25 Days of Christmas: Day 15

For day 15 of my 25 Days of Christmas challenge, I have another fun reindeer themed gift idea. This one can be used for a bath and body themed gift basket or to be paired with a spa, massage or nail salon gift certificate.

Supplies Needed:
Brown or tan wash cloth
Brown or tan pipe cleaners
Christmas colored bells (red, green, silver or gold)
Google eyes
Ribbon
Red pom pom
Hot glue
Bar of soap, nail polish or airplane size bottles of hand sanitizer, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, etc.

Take your bar of soap (or other accessories) and wrap up in the washcloth and tie with a ribbon, leaving some material at the top for "ears." Next stick a pipe cleaner on each side of the gathered material at the top for antlers. Cut smaller pieces of pipe cleaner and wrap around for additional pieces of the antlers. Finally add a bell or two if tiny onto the pipe cleaner for extra flare. Next glue on the google eyes and pom pom for a nose.

25 Days of Christmas: Day 13

For day 13 of my 25 Days of Christmas Challenge, I wanted to make peanut snowmen. These little guys {or gals} are adorable and can be used as a snack and a decoration or can be turned into an ornament or to add characters to your favorite holiday display.

Supplies Needed:
Bag of peanuts in shells
White paint
Black and orange sharpie
Ribbon, yarn or string - various colors
Acorn tops
Hot glue gun

You'll need to start by picking out decent looking peanuts out of the bag, I decided to make 3, but you can pick out however many you want to make. What I mean by "decent looking" is some peanut shells can look dis-formed and unless you want your snowmen looking that way, I suggest your classic peanut shell look. Next, paint your peanut shells white. You can do this with spray paint or with a paint brush. While you wait for the paint to dry, you will need to find some acorn tops outside. You'll need as many acorn tops as painted peanut shells you have, therefore I needed 3. Once your paint is dry, take a hot glue gun and glue the acorn top to the top of the peanut shell for his hat. Then take your black Sharpie and give your snowman a mouth, eyes, and buttons. If you're making any snow-women, use a red sharpie to give her sexy lips and rosy cheeks! Then take your orange Sharpie to make the carrot nose. Finally take the string, ribbon or yarn and tie around your snowman's neck for a scarf. You can take multiple pieces of string and braid them together for a fancier scarf.

If you're making a whole bags worth of snowmen and women, you can place the finished product in a clear or decorative holiday bowl for a cute display and a snack. You don't eat the peanut shells which is why they can still be edible, even after using paint and Sharpies! Crack 'em open and the peanuts inside should be unharmed. Or, if you're only making a couple like myself, you can tie a loop of ribbon or string around the back of the scarf and use them as ornaments. Or if you have a gingerbread house display or a holiday village, add these little guys as characters into your mini winter wonderland.

25 Days of Christmas: Day 11

For day 11 of my 25 Days of Christmas challenge, I have another gift idea to share with everyone. This is a fun way to make a simple gift like a 6 pack more festive for the holidays. You can use this for the beer lover in your life or for your friends that prefer non-alcoholic beverages, this also works on 6 packs of root beer, classic coke or other beverages that come in glass bottles.

Supplies Needed:
Brown or tan pipe cleaners
Red pom poms
Google eyes
Hot glues
Your favorite 6 pack

All you need to do is wrap a pipe cleaner around each bottle for the antlers. Then cut up smaller pieces of pipe cleaner and wrap a small piece around each antler. Then glue two google eyes on each bottle and one red pom pom for the nose. It's as simple as that and you have a cute pack of reindeer! For another fun reindeer idea, check out my Reindeer Wine Cork Ornament.

25 Days of Christmas: Day 7

On day 7 of my 25 Days of Christmas challenge, I decided to make a "gingerbread" house out of graham crackers. I found this idea on Pinterest and thought it was really cute. There are a lot of gingerbread house kits out there but this is an affordable way to make multiple houses without buying kits for everyone. You can make a village or use this for parties so everyone can make their own! For me I already bought a kit for a bigger one so this one might just be a cute dog house for Chloe!

Supplies Needed:
Graham crackers
White icing
Candy (I used mini candy canes)
Red and green writing icing (for additional flare)
Butter knife

This is so simple. All you really need are the graham crackers and white icing. The candy and additional colored icing is just to make it more fun!

I started by laying down some press and seal on my table to work on. Then I laid out and cut the graham crackers I would need with the butter knife; gently saw two pieces for the sides (cut about a fourth off each side piece), two pieces for the ends (cut to make a triangle at the top) and two pieces for the roof (leave whole).

Once you have all your pieces, you just need to construct your house using white icing to keep the "glue" everything together. You can decide what order works best for you.

Finally, after you have your house constructed, use your additional icing and candy to decorate it. I "painted" the roof white with the additional white icing and made cute heart shingles with the mini candy canes. I also added a door with the white icing and gave it a red knob and put a green wreath with red ribbon on it. I then made two green triangle windows.

Clean up was as easy as setting the house aside, putting away the extra ingredients, and peeling the press and seal off of the table. A few crumbs and sprinkles were left on the table but were easily solved with a wet paper towel!

I used a piece of scrap Christmas paper left from my advent calendar to display the house on, how cute does it look?

25 Days of Christmas: Day 5

For day 5 of my 25 Days of Christmas challenge, I decided to make snowmen ornaments out of bottle caps. I like to try and save bottle caps and wine corks because there are a lot of creative ways to use them in crafts and projects.

Supplies needed:
3 bottle caps per snowman
White paint
Ribbon
Hot glue
Something for the face and buttons (black and orange sharpies work)

Start by painting the inside of the bottle caps white. You may need to do multiple layers depending on the type of paint you use. Once the paint is dry, cut a piece of ribbon that runs the length of 3 bottle caps, and hot glue it to all 3 caps, make a loop at the top so you can hang the ornament. Finally give your snowman some flare. Use the black sharpie to give him eyes, a mouth and buttons. Then use the orange sharpie to draw a carrot nose and you're all done! If you're a crafty person and have extra supplies lying around, feel free to get creative when decking out your snowman. You can use things like beads, buttons, paint, colored sharpies or markers, etc. to give him additional features and accessories!

25 Days of Christmas: Day 4

For day 4 of my 25 Days of Christmas challenge, I have another creative centerpiece idea to share with you. I originally saw this idea as a wedding centerpiece and later saw a fun Christmas version of it. This one is so simple and similar to day 3, you can make it themed for any occasion. All you need is 1-3 wine glasses, small candles and some sort of floral. I chose to use 3 wine glasses, 3 white candles, and silver glittery fake floral pieces. You simply put a flower, leaves or piece of floral in the wine glass, flip it upside down and place the candle on "top" of the bottom of the wine glass. If you're using more than 1 glass, arrange them so they look nice on the table. You can use additional pieces of floral and Christmas bulbs to arrange around the glasses for a more festive look. I arranged mine on a black tray that I keep on my table. See my pictures below!

25 Days of Christmas: Day 3

For day 3 of my 25 Days of Christmas challenge, I duplicated the centerpiece I made for Thanksgiving by replacing the fall colored leaves with blue, white and silver snowflakes to make it the perfect centerpiece for all winter long. You can get all the supplies you need at the dollar store and Wal-mart for a $5 piece of art!

Supplies Needed:
Hurricane vase
Candlestick holder
Candle in a jar
Snowflakes (I used a couple packs of confetti I got at Wal-Mart, they were plastic and fit perfectly!)
Hot glue gun

You simply glue the hurricane vase to the candlestick holder. You then place the candle inside the vase. You can glue the candle in there but I prefer not to so you can easily replace the candle with a new one when it burns down.

Once you have your basic centerpiece, you can add the snowflakes or other holiday themed item to make it pretty.

For my fall one I only  had one package of fall leaves table scatter and I thought it might look better with two packages so this time I made sure to get two packs of  the snowflakes. As I said for the fall one and now proved with this one, you can make this centerpiece themed for all occasions by changing up the decoration inside. Have fun and get creative!

See my fall version here.

25 Days of Christmas: Day 2

For day 2 of my 25 Days of Christmas challenge, I decided to make a cute Christmas card holder. This project is super simple and is a great way to display all those holiday cards you receive throughout December. To start off, you need a rectangular sign with a fun Christmas or holiday themed phrase on it such as "Merry Christmas" or "Tis the Season." You can get creative and make your own or find plenty of pre-made options in the holiday section at stores such as Wal-Mart and Target. I actually found something that works perfectly at Dollar Tree. They had a variety of different signs with various phrases. If you make your own, you can get as creative as you want with stickers, paint, ribbons, rhinestones, etc. You'll also need some sort of ribbon or string to hang the sign. Next you need to cut two long strips of either thick ribbon or felt. I think choosing a fun red and green striped or polka dotted ribbon would look best. Then you simply attach the ribbon or felt to the bottom of the sign using a hot glue gun. Glue one strip on each end as if you were giving the sign legs. Then take small clothespins and clip them onto the strips, spacing them out along the way. Finally, find a spot to hang the holder and as you get cards in the mail, clip them onto the strips using the clothespins!