DIY Winter Hat Ornaments: Two Techniques

     These winter hat ornaments are easy to make and if you already have some yarn on hand, they cost next to nothing to make.  They're the perfect craft for holiday parties or family time.

Materials:

*Yarn
*Toilet paper tube (or cardstock)
*Ruler
*Scissors
*Pom pom (needed for one technique, but not the other)
*All purpose adhesive (needed for one technique, but not the other)

Directions:

*Cut a 1/2" tall ring from the toilet paper tube.  If you don't have an empty toilet paper roll handy, cut off a 1/2" thick strip of cardstock and glue or tape the ends together such that the cardstock forms a ring with about the same diameter as a toilet paper tube.

*Cut off a 10" length of yarn and fold it in half.

*Insert the yarn into the ring such that the loop pokes out from the bottom of the ring like this:

*Slide the ends of the yarn through the loop like this:

*Pull tight so you end up with something like this:

*Repeat until the ring is full:

*Cut off another piece of yarn and tie it around the other strands of yarn like this:

*Turn the other way:

*To finish, glue on a pom pom.

Alternate Technique

*Once you have finished tying on all the pieces of yarn, flip the other way.

*Cut off an additional length of ribbon and tie around the hat.

*Trim above the place where you tied the additional piece of yarn to create the pom pom shape.

DIY Harry Potter Inspired Magic Wand Ornaments

     These magic wand ornaments are inexpensive and easy to make and are great gifts for magic lovers of all ages.  In addition to ornaments, these could serve as wands for dolls or stuffed animals (see this post for a different miniature wand tutorial).  If you put up a Halloween tree, these ornaments could be great for that too.

Materials:

*Toothpicks
*Clay
*Paint
*Jump rings
*Thread or thin ribbon
*Paint brush

Directions:

*Take your toothpick and form a handle covering the end of it using clay.

*Insert the jump rings into the end of the handle such that about half of the ring is embedded in the clay.  This will be where you hang your ornament from, so make sure it's in securely.

*Add details to the clay if you would like to.  You don't want to do the detail work before adding the jump rings, or you may squish your design in the process.

*Once you're satisfied with the design, bake clay in the oven following the directions on the packaging.  I baked mine for about 8 minutes at 225° F.

*When the ornaments have cooled sufficiently, paint the wands in whatever colors you would like.  Let dry.

*Loop some ribbon or thread through the jump rings so you can hang your wand from your tree.

Christmas Lights Nail Art

Materials:

*Gold nail polish or other "background" color
*Nail polish in the colors you would like the lights to be
*Black nail art pen
* Clear base/top coat
*Very fine nail art brush

Directions:

*Paint your nails gold or whatever color you chose for your "canvas."

*Using your nail art pen, draw two lines that oscillate up and down on each nail.

*Draw 4-5 lines perpendicular to each wavy line, with the first one pointing up, the second one pointing down, the third one pointing up, etc.  These are where your light bulbs will go.

*Using the nail art brush, paint the bulbs.  It's okay if they're not lopsided or not perfectly bulb shaped.  If you look at my nails up close, you can see many imperfections and asymmetries, especially on my right hand.  People will still get the idea.

Homemade Holiday Photo Cards

     Holiday card printing services can be expensive, particularly if you have a long list of people to send cards to.  Printing cards from home can be a cheaper alternative.  Here's how to create nice looking holiday cards from home.

Materials:

*Computer with photo editing program such as Adobe Photoshop
*Digital photos for your card
*Holiday-themed scrapbooking paper (optional)
*Color printer
*Matte photo paper in the dimensions that you would like your cards to be
*Glitter or metallic gel pens (optional)
*Glitter cardstock (optional)

Directions:

*Design your card in your photo editing program.  Brian constructed our card, so I can't adequately explain the process, but this tutorial shows you how to create photo cards in Photoshop.

*Insert matte photo paper into the printer and print your card.  You can use cardstock if you're in a pinch, but the pictures won't be as crisp and the colors may be a bit muted.  Here is a comparison:

*Glitter and shiny embossing are two features that can really make holiday cards stand out.  Add some shimmer to your cards by tracing the text with glitter gel pens.

*Create a frame for your photos from glitter cardstock to give your cards some extra sparkle.

DIY Ornament Throw Pillow

     Here's a craft I've been wanting to make for years, ever since I stumbled across it on Pinterest.  For a while, it sat in a pin board, and I would admire it every time I scrolled past it, thinking, "Maybe someday."  I didn't trust my sewing skills enough to imagine that I could succeed at making something like that.  However, after sewing a romper by hand earlier this year, I realized that I'm actually okay at sewing and decided to take the plunge.  My ornament throw pillow didn't turn out picture perfect, like the ones I saw online, but it still looks pretty decent.
     Since I got the idea and template from Studio DIY, I'll leave it to them to explain how to craft this pillow.  I will, however, describe some of the issues I faced in crafting my pillows explain what worked for me.  So, head on over to Studio DIY for the directions and template, and then head back here to learn a little more about what I found tricky when making my pillow and how I overcame the issues that cropped up.

Tips:

*If you are not used to working with slippery fabric, I strongly caution against using it here.  Yes, it makes for a lovely pillow, but it can be a pain to work with.  Every time I tried pinning it, something slipped somewhere and I ended up with one end kind of lined up while the other was completely not.

*If you're struggling with pinning, try using painter's tape to hold the edges together.  It is still a pain to work with, as it does not adhere to the fabric well, but I had much better luck when I switched over to painter's tape.

*Instead of removing the painter's tape as you go, you may find it helpful to see through the tabe and then cut the tape off at the end, rather than peeling it as you go.

*The ends of the rope I used to make the ornament hook were uneven and a bot frayed, so instead of hot gluing the ends directly to the ornament cap, I cut small slits in the topper so I could slide the ends of the rope inside and then glued them in place.  I'm not sure if that worked out better or worse than hot gluing the ends to the ornament cap, but that's how I did it.

DIY Hand Turkeys

     I have been super busy lately between teaching intro physics and working on my own research, so the craft ideas just haven't been coming to me lately.  Luckily, this week I didn't have to come up with an idea of my own.  Deanna, who keeps the physics department's main office looking festive throughout the year, called on the grad students to make some hand turkey decorations.  I had some paper feathers left over from masquerade mask making and thought they would add a nice touch to the traditional hand turkeys.  This craft is relatively easy to make and works well for crafters of all ages.

Physics department hand turkeys.

Materials:

*Brown cardstock (or whatever color you want your turkey to be)
*Red, yellow, and orange cardstock (or whatever colors you want the feathers to be)
*Scissors
*Glue
*Googly eyes
*Pencil

Directions:

*Trace your hand (or help your crafter trace their hand) onto the brown cardstock and cut out.

*Cut out feather shapes from red, orange, and yellow cardstock (if you search for feather template, you can find all sorts of feather shapes you could use).

*Glue feathers over the fingers of the hand template.

*Glue a googly eye to the thumb.

*Cut out beak and wattle shapes from orange and red cardstock and glue onto the thumb.

DIY Fall Leaves Nail Art

     Here's a technique to make gorgeous nail art even if your artistic abilities are limited.  The keys to this technique are painter's tape and shaped hole punches.  With the right hole punch, you could easily modify this tutorial to create nails with whatever design you would like.

Materials:

*Leaf shaped hole punch
*Base coat
*Nail polish in the color(s) you want your leaves to be
*Gold nail polish
*Painter's tape
*Tweezers

Directions:

*Paint on clear base coat and let dry.

*Paint your nails the color(s) you would like your leaves to be.  Let nails dry for at least two hours before continuing (or else you run the risk of peeling off your nail polish when you peel off the tape).

*Punch leaf shapes from the painter's tape and stick to nails.  Make sure that part of the tape extends beyond the nail, onto the surrounding skin.

*Paint one nail gold.

*Immediately after painting, grab the edge of the tape with tweezers and carefully peel it off your nail.

*Repeat the process until all of your nails are painted.