When we were younger, my brother and I used to love making these spotted Easter eggs. Last weekend I was feeling creative, so I decided to make some spotted eggs to decorate my new house :)
What you need:
Eggs
Dye (& containers)
Spoons
Candle (white is best) and matches
Baking sheet
Paper towel
Aluminum foil
Step 1: Hard boil or blow out eggs
Step 2: (once eggs have cooled) light candle, and dribble melted wax on eggs (hard to see the wax in the pic below)
Step 3: Once wax has dried, place egg is dye. The dye is not able to penetrate the wax, so the areas with wax will not be dyed.
Step 4: Allow dye to dry
Step 5: Repeat process with different coloured dyes until you are happy with the looks of your eggs.
If you don’t let the eggs dry fully after dying, the wax will not stick well, and may dislodge.
Step 6: Once you are finished waxing and dying the eggs, place them on a foil-lined baking sheet and place in oven to melt off the wax dots. I suggest broiling them at about 150-200F. Monitor the eggs (if they get too hot, they may crack). Once wax is soft, it can be wiped off with a paper towel.
Some of my eggs (especially the middle egg, above) have a mottled colouring. I think this is becasue I used cheap dye and didn’t always allow my eggs to dry fully between each wax-dye cycle.
Thanks for reading!
I was trying avoid school work this evening, so I got creative…
I have seen many these paper trees all over the internet. I am sure I am not the first person to think of wrapping the “tree” with ribbons, however I thought I would post my version anyways…
Materials
Paper (I used thicker card-stock scrap-booking paper)
Scissors
Glue
Ribbon
Time
~ 30 mins
Put glue on one edge of the paper (a short side if you have rectangular paper), only about 1/2 the way down - you can add more glue later.
Make a cone and add more glue where necessary (normally at the edges!). Allow a minute or two for the glue to partially dry.
Cut off excess paper at the bottom of the cone so the tree is able to sit flat (probably the hardest step for me - it took me about 5 tries to get the base somewhat flat).
Beginning at either the top or the bottom, glue down ribbon and wrap tree. I only glued down the ribbon at the bottom and the top. This gave the ribbon a more drape-y feel. Once all the ribbon was added (I used 5 strands), I added a few ‘anchoring’ spots of glue - normally just to glue the strands of ribbon together at points where they crossed.
The finished product…
And with some smaller ribbon-less paper trees I quickly glued together…
Thanks for reading. Happy crafting :)
Thanks for reading!
Time Required:
~ 20 mins
What you’ll need:
Paper (I printed off double-sided sheet music from the internet)
Ruler
Scissors
Pencil
Styrofoam ball (I used about 1.5” balls)
Dressmaker’s pins
Cut strips of paper.
Using the ruler and pencil, mark cutting lines if needed (I did)
Erase any visible pencil markings
Cut the strips into about 3” sections
Pin the bottom loop onto the styrofoam ball
Pin folded strips to the styrofoam ball
Once finished, you can fill in any gaps with smaller paper loops.
Pin (and/or glue) ribbon to the top of the ornament
I used narrower paper strips (3/8”) for this tutorial, and thicker strips on my first trial that was photographed on spruce tree (1/2” first pic). I think the thicker strips worked better (& looks better).
Thanks for reading!
Looking for a quick way to add some personalization to a gift? Why not try making your own gift tags?
What you will need:
Paper (I used white card stock)
Scissors
Glue
Decorations
Imagination!
All of my decorations came from Dollarama (ie. they didn’t cost much!). You can also cut designs or images out of wrapping paper, regular paper, felt, etc.
Thanks for reading!
School and work have been crazy recently, so I haven’t had a lot of time for do-it-yourself posts. Instead, I thought I would give you a peek at what I am currently working on.
Christmas ornaments made from sheet music:
I was inspired by this Christmas tree DIY & used a similar technique to make these ornaments.
Paper ball ornaments
I made these ornaments using Jessica’s tutorial. I love that she included patterns for paper balls of three sizes. Eventually, I want to make a large paper ball to sit on my living room end-table - white paper with a dusting of glitter would look really festive!
Thanks for reading!
I am currently loving the scalloped Christmas tree look (see here), so I decided to apply the same technique to my Christmas ornaments.
Time: 30 minutes for a small (1.5” diameter) ball
Age: hmmmm…hard to say. Patience is a must. Fast drying glue is also a must for younger children. Probably age 12 and up? The small paper circles can be a challenge to align (and keep in the right position) if your glue does not dry fast.
Materials:
Styrofoam ball (showing a 1.5” ball)
Hole punch (I used a 3/8” punch)
Paper (I used thicker scrap-booking paper, but this can also be done using construction paper, wrapping paper, or even felt)
Scissors
Glue (clear, fast-dry glue would be best)
Ribbon
Dressmaking pins (optional)
Punch out circles
Glue (or pin) the bottom circle first:
Begin gluing first row of circles onto the ball. Overlap edges.
Continue adding rows.
(I have flipped ball over)
Once the entire ball is covered, you will be left with a small opening at the top.
Glue (or pin) the final circle onto the top of the ball
Glue (or pin) on ribbon
Done!
You can change-up the effect by using a variety of paper patterns & by altering the ball size. The ornament below was made using 7 different paper patterns on a 6” diameter styrofoam ball.
Have fun!
Thanks for reading!
Since this is the first (upcoming) holiday season in our new house, I have been thinking a lot about decorations. Here’s a look at some cute little winter hats (toques - for my Canadian friends).
What you need:
Yarn (thick yarn works best, I unfortunately used the thin stuff in this tutorial)
Empty paper towel rolls or toilet paper rolls
Scissors
Ruler (optional)
Difficulty: Easy - I learned how to do this in about grade 4
If you like to measure, cut about a 10” lengths of yarn (this does not have to be exact!)
You can choose to use multiple colours of yarn - for ease, I only used two colours in this tutorial
Cut the paper towel roll into 0.5 - 1” pieces. This forms the band of the hat.
Now it’s time to knot the yarn. Fold a piece of yarn in half.
Put the folded yarn into the paper town roll.
Pass the yarn tails through the loop.
Pull to tighten.
Repeat!
Keep adding more yarn.
Finished knotting…
To create the pom-pom, tie the yarn strands together.
Cut pom-pom to desired length. Fluff the yarn to create more of a fuzzy pom-pom (not shown)
You can hang the finished product on a tree…
…or add a festive touch to everyday items
Thanks for reading!
