Christmas Craft Ideas for Kids

Heres a few quick and fun ideas for crafts you could work on with your whole family. 

~Cutting Snowflakes: A classic that gets your kids imagination flowing. When you finish cutting them maybe add some color or even glitter to make them sparkle and hang them in the kids room. 

~Handprints: Theres many recipes out there for making molds. You could press the hands of your kids into these molds to make an adorable momentum for your tree. Again painting them after they've baked is fun too. :)

~Decorating Stockings: Make the stockings you hang above the fireplace more personal by adding some fabric paint or anything else the kids think of adding. 

How To: Spread Christmas Cheer

As Buddy the Elf taught us: the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear. This is certainly true, but there's many other creative ways to integrate the holiday season's joy to others who may feel a bit pessimistic about this time of year. Here's a list of a few things you could put forth in your community to inspire everyone to have positive moods this season. :)

~Have a spirit week in your local school: A lot similar to March Madness or Homecoming Week, you can start a Christmas spirit week with a theme day for each day of the week before vacation starts. Christmas Pjs day, winter hat day, white out day, Christmas character day and ugly sweater day are the few themes our local school chose to use for the week. This is perfect for work as well to get everyone in the spirit. :)

~Make a unique holiday playlist: Sometimes listening to the Christmas songs on the radio can be a bit repetitive. Make up your own playlist that combines the classics with a few new favorites of yours. It doesn't even have to be Christmas themed; it could just remind you of winter. Hearing new songs will brighten your mind and connect it to new memories.

~Help the community: There's no doubt that helping out in your community will make you feel good as well as everyone around you. This is pretty much already a given, find what services your community needs and do what interests you most - remember, you'll want to do something you'll be happy doing because helping out with a negative outlook does no good.



~I know these posts may have become more about quantity than quality so please...leave a comment below telling me what you think about this Christmas series of posts; it really does help a lot!~

A Tip for Last Minute Gifts

We all have those times when we totally forget a gift we were supposed to get someone and it happens at many other times than just the holidays. When there's no time to go out and buy something what do you do? There's the simple and honest way to just tell the person you ran out of time to get the ideal gift you had in mind and you'd like to give it to them later or there's always the opportunity to whip up something quick. But throwing something together can be disastrous. A simple solution to this is to simply make the person a card and write a message inviting them to an event of which there you can give your present, or actually write on the card to expect their wonderful gift in the mail. As soon as you buy their gift wrap it nicely and send it in the mail; it would be as though the shipping for your present was on the slow side.



~Sorry about the quick and short (and late..) post...hope it was of usage anyway!~

Handmade Christmas Card Ideas

Handmade Christmas cards are a ton better than store bought cards. They're unique and can say whatever you want. If you're stuck on what you want your holiday cards to look like here are a few ideas that I used for mine. Some basic supplies you might want are: white paper, red, green, black sharpies (skinny are best for detail), scissors (pattern perhaps?) buttons and ribbon. :D

Idea 1: Ribbon as a bow to a gift. Draw a box with a skinny sharpie and decorate the 'wrapping paper' however you'd like. Tie a bow with ribbon and add it to the top of your box. Voila!

Idea 2: Simply doodle whatever you'd like with some red and green sharpies. For mine I did a candy cane, but there are many more options; a tree, snowman, Santa - anything festive. :)

Idea 3: Glue buttons as part of a larger picture. Think about the different things you can incorporate buttons with - a snowman, a wreath a Christmas tree - there's many possibilities.

Idea 4: Include in your card one of the interests of the person you're giving it to. Such as my Doctor Who themed card below. Don't forget to add some references to the inside of your card. 

Festive Holiday Party Nails

These nails combine deep wine colors with festive gold to make a design perfect for a holiday party!

Nail polish bottles used were NYC plaza plumberry, NYC extra shiny top coat, and Art Club fine gold (NA26) as well as a set of nail jewels from Icing's.

How To: Staying Sane When Times Are Busy

The holidays can be a really busy time, as well as on many other occasions as well. Take myself for instance, I was so busy today I did not have the time to create an actual craft for today's 25 Days of Christmas Crafts post. However, I thought this would be just as good to share. How I stay sane when I'm super busy.

First thing's first. Prioritize. I had an oral presentation to do tomorrow. Instead of writing my post, I practiced my presentation instead. Future me will thank me a lot; though I sincerely regret not having enough time for a new post, my presentation was much more important.

Second. Whatever you do, do not multitask. Sure, you may think you're a master of answering emails or texts while working on a big project or your homework but you really can't. It's much more distracting than you think to have that phone next to you or your laptop turned on. You'll save much more time if you're solely focused on one activity at a time.

Third. Give yourself some breaks. Of course, this you have to moderate a lot; however, don't set a scheduled timer. Having a set time for a break will distract you from focusing on your work and you'll just want to think about that break coming up. Take a quick break when you feel it's appropriate. For example, if your laptop suddenly runs out of battery don't scramble for the charger just take a short break to do something else and then get back to it (on this note, I suggest using Google Docs so that if your laptop does suddenly run out of battery whatever you're working on is automatically saved).

I hope these tips helped you in balancing everything around the busy holidays and don't forget to stay positive when times are rough and busy. :)

DIY Chalkboard Serving Plate

Here's a wonderful idea for a holiday decoration in your home or a gift for a friend. First, you simply use chalkboard paint and paint the inner part of a serving plate. Make it holiday themed with a fun Christmas or winter scene drawn with chalk. To add black detail wet a q-tip and draw over the chalk design. This is what I did:

DIY Photo Collage

As you've probably noticed in many other posts, I have a tendency to create photo collages with pictures. I thought that this would also be a perfect gift idea. Just follow the instructions below on how to make your own photo collage with Picasa, print out your masterpiece and fit it with a frame. 

Step 1:

~Import your photos. Click on 'Import' in the top left corner of Picasa. You can either import from a folder on your computer or from a camera plugged into your computer. At the bottom be sure to create a folder for your new imported photos to go. When you're done click 'Import All'.

 Step 2: Go to the folder you created. Under the title of the folder there should a 'Create Photo Collage' button. Click on that and a new collage will be created with all of the photos.

Step 3: Change the layout of the photos, add clips or take away some clips and mess around with the final touches. When you're done click 'Create Collage' and your collage is finished! Print it out and frame it for a close friend or family member for the holidays. 

No Money Gift Ideas

Many of these ideas will probably go without saying, but I hope some of these will be helpful to you. These gift ideas are perfect for your significant other or a close friend. The time and effort you put forth is worth much more than the amount of money you spend. Here's 3 no fail gift ideas that cost very little to nothing at all!

1. The Classic Card: There's nothing like a handmade card with a funny inside joke or an inspiring quote. Make it as personal as possible - the more thought put into this the better!
2. Invite Him/Her to Hang Out: Plan a fun event the two of you could do together over Christmas break. Cheap things could be window shopping in the mall, taking a walk, watching a movie at home, or just a simple get together with dinner at your place.
3. Create Something: Take your talent and put it into something that you can give to someone. For example, if you're good with drawing you could create a portrait of that person or if you're a wonderful singer write them a song. Add in an instrument of your choosing. :) 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Hot Chocolate Recipe

What You'll Need:

~Hot chocolate and your favorite mug

~Chocolate chip cookie(s)

~Nutella

~Whipped Cream

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

What To Do:

Put a chocolate chip cookie in a sandwich bag and carefully crush it with your mug. Next, line your mug with nutella and pour the cookie crumbs on a plate. Press the top of your mug into the cookie crumbs and cover the nutella. Pour in your hot chocolate and add whipped cream and more cookie crumbs if you wish. Enjoy with some extra chocolate chip cookies on the side. :)