Craftyminx

Christmas Wrapping

I was hoping to have all our presents wrapped by now so I could share with you, but they're not. They have to be wrapped by Saturday for a family Christmas gathering so I guess I should get busy. So instead of sharing my presents, I'll share some inspiration from others. These are some of my current flickr favorites in the wrapping area.

 

1.diy packaging., 2. Pretty packages for clients :), 3. Christmas gift wrapping, 4. Christmas Gifts 2006, 5. Untitled, 6. Wrapped Gifts 2008, 7. DIY Eraser Stamped Ribbons, 8. Paper Snowflakes, 9. Plaits and Pom Poms

I'm a big fan of the yarn pom poms and will be incorporating those with some yarn loom flowers I am making. Here's an iPhone pic of my flowers:

 I'm going with Magenta, burgundy, a moss green and golden yellow color. I wanted to do teal, red and white, but I didn't have the right color of teal and they ended up looking like the 4th of July. I also bought a huge roll of Kraft paper from our local box and bag store so I will be using that for years to come. I love the idea of having the blank slate to start with and then  adding on different themed ribbons and bows as needed. I'll share pics when they are wrapped and under the tree!

I can't believe it's already day 10. I have one more DIY to share and two more recipes and maybe a couple of other little posts. I have been having so much fun with this series and I hope you all are too!

Ring in the New Year Shoes

 
I am obsessed with glitter shoes right now, especially of the multi-glitter variety. The following are my favorites right now, but because each of them have reasons for me not being able to buy them (too expensive, not in my size, too high of heel) I had to resort to the glitter drawer in the studio. Poor me ;)1. Kate Spade Women's Charm Sandal 2. Steve Madden Glitter Flat 3. Steve Madden Blain Heel


I bought some simple and comfortable black flats from Target. These were $12.99. I highly recommend scouring the thrift stores for shoes, but I had seen these a couple of weeks ago and liked the shape and I couldn't be bothered with anything else. 

I used three different kinds of glitter; a superfine pink glitter, regular multi-glitter, and a chunky silver glitter, because regular multi-glitter screams kindergarten art project and you want to get away from that as much as possible.

Glue is what can make or break this project. I used the OK to wash-it fabric glue from Aleene's because I wanted the shoes to stay flexible after they dried. Unfortunately the finish is still a little sticky so I'm going to seal it with a clear coat of outdoor acrylic sealer.  I've painted shoes with mod podge before and they turned super stiff. I would stick to a tacky or fabric glue for this project, something that stays flexible once dry.Mix a lot of glitter with the glue. You want a thick paste so you can get a lot of coverage at once. It might take a couple tries to get it the right consistency. Paint the glitter paste in small even sections. Then sprinkle more glitter on top and press down with the brush until there is a smooth surface. If there's still some bare places, wait until after the shoes are dry to go back and fill in. 

Let the shoes dry a full 24 hours before wearing. These look a million times better in person, I've learned that it's really hard to photograph glitter.

I want to glitter everything now! Watch out Dewey.

Breakfast Casserole

My mom makes this every year on Christmas morning. We usually end up eating it for a couple of days afterward too since it's easily reheated in the microwave.

You will need:

1 bag of frozen hashbrowns ( you may not want to use the whole bag, I did this time)
1lb. Sausage
6 eggs
2 cups shredded cheese
2 cups milk
salt and pepper

Have I mentioned that Holiday cooking doesn't involve healthy ingredients?

I never cook my hashbrowns long enough! They need to be kind of crispy because they tend to get a little mushy after it bakes. I don't mind it, but I wish I had the patience to cook them until they were crispy haha. I also add some salt and pepper to the hashbrowns.

Use the same pan to brown the sausage. If it has a lot of grease, drain it before you add it to the baking dish.

Add plenty of salt and pepper to the egg mixture.

Bake on 325 degrees for 45 minutes. or until the top is a golden brown color.
Let cool at least 30 minutes, slice and serve. Or put it in the fridge overnight and reheat slices in the microwave if you know you'll be in a hurry the next morning.
Download the recipe cards below :)

Download Breakfast_casserole

A Christmas Playlist from Sheldon

I don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but Sheldon has much better taste in music than I do. His tastes vary way more than mine (which consists of indie bands, folk singers, and lesbians with guitars). So when he made a Christmas playlist to take to work, I had to steal it. Hi babe, I'm stealing your playlist on the ole blog. You're famous now! lol

So here you go:

Enjoy! And yes... my husband loves Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas is You" but not nearly as much as his twin brother.

D.I.Y bottle brush trees

Last year around this time, I had to have some vintage bottle brush trees. I knew how to make them myself, but couldn't find the trees to dye. So I went searching etsy. I bought 5 or so small pink ones for about $8 without shipping. This year, I wanted some teal trees to go with my pink ones so I decided to try to find trees so I could make them this year. And I found them!
You'll need bottle brush trees. I found these Lemax ones at Michael's by the Christmas villages They were $20 but on sale for 50% off. Not bad at all! I was worried about them having snow, but it comes off in the bleaching process, so no worries there. You also need bleach, a big container for bleaching, dye (I used rit teal and fuchsia), bowls for dyeing, glue and glitter. Oh you'll also want gloves:
The bleach will make them terribly dry with out them and the dye will dye your fingers. I couldn't find mine when I decided to do this and I had to go to dinner with the in-laws with blue fingers.
I didn't mix my bleach with water because I am impatient and I wanted the bleach to work quickly, use your own judgement here. You can see the difference between the trees above. I put the green ones in about five minutes after the ones that were already pretty far along in the bleaching process. You will need to get in there and rub the bleach in to the trees. Another reason why you'll want the gloves.
Once they are bleached, rinse them in hot water and then wash them in some hot soapy water to get off all the bleach. During the bleaching and washing all of the snow will come off.
Drain off some of the water while you prepare the dye.
I used half of the package of dye mixed with a tablespoon of salt into a big bowl full of hot water.
The trees will take the dye immediately. This was after one dip into the dye. If you want them darker you can keep them in the dye longer.
Make sure different colored trees aren't touching. The dye will spread. I had one pink tree with a teal spot on it the next morning.
Dry overnight. Once dry, fluff them up. They will look pretty clumped up.
I used some martha stewart glue that came with a glitter set. Martha isn't fooling anyone though, that stuff was mod podge, so if you have a thick glue use that. :)
I used martha's smoky quartz fine glitter. It has that vintagey quality about it.

You could always use something else for the base, but I didn't want to bother with finding something to work. The ones I bought on etsy had a really small base and fall over a lot, so be careful with what you choose if you decide to change them out.

Find a place to display them or wrap them up and share with a friend.

Gift List

It's day 7!( I skipped Sunday for some family time) Has everyone finished their holiday shopping yet? I have a couple more gifts to buy/make but I thought I'd share some of the things I love this year (hint hint Sheldon) for any of you still shopping for your loved ones.

Do you have a vintage lover in your life? I am loving this vintage coat from Violetville Vintage Look at that lining!

or how about some super cute shoes from irregular choice:
The photojojo store is one of my favorite places to window shop.

Like this awesome Diana lens
or these cell phone lenses:
 

 

Or maybe some wearable art work from Danny Brito

Or a polaroid necklace from our.city.lights and Vivi Dot

Ok so the rest of these things are my favorites for kids. I have three nieces that I got to shop for this year so yeah, I spend a lot more time looking at toys than I used to.

I bought the older girls LaLaLoopsy dolls this year. I have one of these myself and they are just too darn cute.

and I just found out they have mini dolls now! eep :)

For the little ones, I love these soft fox toys from Sleepy King.

I'd share some ideas for guys but I don't want Sheldon to see what I've been thinking of for him haha. Come back later today for a cute DIY!

 

My all-time favorite brownies

I can't believe we're already half way through. I hope everyone is enjoying the 12 days of christmas so far! I know I am! Getting to make all of my favorite recipes and doing all these crafty things has really been reviving my spirit as of late. Ok on with day six...

I'm not sure how brownies are Christmas food, but I think they could make really cute little gifts to surprise friends with.  In the brownie world, there are cakey and fudgey and people who like one usually don't like the other. I'm a fudgey brownie gal myself so I'm going to show you my trick for making any brownie recipe extra fudgey and wonderful.

The secret ingredient to fudgey brownies = chocolate syrup. You can replace almost all the fat in any brownie recipe (even the boxed kind) with chocolate syrup and it will result in a fudgey and lower fat alternative. Cool right?!

For this recipe you'll need:

4 T. butter
1/4c. chocolate syrup
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 c. sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 c. flour
1/2 c. cocoa
pinch of salt
1 T. vanilla (or less to taste)
optional mix-ins: marshmallows, nuts, chocolate chips ( I used two handfuls each of walnuts and chocolate chips for my brownies)

Make sure you scrape the sides really well to keep the cocoa from sticking around.

Pick some mix ins. I just eye-balled it and used a couple of hand fulls of walnuts and chocolate chips

Line your baking dish with parchment paper becuase fudgey means sticky unfortunately and you want to be able to get these out of the pan! Bake them in a 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes (this will vary).
This is the hardest part, waiting for them to cool. They have to be cool in order to cut, so give them at least 2 hours, but it works best if you wait overnight. I like to lift them out of the pan with the parchment paper to cool on the counter.
If you want big pieces cut them in to 9 pieces. I wanted small ones for gift-giving so I cut them into 16 pieces.
wrap with wax paper secured with a sticker tag. and then I wrapped mine with kraft paper and a scrap of yarn.

Enjoy! Download the tags and recipe below :)

Download Brownies

Snowflakes 101

 

So I was going to make a video of how I made my snowflakes for our winter wonderland photo shoot and I filmed it, but really, it's not that great. Doing anything in my house without Dewey barking or the neighbor dogs barking or loud music playing outside just isn't happening. And there are already some great resources for Snowflake making out there so why re-invent the wheel? The real trick in making awesome snowflakes is all in the folding. Once you get that down, a few simple cuts make all the difference. You don't have to be intricate in your design as long as you fold it right.

This video from curbly is one of the best out there:

And if you're more of a directions in front of you learner, Jessica from How about Orange posted some great folding instructions this week.

 
My tips include the following:

1. Make cuts that create a leveled effect from one corner of your folded piece. making the tips more pronounced.
2. If you want to make a garland, thread some fishing line through two places in the snowflake and do this at different levels so some are setting higher than others. even tape mine on the back so they stay put.
3. Save the two inches or so of paper you cut off when you make your snowflake square. Fold it over and cut various oval shapes then unfold those and tape them to fishing line to make icicles  like you can see dangling in the photo below FYI - We're just going to have to make the night time photos work over here! I'm never home before 5 and doing all my blogging on weekends is just impossible. Hello winter, I kind of hate you, but only because you haven't given me any snow yet.
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