Tag: holiday diy

Cork Valentine’s Day Coasters

Kendra

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday with your friends and family! I can’t believe we’re already nearly halfway through January… I’ll admit, the last few weeks have been a blur. I found myself so tired on Boxing Day. I just wanted to curl up in bed with my boyfriend and watch Netflix. I figured it was just because of the usual hustle and bustle of the holiday season, but soon came to realize I had a bad case of burnout!

The month leading up to Christmas, I was basically glued to my craft desk. I was constantly on the phone and computer advertising, marketing, blogging, taking orders, creating, brainstorming, etc. I was on a creative high! To be honest, I barely remember the month of December. I was so grateful for the opportunities I was creating for myself through my hard work, but I was overworking myself at the same time. Suddenly, I couldn’t think of one craft to put together- not even a simple card. I felt like I had brain fog, with no inspiration and definitely no motivation. It’s important to remember when to slow down, take a breath, express gratitude and rest!

That’s why I’ve been so absent from my social media platforms. I had to take time for myself to relax and recharge to go into 2020 strong! I encourage you to do the same when you feel overwhelmed. Now let’s get crafting!

Pssst! If you don’t want to purchase coasters, buy a sheet of cork and use a circle cookie cutter to create your own.

ETC: 1H

Supplies:
– Cork coasters
– Pink, red and gold paint
– Glitter (optional)
– Adhesive vinyl or stencil

I spotted these cork coasters at my local thrift store for $1! You can purchase the exact same coasters for only $2.99- they were originally from Ikea.

Pink Heart with Gold Background
I used the default heart shape in Cricut Design Space. I think it’s literally the perfect heart shape, especially for round surfaces. I cut the heart out on adhesive vinyl, then painted it onto the cork. Once it was dry (about 10 minutes) I painted gold around the heart. I didn’t want to paint the coaster gold first and then the heart, because the cork is thin. If you brush the paint on too thick, it’ll crack if the coaster is bent. I love the imperfections.

2020 Red Heart
Using the same default heart shape, I layered it with 2020 and centered them together. Once it was cut, I simply stuck the vinyl down and painted over the stencil with red paint.

Gold XO with Red Background
I used the font Halo Handletter by Mario Artuo which you can get here. It’s one of my favourite festive fonts- it goes with every single holiday! The XO was so thin I decided to paint the coaster red first, let it completely dry, then apply the stencil. I also lightly dragged the paintbrush dipped with gold around the edges of these coasters- I adore how they turned out!

Red Love Words
I also used the font Halo Handletter here but in lowercase. I made others that say sweetie, cutie, lovebug, kisses, hugs, etc. You have so many options to personalize these! I also put gold around the edge of these too. I painted some in red paint and some in pink paint.

And that’s it! If I could do these over (which I probably will for other holidays!) I would have added glitter and maybe some hearts or lips on the cork background of the plainer coasters. Which one is your favourite? How would you have designed them differently?

Stay inspired,
Kendra

Dollar Store DIY Holographic Initial Ornaments

Kendra

This has been my favourite DIY ornament to make yet! I used vinyl for the letters but you can use anything adhesive you’d like, even stickers. All other materials are from the dollar store. These ornaments make great gifts for teachers, anyone who loves colour, or you could even create the whole alphabet for kids! I finally had an opportunity to use some bold ribbons; this is your chance to use your most colourful and flashy materials!

ETC: 30-50M

Supplies:
– Plastic ornaments
– Tiny Styrofoam balls
– Rainbow sequins
– Rainbow letters
– Vinyl
– Ribbon or string

I originally came up with the idea for these beauties when I thought of using ornaments to help teach kids the alphabet, all while decorating the tree as a family. I decided to use a cursive font for the holographic vinyl for a playful, whimsical vibe and so that you could really see the colour behind the letter. I used my Cricut Explore Air 2 to cut the vinyl.

I stuffed the ornament with tiny, white styrofoam balls, small/medium/large rainbow sequins, and rainbow letters. Mixing a filler such as styrofoam balls with chunks of reflective colour help to actually fill the ornament, and not have the confetti all sink to the bottom.

I loved being able to use all sorts of colourful strings and ribbons that I normally wouldn’t have a reason to use! One of my favourites was this dark teal with yellow stitching. Using holographic vinyl makes these ornaments unique in the sense that you can make them unconventional.

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

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

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