Category: Arts & Crafts

The story of how this year I decided to take a stab at making my own ornaments and gifts for Christmas.

In an effort to be more crafty this year, and because I’ve always wanted a beach themed tree but ornaments are actually pretty expensive, I decided that I was going to take on the task of making my own coastal Christmas tree ornaments.

I started the process by buying clear plastic ball ornaments, starfish, and seashells. To have multiple textures and colors, I left a few starfish their natural color and then painted everything else various shades of blue, sea foam green, lilac, and silver. (On some of the plastic balls I used Martha Stewart’s sea glass paint and sponged it on to give them that rustic sea glass feel.) Most of the balls were embellished with smaller shells and some sea glass I had leftover from another project, some of which I put inside the balls and I attached to the outside with twine and hot glue. To the hang the ornaments I tied twine to the balls and hot glued twine to the back of the seashells and starfish. I also used the remaining twine to make just enough netting to wrap around a couple ornaments. To top it all off I picked up a few strands of pearl branches to add dimension to my tree, wrapped it with blue light strands, and made a skirt out of burlap for that beachy vibe.

I ended up being very happy with the way my ornaments came out, they really spruced up my $20 plastic tree from Lidl!

Once I felt the success from my ornaments I figured why not give people more meaningful gifts this year and make something special for everyone? Since I love to cook my first thought was homemade salsa. This I kind of winged it to be honest. 15 tomatoes on the vine later I whipped up a batch of fresh salsa, filled up 6 Ball jars, and canned then in a water bath on the stove. (If you haven’t tried canning anything before you should give it a try, its actually a lot easier than you might think.) It’s been a while since I canned and I didn’t use a recipe, but who doesn’t love salsa, even if it’s bad salsa?!

After the canned salsa I thought it would be fun to make some all-natural beauty products. I perused the internet for a while and found a
super cute recipe for a peppermint candy cane sugar scrub at https://www.theidearoom.net/peppermint-candy-cane-sugar-scrub . This recipe looked so cute! I used some of my leftover Ball jars instead of buying additional containers and the recipe called for red dye or raspberry juice but I decided to use beet juice since it’s such a strong color and you can get a can of them for about $1. Everyone seemed to really love the gesture of the all-natural product.

My final attempt at the handmade Christmas gifts was a small painting for each of my immediate family members. They took me quite a bit of time to make since I’m still learning how to paint, but I really ended up loving all of them and everyone was so impressed with the effort!

All in all I really enjoyed being crafty this Christmas. Maybe this will inspire inspire you to give the next major holiday a crafty spin! Watch out Valentine’s Day!

These super simple to make magnets are completely customizable to your style and decor preferences. They’re also so quick and easy that kids will love making them and picking the designs they like most.

Somehow I’ve really come to love magnets. I used to think they were just clutter because growing up most of the magnets we had on our refrigerator where free marketing magnets and they weren’t very pretty. As I started living on my own though I began to use the refrigerator as a means to not lose important stuff or to communicate with my roommates, since it became pretty obvious that the kitchen was always the most popular room in the house. Most of my magnets were still pretty ugly though, so I decided to take action and make my own magnets that I thought were cute, yet classy.

In order to make these quick and easy magnets you will need the following supplies:

• Scrapbook paper or paper printed with the designs of your choice
• Mosaic glass gems
• Tacky magnets (round shapes or magnet tape cut to size)
• Mod Podge
• Foam paint brush
• Scissors

Once you gather all of your supplies the first step is to pick exactly what designs on the paper you want to be seen through the magnet. I scanned the gems over the paper in order to find a spot that would fit the magnet just right. Once you select the part of the paper you want to make into a magnet, smear a drop or two of the Mod Podge onto the flat surface of the gem with the foam paint brush and place directly on the area of the paper you want to make into your magnet. (Note: Mod Podge is fairly sticky stuff once it dries, but not nearly as strong as superglue, so if you’re doing this craft with children make sure to supervise them accordingly.)

Wait a few minutes for the Mod Podge to dry. Once it looks clear and you no longer see the Mod Podge you will know its dry. This usually only takes about 10 minutes or so.

Once its dry, take your scissors and cut the paper around the gem. This doesn’t have to be perfect, if the edges are rough you will only see them from the back of the magnets. (Note: when first figuring out how to make magnets I found several websites saying to first cut the paper to size before adding the Mod Podge, but I actually found it easier to cut the paper afterwards.)

From this point, all you need to do is attach the magnet to the back of the paper. I purchased round magnets with a sticky side that adheres directly to the back, but you can purchase any magnet or magnetic tape and cut it down to the size you need. Your magnets also do not have to be tacky, to attach them to the gems all you need to do is smear on a little Mod Podge.

Viola, you now have an adorable, handmade magnet! Make as many magnets as you want with as many designs as you like. Once you’re finished making magnets make sure to rinse out the foam paint brush completely if you wish to reuse it.

Let me know if you try this craft out! You got this!