Paper and Washi Tape Globe Ornaments

Posted on December 5, 2015 by jewelsathome

My passion for pretty papers goes way back, but I confess that when washi tape first became popular, I didn’t immediately fall in love – it’s not too late, though! I had so much fun combining patterns and colors to make these pretty ornaments. These lovely decorations are quick to make, and I will be bringing this project to work for our holiday party. I also made a personalized version of these ornaments with kids’ names inside.

To make these ornaments, I used

Clear Plastic Ball Ornaments
2.25-Inch Circle Paper Punch
Scrapbook paper. This is a great project for using small leftover pieces of paper
Washi tape and other embellishments
Glue stick
Ribbon for hanging

The process is very simple:

I then cut out two circles in matching paper and glued then back-to-back
I then added washi tape or other paper scraps to decorate the ornament
These circles fit perfectly into the ornaments, which snap together
Add a ribbon for hanging and you’re done!

Go crazy with the paper (I did!) and have fun!!

“Jewels”

Scrapbook Paper Christmas Ornaments

Posted on December 4, 2015 by jewelsathome

Every year, I make personalized Christmas ornaments for our family and friends. This is usually a simple project with store-bought ornaments. This year, I’m doing a little DIY, because I didn’t find anything quite right for our retro mid-century Christmas.

I’m making some clear globe ornaments to give to our local friends. For those that live further away, I wanted something easy to mail, so I was excited to find this inspiration for ornaments covered in scrapbook paper. Besides being pretty, these ornaments are lightweight, flat, and sturdy, so they’re perfect for sending to friends!

Here’s how to do this cute project:

Paint the edges of the Unfinished Wood Ornaments with silver craft paint. The center will be covered in paper.
Print out names and the year on Clear Shipping Labels and then stick them in craft paper and cut them out. I cut matching circles for the back.
Use regular hole punch to cut the paper around the hole in the ornament.
Use Yes All-Purpose Stik Flat Glueto glue the paper to the ornaments
I used some very fine sandpaper to clean up the ornaments after the glue dried.

To finish off, I added ribbons for hanging.

What fun to be able to send a bit of holiday cheer!

“Jewels”

Desktop Magnet Board Frames Part Two

Posted on December 2, 2015 by jewelsathome

This year’s holiday gifts for our teachers and friends are these desktop magnet boards with coordinating glass cabochon magnets. I love seeing all the colors and patterns come together with the inspirational quotes. You can find the supply list and instructions in the first post. There are so many ways to combine the papers and quotes that I wanted to show you some more in this post!

Hope you are settling into a lovely holiday season!

“Jewels”

Personalized Globe Christmas Ornaments 2015

Posted on November 29, 2015 by jewelsathome

Every year, I create personalized ornaments for our family and friends. Usually, I keep it simple with some store-bought ornaments that I personalize with markets or fabric paint. Tip: the felt ornaments are great for mailing!

This year, I wanted to make globe ornaments that would fit with our retro mid-century theme and colors of red, pink, and turquoise.

To make these ornaments, I used

Clear Plastic Ball Ornaments
Clear 2 x 4 Inch shipping labels. I fit two names on each label.
2.25-Inch Circle Paper Punch
Scrapbook paper. This is a great project for using small leftover pieces of paper. You can add washi tape and other embellishments.
glue stick
ribbon for hanging

The process is very simple:

I started by printing labels with the kids’ names and the year on them. I was able to fit two names on each label and then cut the labels into 2″x 2″ squares.
I then cut out and stuck each label onto scrapbook paper and punched out a circle around it. I punched a second blank circle in matching paper and glued them two pieces together.
These circles fit perfectly into the ornaments!
Add a ribbon for hanging and you’re done!

Since these ornaments would have been hard to mail, I also made some similar ones that are flat, for our friends who live out-of-town.

“Jewels”

Come Out On Top: Desktop Magnet Boards with Glass Magnets

Posted on November 27, 2015 by jewelsathome

After a few years of pretty much running out of holiday spirit by the holidays, I have slowly learned to plan early with my holiday crafts. This year, I’ve started getting in the mood by putting together these projects so far:

Holiday preparations always include gifts for our teachers and my “work family.” I love creating something handmade to show our appreciation, and I try to make a few extra for hostess gifts throughout the year. A round-up of past holiday gifts/ hostess gifts is at the bottom of this post.

For this year’s gift, I knew that I wanted to do a project using scrapbook paper. I have a little (tiny, really) bit of an addiction to pretty papers, and I wanted a way to share them. After looking through lots of ideas on Pinterest, I decided to make these desktop magnet boards with coordinating glass cabochon magnets. My inspiration included similar boards from Papemelroti in the Philippines and Leanne from Organize and Decorate Everything.

These magnet boards can be used for notes or as picture frames, and they even make lovely decorations on their own. I added some favorite quotes as appreciation and inspiration for the hard-working teachers and friends in our lives.

Materials:

desktop magnet boards. I purchased mine from Cynthia and Co. This is a family business, and they were really great in working with me to get the quantity I needed.
20mm glass cabochons
3/4 inch Circle Punch
scrapbook and wrapping paper
magnets
E6000® Craft Adhesive to attach the magnets to the cabochons
Glue stick to attach the paper to the boards and magnets.

Instructions:

Cover the magnet board with scrapbook paper using a glue stick. Cynthia shared a helpful tip, which was using a plastic card (I used an expired gift card) to smooth the paper.
Add a quote or piece of art to the center
I’m not sure if I’d recommend this step… I brushed on a coat of clear polyurethane. I wanted to protect the paper, but the moisture made some of the edges peel. I managed to glue them back, but it was a bit of a pain. Maybe

Cut circles of paper and glue to back of cabochons.
Add magnet to back of cabochons using the E6000

Desktop Magnet Boards with Glass Magnets | Jewels at Home

This is a simple project, but I love that there are infinite ways to personalize it. There were so many variations on the boards that I will include some more in a second post!

Looking for more ideas of great gifts to make? Check out these from years past:

Hope you are getting into the spirit of the holidays!

“Jewels”

Vintage Photo Garland

Posted on November 22, 2015 by jewelsathome

As you know, this year’s Christmas has a vintage theme, and I thought it would be great fun to share some old Christmas pictures with this simple and pretty photo garland.

To start, I collected old pictures, including some of from my childhood and from my parents before I was born! Once I got into the project, I added some more recent pictures of our kids. I edited all of the pictures using an iPhone app called Instants, which makes them look like vintage Polaroids.

I used ric rac ribbon from my mom’s stash to make the garland, so this is authentic vintage! I hung the photos from the ric rac using clothes pins decorated with scrapbook paper in this year’s colors of pink, turquoise, and red.

This was an easy project, and it’s simple enough that I’m going to leave it up, even though I won’t be decorating the rest of the house until after Thanksgiving.

Laundry Labels for the Littles

Posted on October 8, 2015 by jewelsathome

So, it doesn’t matter how many kids you have (well, I am not testing that theory, stopping at three), each one will come up with something new to keep you on your toes!

Our baby J has discovered how to (almost) outsmart his parents by hiding his socks all over the place, to avoid putting them in the laundry. Under the couch is a favorite spot, where I once found a full ten pairs! Under the sink also works…

While I play catch-up chasing him to get those stinky socks into the laundry hamper, I decided to make it easier for him by labeling our baskets with signs that a pre-reader can use.

The cute labels I originally made when I set up our laundry area wouldn’t work for J, since he hasn’t learned how to read yet. I thought of using pictures for the labels, but we are encouraging him to figure out his letters, so I thought these labels, with both letters and visual cues, would be perfect.

In truth, I am not sure how much these labels will motivate our little monkey, but at the very least, they are brightening up our laundry room!

“Jewels”

Artsy Decoupaged Mirror Frame

Posted on September 8, 2015 by jewelsathome

As you know, since I read Marie Kondo’s book: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing (my review here), I have been busy clearing out and cleaning up our home. Ironically, once I removed a lot of the random piles of kids’ artwork and sports equipment from our foyer, it looks rather bare.

This space definitely needs a brighter and more colorful feel, and I decided to start by adding some pretty paper to our foyer mirror.

I originally had a plain mirror there, one that actually came with a bathroom vanity I ordered for our guest room. It was very simple and the perfect blank slate for something decorative. I had bought this pretty blue paper from Paper Source a while ago, and it has been waiting for a project! I used to use Mod Podge for decoupage, but I recently bought a tub of Yes All-Purpose Stik Flat Glue to try, and it has been working well, without the odor of Mod Podge.
Here’s how this splash of color and pattern looks in our foyer. It reminds me of the the pretty patterns from Serena and Lily. I think the next addition will be some more accessories and a rug. Hope to show those to you soon!

“Jewels”

DIY Notebook Bliss

Posted on September 7, 2015 by jewelsathome

Sigh, so work has been a bit stressful lately. The other night, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed, so I escaped into my craft studio to play around with paper.

I have been doing a lot of tidying up after reading Marie Kondo’s book: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing (my review here) and I found a lot of scrap paper.

I wanted to make more of the little DIY notebooks I made a while ago. This time, I added some washi tape and a ribbon to tie it closed.

This little project definitely helped me feel calm and re-centered for a new day!

“Jewels”

DIY Wedding & Anniversary Art

Posted on June 27, 2015 by jewelsathome

It’s wedding season, which also means it is anniversary season!

A long-time friend of ours just tied the knot, and I wanted to make something special to help preserve the memories for the happy couple. It’s a perfect time to create something to celebrate Steve and my anniversary, too!

I used pictures from our friends’ wedding announcement to create this simple piece of paper art (I LOVE paper!!). This year is the big 2-0 for me and Steve! Back in the olden days, when we got married, there were no fancy photo cards, but I combined some of my favorite pictures with more fun scrapbooking paper to create this piece of art for our room.

Another fun project I made using wedding invitations were these luggage tags. Nicola and her husband had stunning custom cards incorporating images of the Golden Gate Bridge and a San Francisco cable car. I repurposed some of them into these luggage tags, which are getting a lot of mileage!

You could apply this idea to other cards, too. One year, I took all the Christmas cards we received and created paper ornaments using the pictures to send back to our friends.

For now, I am looking forward to the next wedding invitation that comes to our mailbox, so I can create a memorable piece of art for someone special!

“Jewels”