Felt Poinsettia Ornaments

Posted on December 10, 2013 by jewelsathome

I grew up in Canada, so Christmas was associated with cool temperatures, bare branches, and as often as not, snow on the ground. Even my kids, who grew up in California, ask for snow at Christmas. So, I decided to create a snowy Christmas for us at home.

I pared down my decorations to focus on the white and silver. I also made several new projects in a white and woodsy theme. So far, I’ve finished a sleek new gray and white Christmas tree skirt, and I also made some new pillow covers in white and gray with outdoorsy appliques of reindeer, polar bears, and trees.

Since I kept our colorful ornaments packed up for this year, I needed to add some more decorations to our tree. The kids helped me make these sweet clay ornaments, and I am adding these white felt poinsettia ornaments to fill in the branches.

I looked at lots of pictures of real and felt flowers, and I read a lot of tutorials, trying to find felt poinsettias that would have a natural look. My final project was a combination of the felt poinsettia pin by Cheryl at her Tidy Mom blog, Kate’s felt poinsettia’s at her Centsational Girl blog, and my own innovation, as I wanted to make the flowers a bit more natural-looking and just right for my tree!

The thing I liked best about Cheryl’s flowers was how she cut the petals. It’s much faster and easier than using a template, and it allows you to make each petal a little bit unique. I used different dimensions, which I’ll list below, and I also cut my petals with a bit of a wave on the edge, to give them more dimension.

I washed and dried my felt before using it, to make it a bit thicker. To cut the petals, first cut rectangles of felt in the specified dimensions, and then trim them to look like petals. It’s very quick to cut the rectangles, if you cut the felt into strips first (left side of the picture below) and then cut the strips into rectangles (middle of the picture below). I was also able to trim the petals three at a time, so it was all much easier than I expected!

Each flower is constructed the same way, and I’ll give the exact measurements for my two sizes below.

The basic parts of the felt poinsettia are

a round circle base (top left picture below)
a layer of large petals (top right and bottom left pictures below)
a layer of small petals (bottom right picture below)

DIY felt poinsettia Christmas decorations to use as ornaments, gift toppers, or around the house | Jewels at Home

Start with a round base, add a layer of large petals, and top with a layer of smaller petals.

To finish the flower, I sewed all the layers together while sewing on some pearl beads to decorate the center of the poinsettia. I then used hot glue to attache the flower to a metal alligator clip.

Finish the flower by sewing the layers together while sewing on some beads for the center.

The pictures above are of the larger poinsettias. The finished size is approximately 6.5″ in diameter. The large flower uses:

2″ diameter base circle
8 large petals of 3.5″ x 2″
5 small petals of 2.5″ x 1.5″
7 beads
metal alligator clip

I also made smaller poinsettias, with a finished size of approximately 4.75″. The small flower uses:

1.5″ diameter base circle
6 large petals of 2.5″x1.5″
5 small petals of 1.75″ x 1″
5 beads
metal alligator clip

Here are the large and small flowers side by side.

And here are the new poinsettias on our tree!

Hooray for a project that was even more easy and fun than I had expected! If I get enough of these for the tree, they may start showing up elsewhere in our house! Or that may be crazy-talk!

“Jewels”

Christmas Pillows in Simple White and Gray

Posted on December 9, 2013 by jewelsathome

I’m not even going to try to hide that I’m crazy about Christmas. I love the warm festive atmosphere, the carols, the time with family.

Over the years, I mostly had the same decorations up each year. Last year, I tried a new color scheme of red, turquoise, and silver. This year, I want to do as much as I can in simple gray and white. I started with our new modern tree skirt, since that is a focal point.

Next, I wanted to make some cute Christmas throw pillows. The idea behind the pillows is simple. It’s all the different designs and fabrics that make them fun! The instructions for the basic pillow cover can be found in the post on our living room pillows. The instructions for making the appliqués can be found in this post from the onesie-decorating baby shower. Since I put some work into all these new pillows, I chose designs that would last beyond Christmas and through the winter.

Here are some of the decorations I put on my new winter pillow covers!

Reindeer pillows:

Polar bear pillows:

A snowy forest of trees on this pillows:

And here is our living room with the new pillows. There’s more I’d love to do, but I like how it’s coming together so far.

I’m also planning to make a throw blanket and some pillows out of a sweater. It could be a fiasco or an amazing project. If it’s the latter, you’ll see it here!

Are you feeling our snowy white Christmas theme?!

“Jewels”

Homemade Clay Ornaments with the Kids

Posted on December 3, 2013 by jewelsathome

I love decorating for Christmas, and this year, I wanted to create a white and outdoorsy theme. I love our collection of ornaments from over the years, but just for a change, I only put up the white ones this year, leaving our tree a little sparse.

Thanks to the kids for doing a quick and fun project with me to make some new decorations for our Christmas tree!

I used this DAS Air Hardening Modeling Clay, and it worked fine, but the dried ornaments are quite fragile, so I’m going to try the next round with this AMACO Cloud Clay. The kids have used it at school, and it seems to be more durable, though it doesn’t look like the shapes come out as cleanly. We’ll let you know!

This project was quick and simple – all you need is some clay, a rolling pin and cookie cutters, and some beads and/or rubber stamps for embellishing the ornaments. Oh yes, and some string for hanging the ornaments. I used embroidery floss.

All the kids were able to do the project pretty much on their own. I did help the younger ones with rolling the clay flat, but even little J did the cookie cutters and beads on his own!

Here are the boys at work:

And here are the ornaments we made:

Homemade clay Christmas ornaments to make with the kids. These are simple and beautiful! Jewels at Home

These are the ornaments I made. I used beads and rubber stamps to decorate the clay.

L made the three wise men.. actually, I believe he called them an “army of snowmen”…

Little J made these stars himself! I had to take them away from him as soon as they were done, as he wanted to roll them back into a ball like play dough.

These are K’s ornaments. I like how he tried a lot of different designs.

The tree looks much better now, but I’m hoping to make a few more ornaments to fill it out.

“Jewels”

Modern Gray and White Christmas Tree Skirt

Posted on December 2, 2013 by jewelsathome

For many years, I decorated for the holidays with the same traditional red and green Christmas color scheme. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course – traditions become traditions for good reason! But after more than a decade of the same style, I decided it would be fun to change up our Christmas look. Last year, I edited and updated our decorations for a red, turquoise, and silver Christmas. And this year, I’m in love with a simple gray and white Christmas color scheme. It makes me feel like I’m getting back to the tranquil snowy outdoors – even if I am in California!

Like last year, when I reinvented many of our decorations with silver paint and ribbons, I wanted to work with a lot of things I had, while adding a few new items. I’ve also been trying to keep my fabric and craft stash in check, so I pulled out all the gray and white fabrics I could find around the house and started to sew!

First up was a new Christmas tree skirt. I sewed our original tree skirt 18 years ago, when I was more fond of a cute and country look, and I took this year’s skirt in a complete different direction, making something very sleek and calming. I started with a grey faux suede upholstery fabric sitting in a corner. I had bought it to upholster our dining room chairs, and then I decided to make them more whimsical with a printed fabric.

Materials:

Grey faux suede fabric, 60″x60″
White cotton fabric to make a wide bias binding (I forgot to measure, but I estimate I used a little over a yard of 42″ wide cotton)
Narrower white bias binding

Instructions:

Cut a 60″ diameter circle from the main fabric
Cut a 6″ diameter hole from the center
Cut a straight line from the perimeter to the center

Tutorial for a simple gray and white Christmas tree skirt | Jewels at Home

The basic shape for the Christmas tree skirt.

Make 5″ wide bias binding from the trim fabric
Iron the binding in half to a make 2.5″ wide strip

Sew the binding to the two straight edges that makes the opening of the skirt, sewing on the back side of the main fabric with the raw edges lined up
Wrap the binding around to the front. Pin and sew to the front of the skirt
Add the binding to the outer edge of the skirt the same way, stretching the edges of the bias binding as you go.
Use the narrower binding to finish the inside circle

Sew the doubled bias binding to the underside of the skirt. Then, wrap the binding around to the front and sew in place.

That’s all! Here’s our new Christmas skirt!

Modern gray and white Christmas tree skirt.

I’ve got a few more white Christmas ideas coming up, and you can start your holiday shopping over at Zulily:

“Jewels”

DIY Decorated Notebooks

Posted on November 23, 2013 by jewelsathome

This project is part of my effort to spruce up my office and get more organized. I don’t know how organized it will make me, but these little notebooks sure are cute! The other project that I did was to cover plain file folders with scrapbook paper, and these look adorable also.

It seems like most workplaces generate a lot of scrap paper. From my first job out of college to my office today, I’ve usually been the one to collect the extra paper for reuse. At my first job, teaching at a small high school, I used the extra paper other teachers left in my cubby to shred for handmade paper, something I’d love to do more of again. These days, scrap paper from the office is the raw material for my three prolific little artists, as well as my own notes.

Even though we’re reusing old paper, it doesn’t have to look sloppy. I decided to make these notebooks to corral all of those loose papers. They’re great, because they can be decorated to create infinite customized looks, and it’s easy to add and remove pages.

Materials:

cardboard – I used old boxes and the heavy cardboard backing from calendars or pads of paper
fabric and Heat’n Bond Ultra Hold
OR scrapbook paper and Clear Contact Paper
0.5 inch binder rings or 1 inch binder rings
paper for pages. Ours are all scrap paper from the office.

Instructions:
Paper-covered notebooks

for each notebook, cut two pieces cardboard to 8.5″x11″
cut paper for the front and back to 8.5″ x 11″. I mixed scrapbook papers to make interesting designs
glue the paper onto the cardboard with a gluestick
Wrap the cover in Clear Contact Paper. As an optional step to make the inside of the cover more finished, I added white contact paper to the inside of the covers.
Punch holes on the left side
Use binder rings to hold the paper in place

Cute DIY covered notebooks. Jewels at Home

Wrap the notebook cover in clear contact paper to protect it.

Make your own customized DIY notebooks | Jewels at Home

As an optional step, I added white contact paper to finish the inside of the covers.

I rounded the edges of some of the covers to make the design more interesting. For these, cut small wedges to fold the contact paper neatly.

Fabric-covered notebooks

for each notebook, cut two pieces cardboard to 8.5″x11″
cut fabric rectangles about 12″x15″ for the front and back covers
Fuse Heat’n Bond Ultra Hold to the back side of the fabric, and then iron on to the cardboard
After cutting the corners, wrap and fuse the fabric to the inside of the covers.
As an optional step to make the inside of the cover more finished, I added coordinating paper to the inside of the covers.
Punch holes on the left side
Use binder rings to hold the paper in place

Make your own fabric-covered DIY notebooks | Jewels at Home

Adding coordinating fabric to the inside of the covers gives a more finished look.

Here are the notebooks I made for myself. I can’t wait to whip one out during a meeting!

Make your own customized DIY notebooks covered in scrapbook paper or fabric. A beautiful way to organize loose papers | Jewels at Home

It’s fun look to make the back and front of your notebook from different papers that work well together. I love this one!

These notebooks have rounded corners for added detail.

And here are the notebooks I made for the boys. They each chose their own covers – Superman for little J, art pencils for my budding artist L, and navy for big boy K. I wasn’t sure if the note books would catch on, but so far, the boys really seem to like keeping all their drawings organized in these! Yay!

The kids each chose the covers for their new notebooks.

L is really into art right now, which is so fun for me. I looped an elastic through the middle ring of his notebook, so he can keep his portfolio together. He has been bringing it to school every day!

Here’s what L is working on in his notebook. I love it!

More of L’s sketches, all neatly contained in his new notebook.

Yay for these little notebooks. They would make great gifts, too!

Some holiday projects coming up next!

“Jewels”

Customized File Folders

Posted on November 23, 2013 by jewelsathome

As I was making the scrapbook paper and fabric-covered notebooks recently, I was inspired to spruce up some plain file folders at the same time.

My office at work is getting a bit overwhelming, and having something pretty – like these sweet patterns – to look at always cheers me up.

It all started with this lovely patterned file folder that I bought a few years ago.

I found papers in my stash that coordinated with these folders, and I cut and glued them onto plain manila file folders to transform them into these eye-catching beauties!

Beautify your office. Use scrapbook paper to turn plain file folders into works of art | Jewels at Home

I really like how all the folders work together. Now, to clear the rest of the office!

I also made a folder for L, who has a lot of artwork to organize, though he now favors his DIY scrapbook paper-covered notebook .

I also covered all the folders in Clear Contact Paper to make them last longer. An easy project, and they look great. Can’t beat that!

“Jewels”

Seeing Silver for the Holidays

Posted on November 16, 2013 by jewelsathome

I love decorating for Christmas and the winter holidays. There’s something about all that sparkle and warmth at the darkest time of the year that just lifts my spirits. I have a lot of traditional red and green decorations with a more natural feel, because our last house was an old Craftsman, and that theme fit it well, but in recent years, I decided to shift towards bright and silver! I set out to do this while reusing as much as possible. You can see how it turned out in last year’s 2012 Christmas house tour, and in this post, I’ll give details on how to add silver and shine to your holidays without breaking the bank.

I bought very few new decorations, but I used a few simple elements to transform things we already had:

Silver spray paint. Rustoleum metallic spray paint in “chrome,” and Krylon “bright silver” which I already had.
Silver craft paint. I used this to touch up some decorations and ornaments we had and add some sparkle.
Silver ribbon – Michael’s had an array of ribbons at 60% off when I was there, and I had some in my craft closet as well.
Silver bells – also on sale at Michael’s

Paint it!

I’ve had these “PEACE” and “JOY stocking holders for many years now. They were a lovely antique bronze finish that got refreshed with a spray primer and a few coats of Rustoleum chrome paint. It has a very bright and reflective finish that looks like real metal.

Tips on adding the glow of silver to Christmas decorations you already have. {Jewels at Home}

I painted these stocking hangers with metallic paint for a shiny new look.

I also painted these mercury glass look-alike ornaments in silver.

Two easy steps to get a faux mercury glass look on your old ornaments.

And finally, I painted some pine cones with the Krylon bright silver paint and used the on their own, as vase filler, and on wreaths.

Spray some pinecones in silver paint to brighten up your holiday decor.

Wrap it in ribbon!

I had three wreaths in traditional greens and reds. This pomegranate and magnolia wreath from Restoration Hardware got a new look with some simple silver ribbon wound around it and used for hanging.

For my oversized wreath with pinecones and berries, some silver bells and ribbon gave a whole new look.

My third wreath was this plain wreath that wore a burgundy velvet bow for more than a decade, and now it’s ready for the next decade with new ribbon and pinecones painted in silver.

;

I did splurge (as much as one does at Target) on this silver beauty for our front door. It sets the silvery tone right when you enter our house!

And here’s what some more silver ribbon and bells did for this tabletop tree:

Wishing you a bright and merry holiday season!

“Jewels”

DIY Superhero Cape Party Favors

Posted on November 11, 2013 by jewelsathome

Here’s a quick summary of the recent Superhero-related posts:

For J’s recent superhero birthday party, I decided to make capes as party favors. I always try to make one bigger gift instead of goody bags with lots of small items.

The capes were very simple to make, though I will admit that making them for 10 kids took longer than I anticipated. It all worked out, though, and it was adorable to see all the little heroes running around our house and yard in their super capes! J and L wanted to be Superman and Batman, so I made them capes specifically for that, but the rest of the capes were a mix of fun colors and patterns.

You can make your own cape pattern that fits kids from about two to seven years old:

Materials:

For the body of the cape, I cut a piece of fabric that was 32″ long. It was 29″ in wide at bottom, tapering to 19″ wide at top, and I cut a curve for the neckline.
The neckline is finished with bias binding in a matching color to the body of the cape.
For the accent fabric, I cut a strip of fabric that was 5″ wide and 29″ long.
I used a short section (about 1 inch) of velcro for the top.

Instructions:

I ironed down a 1/2″ hem on both long sides of the accent fabric strip and sewed it to the body of the cape, near the bottom edge.
I finished the neckline of the cape with bias binding
I hemmed the bottom and sides of the cape
Finally, I added velcro to the top corners to close the cape.

I love the variety of each of these. I even made a little baby version for my “niece” C.

DIY Superhero capes for a birthday party! Jewels at Home

C’s baby cape is so cute!

Birthday boy, also known as Superman!

The kids have been wearing their capes all around our home and beyond.

Super baby!

You don’t have to make the capes yourself to have a fun costume party. I have found great costumes of all kinds at low prices on Zulily:

Have fun saving the world, little ones! Happy birthday, J!

“Jewels”

Superman Birthday Party

Posted on November 11, 2013 by jewelsathome

Here’s a quick summary of the recent Superhero-related posts:

The passions of a toddler are as fleeting as they are deep. At the time of last year’s party, I was convinced little J was going to grow up to become a firefighter, and he still is mesmerized by those trucks, but his current obsession is with superheroes, especially Superman. This theme for the party worked out, since J’s birthday falls a few weeks before Halloween, and J and L wanted to dress as Superman and Batman to go trick-or-treating.

To set the theme, our family dressed in costume, and we invited our guests to do the same. I had extra capes for all the little ones to wear at the party and take home as party favors.

Besides the superhero capes I sewed for our little guests to wear, I also had a photo backdrop. The backdrop is made from a blue queen-sized flat sheet with a black skyline appliqued to the bottom. Most of the skyline is random buildings – I actually cut two skylines at once to be efficient (pictured below).

Superhero birthday party with tons of DIY ideas for your little one | Jewels at Home

Basic skyline for the photo backdrop. I cut out two copies (one in reverse) and used them to assemble the background.

To customize the skyline, I added the Transamerica pyramid and Coit Tower. Up in the sky, I sewed some clouds, and ta-da!

Photo backdrop with San Francisco skyline.

We used the photo backdrop two ways – hung up for action poses and, later in the party, laid out on the floor for some “flying” scenes. I tried to set up the photo booth I created for our Mad Men party, but the pictures didn’t turn out that well outside. If I had had more time, I wanted to re-decorate it as a telephone booth, to fit with our Clark Kent-Superman theme. That would be so cool, I want to throw another superhero party just to do it!

Superhero birthday party with tons of DIY ideas for your little one | Jewels at Home

The fun comic word photo props added a lot of excitement to the photos. I bought the downloadable images from Etsy – there are lots of options. I printed mine out, mounted them on adhesive craft foam, and glued large craft sticks to the back to make handles (pictured below).

It took a while for the kids to figure out how to do the flying scenes, but then they started having fun with it.

Another cool photo prop for our little superheroes was this fake barbell, made from a paper towel roll, bubble wrap, and duct tape. I couldn’t decide which of these heroic expressions I loved the most, so I posted them all.

I thought it would be clever to have the kids toss balls to knock over this “kryptonite” made from empty green plastic bottles, but I admit this one went over the head of the three-year-old crowd.

Inside our house, I customized our birthday banner, but it didn’t feel quite festive enough, until I hung up some of the birthday pictures that L drew for his little brother J.

These drink wraps were also purchased on Etsy.

Finally, the cake… I found this Superman cake topper in one of our toy boxes. I have no idea where it came from, but I washed it up, and it worked out perfectly!

And so, another fun year has flown by!

“Jewels”

Collecting Card Binders

Posted on November 5, 2013 by jewelsathome

As the kids get older, their parties have evolved. These days, there are no streamers and balloons, but there is a pack of tousle-haired tweens holed up wrestling and trading jokes over cards games.

Last year, we did an outdoor movie party for the big boys, and I made fleece blankets for each of them. Since we had a similar crowd this year, I wanted to change up our special party favor, so I made these binders for the boys to organize their Yugioh and Magic cards.

I printed out their names on colored paper and pieced together done fun patterned paper to make each cover unique.

I then wrapped each insert in clear contact paper. This isn’t necessary, but the printer ink will often transfer to the binder cover, if you don’t.

The inserts slipped into be front of binders, and I included some Ultra Pro 9-Pocket Trading Card Pages in each.

The boys were very excited to get their binders, and I think it might even be making a dent in the piles of loose cards around our house!

“Jewels”