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.

Another Decorative Tree

Materials:
*Yarn
*White paper
*Glitter glue
*Scissors
*Foam tree
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:
*Wrap yarn around the foam tree, gluing it down as you go.
*Cut quarter sized circles from a sheet of white paper, fold into fourths or eighths, and cut out small shapes to create snowflakes.  Alternately, if you have a die cutting machine you could create paper snowflakes that way.
*Arrange the snowflakes on your tree in a pattern that you like, then glue them down.
*Add dabs of glitter glue to make your tree sparkle.

Like this idea?  Check out my decorative tree from last year if you haven't yet.  Also, here are some links to my handmade stocking, hand towel advent calendar, and ornament posts from last year in case you are interested.

Snow Globe Card

I got the idea for this card from this video tutorial.

Materials:
*8 1/2" x 11" sheet of cardstock in a color of your choice
*8 1/2" x 11" sheet of cardstock in white
*Green cardstock
*Gold scrapbooking paper
*Cardstock scraps in a variety of colors
*Plastic gift bag or other heavy weight clear plastic
*White glitter
*Mounting squares or double sided tape
*Hole punch
*Scissors
*Pencil
*X-acto knife
*Glue

Directions:
*Fold cardstock sheet in the color of your choice in half.
*Open up the card.  On the left hand side, select the spot where you would like the snow globe to be and draw or trace a circle about 3" in diameter.
*Cut the circle out using an X-acto knife.
*Grab your clear plastic bag (for directions on how to use the packaging from a sticker pack or another sort of clear plastic bag with words on it, see below).  Pour some glitter into the bottom.  Fold over the top of the bag and seal it using mounting squares or double sided tape.
*Place your clear bag with glitter over the circular hole.  Center it, then tape it in place. 
*Cut out a piece of gold cardstock to make the base of your snow globe, then tape to the front of the card below the circular hole.
*Cut the white cardstock in half.
*Cut a tree shape from the green cardstock small enough to fit inside the circular hole, then tape to the white cardstock at the same location on the white cardstock as the circular hole is on the cardstock in a color of your choice.
*Use a hole punch to cut circles from the cardstock scraps.  Arrange the circles on the tree, then glue in place.
*Tape the white cardstock to the cardstock in a color of your choice such that when you close the cars the tree shows through the circular hole behind the plastic filled with glitter.
*Shake your card and watch the glitter shower down upon the tree.

Directions for using sticker packaging:
*Take your sticker packaging and determine whether the printed writing is on the inside or outside of the plastic.
*Take a dry erase marker and begin covering the printed text with marker, erasing as you go.  The text should rub right off.
*If you cannot get all of the dry erase flecks out once you have erased all of the text, rinse them away with water, then set your plastic aside to dry.

Glitter Ornaments

Materials:
*Clear plastic or glass ball ornaments
*Glitter glue or glitter and glue

Directions:
*Remove the metal top from the ornament.
*If using glitter glue, pour a small amount of glitter glue into the ornament and move the ornament around until the inside of the ornament is coated in a thin layer of glitter glue.  Make sure not to use too much glitter glue or it will take a long time for the ornament to dry and the glitter glue may roll off the sides, thus leaving gaps.
*Once the ornament has dried, put the metal top back on the ornament and hang on your tree.
*If using glue, pour a small amount of glue into the ornament, then slowly roll the ball around until the inside of the ball is covered in glue.  Don't shake or bubbles may form in the glue.
*Let some of the glue drain out of the ornament until only a thin coating of glue is left.
*Pour glitter into the ball and move the ball around until the inside is coated in glitter.  Pour any excess glitter back into the container.
*Set the ball aside to dry.  Once dry, place the metal top back on your ornament and hang on your tree.

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.