrappers aside to dry.
*Arrange the wrappers on the cover of your notebook in a pattern you find pleasing, then glue the wrappers to the notebook cover.  Set aside to dry.
*If your notebook cover starts warping from the glue, set the notebook underneath a heavy book until it dries.
*While the notebook is drying, gather up 20 of the wrapper ends you set aside.  Using your scissors, round the edges on one end.
*Carefully poke holes in the square ends of the wrappers.  Arrange the wrappers in an appealing color pattern, then slide onto the brad.  Fan the wrappers out to form a flower shape, then fasten then ends of the brad closed.
*Glue the flower to the notebook cover.