Easy DIY Photo Ornaments

 

One of my favorite things we do for the holidays is have a mini photo session of the kids with Santa at one of our local photography studios (FotoFly … AMAZING!) The pictures are priceless and I have probably gone overboard using them in my Christmas décor. One thing that I have loved doing is making ornaments out of them to hang on the tree. At first I had them made at some of the photo sites but the deals kept getting lesser and lesser and the prices kept rising and rising. So I figured, hey I should totally be able to do this myself! So off to Joanns I went and about $2 later I had created several photo ornaments that looked awesome and totally got the job done!

Photo Ornaments

 Supplies:

Bare Wooden Shapes or “frames” ($.29 - $1.29 at Joanns or Michaels)

Paint (I prefer spray paint)

Mod Podge (or other adhesive)

Drill w/ small bit

photos

optional: Glitter

 

Get your supplies together



Paint your bare wood (I think spray paint is the easiest!)



Cut your photo out to either cover the shape or to fit in the open "frame" area.

Drill a small hole in the wood to put ribbon or thread through


**If you are wanting to "glitter your frame or shape apply Mod Podge to your wood ornament and then cover with glitter, let dry. Knock off excess glitter and spray with clear spray paint to set the glitter

 

**adhere the photo to the wood shape or into the open "frame" area 

 

**Thread ribbon or Thread through the hole to create a "hanger" for your ornament.

 

***Voila!***

 

 

Turkey Tie Tee

 

I love Thanksgiving time. The Wonderful Food, Being with family, warm festive feelings of love and thanks, what more could you ask for in a holiday?

Well I have one think… a cute “thanksgiving” themed shirt for big A. For girls you can find dressed, tutu’s, embellished tees and accessories all adorned with turkeys and such in all girl sizes. For boys they have cute baby things, and Carters sometimes has holiday things up to 5T but if you’re a boy and bigger than that you’re outta luck. This stinks for a fun holiday loving little guys like Big A who happens to be a size 7/8!

Crafty Mom to the rescue! I created a fun and festive Tee for him that is comfortable, festive and can count as “dressing up” for dinner.

Turkey Tie Tee

1 Solid color tee, black or brown (I got one on super sale at JoAnn’s)

1/8 yard “fancy” thanksgiving fabric (I did a fun brown brocade print)

Felt (or fabric) Scraps in Orange, Red, Black and White

1/8 yard paper backed fusible webbing

Sewing items (Sewing machine or Needle and thread)

 

Cut out Tie (patterned material), whites of eyes (White), pupils (black) "Gobbler" red and beak (orange)
I just cut them out freehand, make sure your tie fits your tee 

Attach paper backed fusible webbing to all your cut pieces

Tack down the tie using paper backed fusible webbing
**Only do Tie at this point

Stitch around all seams (I used a sewing machine)
**Do each piece in order, tack down Tie and sew,
then tack down whites of eyes and "gobbler" and sew,
last tack down pupils and beak and sew.

The finished product

Big A wearing is Turkey Tee last year

 

Pilgrim Pattern Easy, No Sew, and SUPER cute!

 

I so love creating holiday themed things for A and a, I also love doing “fun” photo shoots for the holidays. I fear one day my kids will be featured on awkwardfamilyphotos.com…. But for now they are cool with it and I love it. When Big A was 3 and Little was a few months old I did a Pilgrim themed costume craft and photo shoot that I still LOVE. Those pics are the center of my Thanksgiving time mantle. Well now Little a is 3 and can fit in Big A’s hand-me-down cuffs and collar so I decided to bring it all back out. I had to do an apron for her and a whole new set for him but it was super easy and the results are SO cute!

What I ended up doing is making cuffs and a collar for each then an apron for her and a belt and a hat “belt” for him. I dressed them each in dark clothes (Him, Navy Sweats and long sleeved tee. Her, Black tights, skirt and long sleeved tee) with the few “pilgrim” pieces it created an adorable total Pilgrim vibe with minimal effort.

 

The pictures turned out really cute. I threw them into Photoshop to add the sepia tone. I thought it gave it a fun “1621” feel and made the under clothes color difference (blue and black) not really matter.

Below is a printable version of the pattern for the cuffs, collar, buckle and belt… It is sized for a three year old but it is VERY easy to scale it up for an older child (or even an adult,,, hey there’s an idea)

 

Basic Instructions:

 

Materials:

½ yard white felt or fleece

¼ yard brown felt or fleece

(I use anti-pill fleece. It doesn’t fray and holds up WAY better than felt)

Heavy cardboard

Gold paint or spray-paint

2 buttons

Fabric glue

(optional) needle and thread

If you use fleece or felt you don’t have to worry about any hemming as the material won’t fray. It’s an easy cut and go project!

Collar:

Fold your white fabric in half and then in half again (see diagram)

Follow pattern and cut. Make an addition small slit (1/2 to 1 inch) in the back or the neck hole to get it over the head more easily.

Cuffs:

Fold your white fabric in half and place pattern on the fold.

Cut. Use fabric glue or needle and thread and stitch (or glue) button onto the cuff where indicated (I sewed it… easy peasy).

Belt (and Hat belt):

Measure the circumference of your child’s waist and the circumference of the hat you are using (ours was a $5 cowboy hat from Wal-Marts toy department) add about an inch to that measurement. Cut your brown fabric about 2” wide to the length you measured.

 Cut out the buckle pattern from the cardboard and paint or spray-paint it gold.

Glue “buckles” onto your belts.

Glue “hat belt” together and slip onto your hat.

Safety pin your belt onto your child.

 

Bing Bam Boom… Done J

 

 

                                                   click HERE for free printable pattern

 

 

 

 

2 Little Pilgrims

 

When A and a were teeny tiny (little a was less than a year) I made these cute and easy pilgrim costumes and had a home "photo shoot." The resulting pictures are some of my very favorites. I've blown them up and they are currently the centerpiece of  my Thanksgiving mantle decorations.

Now that little a is 3 she fits into the cuffs and collar that I made for Big A back then so I decided to do an updated shoot. I created a bigger set of Pilgrim accessories for Big A and got the two of them all dressed up and ready to party like its "1621".

They thought it was fun dressing up and I gotta say they look really, really cute! Here's some shots from the new "photo shoot."

I'll share the Pilgrim pattern tomorrow. It's crazy easy and the results are so cute!

 

Winter in July...A "Frozen" Birthday

I have to say that I never thought that I would be creating snowflakes in July but when your little girl says that all she wants is a “Frozen” birthday you do what you gotta do. Little a has been telling everyone that she is having a “Frozen” birthday for weeks.

As crazy as it seems since Frozen came out last Thanksgiving it is still hard to find “Frozen” items. I have been on a total hunt, scouring Ebay, Etsy, amazon, stalking our local target for anything Frozen. I was able to find Frozen party ware… in Las Vegas, only had to travel 400 miles for that (so happy I looked while on Vacation) …lol. Other than that I created all the party items and did the cake. Little a was So happy with the results!

Birthday Poster showing Little A throughout the last year

 

She's not spoiled at all... (Said totally sarcastically)

Little A's birthday Dinner

Little A Opening her Prezzy's

Making a Wish...

 

Easy Multi-Holiday Decor DIY

 

 

This is a Fun, Fast and EASY holiday craft that wont break the bank.

 The big bonus...It's reversible so you get multiple holiday use out of it!

( I made 2 sets so the above pic shows both sides)

 

Items Required: Mod Podge, Wooden Cubes (available at any Craft Store or ask Lowes to cute a 2" x 2" x 6' stick for you into cubes) Patterned paper cut into cute shape (I used my Cricut) and Vinyl Lettering (I used my Cricut, you can also buy letter stickers at ANY craft store)

Paint your wooden cubes

(I used white Valspar spray paint but you could use any color or type of paint you like) 

Next get out your Mod Podge and liberally apply it to one side of the cube 

Now Apply a layer of Mod Podge to your paper and place paper

on your Mod Podged surface. Let dry at least an hour.

 

Now apply your letters and apply another healthy layer of Mod Podge to seal the whole thing. Let dry another hour (waiting is the HARDEST part!)

 

Now repeat the whole process on the side of your cube

OPPOSITE the one you just finished.

Now you have a fun festive little decoration that you can use for multiple holidays!
I did Valentines "Love" and St. Pattys "Luck" but the possibilities are endless (Easter with "EGGS" ! )

* Note: I considered doing more than the 2 sides but realized that if you do the other sides kinda show when you display. Doing the 2 sides ensures that you wont see the other design.

Sometimes it's better just to fork out the money....

Last night I finished up my big Halloween craft project. Yes, you read that correctly... Last night (November 3) I finished up my Halloween Project.

Let me tell you the whole story.... Last year Pottery Barn Kids had this felt Halloween advent calendar that I fell in LOVE with. I was however NOT in love with the $59 price tag.

I raced over to Pottery Barn on November 1st last year in hopes of scoring one on clearance, no such luck. They were super popular and had sold out well before Halloween. Then I thought, DUH Jenn you could totally make that! So I raced over to JoAnns fabric and bought $3 of felt and tucked it away with my Pottery Barn Catalog to create next year.

Fast forward to this year... I started the project at the end of September thinking well it should take a few nights but I should be able to get it done in time for October 1st. How very naive I was!!!

First off I had planned on cutting all the little shapes and numbers with my cricut. Note: Cricut's can not cut felt. So I ended up cutting it all by hand. This doesn't seem like such a big deal but it was VERY time consuming. I didn't even get it all cut before October 1st.

Then I had it all cut and laid it all out and WOW it looked just like the Pottery Barn one and I was again jazzed about the project. I did not however consider the time it would take to applique on almost 200 tiny shapes. I worked on this sucker almost every night in October (I took off a few nights when I had a nasty cold). I finally put in 5 hours on November 3rd and got it done.

Granted it did only cost me $3 in fabric and probably $6 in thread (I used 2 entire spools and part of 3 others) it took me over 100 HOURS!!! Yes, that was not a typo... over 100 hours!!! That means if you consider the $60 original price I worked for $.60 an hour!!!  I SO should have just bought it to begin with!

 I have this idealized notion that this is something my kids will cherish for years. They will show their kids...look what your grandmother made. It probably will end up barely used, tucked away with all the other Halloween stuff.





Inspiration





With Big A for scale...

Easy Peasy DIY Photo Magnets

I Love the idea of Photo Magnets. Having your favorite pics on the fridge without having them swoop out from behind a magnet. I however do not like the idea of paying $5+ for a 2" x 4" magnet from the photo places. I often get emails for "free" magnets that turn out still being over $4 for shipping and handling... No Way!

I decided to try my hand at creating some and found out that you can EASILY (seriously it IS easy!!!) make these yourself for...(drum roll)...free!

To start off you need to collect any advertising magnets you come across. One place you can easily find a few is attached to your phonebook. When my office got new phonebooks this fall I asked if anyone minded if I filched all the magnets, no one minded, SCORE! 20+ magnets. Now that you are thinking about them you will find that they are all over the place. I have found them at restaurants, the vets office, our cable company office. All over. SO when you happen upon some, grab a few for later use. You can buy sheets of magnet at the craft store but its is really pricey and really with all the freebies out there you don't need to.

Now that you have your magnets all you need is some glossy pictures, adhesive (double sided tape, sticker maker, tape runner etc) and scissors.


First Gather your photos and advertizing magnets

Next cut your magnet and photos to the same size.
 (I like to do different shapes, Here I did 2" round ones with a large punch I have.)

Next apply adhesive to your photos.
(I used the Xyron creat-a-sticker, but you could use double sided tape,
  a tape runner, or even a strong glue stick)

Next Carefully line up your photo to the pre-cut magnet and stick them together

Ta Da! Truely Free Photo Magnets!!

I like to make little bundles for the grandparents for holidays.
Fast easy presents that they love and can actually can use.