Christmas in July Bows

I'm taking a decidedly different approach towards Christmas this year by starting my crafting early. A few months ago I stumbled across a great tutorial on gift bow making and I knew it would come in handy for the holidays. My first big task is to make a ton of handmade bows for this year's Christmas presents.

I've used the bow tutorial before with regular paper, but I found some decorative duct tape that I thought would make really cool bows as well...


and here's the result...


Once I saw that I could make bows using duct tape, I wanted to try making more using other unexpected material. So I gathered up a few things from around my house and started making bows.


Out of denim...


a gift bag...


burlap...


grosgrain ribbon...


and decorative tissue paper...


In order to use denim and burlap for the bows, I first dabbed fabric stiffener on the material and let it dry. This was one of the easiest crafts I've done thanks to the tutorial - you should try it!

Super Mario and Friends

Last weekend I had the pleasure of creating birthday party centerpieces for a little Super Mario fan who was turning 5. This is an embarrassing admission given the fact that I have two young sons, but I knew absolutely nothing about Super Mario. However, after consulting with my guys and researching the Internet, I was able to come up with a few designs for the centerpieces.

Of course I had to make Mario...

Along with his twin brother Luigi...



And just for fun I threw in their archenemy, Donkey Kong...



I am currently in the process of designing a line of centerpieces that I'll be selling on Etsy. I'm beyond excited and more than a little scared to start this new venture, but I've decided to adopt a "seize the day" attitude about it. Stay tuned for more information regarding my Etsy shop (I like the sound of that) coming soon!

DIY Favor: Personalized Stationery Box

The other day I stumbled across a great font that automatically creates monograms. It only takes a minute to make a really nice design and it's free to download. Here's a link to the font and the monogram I made...


I decided to make a super easy favor using the monogram - personalized stationery.
I found some adorable little boxes at my go-to-store Target in the dollar section. There were three different styles (each priced at $1) - I went with the preppy green and pink design.


I dug up some leftover ribbon from this project and wrapped it around the box...


Then I simply attached the monogrammed oval onto the box (I printed the monogram on adhesive-backed paper). Too easy!


Finally, I created a design using the monogram in a Word document and printed out/cut several sheets for the box...


This favor cost a little over $1 and took about 10 minutes to complete.
Easy + Cost Effective = Happiness.

Craft Mashup [Silly Band Gift Wrapping]

The first time I ever heard about the concept of a mashup was with the release of The Grey Album. A music mashup is a song that is created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs seamlessly. The Grey Album blended songs from Jay-Z's Black Album and the Beatles' White Album - genius!

I thought it would be fun to apply the same concept to crafting since I don't make music. Like many of you, I am constantly coming across amazing crafts that inspire me. So I'm going to take some of those amazing ideas and try to blend them seamlessly to make a craft mashup. First up I'm taking crafts from two of my favorite bloggers and making the following mashup: silly band gift wrapping.

A couple of months ago Kristy (aka The Purple Pug) threw a crazy cool Super Mario-themed party for her little guy. One thing that stuck out to me was her creative use of unwanted silly bands...



Photo Source


One of my other faves, Kendra over at My Insanity, created adorable gift wrapping using (of all things) balloons!

Photo Source

So, I took Kristy's idea of repurposing silly bands and combined it with Kendra's creative gift wrapping idea to get this...



This is really easy to make - all you need is a bunch of silly bands. We have a ton of formerly-couldn't-live-without silly bands laying around our house doing absolutely nothing...



Just loop one end of a silly band through another one to form a "chain link". Once you have a long chain, wrap it around the gift (I used one color for each chain). To make the bow, simply tie the silly bands together into a ball shape and then tie it onto the gift.



Thanks (again) to Kristy and Kendra for being constant sources of inspiration! Look out for more craft mashups coming soon!!