Tag: christmas crafts

DIY Mini Nativity Set

Kendra

My Mom designed and put together this beautiful miniature nativity set! You can completely make this tutorial your own; all four materials used for this craft can be substituted. This would make a beautiful holiday decoration or gift. If you already have the supplies to make this craft, it can take as little as 15 minutes!

ETC: 20M-40M

Supplies:
– Cloche or glass case
– Wooden clothespins
– Holly or other holiday foliage
– Felt

This unique nativity set didn’t come together all at once- these were a bunch of crafting supplies that my Mom already had before she had a glorious light bulb moment! When I asked what inspired her, she said she had seen a plastic ornament with a tiny wooden clothespin inside as baby Jesus. She thought about an assorted bag of wooden clothespins she had purchased this past summer from Michaels, and quickly set out to find it. You can use any type of small wooden item to represent the characters, you don’t need to use clothespins. Check out your closest dollar store!

My mom then had the idea to wrap the Jesus clothespin in a ‘blanket’, using beige-coloured felt that she wrapped around the clothespin until she was happy with how it was placed.

The ring of holly around the Joseph, Mary and Jesus clothespins is actually from a huge roll of wired holly wreaths we found at a thrift store a few years ago (which is sadly almost gone!). You could use any type of holiday foliage such as a twig of spruce, red winter berry branches, etc.

The dainty cloche used to encase the nativity set is from a thrift store! You can easily use an upside down jar instead.

Every once in a while look through your local thrift stores, you’ll be shocked at the potential craft supplies you can find!

Stay inspired,
Kendra

Dollar Store DIY Birch Slice Garland

Kendra

ETC: 20M-40M

Supplies:
– Jute
– Wooden slices
– Drill

This adorable DIY is courtesy of my Mom, who found these mini birch slices at the dollar store and it didn’t take her long to find a use for them! She bought two bags, which had about 10-12 in each. Mom, who’s a little tree crazy, was decorating our kitchen tree (yes, kitchen tree) when she then had the brilliant idea to drill holes through the birch slices to create a garland! After quickly enlisting Dad to drill the holes through the birch (he did so with an 1/8 drill bit) Mom easily threaded the jute through the holes.

It took only 15 minutes to string this garland together!
Mom wanted to give the tree a vintage baking meets woodland theme.

Also, Mom didn’t measure the jute out beforehand, just kept stringing the garland until she could wrap it around the tree and it looked the way she liked. You can easily paint little stencils onto these pieces to personalize them, or even create little ornaments! Try applying vinyl to these! This is a very versatile craft- make it your own.

Stay inspired,
Kendra

DIY Glass Ornaments for Late Loved Ones

Kendra

An ornament is the perfect sentimental gift to give to someone special during the holidays! It can represent a small, beautiful token of love and gratitude for a loved one who has passed on. In this post, I’m going to show you how to make a two different meaningful ornaments.

ETC: 30 minutes – 1 hour

Supplies:
– Blank glass ornament
– Vinyl
– Jute or ribbon
– Confetti or glitter


I think the first time I ever heard the term ‘snowflakes are kisses from heaven’ was in a Hallmark Christmas movie, and I think it’s adorable for little DIY crafts such as this.

I found these flat glass ornaments at Michael’s. Glass ornaments are better than plastic ornaments in terms of denting; when applying vinyl to plastic, I have to be so careful not to press down too hard on the vinyl to be sure I don’t dent the ornament.


click here to purchase




I created this particular design in Cricut Design Space. I used the font Halo Handletter by Mario Arturo which you can find here. I tweaked the curve, length, height, and width to contour the letters to flatter the shape of the ornament.

Then I cut the design on vinyl and used transfer tape to apply it to the ornament. I always wait to fill the ornament with confetti until after the vinyl is applied, just in case a piece were to get stuck under the design. I stuffed the ornament with snowflake confetti and translucent glitter.

Click here to purchase

I bought this lovely cardinal SVG design here from the amazing Lyrical Letters Design. It’s originally $4.63 CAD but I got it on sale for $2.78 CAD! A great bonus is that a premium license is included with purchase of the SVG, so you can use this design on projects to sell!

‘Though we grow in different directions, our roots remain as one’


I decided to make the ornament reversible once I realized how tiny the design would look. An important tip to remember when working with vinyl is that smaller, cursive letters are harder to weed and and not rip. I put the quote with one cardinal on one side and the tree with roots and one cardinal on the other side. I love being able to see the other cardinal on the tree through the quote.

Clear ornaments tend to look plain or empty- use a thick or chunky ribbon to give it a professional look.

I filled the ornament with snow-like confetti to reflect the lights on the Christmas tree. To finish, I went with a thick, red velvet ribbon.

Handmade gifts are the best gifts!

Stay inspired,
Kendra

Dollar Store DIY Chalkboard Ornaments

Kendra

I know I’m not the only person who has messy handwriting, but trying to write with chalk somehow makes it even worse. So when I found these chalkboard ornaments in the basement that I had forgotten about from last year, I was hesitant to attempt to use them… I knew they would look like sh*t. But after some persistent brainstorming, I came up with a simple solution: all I needed was some white vinyl and I could make this work!

Unfortunately, I haven’t seen these same ornaments in ANY dollar stores this year.

I used my favourite Rae Dunn inspired font The Skinny by Jusebox, which you can find here for the vinyl. I had three boxes that came with two ornaments each so the words I chose were merry, joy, wish, love, bright and hope.

ETC: 30 minutes – 1 hour

Supplies:
– Blank chalkboard ornaments
– White vinyl
– Transfer tape
– Ribbon

The hardest part of applying vinyl to a curved surface (or any surface for that matter) is ensuring that it’s straight. The easiest way to do this is by using a washable marker or just eyeing the transfer tape lines, which is what I do. Don’t try to smooth out the transfer tape in an effort to get the vinyl to flatten and stick. Carefully and firmly press down each letter, one at a time, as you peel the transfer tape back. That way you can be sure your letters are exactly where you want them to be once the transfer tape is fully removed, and not creased or crooked.

Much better than chalk!

You can add whatever ribbon you’re feeling depending on the vibe, I chose to keep the ribbon that came on the ornament. These specific ornaments make great teachers gifts!

Stay inspired,
Kendra

DIY Confetti Filled Vinyl Ornaments

Kendra

ETC: 20-40 minutes

Supplies:
– Plastic ornaments
– Ribbon and twine
– Confetti
– Vinyl

I wanted to combine the Rae Dunn inspired ornaments with fun confetti filled ornaments! I love how they turned out and you can easily customize the vibe for the ornaments. Everything except the vinyl is from Dollarama!

First you’ll want to apply the vinyl words to the ornaments so you don’t have to worry about holding the twine and ribbon out of the way. I used my Cricut Explore Air 2 to cut the black vinyl. I used The Skinny font by Jusebox which you can download here. It’s completely free for personal use!

Once I applied the vinyl onto my ornaments, I made a paper funnel to easily pour the confetti into the ornament. I recommend filling the ornaments to the bottom of the letters (about 1/4 full) so it has a reverse snow globe effect.

After I popped the tops of the ornaments in place to contain the confetti, I tied the twine onto them in small loops. Then I tied the bow onto the top of the ornament so I would hide the knots from the twine.

I love how effortless these special ornaments are. A set of these would make a unique gift to family and friends this holiday season. I think I’m going to make a reindeer set next…

Stay inspired,
Kendra

DIY Holiday Card Display

Kendra

ETC: 20-30 minutes

Supplies:
– Assorted decorative string and ribbon
– Clothespins
– Tacs/suction cups/hooks

Sometimes Michael’s has a section of bagged assorted fabric or ribbon- kind of like those surprise goodie bags from the dollar store; for when you need just a little bit of this or that to really complete a project. I was ecstatic when I found similar bags at Dollar Tree! For $1.25 CAD I got at least 50 different strips of holiday themed ribbons.

The holiday clothespins I found (also at Dollar Tree!) are what inspired this simple card display. I used the same candy cane twine from Michael’s that I used for my wooden ornaments as the main line for the display.

Once I tied the main line to the hooks of the suction cups (I wanted to be able to move my display to any window or mirror) I just picked a few ribbons from the bunch that I liked together with the clothespins. Then I tied them to the ends of the main line.

That’s it! Once you receive a few cards, you can proudly display them with adorable clothespins.

Stay inspired,
Kendra

Dollar Store DIY Wooden Ornaments

Kendra
These adorable wooden ornaments cost less than $2 to make!

ETC: 20-40 minutes

Supplies:
– Blank wooden ornaments
– Stencil
– Paint and paint brush
– Ribbon

Once the holiday decor began to hit the shelves at Dollarama, the first thing that caught my eye were these wooden ornaments! I didn’t know exactly how I wanted to decorate them but I had to have them.

They come in packs of 4 for $1.25 CAD, with a thin red ribbon. I wanted to change the ribbon to make the wood look less plain, so I went with a candy cane twine from Michael’s; I also used this for my DIY card display!

I used my Cricut Explore Air 2 to cut the stencils I used to paint the words onto the ornaments, using the Cricut adhesive stencil vinyl. After a few minutes of seeking out the perfect font, I tried The Skinny by Jusebox which you can download here. It’s completely free for personal use!

It took some trial and error to get the size of the font just right and it’s also personal preference. I made the font slightly smaller than I originally planned, so I could fit all of the holiday words I brainstormed (such as sleigh, elves, merry, etc.) on the 12×12 Cricut mat.

After I used Cricut transfer tape to apply the stencil to the ornaments, I used black acrylic paint and a small foam brush to paint on the words. Each ornament takes less than 20 minutes to dry!

The first set I made!

I’m going to make another set except add a thin wreath around the inner edge of the ornament. I’ll post an update of them here soon!

Stay inspired,
Kendra