At this point, you’re either…

• Wrapping gifts
• Scrambling for that last minute gift
• Needing something to keep the kids entertained during the start of winter break.

Here’s a craft that satisfies all three of those needs. You can use it as gift wrap, as an actual gift, or as a distraction from the fact that it’s only 3 days until Christmas and your kids are bouncing off the walls!

Here’s how you do it…

What you’ll need:

• Small tote
• Fine tip Sharpie
• Tape
• Paint pens

1. Print out a cross stitch pattern to the size that you want it (leave a few inches on each side of the image for a border on your tote). I used a snowflake from Made to Treasure.
2. Cut out the cross stitch grid pattern and tape it to your tote.
3. With a fine-tip Sharpie, poke through the paper and make a dot onto the tote. Keep going until you’ve completed the whole grid. Don’t forget to make a dot around the outside border of the grid.
4. Following your pattern, use paint pens to draw x’s in the shape of your pattern. Use colors that are contrasting enough that you can really see the design clearly.

Here are a few pics of the technique in progress…

I bought these cork coasters from Muji the other day, and I felt immediately inspired! Ornaments, gift tags, pictures frames…but, with Christmas crafts being my main focus here, I stuck with the ornament theme. The options are literally endless, but I wanted to use the cork as the material calls for…to be poked.

So first I did this really easy one with colored brads from Oriental Trading. (I’m obsessed with colored brads, but I rarely actually use them to fasten two things together.) So simple!

And the stitched snowflake one took a bit more time, but I printed out a line drawing of a snowflake and chose points to stitch. I then marked up the coaster with a pen where I would insert the needle and went to town. More detail to come (including a pattern)…I promise!

Mention the word garland and I’m all ears. Bunting has the same effect. I even have a whole pin board dedicated to my love of the swag. Honestly, I think I could start a blog solely on the topic of DIY garlands. Hmmm…there’s an idea in there somewhere.

Anyway, back to Christmas crafts. I really wanted to make some dipped wooden beads (I got these from Oriental Trading…just $6.25 for 24 beads!) and so I decided to combine them with my garland obsession.

First I started by dipping them horizontally, and then thought it would be fun to turn the bead and dip them the other way. Below are photos of how I dried them. The green grass thingy is a bottle rack by Boon from when my kids were babes, and then I needed more space so I grabbed this foam pumpkin and used it as a pin cushion. I used watered down acrylic paint, and they dried pretty quickly. (I’d say let them sit for 2 hours to be safe.)

I doubled threaded them onto silver string…I think i want to try a more vibrant cord, but mixed with a tree of bright ornaments, it will look pretty rad. Or framing a mirror. Or wrapping around the walls of a kid’s room. Endless possibilities!

I love these beads so much. I love them just sitting on a plate on my mantle. Maybe there’s a necklace in my future.

I don’t know what it is, but everytime I see a glass cloche in a magazine or blog, I’m instantly attracted. I’ve yet to own one in my life, so I decided to make this festive little one out of a seltzer bottle. (Reminds me of this lovely bottle, no?)

Instructions to come later today…I promise!

Have you finished all of your holiday wrapping? I’m going to venture to say the answer is NO. I am all about simple wrapping paper (yes, butcher paper is my fave) with fun tags and decorations. But with the volume of gifts that we wrap this time of year, they can’t require too much labor.

When I started making this tag, I had the ornaments hanging from a glued-on stick. That felt too fragile. Then I created a tree branch out of yarn. That felt too laborious. So I tried it with this very simple design, using the circle stickers as ornaments to house each letter of the recipient’s name. Honestly, it’s really easy, fast, and you can let your kids help!

What you’ll need:

• Colored cardstock or scrapbook paper
• 3/4″ circle stickers (67 colors from InStockLabels.com!!)
• Small letter stickers
• Scissors
• Silver pen
• Skinny ink pen
• Hole punch
• String

Make It:

1. Cut tag to fit the recipient’s name. The tag should be about 2″ wide and for a 5 letter name, a 4″-long tag is the perfect size. Add a little length for every additional letter. (For names like Charlotte, Henrietta, and Jonathan, consider using just initials!)
2. Adhere one sticker to the far left in one color, then the correct number of stickers for each letter in the name (or initials) to the right of that in a different color.
3. Adhere the words “to” or “for” in the single colored sticker and the letters of the name in the following circles.
4. Use silver paint marker to draw a little square on the top of each circle. The draw a line up from that square off the top edge.
5. Punch a hole at the far left and thread string through.