A Touch of Fall: Easy Simmer Pot

 

This is such a quick project I hesitate to call it a project! A simple way to add a touch of Fall to your home. 

Supplies:

• Tea Light Wax Warmer
• Small Glass Bowl
• Simmer Pot Ingredients
• Tea light

The wax melt warmer and bowl are both from Dollar Tree. You can usually find the wax melt warmers with the candles and the bowls with their dishes or kitchen supplies. 

For my Simmer Pot ingredients, I dried some oranges and lemons in my air fryer. Then added to a mason jar with cinnamon sticks, cloves, bay leaves, and whole allspice berries, because that's what I had on hand. You could also do dehydrated apples, star anise, rosemary...any fragrant ingredients! 

Place some of your ingredients in the glass bowl. Add a bit of water. Insert and light tea light candle into warmer. Place bowl on top. DONE!

Doesn't get much easier than that! 

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! 

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BFF Open House

 

Happy All Hallows Eve, Eve! It feels like it was just August when I started working on Halloween projects and all of a sudden the day is here! Whenever Halloween is on a Friday, that usually means even more weekend fun. I wish everyone a happy and safe Hallow-weekend. 

In my neck of the woods, the weekend will be filled with Halloween and three days of Dia de los Muertos festivities everywhere. 

As the Makers we are, of course I'm a season ahead when it comes to my craft room. This week I shared: 

Winter Wonderland Cigar Box Diorama

Repurposed Bottle Snow People

But before we fast forward, let's take a look at some of the great Fall ideas shared at last week's party! 

Petticoat Junction (grew up watching reruns of that fun show!) shared how she turned a find from a junk shop into a fabulous Metallic Tiered Tray, perfect to change out seasonally. 

Outside it may still be in the 90s by me, but inside, it's sweater weather! Sonata Home Design has a great way to repurpose an old one to make a Cozy Candle Wrap! 

Need a quick and easy Halloween treat there's still time to whip up? Drugstore Divas has you covered with these adorable Halloween Glow Stick Party Favors. 

Finally, there's always time for one more Halloween treat, and these Cookie Cutter Spider Cookies from Crystal and Co. are perfect! 

Thanks to everyone who linked up! 

Again, wishing everyone a 

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Holiday Making: There's No People Like Snow People

 

I had so much fun with these! Mr. Chocolate was prescribed something during his health issues this year that came in a glass bottle. When he finished the first one, he immediately asked, "Do you want this?" Like a good Maker, I said, "Of course!" so he saved more of them for me. These Snow People are what my brain came up with! 

Supplies:

• Empty Clear Bottles (Glass or Plastic)
• Styrofoam Balls (Dollar Tree)
• Tissue Paper
• Aluminum Foil
• Acrylic Paints
• Glitter
• Tacky and Hot Glue

The hardest part of these was getting the labels off. I'd like to know what adhesive they used because it will apparently hold everything. After soaking, alcohol, and Goo Gone...

For the heads, I used styrofoam balls from Dollar Tree, covered with tissue paper. 

I poured some Mod Podge into the bottles, then added two different glitters I had on hand. Rotate each bottle until fully covered and let dry. I find that the gloss formula takes a little longer to dry, and since I was gluing the heads on, I didn't want any moisture to build up, so I let these sit for 24 hours to get good and dry. 

After using the Mod Podge to cover the styrofoam balls with tissue paper, I mixed white acrylic paint and fine glitter and painted each "head". 

I got the idea to make the noses from aluminum foil. I cut the pieces and twisted into a carrot shape. I intentinally made these longer so I could hold them as I painted them, using Waverly No Prep paint. 

You can see here what I mean about having room to hold them while I painted. Then I trimmed the noses to size. 

I used hot glue to attach to the heads. 

I used a combination of clear Aleene's Tacky Glue and hot glue to attach the heads to the bottles. 

Waste not, want not, right? The caps from the bottles made perfect hats! I debated painting them. I was initially thinking I'd use this garland I bought after season at Walmart for scarves, but decided I'd use it to trim the lids instead. 

Another after-season find: Metallic Pom Poms! 

Pulled out some of the white ones and used these atop the lids. To finish, I used a little tacky glue to attach some black rhinestones for eyes. 

Meanwhile, it's supposed to be 89 degrees today. 😢

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Christmas Decor: Winter Wonderland Cigar Box Diorama

 

Welcome to my first Christmas creation of 2025! I had so much fun with this and I already have ideas for another. Or two. 

Supplies:

• Cigar Box (I get mine at Total Wine)
• Coordinating Acrylic Paints and Scrapbook Papers
• Misc. Embellishments
• Hot Glue and Tacky Glue

I've gotten cigar boxes at Total Wine since forever. At mine, the cardboard ones are $.99 and the wood ones $1.99. MUCH better than the prices I've seen at flea markets or thrift stores. 

I'd already decided on the papers I was going to use for this project so I selected a paint that coordinated. It wasn't as dark green as I wanted, so I mixed in a few drops of black to deepen it. 

I covered the insides and back with the green. 

I used Waverly white paint for the outside of the box, covering the front and the sides. I was fine with a bit of the green showing through around the edges. 

I measured and cut the papers I chose. I have so many papers from different packs over the years and these coordinated. 

To apply the papers, I grabbed some Mod Podge. I love these little bottles from Dollar Tree because here in the dry desert, I've found that once I open a bigger bottle, if not used quickly, they dry out QUICKLY. 

The white left a frost-like appearance around the inside of the box. Now for the fun! I went through my stash and pulled out some goodies, including something I'd made for a previous project but didn't use, and some ornaments and trees I picked up on an after-holiday shopping trip last year, and some Dollar Tree lights I picked up with Halloween supplies but hadn't used.

Half ornament snow-globe and snowmen ornaments. 

I had this metal frame in my stash, so I painted it with the Waverly white and dry brushed it with a bright gold. I picked up the tree ornament at Dollar Tree this year. 

I love this quirky little tree! They come in sets of two, so the other one will be used in another project.

 

I hot-glued the frame to the inside left of the box and the ornament to the frame. Oops. I'm going to add a button or rhinestone atop the tree to cover the hole. 

After putting batteries in the lights, I glued the casing to the back of the box, then threaded the lights through the side. 

I glued the lights around the inside of the right side of the box with a combination of Aleene's clear tacky glue and hot glue. Once that was done, I glued the snowmen and trees as shown, along with the "Merry Christmas" ornament. 

To finish, I grabbed a bottle brush wreath from my stash, ironed one of the ribbons I saved from last year's wrapping with my Cricut mini heat press, made a bow, and done!

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."

Sharing At:

Welcome to Vintage Charm Party #514!

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