Christmas Memory Box

      Hope you all have been enjoying your holidays.  Here's a neat way to preserve your holiday memories.  I bought an unfinished cigar box from Joann and painted and then stuck in some little mementos of Christmas, such as gift tags, paper snowflakes, and some bubbles I got from my family's annual "yucky" swap.  It's hard to tell from the photo, but I have a couple of pieces of cardboard behind each of the three framed pictures inside the box to make them "pop out."  Also, the little "present" opens up into an accordion style photo album.  Check out the video below for more details and check below for a few more pics :).

     This is what the outside of the box looks like,

     Here's what it looks like with the photo album pulled out and the little book moved aside.  You can see that I have a little photo of my tree that hides behind where the book goes.

Six-Pointed Paper Snowflake Tutorial

     Ever wondered how to make a paper snowflake with six points, like a real snowflake has?  Check out the video tutorial below.  Don't be intimidated by the video's length.  If you're just looking for the paper folding technique, that happens within the first five minutes, but I encourage you to give the video as a whole a watch.  Brian is my co-host for this tutorial and he's pretty funny.

Finals Week Polly Pocket Ornament

     Finals week.  For the past seven years it has been just as much a part of my holiday season as decorating the tree.  In fact, I took my grad physics exam this afternoon, so it's just now finally over.  When I was a kid, I always wanted a Polly Pocket ornament and this ornament gave me the chance to combine that desire with my background in mathematics and physics (notice that Polly's textbooks are on nuclear physics and differential geometry).

Polly's "House"

Materials:

*Wide jewelry box

*Scrapbooking paper

*Felt

*Pencil

*Marker

*Scissors

*Needle

*Thread

*All purpose adhesive

Directions:

*Trace the back, two short sides, and one of the long sides of the jewelry box onto the piece of patterned paper.  Trim as necessary to get them to fit inside the box and then glue into place.

*Trace the lid of the box onto the sheet of felt and cut out.

*Glue one of the long sides of the box inside the lid as pictured.  Set aside to dry.

*Once dry, cut the felt to fit inside the lid to make "carpeting" for the "house."

Blanket

Materials:

*Fabric square

*Needle and thread

Directions:

*Cut out a fabric square the size you would like Polly's blanket to be.

*Sew a blanket stitch around the edges of the fabric square to complete the blanket.

Owl Pillow

Materials:

*Felt in color of choice for owl body

*Orange felt

*White felt

*Black felt

*Needle and thread

*Stuffing

*Miniaturized owl template (can be found here)

*Scissors

*Permanent marker

Directions:

*Print out a miniature version of the owl template given in my Felt Owl Pal post.

*Trace two large circles onto the white felt for eyes, two small circles onto black felt for pupils, a triangle onto orange felt for a beak, and two of the body template onto the desired colored felt for the owls body.  Ignoring the wings and belly pieces, which I did not include because the details were too fine for the scale I was working on, follow the directions for sewing a felt owl pal.

Books

Materials:

*Images to use for book covers

*Plain paper

*Scissors

*All purpose adhesive

Directions:

*Using Paint or a similar program, design textbook covers and print out.  Print one copy of the front cover and two copies of the back cover.

*Cut out 20 or so sheets of plain paper to the same size as the covers.  Add front cover and one back cover to the book.

*Cut the remaining back cover so that it is slightly wider than the thickness of the stack of papers making up the book.  Add adhesive to the back of the strip and then place to form the spine of the book.  The strip of paper should overlap the front and back covers slightly.

Notes/papers

Materials:

*Computer and printer

*Plain paper

Directions:

*Take screenshots of papers you have written (I used pages from my Master's Thesis), shrink to small sizes, and print.

Super Easy Christmas Tinsel Earrings and Glitter Ball Earrings

     Need some pretty earrings for the holiday season?  Try making some ornament earrings.  The tinsel ones take only a minute to make.  The glitter earrings are slightly more time intensive, but the finished product is simply stunning.

Tinsel Ball Earrings

Materials:

*2 tinsel ball mini ornaments

*2 ear wires

*Round nosed pliers

*Flat nosed pliers

Directions:

*Open the loop of the ear wires using the round nosed pliers.

*Slide on the ornament.

*Close the loop using the flat nosed pliers and you're done!

Glitter Ball Earrings

Materials:

*2 tinsel ball mini ornaments

*2 ear wires

*Round nosed pliers

*Flat nosed pliers

*Glitter-It adhesive

*Ultra fine glitter

Directions:

*Remove the ornament tops.

*Pull the tinsel out using pliers.

*Rinse out any residue from the tinsel and then set aside the ornaments to dry.

*Make glitter ornaments using the directions here.  Note that the Glitter-It does not drain out of these little ornaments as well as it does out of the big ones, so try not to add too much.

*Open the loop of the ear wires using the round nosed pliers.
*Slide on the ornament.
*Close the loop using the flat nosed pliers.

If you haven't tried making full size glitter ornaments yet, give them a try.  They're super easy and ridiculously pretty.  I brought this craft to a meeting yesterday and these are the ornaments that we all came up with:

Recycled Wrapping Paper Christmas/Winter Garland

     Have some leftover wrapping paper scraps from last year kicking around?  Make yourself a fun, seasonal garland.  If you don't have some already, you can wait until after you've opened your presents and either get a head start on next year's holiday crafting or use winter themed paper instead of Christmas specific paper.

Materials:
*Patterned or character wrapping paper
*Large and small circle templates (I traced around a large and small drinking glass)
*Cereal box or similar cardboard
*Holographic self-adhesive laminate (or holographic wrapping paper)
*Scissors
*Ribbon
*Glue
*Pen
*Circular hole punch

Directions:
*Trace the small circle onto the patterned or character wrapping paper such that you end up with 12 circles and then cut out the circles.
*Trace the medium circle template onto the cereal boxes, making 12 circles in total, and cut out the circles.
*Trace the medium circle template onto the holographic laminate or paper to make 12 circles and cut them out.
*Adhere holographic paper to one side of each of the cardboard circles.
*Glue a piece of patterned wrapping paper to the center of each of the cardboard circles over the holographic paper.
*Punch a hole in the top of each circle.
*Align the circles, spacing them out as far apart as you would like them to be for the garland.
*Cut a length of ribbon several inches longer than the span of the aligned circles.
*Slide one end of the ribbon an inch or so through the hole in the last circle in the line and tie it in place.
*Slide on the second to last circle, spacing it the desired distance from the last one, and tie in place.  Repeat with the remaining circles.

Felt Heart Name Ornaments

Material:
*Felt
*Chalk or marker
*Fabric paint
*Heart template
*Needle and thread
*Stuffing
*Scissors
*Ribbon
*Fabric scraps and other embellishments (optional)

Directions:
*Using the chalk or marker, trace the heart template onto the felt twice and cut out the two hearts.
*Write the name in the center of one of the hearts using fabric paint and then decorate the ornament however you would like using fabric paint, scrap fabric, or other embellishments.  Set aside to dry.
*Cut off about 2 1/2" of ribbon and fold in half to create a loop.  Sew to the undecorated heart.
*Using a blanket stitch, sew together the hearts, leaving an opening large enough for you to add the stuffing.  Insert stuffing into your heart until it reaches the desired fullness, then sew closed.

P.s. wondering why I have Christmas ornaments with bats on them?  I was trying to come up with a way to symbolically represent myself in the ornament and Brian suggested I make a "crest" with different animals to represent different facets of myself.  He suggested an owl (because I'm smart), a bat (because I love writing, reading, and watching horror), and a cat (because I'm curious, but mostly because I adore cats).  He drew up an on ornament with these animals (see the bottom right ornament).  I then decided to try to replicate his idea, but with fabric scraps.  The only cat fabric I had featured Halloween cats, but I love Halloween, so it just added to the significance of the ornament.  If you're trying to make an ornament that's meaningful, perhaps you could ask the intended recipient (whether it's you or someone else) to brainstorm a crest.  This could be especially nice if you're making ornaments for a child, since they would probably love to see their artistic insights turned into an ornament.

Clay Owl Earrings

Materials:
*Oven bake clay in white, orange, black, and a color of your choice (I used green)
*2 ear wires
*2 head pins
*Wire cutters
*Round nosed pliers

Directions:
*Shape the clay in the color of your choice into two owl shapes.
*Make 4 small circles of white clay for the eyes and add smaller black circles for the pupils.
*Make two small orange triangles for a beak.
*Poke a head pin through each clay owl.
*Bake in the oven according to the directions on the clay packaging.
*Snip off part of each head pin with wire cutters, leaving enough excess to create a small loop.
*Use round nosed pliers to create a loop at the top of each head pin.
*Attach the ear wire to the loop.