DIY Holiday Cards

Each year as the Christmas season grows nearer, one of my favorite things to do is make my own gift cards. I love to do it because it's inexpensive, you can make it look just the way you want and just the size you want, and personalize it to match whoever you're giving it to...plus it's a great way to use up any leftover scraps.

These ideas are very simple (which makes it better!), but I had a lot of fun making these cards for all of my family members this past Christmas and thought I'd share them with you!

 

Let It Snow

Super easy... all you need is paper, a white marker, and a picture or stencil of a snowflake (I just googled one :)). 

 Candy Canes

Draw and cut out one candy cane from computer paper. Trace the candy cane and repeat.

Christmas Lights

All you need is your base paper (dark green), paper the color of your Christmas lights (bright green), patterned paper for the backing of the Christmas lights (red and green striped) and a white and black marker.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer 

This one was a bit trickier. I paper-pieced Rudolph together: his body, his antlers, his nose, his collar, his hooves, and his belly are all separate pieces.

Elves, elves, elves

This one was trickier too. It's paper-pieced with three pieces: the boots, the red cuffs, and the striped tights. I used Elmer's glue to attach the golden beads.

Christmas Gifts

This card wasn't difficult, but the beading made it a bit more time consuming.

Christmas Tree 

More beads!

Once There Was a Snowman 

This one is one of my favorite! Just a lot more paper piecing.

Ornaments

This is another one of my favorites! The textured paper of the ornaments give the card a unique touch but the crafting of it is still very simple...all you need is your paper and a white marker. 

I hope these ideas have inspired you to make your own fun, festive cards! Or use these fun ideas and add your own style to them. I'd love to hear from you--share any cool tips or ideas you have in the comments!

Haunted Halloween Ideas

         So it is a little far away, roughly 2 months, but Halloween is something that if you are going to be legit, needs preparation early. Anyway, I want to give some ideas of awesome, creepy Halloween Costumes. Justin and I are getting married in December so we only have a few more chances to go all out in crazy, scary costumes before we have to dress cute so we don't scare our kids. There are some really good ideas out there, if you are willing to put out the time to make the look work.

#1- Zipper Face

Insane Asylum Victim

With the Zipper Face

This idea came from reddit.com and almost won me the "Scariest Costume" prize at the Halloween party I went to. I used a zipper, face wax and concealer that you can get at any Halloween/ Costume makeup store, and fake blood. It was a little tricky getting the zipper to stay stuck to the curves of my face, but the good thing about this costume is that even though it gets messy, that just makes it look more legit.

#2- Murderous Clown

        I couldn't find a picture of Justin by himself in this costume. This costume was way cheap because he just threw together clothes that he already had... a regular button up shirt and his jacket, patchwork pants that his mom had and a clown wig. Luckily, Just knows how to make balloon animals so he could make his bowtie. What really makes this costume, however, is the face. We painted his face with white concealer makeup found at any Costume makeup store. We also used black concealer face paint around his eyes before painting dark green triangles above and below his eyes. We added angry eyebrows, pink cheeks and bright red lipstick with a little blood trickling from his lips. 
        Justin won the best overall costume at our Halloween Party.

#3- VooDoo Doll

VooDoo Doll, carrying her own voodoo doll

VooDoo Doll under the hood

 

 

 

 

 

VooDoo Doll with her hood on.

        This costume was partially inspired by the horror movie "The Strangers" and Kristy's own creepy imagination. This costume won the "Scariest Costume" award. Kristy made her dress out of burlap fabric, a burlap sac would work well too, which she rubbed against cement to tear and then she burned the edges. She used twine to wind up a voodoo doll that dangled from her waist. She used lots of dark eyeshadow to create her bruises and eyeliner to "stitch" up her lips. Also, the black concealer face paint was used around her eyes.


#4- Gothic

Gothic Couple

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Headed for a night out on the Town

So this costume isn't necessarily scary, just a different style and a fun way to dress when it isn't your normal style. ** If this is your normal style, try dressing without black and makeup.  Jusitn was way hesitant to dress like this haha, mostly because he didn't want to wear eyeliner or have me do his hair... but look how awesome he looks!! Actually, since that day he has sworn to never let me do that to him again, but I like it haha. This was a way easy costume. Just wear thicker makeup, girls, and boys wear a little. Every piece of this costume can be found around your house. For instance, the collar that Justin is wearing is his dogs' collar.
          This costume was awesome because we went to El Mex Sal in Provo for dinner and then went to Harmons' to get a RedBox movie. As we waited in line to get the movie a lady came up to us and said, "I hope that is a costume! If not, I still love you, but I hope it is." haha. So obviously we looked legit!

#5-Serial Killer and Victim

         I don't have a picture for this yet because this is our plan for this Halloween. Justin is going to be a serial killer and I am his victim. We are going to dress him in ratty clothes; jeans with holes, stained T-shirt and a ratty hoody. We are going to put gel in his hair to make it greasy and give him dark circles under his eyes.
        I am going to be handcuffed to him, my hair dark and long. I will have black circles around my eyes and sunken in cheek bones. We will use fake blood to have drip from my mouth and then to be running from a "slit" in my neck. For a final touch we will stick a knife in my back.

I am way excited to try this one out... come on October!!! Leave me a comment and let me know if you try any of these or of other scary Halloween costumes you've done!

Fancy Schmancy Aprons

          Alrighty, so for those of you who don't know, I am getting married in December... I know, it's a long ways away. Luckily, though, thanks to it being a long ways away, I have plenty of time to get all of the preparations made. My fiance and I are getting married at Timpanogos temple, woohoo! And then having a reception at our stake center.
          Somehow our colors just kind of fell into place and I love them. We are doing a peacock "themed" wedding. Well, it's not really themed, but our colors are the turquoise and teal green of peacock feathers plus there will be some peacock feathers. Holy cow, I did not know how pretty these feathers were until I saw them in real life.
          For the reception, we are going to have our neices be little bus girls and clear the tables as people leave. To make it more fun, we are making them each cute aprons in our colors... on an adult it might look like a french maid haha, but for little girls they are super cute!

LACEY APRONS:
FOR EACH APRON YOU WILL NEED:
        - 1 Apron Skirt (25 X 13 1/2 inches)
        - 1 Belt (4 X 15 inches)
        - 2 Ties (2 3/4 X 22 inches)

 #1: The first step is to make your own patterns. On a roll of newsprint, cut out your desired sized aprons. The apron size we used was 25 X 13 1/2 inches at the center. When you cut it, round the edges and make it like 1/2 an inch larger than you want it to look so that you can hem it later. About 1/3 of the way in from both sides on the top, gradually dip the pattern down about 1 1/2- 2 inches. This makes a spot for the belt which we will make later.

You also will need to make patterns for the belt and the ties using the measurements above.

#2: Once you have made your pattern, pin it onto your fabric and then cut around the pattern.

They should look like this when they're done.







 

#3: Next, you will want to hem the edges of all of your pieces of fabric so that they don't fray. Some sewing machines have an automatic pressure foot that can do this and it makes it way easier, or you can just do it normally with a sewing machine. Pull the hem in a few centimeters to hem, it doesn't need to be big. After all of your pieces are hemmed, pin the lace onto the skirt. Start at the top right, just after the dip where the belt goes. Pin it right along with the hem, making sure that there are no gaps to where it is pinned.

#4: Go ahead and sew all of the lace on.

#5: The Belt and ties need to be ironed before you sew them on, just to make sure that they are straight and crisp.

         The belt, you will want to iron out flat, fold in half and then iron it again so that it stays folded in the "hotdog" form. Each tie you will want to iron out flat and then fold the tips in to make a point and iron those flat so that they stay. (In the final picture, you can see what the ties and belt look like).
        You will want to sew the outside edge of the tie down first so that it doesn't poke out away from the belt (It's weird, but ironing just isn't enough to hold it down ;))
        Sew the belt on first, having pinned it to the skirt. The lace edges should poke inside of the belt. DO NOT SEW THOSE EDGES CLOSED! Make sure that when the bottom edge of the belt is pinned on, the back side of it has been caught in the pin too.
       After the belt has been sewed on, scrunch the end of the tie that does not have the point on it and sew it so that it is more narrow. These will then be slid inside of the belt on the two ends that you left open. (Aren't you glad you left them open now? haha). After you have slid the tie in, you will sew back and forth vertically across the belt, the tie is inside. Voila! You have a cute fancy schmancy apron!