Holiday Making: DIY Christmas Card Holder

 

Taking down Halloween today. After years of working for Nordstrom in another life, which used to be adamant about no Christmas decor before Thanksgiving, and a son, who when he was with me at Michaels one year as a young child, gave a whole soliloquy about Thanksgivng getting short-changed because stores went from Halloween to Christmas without passing go, I still can't do Christmas until after Thanksgiving. That makes it hard in the Maker-Creator world because I see everyone doing their decorating now!

Speaking of which, I've been curious. I see all these "influencer" videos with curated trees...by color or character themes...does ANYONE have trees that aren't like that anymore, or am I the only one? I have decades of annual collectible ornaments that I've invested a small fortune in, but I feel like I'm alone in not re-doing a tree every year. 

Back to this! When we downsized, we got rid of the Christmas Card holders we used to have, and we don't get as many cards as we used to. For the past couple of years, I kept meaning to make something smaller but dedicated to the ones we do receive. 

I'm planning a Sweet Shop theme for our kitchen island so I made this with that in mind! 

Supplies:

• Wood Cigar Box
• Multi-Surface Acrylic Paint
• Mod Podge
• Coordinating Scrapbook Papers

I removed the lid from the cigar box which will get used in something else. I thought I'd use both red and white paints but ended up only using the white. And from my holiday paper stash, I chose these fun papers. 

Measure the spaces you want to cover with paper and cut to size. 

I covered the edges only with paint since I knew the rest of the space would be covered by the papers. 

Did this for both the outside and the inside. 

Section by section, apply Mod Podge and your papers. 

You can use a scrapng tool and/or brayer to smooth out any bubbles. 

I've seen people do this in videos, and decided to try it myself! Grabbed my Cricut Mini Heat Press and went over the paper once adhered to both get it really smooth and also speeds up the drying process a bit. Once all of your papers are applied, use Mod Podge to seal. 

My math didn't math so my interior sides were a little too tall. No biggie. Once the paper was dry, I creased the edges as shown here and then just sanded them off. 

Now for the fun part! I picked up these ornaments at Walmart last year after Christmas. They were perfect for this! 

I used them around the box to add a little more glitz and fun. Used a combination of hot glue and tacky glue to ensure good adhesion and clamped them in place to make sure.

Not gonna lie...I'm itching to put my Sweet Shop together but, Thanksgiving first! 

Sharing At:

Vintage Charm Party 515 atOur Hopeful Home 

Halloween: Glam Bath Skeleton

 

You've probably seen multiple versions of this as candles. I did a slightly different twist on this based on randomly walking past some bowls at Walmart. Like many of my ideas, this is how they come to me.

Supplies: 

• Halloween Themed or Black Bowl (Walmart)
• Mini Skeletons (Dollar Tree)
• Aluminum Foil (Dollar Tree)
• Iridescent Vase Filler (Michaels)
• Clear and/or White Glue (Elmers, Walmart)
• Mini Bottles (Dollar Tree)
• Washi Tape

The skeleton was an extra from a garland I cut up. The bowl was $.70 at Walmart and I love the outside. 

This wouldn't be great for a candle since it's plastic and I'd worry about it melting. So I decided I'd use vase filler instead! The first step was to remove the legs from the skeleton and position the torso and legs opposite each other in the bowl. I attached these to the bowl with hot glue. 

I scrunched up a wad of aluminum foil and just placed in the bottom of the bowl. Don't worry about gluing it in because the vase filler/glue will keep it firmly in place. 

I spread the vase filler over top of the foil and then used both the white and clear glue to cover. I thought I had more clear glue, but I didn't, so I used the white glue too, which dries clear, so no biggie. 

You can see the iridescence of the vase filler and I used these mini-bottles from Dollar Tree to make my bath salts and bubble bath. 

Cover the top with your glue and then set aside to dry. I left it for about 24 hours. I filled on bottle with the vase filler, the other with a glycerin/water mix, vase filler, and glitter. Wrapped each with coordinating washi tape and hot glued in place. 

And here's Mr. Skelly enjoying his bath! 

Sharing At:

Halloween: Glam Pumpkin Bucket Floral Arrangement

 

This week's BFF Open House Link Party continues here through today! 

Who says the classic plastic pumpkin bucket is only for trick or treating? I grabbed one at Walmart and had fun with it. 

Supplies:

• Plastic Pumpkin Bucket (Walmart)
• Multi Surface Acrylic Paint (Waverly)
• Black Acrylic Paint and Fine Paint Brush
• Creatology Gems (Michaels)
• Dimensional Glue (Glossy Accents)

The classic plastic pumpkin bucket. $1.97 at Walmart. 

I used this Wavely No Prep Paint that goes on anything. Plastic can be tricky to paint because normal acrylic kind of beads up. I used a sponge spouncer thingy to apply, and then went back over any bare spots. 

I knew I'd be filling it so I didn't worry about painting the inside and once filled, you can't tell. 

I went over the eyes and teeth with a bright silver acrylic paint to make them stand out. 

Then, outlined the eyes and mouth with black acrylic paint using a small brush. 

I grabbed my little jar of Creatology Gems (Michaels) and went to work adding them to the eyes and mouth, and hearing "too much work" from Mr. Chocolate. 

It actually went pretty fast. I love the Glossy Accents glue for that reason. It grabs things quickly. and unlike some glues, doesn't leave strings. 

I found these black floral picks at Walmart and already had some other floral picks in my stash. I grabbed a block of styrofoam (Dollar Tree) and placed it in my pumpkin along with some tissue paper to hold it in place. Then added my florals. 

Yes, my desk is a mess! But it's a workspace so... I found the black and white pumpkins at Dollar Tree...one of my earliest Halloween purchases this year and good thing too because I haven't seen them since. 

I played with the florals until I was happy and voila!

If it sits still, it gets blinged. That's why the hubs and dog stay moving!

Sharing At:

Halloween: Jeweled Doll Head Pumpkins

 

This week's BFF Open House link party continues here. 

Since our nest has been empty, my Halloween decor has become much more "Gothelegant" which is a word I just this second made up to combine gothic and elegant. Lots of jewels and metallics. Less whimsical ( although I do have some of that too!). But let's just say about the Darth Vader meme "Come to the dark side, we have cookies" is a perfect fit for me! I've wanted to do something with an old doll head but my thrifting trips the past few years haven't yielded the kind of doll head I want so I'm still on that particular hunt BUT I found some creepy plastic doll heads in the Halloween stuff at Walmart and they just spoke to my deep dark little Wednesday Addams heart! 

Supplies 

• Doll Heads ( Walmart, $4.88 pkg of 3)
• Foam Pumpkins ( Dollar Tree, while things are still $1)
• Glass Candle Holder (Dollar Tree, ibid)
• Craft Paints (Apple Barrel Gloss Black, Craftsmart White)
• School Glue (Elmers)
• Glue gun / glue and strong cold bond glue ( eg E-6000, I used Beacon 3 In 1)

"They're creepy and they're kooky, they're altogether spooky". 

Dollar Tree has these foam pumpkins every year and they're great. You can paint them. You can cut them. You can wrap them in fabric. So many possibilities. For this project I painted them. 

They take paint really well and this Apple Barrel Gloss only needed one coat. Then I did my go to glue crackle. 

To finish the pumpkins, I went over the glue with white paint and then used my craft room blow dryer to hasten the crackling. 

The doll heads were already pretty perfect but what fun is that? I got out my silver Rub N Buff and just added some spots of it here and there. 

This highlighted the scars already on the heads and then I dry brushed and wiped off some black paint so it would get in the cracks. 

Creeptastic! Now it's time to glam them up. I had some clear flat backed jewels in my collection so I randomly glued them onto the skulls and finished with smaller self adhesive rhinestones. Glamtastic! 

Once you're satisfied with your jewels it's time to assembler. I used hot glue to attach the skulls to the painted pumpkins and then the Beacon 3 In 1 to attach the pumpkin to the candleholder. I have found that hot glue doesn't always last on glass but it will work, just may come loose after a while. 

It's so good to be back! 

Sharing At:

Featured At: