Winter Coffee Filter Wreath

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and got to spend time with family and friends. I am so thankful to have been able to spend time with family I don't get to see very often.

However, now that Christmas is over, I'm back at home and trying to figure out ways to spend the last few days of break before starting our Cardiology course next Tuesday.

I also dread having to take down all of my Christmas decorations, mainly because my apartment is going to be boring again. So I put two and two together and ended up with today's project: the coffee filter wreath. And to be honest, I'm rather obsessed with it, so I decided to tell you how to make your own.

Supplies:

Wreath form - I cut a circle out of leftover foam board

Two packs of 160 count regular white coffee filters

Glue gun

5+ glue sticks

Snowflake ornaments - I got mine in the Christmas clearance section of Target

A large marker or glue stick

*The letters I cut with my Cricut and covered with glitter

How to:

Take a coffee filter and stand your glue stick/marker in the center

Wrap the coffee filter around the marker/glue stick

Dab hot glue on the bottom tip and stick to the foam board

I was able to fit 4 across the width of my wreath form

Repeat this 275-300 times

This can get a little boring, so somewhere in the middle it looks like this

Make sure you glue them as close as possible for the 'full' look

Arrange your snowflake ornaments (and letters if you use them) however you like and hot glue on

And you're finished! Now you have a beautiful wreath to help liven up dreary winter :)

What do you think? :)

DIY Ornaments

I cannot believe it's Christmas Eve. At all.

But it is Christmas Eve, nontheless, and my future in-laws always do their extended family Christmas get-together on Christmas Eve. I've been the past few years and they always have gifts for me while I just show up empty handed. So this year, I wanted to do something special for them. 

I saw these browsing through Pinterest one day and I thought they would be a decent gift that didn't break the bank and I got to be crafty in the process. That's a win-win if you ask me.

So, that's exactly what I did.

If you want to make your own, here's what you need:

Your Cricut and vinyl in preferred colors

*Stickers may work in the place of vinyl if you don't own a Cricut

Clear or Frosted blank ornaments

Wired Ribbon

*I was going to use my circle cutter that you see in the picture to make polka dots, but my Cricut did that for me

I cut the letters and circles out with my Cricut and applied them to the ornament the way I liked. Then, I cut a small piece of ribbon to tie around the top. And that's it. Really, it's that easy.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Scrapbook Paper Tree

So, not only is it awesome that I have time to craft my heart out for two weeks, but my mom has also jumped on the craft train. Like, has taken control of it. It's almost scary. Especially if you know my mom. She doesn't typically like crafts. Ever. But the craft flu apparently hit her hard this season.  

She even found the craft that I am posting about today. (The tutorial is here)

A few hours of bonding later (and a few mumbled curses from mom about clay pots being hard to paint, her star being too hard to glitter and her tree being crooked) we finally got to the finished product.

I'm such a proud daughter. (Mom's is the little one)
:)

First Semester

I've completed my first semester of medical school

And I couldn't be more relieved

I also couldn't be more ecstatic for all of the things I have time to do over the next two weeks

I'll keep you updated. And rest assured that there will be craft posts in the future!

Reindeer Cupcakes

I can't remember if I told you this or not (so I'm going to tell you again), but we have had several pharmacology cases over the past few weeks.

And for some reason, I decided it was a good idea to bring cupcakes for my group every time we had a case. So, since we had another one yesterday, I brought more cupcakes.

Except, this one was our last, so I decided to make them festive for the holidays. And, once again, everyone was impressed for some reason.

So for this post, I am going to show you that you don't have to be cupcake-competent to make these little babies.

What you need:

Box of chocolate cake mix

Chocolate icing

Hard pretzals

Vanilla wafers

White candies for the eyes (I used York pieces)

Red and brown candy pieces for the nose (M&Ms)

Black icing for the pupils and a small round tip to attach

Steps:

Bake your cupcakes (follow the box directions - not hard, promise)

Let them cool

Frost with a butterknife (also not hard - no fancy frosting tip needed)

Add a vanilla wafer to on side of your cupcake

Dab a little frosting onto the side of the M&M with the writing on it and stick it on the middle of the vanilla wafer (disclaimer: this may be the hardest part....)

Add two white candies for the eyes

Take your black decorating icing and dab a small spot on each white piece for the pupils

(I made them all a little different)

I think this may tie with the nose step for the hardest part...

Then, add two pretzals for the antlers and you have some cute, festive cupcakes that everyone will be amazed by!

Oh, for the record, at the time I was making these, I honestly thought there were 12 reindeer and that I was being super creative for making only 1 Rudolph. (Don't ask me why, but I honestly thought this for a decently short time). But once I sang the song (AFTER I had made them), I realized there are really only 9. So, whatever. Knowing how many reindeer there are doesn't exactly take priority on my knowledge list. Maybe it will after my test Friday.

DIY Festive Garland

Today, I have another DIY Christmas craft for you

But before I show you, I ask you not to make fun of my Christmas "mantel."
(I live in an apartment, and I have to make do with a shelf instead of a real one.) That's also why I'm obsessed with this craft. It kind of gives it that "real mantel" feel. :)

But anyways, I decided to make my own "garland" instead of just buying an itchy pine one and trying to string lights around it. BORING. I found a post on Pinterest where someone took a strand of lights and tied pieces of tulle around the strand. I decided to take this idea and run with it, except instead of tulle, I used regular fabric.

And this is what I came up with.

Yes that is my kitchen in the background.

Supplies:

Pack of Christmas lights ( I used white)

Scissors

A yard (total) of different festive fabrics

A roll of thin ribbon (I chose gold glitter ribbon)

Steps:

Unwind your light strand.

Cut your fabric and ribbon into 6 inch strips.  I wanted mine pretty short, but if you want a longer look then cut them longer!

Then, take one strip, fold it in half, loop it around the light strand and pull the two ends through the loop. (You could also tie the strand in a knot, but I liked the other look better).

Alternate the different fabrics and your ribbon throughout the strand. This part is very time consuming and considering I don't have a lot of time, I only did half of the strand and twined the other half through the finished half. If you do the whole strand, you need more than a yard of fabric.

This is super easy, but it does take a little time.

Here's a close up of my final product.

14 days until Christmas!

Christmas Charger

So, remember my Thanksgiving charger?

Well, my mom apparently liked it enough that she asked me to make her a Christmas one.

So that's what I did.

(And then I made me one too)

I've already told you how to make one! (here)

So go make one :)



Oh, and if you didn't already know, it's Friday!!

Stocking Holder

So, it's been a little while since I posted. Sorry about that. Not a lot has been going on.  Just a lot of studying Microbiology. Pretty sure I won't be an infectious disease doctor. But what do I know. I will give it the benefit of the doubt.  This stuff is actually okay compared to the Immunology we just got finished with.. Bleh.

The fact that Christmas is steadily approaching is causing my dear friend, Motivation, to hide from me. I think he already went home for the holidays. Haha...But really. That's okay though, at least Crafty has stuck around to keep me company.

I started decorating for Christmas after Thanksgiving break, and it wasn't until then that I realized my random decorations don't actually make a difference (except the tree).  I had a stocking, but no stocking holder. So, as you guessed it (and probably because you saw the title of this post), I am going to show you my DIY stocking holder.

It's not great, but it will do for now.

And it's ANOTHER Mod-Podge craft. Go figure.

Supplies:

2 pieces of scrap wood

Mod-Podge (d'oh)

A paint color

Paint brush

Foam brush

E6000 or wood glue

Paper

Letter of your first name

(chipboard or sticker - I used my Cricut)

A hook

(got mine in the Walmart hardware section - they screw in)

Paint your wood pieces in a preferred color
Cut your paper down to size and Mod-Podge on your top piece
Stick on your letter with glue or Mod-Podge
Glue the top wood piece to the bottom piece
Screw your hook into the front of the bottom piece
Hang your stocking on the hook!

:)
Stay tuned for more Christmas crafts!