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.

DIY Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cake Dress

 

I love Christmas Tree Cakes.  They're a tradition in my family.  When I was a kid, my dad would buy a box or two at Christmas time for us to enjoy, and now as an adult, Brian and I make sure to snag some every year.  If I had to pick one flavor to represent Christmas, it would be Christmas Tree Cakes.

If you followed my craft blog last year, you may recall that I posted several Little Debbie snack cake themed crafts: this Christmas Tree Cake ornament, this Swiss Roll ornament, this Christmas Tree Cake throw pillow, and this gingerbread ornament.  I adore how most of those came out, but I still needed more Christmas Tree Cake fun in my life, so I figured, why not become a Christmas Tree Cake?

Materials:

*A white dress or romper that does not stretch (this is important!)
*Red ribbon
*Red thread
*Green thread
*Sewing needle
*Green rectangular rhinestones

Directions:

*Pick up a white dress or romper that does not stretch.  This is important.  I did not do this, and because the ribbon I used doesn't stretch, this means that it bunches awkwardly when I move certain ways.

*Using red thread, sew ribbons on the dress in diagonal stripes.

*Using green thread, sew on randomly placed rhinestones to look like sprinkles.  You'll notice that I didn't sew rhinestones onto the bottom part of the skirt.  That's partly because I was running out of rhinestones (okay, mostly because I was running out of rhinestones).  But also, if I do end up adding more rhinestones, I plan to glue them on instead of sewing them so that I won't have to worry about the thread showing through.

I'm not sure yet if I'm going to do all snack cake crafts again this holiday season, or if I'll try a few different things.  What kind of snack cake crafts would you like to see?  What other sort of holiday crafts would you like to see?  Let me know in the comments, or tag me on social media with your ideas.

DIY Shiny Alolan Meowth Plushie + Shiny Alolan Meowth Pokemonbound

 

As some of you may know, the Kanto region Meowth is my favorite Pokemon.  I'm still trying for a shiny Kanto Meowth, but I was lucky enough recently to catch a shiny Alolan Meowth.  Alolan Meowth is pretty cool too, so once I caught it, I knew I wanted to make an Alolan Meowth plushie to match, as well as an Alolan Meowth cosplay.  I ended up using the same Meowth ears template for my shiny Alolan Meowth that I used for my Kanto Meowth, so I won't be doing a separate post on that, but if you want to make your own shiny Alolan Meowth ears, you can use the template in this Meowth Pokemonbounding post and the Meowth color scheme in the post you are reading now.

First up, I have some pictures of my shiny Alolan Meowth look.  After that, I'll show you how I made my plushie.

Shiny Alolan Meowth Look

Here is my Meowth look, complete with my Meowth plushie and an AR photo of my in-game shiny Alolan Meowth.  My romper and shoes aren't quite the right color, so I'll have to keep my eyes out for periwinkle blue clothes, but I had fun with this look anyway, and on the whole, I'm happy with it.

And here's Meowth being ultra cute.

One last picture for good measure.  I'm trying to hold my hand like Meowth holds her paw.

DIY Shiny Alolan Meowth Plushie

Materials:

*Periwinkle blue felt
*Purple felt
*Black felt
*White felt
*Scissors
*Periwinkle blue headband (or one that matches your hair color)
*Fabric glue or all purpose adhesive
*Gold cardstock

*Pillow stuffing

*Blue thread

*Sewing needle

Directions:

*Print out a couple of copies of the Alolan Meowth template given below:

*Cut out the following pieces: Two copies of Meowth's body and head from periwinkle blue felt (one front piece and one back piece), four arm pieces from periwinkle felt (two front and two back), four leg pieces from periwinkle felt (two front and two back), two tail pieces from periwinkle felt (one front and one back), two ear shapes from black felt, two inner ear shapes from purple felt, two eye shapes from white felt, two pupil and lid pieces from black felt, one mouth from black felt, two teeth from white felt, one tip of tail piece from purple felt, two tip of feet pieces from purple felt, and a coin shape from gold cardstock.  Here is what all of these pieces look like when cut out:

*Glue the inner ear pieces onto the outer ear pieces.  Since my Meowth is going to live on a shelf, gluing seemed appropriate, but if you are planning on actively using your plushie, or making it for someone who will actively use it, in the steps where I glue, you'll want to sew.

*Glue the pupil and lid pieces to the eye pieces.

*Glue the tip of tail to one of the tail pieces.

*Glue the tip of feet pieces to two of the feet pieces

*Cut a long, thin strip of black felt and cut it into segments.  Glue those segments to the coin shape to create the coin details (see picture in the next step).

*Glue the face pieces and coin onto the head.  At this stage, these are the pieces you should have glued or sewed together:

*Now it's time to start sewing the appendages together.  Place two arms wrong sides together and sew using a blanket stitch, leaving an opening for stuffing.  Stuff and sew closed, and repeat the process with the other arm.

*Place two feet pieces wrong sides together and sew using a blanket stitch, leaving an opening for stuffing.  Stuff and sew closed.  Repeat the process for the other foot.

*Place the tail pieces wrong sides together and sew, using a blanket stitch.  The tail can be tricky to stuff with how thin and curvy it is, so you can either sew the pieces together without stuffing, or stuff and sew closed.  At this stage, you should have these pieces stuffed and sewn together:

*Now it's time to start assembling Meowth.  Sandwich the appendages and ears between the front and back parts of Meowth's head and torso.  Sew around the edge with a backstitch, leaving an opening for stuffing.  After sewing but before stuffing, Meowth should look something like this:

*Stuff and sew closed.

*I left Meowth's whiskers for last, gluing the front and back pieces together.  However, you could also trim the whiskers from the back piece for Meowth, since the whiskers don't really need reinforcement.