Light Up Present

Supplies:
2 inch ribbon
Glass block
Glue gun & glue sticks
String of lights
Drill bit for glass

I always have loved these glass light up present boxes ever since I saw them at a craft show many years ago. My Mom and I made a bunch at the time but since I have moved out on my own I didn't have one for my home. Luckily I found an extra block kicking around so I constructed my own on Friday night!

These glass blocks are used in bathrooms or homes to let light in but are very blurred so you cannot see right through. I had mine kicking around but if are searching to purchase one, Home Depot sells something that may work like this: glass block window (click for link).

With your glass block, drill a 1 inch hole into the block using a drill bit for glass.

Plug in the glue gun and cut 2 strips of 2" ribbon to go around the box. Secure the strips going criss cross with hot glue gun.

For the top bow I found a super easy tutorial at Healthy Living How To (click for link).

After construction of the bow I secured it to the top of the box and stuffed in my strand of battery operated LED lightbulbs. It looks so beautiful at night. I'm so happy to have one in my home now.

Happy Christmas crafting!

Christmas Snow Man

I did this fun log snowman project with a friend this afternoon. I loooooove how cute it turned out!

Supplies:
5 pieces of cut log
2 twigs
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Felt
Scissors
Healing Mat
X-Acto knife
Ruler
Drill

We had a friend cut our wood pieces. He cut 3 thick different size pieces for the body, a thin piece for the bottom of the hat, and a thicker smaller piece for the top of the hat. He was so kind as to trim off one side of the bottom piece so that it would sit flat. The middle piece had 2 sides trimmed off so that it was a perfect solid fit.

Using a hot glue gun we glued the pieces of our snow man together. Be sure to be very generous with the glue so it sticks well.

This next step is a recommendation for anyone reading this who is thinking about doing this project. I would definitely take the time to drill a small hole for the arm twigs to glue into. Unfortunately we did not have access to a drill today so we had to use the glue gun to glue the tiny twigs on....it was difficult to get them at a good angle so I think a drill hole would solve this problem.

For the scarf construction we cut 2 strips at 1.5" using a healing mat, ruler and x-acto knife. The healing mat provides measuring lines so it is very simple to put your ruler down on the felt and then drag the x-acto knife along to cut.

Using the hot glue gun, glue one piece halfway on the back of the snowman around his neck. Glue the other piece on the other side and give it a nice tie. We cut the bottom of the scarf ends to give it some fringe.

Volia! You have yourself a log snow man! If you wanted to take it a step further you could add felt eyes, nose and buttons but I really just love the the simplicity of this little guy.

Cheap & Easy Christmas Gifts

This weekend was a busy weekend of Christmas projects. I didn't take a lot of photos of the steps along the way however the projects were simple, quick and fun!


I wanted to tackle some cheap and thoughtful gifts for clients at work. I used Pinterest for some inspiration I set out for my supplies. I found these cute tags "For Your Mistle Toes" from Persia Lou's website (click for link). You can download the PDF file & print it right at home. I love when cute things like this are free! I printed the tags on white cardstock and after carefully cutting it out I added a hole punch and ink distressed the corners to give it a warmer feel.

Using some white fake snow I found at Canadian Tire, I poured a little into the bottom of a clear cellophane bag and then put in the following goodies: Red Nail Polish, Nail File, Aveda Foot Relief Cream and a callus grinder from Joe Fresh. The whole bag cost me roughly $20 and I think it is a pretty nice gift.

I found some white raffia and sealed the bag with the tag and a cute bow.

I just know my clients will love these little care packages.

Next I found these adorable tags to add to gifts for the rest of my clients of which I am not as close with and didn't want to spend as much on.  The tag's read "Merry Christmas. You're the Balm" and I got a free downloadable PDF from Simple As That's blog. I saved, printed on cardstock, carefully cut, added a punch hole and ink distressed just as I did with the tags above.

With the holiday season among us, EOS has out special edition lip balms which I love because they are organic and natural. The special edition kit came with stickers that you could use to jazz up the lip balm. I personalized a few and added simple gems to the rest.

EOS Special Edition Personalization Kit

As with the Mistle Toe's gift above, I put it in cellophane bags and added a bow with raffia.

I can't wait to see the responses I get from clients when I get to hand these little gem gifts outs!

Merry Christmas.

xo