Curled Paper Ornament {Tutorial}

So I saved this pretty awesome DIY ornament on Pinterest months ago. I know there are MANY variations on this idea out there but Christy's takes the cake in my book. Finally it's Christmas time and I have JUST the couple to make one of these for; the same friends who I created a handmade canvas for as their wedding gift, which by the way is hanging beautifully in their bedroom. Christy called this her 'Wedding Invitation Ornament' and though I used a wedding invitation for the ornament I made, I'm going for the 'Curled Paper Ornament' title because the possibilities are endless on this one. Between my second mom and I, we thought of over a handful of ornaments that could be made using this same technique; a baby's first birthday, a mini time capsule of events and outings, a milestone birthday, a vacation to remember...The idea is simple. Use paper that represents an event (doesn't necessarily HAVE to be an invitation--think scrapbook paper, clipart images, words, phrases, postcards, menu's, etc.) cut it into strips, curl the strips, then fill up an ornament and embellish!

I think I went just a little overboard and took a photo of almost every step which probably wasn't necessary. And since I've already summarized the concept above, this will be a picture tutorial.

Enjoy!!

It's fun because when you shake and twist the ornament you get different views of the bride and groom names, the venue and date, etc.

 

Add stickers, ribbon, charms...anything you'd like to embellish the theme you are going for!

Peacock Ornament {Tutorial}

I recently participated in a handmade ornament tutorial showcase with Sew Woodsy. In case you missed any of the 12 fabulous handmade ornaments brought to you by various bloggers for the '12 Days of Handmade Ornaments' stop on by here to see them all! There are some really neat ideas created by the lavely ladies who participated!

For my ornament, I wanted to do something different and fun, bright and colorful and something you don't see every day but almost anyone would love...meet the Peacock Ornament! She really sparkles and looks gorgeous hanging on a tree! This is a super simple ornament that almost anyone can make.

SUPPLIES

(not all supplies are pictured)

Plastic fillable ornament

Recollections extra fine 'Marine' blue glitter

Scissors

Mop & Glo Floor Shine Cleaner

Peacock feathers 
Scrap piece of blue felt (please disregard to the green piece I have pictured)

Blue fluffy feather

1 orange bicone jewelry bead

Grey flat back crystals

Hot Glue

All of the above items can be purchased at Michaels craft store with the exception of the Mop & Glo. The peacock feathers were in the floral section with 5 feathers on a long stem. Any blue feather can be used for the peacock's head; I cut a small fluffy blue feather from a larger feather 'stick' found in the floral section. You can see the feather 'stick' in the supplies photo on the top right corner.

Now that you have all your supplies, let's get started!

 

Step 1. Squirt some Mop & Glo into your ornament. Gently swirl the product around in the ball to get an even coat all around the inside. Try not to create too many bubbles. Be sure to coat the neck of the ornament as much as you can as well. After the entire ornament is coated pour any remaining product back into your Mop & Glo bottle.

Step 2. Fill glitter into your ball. I used a piece of paper as a make-shift funnel. Tilt and swirl your ornament to get a nice, even coverage. You may have to pour glitter numerous times to fill the entire ornament. This step doesn't require near as much glitter as it seems!

Step 3. Once your ornament is evenly covered pour another small amount of glitter into the ball, cover the opening and shake the glitter to coat the neck of the ornament as best as you can. Pour any excess glitter back into your container.

Step 4. One glitter ornament complete!

Step 5. Arrange your feathers on a flat surface just as you would like them to show on your ornament--this is typically an arched shape. Cut a small piece of felt that will serve as a backing for your feathers. Make sure this piece of felt is cut smaller than your ornament but just large enough to serve as a good base for all of your feathers. (Use step 7 photo for reference as well)
Step 6. Use hot glue and attach your feathers one by one to your felt with the front of the feathers facing you. I started with my center feather and worked my way outward making sure my spacing was even.
Step 7. Apply hot glue on the entire front side of the feathers and felt and adhere it to the center of your ornament. This is what the back of the ornament will look like.
Step 8. Place your ornament hanger back on your ball. Admire your {over half-way finished} feathered friend!

Step 9. Using a small dot of hot glue, attach your blue feather to the top of your hanger.

Step 10. Attach your grey crystals as eyes and orange bead for the beak on your ornament hanger with hot glue.

Step 11. Trim the head feather and embellish the rest of the body if you'd like. I created a simple pattern with the remainder of my grey crystals. This step is definitely optional but I loved how it turned out! Strand fishing line or an ornament hook on the hanger and you're all done!

Hang and enjoy your new feathered friend! On a lit Christmas tree she really shines!! 

Sew Woodsy's 12 Days of Handmade Ornaments

Need some ideas for handmade ornaments this year?

Go check out Sew Woodsy as they celebrate

'12 Days of Handmade Ornaments' with 12 fabulous bloggers posting handmade ornament tutorials for 12 days.

Today, my 'Peacock Ornament' is being showcased. Hop on over to check out the tutorial along with all the other fabulous ornaments! Don't forget--there are still 5 handmade ornaments left!

Kitty Litter Cake {Recipe}

Who's ever heard of a kitty litter cake? I know I have. Though I have never sampled one, let alone made one. I took on the task of creating one for my office Halloween party. Dessert hour allows us to get really creative with food decorations and the whole Halloween theme. After our lunch hour of monster eyes mac-n-cheese balls, skeleton stew, mummy wraps and other Halloween creations we were ready for dessert. Everyone was excited to see and try my kitty litter cake. At least, we thought we were...it looked creepily real...

After staring at it and discussing it along with the other desserts for at least 10 minutes, someone was finally brave enough to dig in.

"This is the best kitty litter I've ever had."

Well, that was good to know. :) 

 It was definitely a success. Thankfully. I was afraid it'd taste as bad as it looked. We even used the scooper to serve ourselves. :)

This was so simple to make. It took some time, but nonetheless, it was very easy to make. I made my own variation from the below recipe found on AllRecipes.com. My comments/changes (based on other reviews and my taste) are in purple. The end result was a super moist white cake. Not too gooey, and not dry at all. Very similar to a cake pop consistency--with almost the taste of raw cake batter. YUM!! 

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package German chocolate cake mix ((I used a Funfetti mix))
• 1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix
• 2 (3.5 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix ((I used one small package of White Chocolate instant pudding))
• 1 (12 ounce) package vanilla sandwich cookies ((Golden Oreos))
• 3 drops green food coloring
• 1 (12 ounce) package tootsie rolls ((I used Little Debbie Brownies))
• Kitty litter box and scooper adds the perfect touch!! Oh, having a cute kitty doesn't hurt ei'her. :)

Directions

1. Prepare cake mixes and bake according to package directions (any size pan).
2. Prepare pudding according to package directions and chill until ready to assemble.
3. Crumble sandwich cookies in small batches in a food processor, scraping often. Set aside all but 1/4 cup. To the 1/4 cup add a few drops of green food coloring and mix.
4. When cakes are cooled to room temperature, ((I didn't wait--I'm impatient)) crumble them into a large bowl. Toss with 1/2 of the remaining cookie crumbs, and the chilled pudding. You probably won't need all of the pudding, you want the cake to be just moist, not soggy.((This is why I only used one box of pudding, and for the fact that Funfetti mix has pudding in it))
5. Line kitty litter box with the kitty litter line. ((I did not use a liner as many reviews said it was actually more difficult to deal with. I had no issue not using the liner)) Put cake mixture into box.
6. Put half of the unwrapped tootsie rolls in a microwave safe dish and heat until softened. Shape the ends so that they are no longer blunt, and curve the tootsie rolls slightly. Bury tootsie rolls randomly in the cake and sprinkle with half of the remaining cookie crumbs. ((Many reviews recommended not using tootsie rolls as they harden and people tend to not eat them. Little Debbie brownies worked PERFECTLY, they didn't harden over night...oh, and I don't like tootsie rolls)) Sprinkle a small amount of the green colored cookie crumbs lightly over the top.
7. Heat 3 or 4 of the tootsie rolls in the microwave until almost melted. Scrape them on top of the cake and sprinkle lightly with some of the green cookie crumbs. Heat the remaining tootsie rolls until pliable and shape as before. ((Oh, and you don't have to heat up Little Debbie brownies to shape them)) Spread all but one randomly over top of cake mixture. Sprinkle with any remaining cookie crumbs. Hang the remaining tootsie roll over side of litter box and sprinkle with a few green cookie crumbs. Serve with the pooper scooper for a gross Halloween dessert.

This was the remainder of the cake after dessert hour. Only one 'nugget' was left over--I guess the word got around that it tasted pretty good! :)

After making this for the first time it's safe to say I'll definitely be making one again in the future for other Halloween parties. It was a hit. Now, if you want to go less gross, you can create cute desserts like Francesca and Rebecca did...

 'Tombstone' and 'Ding Dong the Witch is Dead' cupcakes!!

They were SUPER yummy too!!

Make Your Own: Fred & Wilma Costumes

Halloween is right around the corner so if you haven't purchased your costume yet and the racks seem to be getting a little bare, consider making a costume for yourself. I put together a couples costume for both Larry and I for a whopping $20!!

Here's the cost breakdown:

$10 on my white satin 'leopard print' fabric

$4 on my styrofoam balls

$4 on felt for the Fred costume

$2 on red lipstick

I already had elastic, ribbon, fishing line (or thread) and earring backs on hand

*Side note--all of my fabric was purchased at Jo-Anns. Coincidentally BOTH fabrics were marked down to half off and I had a 40% off a cut and a 50% off a cut coupon. Felt always seems to be 50% off and coupons come out on a weekly basis!

:How To:

Fred: After some googling I knew creating Fred would be easy. I made his entire costume from large pieces of felt. Simply create an over-sized extra long shirt with a fairly large hole for the neck. Cut up the edges for a torn effect. I cut a long piece of turquoise felt into the shape of a tie--a very OVERSIZED tie. Larry really wanted this piece to be dramatic. He tied it on like a real tie and I hand-stitched it on in a few places to make sure it was secure. Cutting out the black shapes was actually very simple; stitching them on was the most tedious part. I used my machine to create a few stitches on the corners of each of the spots rather than stitching around the entire piece of fabric. ALL DONE! 

Wilma: I was originally going to use a white knit material for Wilma's costume but when Larry spotted a satin 'leopard print' white fabric for a great price I couldn't pass it up. The downfall = it wasn't stretchy. I didn't want to go through the hassle of adding a zipper just for a halloween costume, so I made a simple one-sleeve design for my dress and added an elastic band below my bust for some shape. Here is a tutorial I skimmed over to get a jump-start on my dress design. I made MANY changes in my design compared to this one, but it was a good reference. The dress shouldn't have too much of a shape and should be just big enough to fit over your head to wear. Now, to create some shape! How to create an elastic waist: Sew a piece of ribbon (larger than your elastic) measured to the dress (not your waist) to the INSIDE of the dress just below your bust--edgestitch the top and bottom of the ribbon, leaving each end of the ribbon open, creating a casing for the elastic. Push the elastic through the ribbon casing using a safety pin, decide on how much stretch you like (making sure it can go over your head) and sew the elastic together on the ends. From here, adjust the gather around your waist and stitch over the dress, elastic and ribbon casing along both side seems to keep the gather even and the elastic from rolling. Cut up the hem of your dress and you have a Wilma!!

Strand your styrofoam balls onto some fishing line (or thread) with a needle and glue two balls onto earring backs...add some red lipstick and you're good to go! An orange wig would totally complete the look, but that was the one splurge I wasn't willing to make. :)

Hope this might inspire you to make your own costume for this coming Halloween!

Need other ideas for a DIY costume? 

Check out my $5 mini poodle skirt, lace masquerade mask or Sew Woodsy's mad scientist costumes!

'50 SUCKS' Bouquet Gift {Tutorial}

Need an idea for a cute, personalized, playful and do-it-yourself gift? Try one of these sucker bouquets! I found Denise's bouquets that she's made for a few different occasions on Pinterest and have been itching to make one ever since. My aunt recently turned 50 and I knew it would be the perfect time to create one of these beauties!! Meet the '50 SUCKS' bouquet:

Only a few supplies are needed for this project and it's a fairly simple assembly!

All of my supplies were purchased from the $1 store:

Glass vase with flared rim

*Styrofoam (ball shape is preferred)

*Suckers

Hot glue

Embellishments (optional) 

I created a '50 SUCKS' flower tag with scrapbook paper attached to a skewer and used silk florals that I already had on hand

*The size of your styrofoam ball will determine the amount of suckers you will need. I ended up using a little over 50 suckers also using the flowers and smaller suckers to fill in gaps. The widest part of your styrofoam ball should be a little larger than the circumference of the rim of your vase. You're typically safe with about 50 - 70 suckers.

Directions: Fill your vase first--for weight and aesthetic purposes. I chose to use a few lollipops. Cut your styrofoam ball in half and press it down onto the rim of the vase with a little hot glue on the edge to keep it secure. All that's left is to start adding your suckers! I assembled mine in rows, working with the bigger suckers on the bottom moving my way up--and adding the smaller ones last to fill the gaps. If you don't plan to eat the suckers in the near future, you can use hot glue to really secure them--I chose not to do this. I added my sign to the top, used a few orange silk flowers to fill bigger gaps and help with the shape of the arrangement, and used the leaves from the flowers at the bottom of the bouquet to give it a more 'floral' look.

If using a glass/clear vase, note that pieces of styrofoam will fall into the bottom of your jar while creating your bouquet. If you want to avoid seeing this, use either a colored vase or any other type of container/jar that isn't see-through. Since my lollipops had white sticks the small bits of styrofoam were hardly noticed.

Denise has a small video tutorial on how she makes her arrangements; you'll notice that I made mine quite differently and I'm sure there are many variations you can come up with based on your supplies on hand and the size of bouquet you want to achieve!

Here is my aunt with her bouquet--she was over-the-top excited for it and everyone got a kick out of it!

To celebrate my aunt's 50th birthday we got a lot of our family together and had one big party. The celebration was in part a Gator party as well since it was game day and my family are huge fans. What better way to dress up for a sports team than with hair bows? I made enough hair accessories for all the girls to represent the orange & blue!

 

Over time I have found that satin ribbon works best for the base of creating simple bows; both sides are the same color, it is easy to work with and makes the perfect bow shape without a lot of effort! Add a few smaller contrasting ribbon bows, a center embellishment and a clip to the back and you're all set! 

Here are a few of us girls on the big day:

Kim with her hair bow and Gator gear

Tia wore a headband and my aunt pinned one to her tank

My nana even had a clip in her hair :)

  The sucker boquet and ribbons were a huge hit at the party! I can't wait for the next opportunity to make another bouquet as it was a fun, quick and simple project. Who's birthday is next?? :) :)