Cute and Easy DIY Holiday Advent Calendar

This advent calendar craft project works well if you have scraps of pretty Christmas paper that need to be used up. Or if you just want a reason to purchase a pad of colorful holiday patterned paper, this is an easy, DIY holiday craft project to fill your afternoon. (Or get together with your friends and have a craft night!)

You will need the following supplies:

• Twenty-five 2x2x2 inch party favor boxes. (I found mine here, in a pack of 50—some for you AND a friend—and there are color options if you don’t prefer the Kraft color.) 

• Elmers or similar glue.

• Rubber cement (not necessary but I prefer to use it when I want to avoid wrinkling.)

• Clear wrapping tape or other.

• Scissors and/or Exacto knife.

• Fancy bakers twine (can be found at most craft stores.)

• 5 different sheets of pretty holiday patterned paper.

• Numbers on squares printed on cardstock. Click or tap here for the free printable file.

• Black cardstock (you don’t need much, a scrap piece will do.)

• Something to put in the boxes.

1. Print the sheet with numbers on cardstock and cut them out. Here is the free printable file. (You’ll notice there are two pages to print. The second, is for step 2.)

2. Print the sheet with the cut marks on the back of all your patterned paper. Cut them out. If you have five different patterns, you’ll need to cut five squares out of each.

3. Lay out all your patterned squares in whatever arrangement is most pleasing to you (as seen above) and start glueing the numbers to them. This is where I like to use the rubber cement. 

TIP: If you brush rubber cement on BOTH surfaces that will be sticking to one another, let them dry, and then put them together, you won’t get any wrinkling. AND you can simply rub off any excess making it easy to get each edge and each corner totally glued down.

4. Now you can glue all your squares to the lid of each box. Again, I used rubber cement for this part.

5. Cut a 1 inch strip of your black paper. Then slice the strip into “tabs” as seen below, a little larger than 1/4 of an inch wide. You could skip this part, but I don’t recommend it. The tabs help get the lids open because they interlock with the side flaps making them difficult to open when the advent calendar is completely assembled.

6. Using Elmers glue, attach each little black tab to the lip of the lid as seen above. I used the white glue here because it has a strong bond once dry.

7. Now you need to start attaching these little gift boxes to one another. You'll find that using both glue and tape will give you the most secure, tight fit. Note: don’t use tape on the joints that will be showing on the outer edge of the final project. I also found it helpful to tape the bottoms of the boxes together too. You can use packing tape for this to get FULL coverage.

8. Wrap your fancy bakers twine around the whole thing. I recommend looping it around at least five times for a more pleasing look. IMPORTANT: If you're filling the advent calendar boxes with light weight items you can attach something as shown in the image below so it can be hung. 

Please note: My finished piece held 2 pounds of candy and when I lifted it by the hang string, the corner boxes couldn’t hold the weight. But it still looks great laid down or leaned up against the wall.

9. Now it’s time to fill your advent calendar with prizes, things to do, little notes, or candy...whatever! Then tuck those lids securely in.

If you choose to go the candy route...I highly recommend going to a bin store like WinCo or Food4Less etc. It’s an inexpensive option, and that way each box can have something different to try.

That’s it! You’re done. It’s really so simple and will turn out cute. It’s a good holiday craft project!

Tropical Beach Birthday Cake with Candy Details

Need an idea for a tropical beach themed birthday cake? Boom. Here you have it. It’s bright and fun, with flowers, surf boards, leis, sand, coconuts, fish and more. (It looks more complicated than it really is.) And the kids LOVED it.

If you’ve worked with fondant before, I’m confidant you’ll be able to put this cake together. Many of the fondant details need to be made ahead of time so they can dry. But really, that’s not a big deal. Just put on your favorite show while you work and enjoy a little time to be creative.

Do you enjoy seeing how other artists work things out before they settle on a final piece? I do. So, I thought I’d share the original sketches I used to suss out the ideas. You can see which cake won out.

Take away and use any ideas you like! I hope this fosters some ideas in YOU! Let me know how it goes. I completely enjoy the back and forth of creative sharing.

Check THESE other cake decoration ideas out.

Birdcage Blusher Veil Tutorial

To make your own birdcage blusher veil is quite simple! You can add your own details like a flower, or even put jewels on it. Another feature I love is how cute it is pinned up (and out of the face) for the reception as seen in the image above.

I’ve put together an easy to follow and simple DIY tutorial as a FREE printable PDF download here. Print on 8.5x11 inch paper.
This tutorial uses Russian veiling—which you can easily find on Etsy—but of course you can use any other type of sheer material that catches your eye.

Everything you'll need to complete this vintage wedding veil is listed in the instructions. Have fun creating!

Give Your Friend the Cutest Ever Baby Shower Cake

This is what I made for a friend, and would be great for a baby shower. I love that it turned out so cute and pregnant looking. Squeee! It’s adorable. Show this photo to your local cake decorators and they could whip this out pretty easily. (Hey, I’m a novice, and I did it!)

It’s always fun to see where creative ideas come from so I thought I’d share the sketch I started out with. The sketches start with a few ideas I think I can pull off, based on what ingredients and supplies I have on hand. Below is where I thought I might take the design:

See how the final didn’t match my drawing? No biggie! It happens quite often during the creative process—a better idea reveals itself and you just go with the flow.

The cake itself was Hershey's Deep Dark Chocolate Cake, with a chocolate ganache and strawberry preserve filling. This chocolate cake is my go-to. It’s moist and rich, and I’ve never had any problems with the recipe. You can find it here. (This is NOT an ad nor an affiliated link, I just really love the flavor of this cake.)
More cake decorating ideas can be found here.

The Wide Awake Monster, a Free Plush Pattern

This one eyed monster plush pattern is FREE! The sewing instructions are clear and easy enough for the beginner sewer to follow. Little kids love how colorful this plush is and it's a great way to use up some of those scraps and makes a good gift too.

ABOUT WIDE AWAKE MONSTER
This little monster has his pajamas on and is ready for bed. But the monster never sleeps, he keeps an eye open to watch for the scary monsters all night long.

THE BACK STORY
I used to make and sell these super soft and fun monsters on Etsy, but that has run its course. So, I thought why not make the pattern available? Waste not right? Please enjoy!

CLICK HERE for the full free pdf pattern.
For more free sewing patterns CLICK HERE

Little Owl, A Simple Sewing Pattern

This little plush owl is SO CUTE! It’s VERY easy to make and the sewing directions are VERY clear and also FREE! A novice sewer could easily figure out make this soft little friend.

You could make it in any color too! Brown, black, etc. Also, the wings would be a fun way to use up any scraps you may have lying about.

BACK STORY
I used to make and sell these plushies online as a creative outlet (to get me off the computer, I’m a graphic designer by day.) But that particular business has run its course so I wanted to offer the patterns to you for free. Waste not right?

CLICK HERE for the free pdf pattern.
For more free sewing patterns CLICK HERE.

Melt and Pour Soapmaking Service Activity

Someone had donated A TON of plastic easter eggs to our church. So for a Relief Society (a women’s church group) activity, we decided to use the eggs as molds to make soaps to donate to a local women’s shelter.

The church budget covered the soap and supplies, all found at Michaels—don’t forget to use coupons— but we did encourage the ladies to bring their own “additives” such as herbs, lemon peel, or cinnamon and ground oatmeal, basically whatever they wanted. We had a good time.

Melt and pour soaps are the way to go for first time soap makers—which we ALL were. It was so EASY. I’m not going to run you through a tutorial as there are MANY online, and written by more experienced soap makers than me.

I want to encourage you not to shy away from this type of activity. If we could do it, so can you and your group and you’ll enjoy the evening.

I created labels to be tied to each soap. On the back we wrote the scent so the women at the shelter could pick a favorite.

If you CLICK HERE, you’ll be able to download and print the file for the tags. 

File Notes:

1. There are two kinds of soap tags, goat milk glycerin, and plain glycerin. Use the sheet that matches which soaps you made. 

2. Cut marks have been included in the files.

3. Print the pattern on the back of the tag sheet.

QUICK "HOW TO" REFERENCE 
1. Drill a hole in the egg form.
2. If the additives are larger than the hole, put them inside before closing the egg.
3. Close the egg and tape around the seam so the hot soap won’t leak out.
4. Pour some hot soap into a little cup and mix in the scent, coloring and additives.
5. Pour the mixture into the egg form and allow to cool. Preferably overnight.
DON’T FORGET TO WRITE THE SCENT ON THE MOLD.
6. Getting the soap out of the molds was a little difficult. I found it helpful to wrap a warm rag around each egg to melt the soap slightly. Some soap makers suggest using some kind of spray on the form for an easier release. (What you can use without ruining the soap depends on the type of soap, you’ll have to do a little google search for that information but it’s easy to find.)

Above: Vanilla Cinnamon Oatmeal. This one was my favorite. It smelled heavenly!
If you choose to do this as a group activity, have fun!