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.

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.

Zombie Paper Snowflake

     Here in Maine, we're still in the throes of winter, with no end in sight, so I figured I might as well make something wintery.  I was scrolling through Pinterest when I saw this zombie snowflake.  It looked really neat, but also like it would require amazing fine motor coordination to make without the aid of a paper cutting machine.  While I do have my trusty Silhouette CAMEO, I know many who read my blog don't, and I wanted to see if it would be feasible to make a zombie snowflake by hand.  Here are my results.

Materials:
*Printer paper
*Scissors
*X-acto knife
*Pencil

Directions:

*Cut out a circle the size you would like your snowflake to be and fold it into sixths, following the directions in six-pointed paper snowflake tutorial.

*Draw on your zombie design.

*Cut out what portions you can using scissors.

*Use an X-acto knife to cut out fine details, which in this case was the x-eyes.  I also decided to add some more details after the fact, so that's why there's a new pencil line on this picture.

Paper Snowflake Ornaments

Materials:
*Paper snowflakes cut from either plain printer paper or from sales flyers.
*Cardstock that matches your snowflake
*Pencil
*Drinking glass
*Scissors
*All purpose adhesive
*Ribbon

Directions:
Note: for a video tutorial of how to make a six-pointed paper snowflake, see my Six Pointed Paper Snowflake tutorial.  For a pictorial tutorial, see the beginning of my Sales Flyer Snowflake Bows tutorial.
*Create paper snowflakes by tracing around the rim of the drinking glass onto the paper that you would like to make your snowflake and then fold up and cut out either using your own method or by following one of the above tutorials.
*Trace the rim of the drinking glass onto the cardstock and then cut out the resulting circle.
*Glue the snowflake to the cardstock.
*Cut off some ribbon or thread and form a loop.  Glue the loop to the back of the ornament.

Photo Ornament Holiday Card

     I love the idea of ornament cards.  Ordinary cards are nice, but it can be hard to figure out what to do with them once the holiday season is over (if you're looking for some ideas, see these three posts).  With ornament cards, you can place them on your tree and they're small enough that they take up little storage space.  However, they tend to be expensive if you buy them from a photo printing store.  Luckily for me, I figured out a way to make them inexpensively at home.

Shameless Promotion of Brian's Work Interlude

     Before I get into the heart of today's blog post, I want to take a minute to shamelessly promote my partner in crime, Brian's new coloring book because it is awesome.  It's called Maineiac Coloring (if you're unfamiliar with the term, Maineiac is another nickname for someone from the state of Maine) and it features 30 pages of his hand drawn, whimsical illustrations for you to color.  You can find a preview of it here, and if you like his work, please consider buying a copy.  If you have a colorer on your holiday shopping list, it would make for a fantastic gift and you can feel good knowing your money is going to help a couple of grad students pay for their school/living expenses.
     Now, without further ado, we return to your regularly scheduled crafting.

Photo Ornament Card

Materials:
*Patterned cardstock
*Digital photo and photo editing program
*Scissors
*All purpose adhesive
*Acid free pen
*Hole punch
*Ribbon

Directions:
*In a photo editing program (I used Jasc Paint Shop Pro), open a copy (not the original) of the photo you would like to use for your card.
*Using a white circle, frame the photo.
*Draw a white line across the bottom of the encircled part of the photo about 3/4 of the way down.
*Erase everything below the white line.
*Draw a black circle encompassing the white circle.
*Erase everything outside the black circle.  It may help to draw a second white circle and place that around the black circle and then erase so that you don't have to come close to the black circle with your erasing.
*Once it's all finished, you should end up with something like this:

*Print out your photo at the desired size.  Mine was about 2.75" at its widest point.
*Write your holiday message at the bottom of the photo (alternatively, you could add text using your photo editing program).
*Print out the below snowflake at your desired size (mine measured about 3.5" across) and trace onto patterned paper.

*Punch a hole through the top of one of the arms of the snowflake and thread the ribbon through, knotting the two ends of the ribbon together to form a loop.
*Glue your photo onto the center of the snowflake.

Sales Flyer Snowflake Bows

'Tis the season for sales.  No doubt you've been inundated with countless flyers informing you of all the deals that are going on.  Instead of tossing them, use these brightly colored advertisements to make bows for your holiday gifts.  I got the idea for this craft from this site.

Materials:
*Sales flyers, magazine ads, or other brightly colored paper scraps
*Pen
*Drinking glass
*Scissors
*Brad
*Washer
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:
Note: for a video tutorial of how to make a six-pointed paper snowflake, see my Six Pointed Paper Snowflake tutorial.
*To create a six-pointed paper snowflake, choose a portion of the advertisement that you would like to use for your snowflake.  Place the glass over this space and trace around it to get a circle.

*Cut out the circle.

*Fold the circle in half.

*Fold over about 1/3 of the half circle, such that the resulting shape looks like two triangles of equal size.

*Fold the resulting shape in half to get this shape:

*Cut out triangles, semicircles, squiggly lines, etc from the folded shape.  Do not cut out the center.

*Unfold and you now have a paper snowflake.

*Repeat the above steps to create a second paper snowflake.

*Glue a washer to the center of one of the snowflakes and slide a brad through the center of the other.

*Slide the brad through the center of the second snowflake.

*Pull the two snowflakes together and fold over the prongs on the brad.  Now you have a colorful snowflake gift bow.

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.

Snowflake window clings

Materials:
*Dimensional fabric paint
*Cling wrap
*Tape
*Snowflake template (such as the ones found here)

Directions:
*Tape the snowflake template to your work surface and then tape a sheet of cling wrap over it.
*Trace the snowflakes using the fabric paint.  Make sure to use a thick layer of paint so that when you do peel the snowflakes off the cling wrap, they will be less likely to break.
*Let the snowflakes dry overnight.  Once they're dry, carefully peel them off the cling wrap.  They may stick a little, so if you find a part of the snowflake won't come off, either proceed with caution or move on and try another part of the snowflake.
*Stick snowflakes to the window.

Fuse Bead Snowflake Magnets

Materials:
*Fuse beads kit
*Magnetic backing
*Adhesive (if your magnetic backing does not have an adhesive or has a weak adhesive)
*Scissors
*Iron

Directions:
*Select the appropriate peg board for the snowflake you would like to make.  Choose a color scheme for your snowflake, then arrange the beads on the peg board in the pattern shown below:

*If you would like a stronger magnet, you may want to fill in the empty pegs with a neural color so that you will be able to add a larger piece of magnet to the back of the snowflake.
*Cover your beaded project with a sheet of waxed paper and iron the first side, then remove from the peg board, flip over, put waxed paper on top and iron the second side.  You can find more detailed directions here.
*Cut off strips of magnetic backing and adhere them to the back of the snowflake.  If using glue to adhere the magnetic backing, let dry before placing the magnet on the refrigerator. 

If you are looking forward to spring, check out my fuse bead spring magnets.

Simple Snowflake Garland

Materials:
*White paper
*Scissors
*Ribbon
*White thread
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:
*To make the snowflakes, take an object with a circular base such as a glass and trace around the base to make circles.  Create as many circles as the number of snowflakes you would like to have on your garland.
*Cut out a circle.  Fold the circle in half, then fold the resulting semicircle in half.  Finally fold the quarter circle in half so that the original circle is now folded into eighths.
*Cut designs into the folded paper to create your snowflake.
*Once you have cut out all of the snowflakes, take a length of ribbon as long as you would like your garland to be and lay it on your work space, with the back side of the ribbon facing up (if the ribbon has a back side). 
*Align snowflakes along the ribbon until you find an arrangement that you find pleasing.
*Cut out pieces of white thread and glue one end of the thread to the snowflake and the other to the ribbon so that the snowflakes will hang down from the ribbon.  If planning on hanging the gralnad over an entryway, cut a length of ribbon the same length as the first and glue the ribbon pieces together so that the garland will look polished from either side of the entryway.

Winter Themed Decorated Journal

Materials:
*12 Andes Peppermint Crunch wrappers (or other wrappers to use as a background)
*6 Andes Creme de Menthe wrappers (or other green wrappers)
*Silver duct tape (or silver candy wrappers)
*Small scrap of brown paper (or brown candy wrapper)
*White scrap paper
*Hole punch
*Glitter glue
*Notebook
*Glue
*Tape
*Scissors

Directions:
*Arrange the Andes Peppermint Crunch (or other background) wrappers across the cover of the journal and glue down.  It's okay if the wrappers don't cover the very bottom of the notebook because the silver duct tape will take care of that.
*Take the green wrappers and flip them over so that the green side faces down.  Tape the wrappers together in a rectangular formation and tape them together, then cut out a tree shape from the green rectangle.
*Cut out a trunk for the tree from the brown paper (or brown candy wrapper) and glue to the tree.
*Position the tree near the bottom of the journal and glue down.
*Cut a strip of silver duct tape long enough to cover the bottom of the notebook.  Trim the top of the strip to make it look like uneven ground.
*Adhere the duct tape to the bottom of the notebook.
*Punch out a number of white circles, then arrange them along the cover and glue down.
*Add a dot of glitter to each of the circles.

Card Book

     During the holiday season, I often receive a number of cards.  Having a limited amount of time, I can't always come up with beautiful and unique ways to display each one.  This album provides a simple yet attractive way to display 10-20 cards

Materials:

*12”x12” square of chipboard or heavy cardboard

*2 12”x12” sheets patterned paper w/ the same pattern

*2 sheets 8½” x11” white paper

*All purpose adhesive

*10-20 lengths of thin ribbon, each about 9” long

*Scissors

Directions:

*From the sheet of chipboard, cut one 3”x9” piece of board, then two 6”x9” sections

*Trim about 1.5” off the top of each sheet of patterned paper.  Overlap the two sheets of paper, then arrange the pieces of chipboard on the paper in the following manner:

*Glue together the overlap between the sheets of paper, then glue down the chipboard pieces.  Let dry

*Cut off the corners of the paper, then glue down the edges of the paper. Let dry

*Overlap two 8½”x11” sheet of paper to cover the inside of the book.  Glue down paper, but leave the paper covering the top and bottom portions of the spine of the book unglued.  Let dry

*Arrange lengths of ribbon along the spine (however many you can fit will depend on the width of the ribbon), gluing the tops and bottoms of the lengths of ribbon underneath the paper covering the spine. Let dry

*Hang cards from the ribbon

Much thanks to my amazing boyfriend, Brian, who helped me out with this craft project :)