Yo-Yo Flower Christmas Tree

Have you ever made a yo-yo flower?  I learned how to make one earlier this year thanks to this pin here.  It's so simple to make and super cute!  And who would have thought you can turn a bunch of yo-yo flowers into a christmas tree?  My friend's mom had one on her fireplace mantel and I just couldn't get over how cute it looked!  She was gracious enough to make me a pattern as well as give me some green fabric to make my very own.  

Here's what you'll need:

• 12 in diameter circle pattern
• Scrap fabric in shades of green or solid colors
• Empty thread spool (that will be the tree stump)
• Wooden stick (You can pick one up at your local craft store.  I got mine at Hobby Lobby)
• Scissors/thread/needle
• Polyester filling (optional)

Start by cutting out your pattern on your fabric.  My pattern paper was a little short of 12 inches so I worked with what I had and then rotated the pattern on the fabric since that's the beauty of a circle! 

Once you finished cutting out your 12 in fabric circle you can now cut/trim your pattern to the 11 in circle pattern.

Repeat the process of cutting the circle pattern.

Continue these steps until you reach your 3 inch circle.

Next make a yo-yo flower out of each circle.

Make a little snip at the bottom center so that you can place it on top of the wooden stick.  Put the wooden stick in through the center of the spool so that the spool supports the stick standing.  Stack largest to smallest to create the tree shape.  You can also stuff the yo-yo flowers with polyester filling to make it extra fully, but that's optional. 

Make a little star or find a trinket to put on top and then done!  It's the perfect little center piece for your holiday party!

Don't have time to make a whole tree?  Try this alternative mini yo-yo tree ornament.  String a jingle bell to the center of the lace or string to act as your stopper and then stack the yo-yo flowers through to make your own mini tree.

DIY Pillow Box

I'm making a lot of different little gifts this year for Christmas and thought that the best way to wrap them was to put them into a pillow box!  And I searched on Amazon and all over the internet for cute christmas themed pillow boxes and didn't find any so I hit myself on the forehead and thought why don't I just make my own??  I googled a DIY pillow box project and found it on ItryDIY.com here.  This was time consuming but I feel great about how each of the little boxes turned out!  I definitely recommend this if you need a small box to wrap up your gifts.

What you'll need:

• 1 pad of scrapbook paper of your choosing (Heavier cardstock works better)
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Dull edge (of scissors or butter knife)
• CD or something round
• Double sided tape or Zots 
• Pen

DIY String Christmas Tree Decoration - Part 2

Alright, here comes Part 2 of the project.  =D After letting it dry the whole night we came back downstair and took a look.  

Everything seemed stiff and holding up fine so it was time to take the paper off the cone.  I love how it still holds its shape without the cone.  We did run into some difficulty taking the cone off because the bottom of the party hat was a little sticky still where the bottom trim was originally. To remedy that just tape over it before you start your project.

So the easiest way to take the wax paper off is to go inside the cone and start peeling the wax paper away on the inside of the tree.  Handle the tree with care since it is fragile.  

DIY String Christmas Tree Decoration - Part 1

UPDATE: So after finishing the project I realized that there were a lot of things I learned and wish I had known/tried earlier but didn't.  Please read both Part 1 and Part 2 completely before attempting the project on your own.  Enjoy!

Pin Rating: 2 (for original pin - hopefully with my tutorial it will make this project a 4/5 for you.)

-----

So today's blog post is a little different because I didn't expect it would take this long.  There is a lot of drying and waiting around involved.  This pin was shown to me by a friend and I decided to tackle this pin.  The original pin doesn't have any instructions and the link leads to what I believe is a Russian website so I figured this would be a great DIY post to get the step by step instructions out there.  I had some help on this one which made it a lot easier and fun to make.  But as you can see from the title, this is only Part 1.  I waited for the project to dry overnight and I'll be unraveling it and decorating it later today so expect to see the post up by Thursday on the completed project.

Here's what I'm using:

• Giant party hat from The Dollar Tree (Or you can use a styrofoam cone for ~$3.99)
• Tacky glue with brush
• 3 sets of embroidery floss (.40 each @ Hobby Lobby)
• Wax paper
• Scrap booking Snowflakes

*Note: The tacky glue will make your string a shade darker once it dries so keep that in mind when you pick out your colors embroidery floss.

Tidy Up that Wrapping Paper

(^^ Pin Me ^^)

Original Pin: http://pinterest.com/pin/106116134941406674/

Pin rating: 4.5

So today's Fast & Simple pin is ridiculously fast and simple (as long as you have empty toilet paper rolls) and just in time for your next Christmas wrapping party.  I've seen this pin on pintrest a couple of months ago but never actually had an empty toilet paper roll until today!  The only reason I gave the pin a 4.5 rating is because who really has an abundance of empty toilet paper rolls readily available to use? Time to start saving your empty toilet paper rolls. ^_^

Take an empty toilet paper roll and make one cut down the length of the roll (from one open end to the other) and then take the roll and wrap it around your gift wrapping paper at the loose end.  And voila no more messy loose ends or need for tape.

DIY Hot Glue Snowflake Ornament

Original Pin: http://pinterest.com/pin/231724343298567815/

Original blog post: www.bystephanielynn.com &  http://www.pitterandglink.blogspot.com/

Pin rating: 4.5

Duration: 20-30 minutes

Here's a nice fast and simple project for today's blog post.  And it's great for kids too!  I was watching my nephew the other day and after he finished his homework I gave him the option of reading comic books or making snowflakes.  Since he's not a huge fan of reading and just finished reading about 20 pages for homework he immediately shouted make snowflakes.  So I had him help by reading off the directions from the blog (got him to do more reading after all) and help with glittering.  So I highly recommend this project!  The only thing is that practice makes perfect so don't be disappointed if your first snowflake isn't perfect - mine totally looked rigged but it's okay every snowflake is different!

• Snowflake print out to use as stencil
• Glitter (The glitter shown was picked up at the Dollar Tree) 
• Hot glue gun
• Glue sticks (I used at least 2 for 1 snowflake)
• Soap detergent (to create a buffer for ease of removal)
• Wax paper
• Martha Stewart Glittering Glue w/ Brush (Or Mod Podge and a brush)
• String or wire
• Paper plate (or something to sprinkle glitter all over :))

Vanellope von Schweetz Costume: Part 1

Photo Credit: Disney's Wreck-it-Ralph

So I'm pretty excited for Disney's Wreck-it-Ralph coming to theaters November 2.  A Disney movie about video games?  Yes please.  :)  So after watching a few trailers I decided that for my actual Halloween costume I'm going to be Venelope Von Schweetz!  I'm also planning to reuse the costume for opening night at the movies.

While looking around I actually discovered that someone has made a Pintrest board for this costume!  http://pinterest.com/brermatt/vanellope-von-schweetz-costume-wreck-it-ralph/  Great ideas on the board, but just looking around online for a sweater everything seemed to be out of my price range so I decided to rely on my good ol neighborhood Goodwill.  I also put my own little personal touches on the costume.  The next couple of post will be dedicated to how I put together my halloween costume.  Almost must apologize since the camera ran out of battery and I took most of these photos with my phone.  Hope you enjoy the read regardless.

Candy Cane Nails using The Beauty Department's Tape Trick 

Pin Rating: 3

Duration: 30-40 min

• Painters tape
• Wet n Wild White nail polish (.97 cents)
• Wet n Wild Clear Coat (.97 cents)

Remember my red nails from last week?  I decided to repurpose them into candy cane nails to go with my costume.  So I believe this is my first 3 pin rating.  I'm not sure if it was the nail polish, the tape or just my nail polishing skills, but the final results came out a little runny and the lines weren't clean.  It's possible that it could have been a little bit of everything but I'm satisfied with the overall results for my Halloween costume.

I cut up tiny strips of painters tape and lined them up where I wanted them on my nails.

Paint the nail with the white nail polish.  Wait about a minute and peel off the tape.

And after that touch up and top coat and you're done!

Click below for Part 2 & 3 of my costume.

Vanellope Von Schweetz Costume Part 2

Vanellope Von Schweetz Costume Part 3