New Year's Resolution Generator

The new year is nearly upon us, which means many of us will be making resolutions.  While annual resolutions are not the most effective strategy for self-improvement, they are a tradition, so I feel like I should set at least one.  My goal is to get the novel I'm revising into the hands of beta readers (the people who read and give feedback on the story before it goes off to an editor) before the end of 2021.

This New Year's Resolution Generator probably should not be used for your actual resolutions, but it may give you a few laughs.  Fill in the blanks Mad Libs style, and you'll have a slate of goals that are probably best ignored.  

I hope 2021 brings you much happiness and success.

Materials:

*Printouts of the game

*Pencil

Directions:

*Copy the text at the end of this post into a word program or your choice.  You may want to play around with the formatting for a bit, like placing the numbers below the blanks instead of on top of them.

*Print out on two separate pages, one for the word list and one for the set of resolutions. 

*Grab a pencil or pen and fill in the blanks to generate your resolutions. 

New Year’s Resolution Generator (Word List)

1. Adjective:

2: Plural noun:

3. Drink:

4. Food:

5: Verb ending in “ing”:

6: Number:

7: Verb ending in “ing”:

8: Plural noun:

9: Verb ending in “ing”:

10: Last person you texted:

11: Name of organization:

12: Adjective:

13: Plural noun:

14: Noun:

15: Noun:

16: Adjective:

New Year’s Resolution Generator

Now that the ___1____ year is upon us, it’s time to make some ____2____. This year, I resolve to drink more ___3____ and eat less ___4____. I will also take up ____5____, which I will devote at least ____6____ hours per week to. I will spend more time ____7____ with ____8____ and less time ____9____ with ____10___. I will volunteer at ____11____ and will donate more money to ____12___ _____13___. With a little bit of hard ___14____ and ___15____, I will make 2021 my ____16___ year yet!

DIY Christmas Tree Cake Nail Art

Here's one final holiday nail design idea, perfect for all you snack cake fans.

Materials:

*Red nail polish (or other base color)
*Nail polish base coat
*Clear nail polish top coat
*White acrylic paint
*Red acrylic paint
*Green acrylic paint
*Very fine nail art brush 

Directions:

*Apply nail polish base coat.  Once dry, apply base color.

*Using white acrylic paint and a very fine nail art brush, draw on a Christmas Tree Cake shape.

*Add stripes with red acrylic paint.

*Paint on sprinkles using green acrylic paint.

*Seal nail design with a clear top coat.

I hope you all have a fun and safe holiday season!

DIY Christmas Tree Nail Art

 

Looking for a fun, festive nail design?  These tree nails are adorable and the design is relatively straightforward to create.  The trick to getting the perfect triangle shape?  Painter's tape.

Materials:

*White nail polish
*Light green nail polish
*Dark green nail polish
*Nail polish base coat
*Nail polish clear top coat
*Small star rhinestone
*Painter's tape

Directions:

*Add your base coat and then paint the nail or nails you would like your tree on white.  Let dry for at least a few hours, although it may be best if you paint your nails white in the evening and let them dry overnight.

*Add painter's tape over the edges of your nails to form a triangular shape.

*Use your dotting tool to add dots of the lighter green polish in the triangle shape, leaving white space for the darker green polish.

*Use the dotting tool to add dots of the darker green polish into the white spaces, and then peel off the painter's tape.

*Use some clear nail polish to attach a small, star shaped rhinestone to the top of the tree.  Seal the nail design with a clear top coat.

DIY Book Ornament

 

Now that I've finished my PhD, I've finally had the chance to get back into reading, and have been chipping away at the edits on my novel, which has been in the works for a while now.  I thought it would be fun to make a book ornament for my tree to celebrate my writing progress as well as my return to reading.  I used scrap paper to make the pages for my ornament, and since the scrap paper happened to have text from my work in progress, I decided to make a mock cover for my work in progress.  Now my novel is actually a horror novel, so this mock cover does not at all give the right impression, but I didn't have a lot of time to work on it and there's a good amount of symbolism in it, so it worked for me.  I've included my mock cover below in the directions section, in case you wanted to use it, but if you google miniature book cover, you can find tons of printable book covers that are free for personal use.

Materials:

*Matte photo paper
*Scrap or plain printer paper
*Two jump rings
*Two pairs of jewelry pliers
*Sewing needle
*Ribbon or thread
*Glue
*Ruler
*Pencil
*Scissors

Directions:

*Print out a copy of your cover design onto matte photo paper.  I'm including the mock cover I made below, but you can also find tons of printable mini book covers online that are free for personal use.

*Cut out your book cover image and fold it into a cover shape.

*Using a ruler and pencil, section your paper into strips.  Mine were a little over 1.5" wide, the width of the ruler, but you may want to make yours larger or smaller, depending on the desired size of your ornament.  (I messed up on the first strip, so that's why there's a set of double lines.)

*Cut out your strips and accordion fold them to fit inside your book.

*Use a sewing needle to poke a hole in the spine of the cover and link two jump rings through the hole.

*Cluster your accordion folded pages together and glue them into the spine of the book.

*Slide some ribbon or thread through the top jump ring and tie it off to form a loop so you can hang up your ornament.

And that is how you can make your very own book ornaments.  I'm excited for this new addition to my tree, and hopefully in a few years I'll be able to make a different one with the actual cover for this novel :)

DIY Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cake Throw Pillow: Another Technique

Have you ever wanted a Christmas Tree Cake that you could hug?  Just me?  Anyway, I know last year I showed you how to make a Christmas Tree Cake throw pillow.  However, while the one I made last year turned out fine, I didn't love it.  I wanted one that looked more like the Christmas Tree Cake ornament I made, so I bought a large sheet of white felt and some green rhinestones I could use for sprinkles, and decided to give it a shot.

Two Christmas Tree Cakes :)

Materials:

*Large sheet of white felt
*9"x12" sheet of red felt
*Green rectangular or square rhinestones
*White thread
*Red thread
*Green thread
*Sewing needle
*Pillow stuffing

Directions:

*Print out and assemble the Christmas Tree Cake template from this post.

*Cut out two copies of the large tree shape from white felt.

*Cut out the stripes from red felt.

*Sew the stripes onto one of the white Christmas tree shapes using red thread.

*Sew on green rhinestones with green thread to make the "sprinkles."

*Cut off a strip of white felt about 2" wide and 30" long.

*Sew this strip to one of the tree shapes.  Basically, this strip is going to be what makes your pillow three-dimensional.  Align it so that it sits along the edge of the tree shape perpendicular to the shape, so that the strip and the tree form a right angle.  Sew it along the edge using a blanket stitch.

*Once you've sewn it all the way around the edge, snip off any excess part of the strip and sew the two ends together.

*Sew the other piece of the tree on by placing it so that it is perpendicular to the strip and using a blanket stitch.  Leave an opening for stuffing.

*Stuff and sew closed.