DIY Christmas Decor

It’s been a while since I last shared a craft tutorial. Well, since it’s Christmas and I know a lot of us are trying to get smarter with our money because of this pandemic, I thought that for this year, I would only being making my own decor. In this tutorial, I want to share some very easy DIY projects with you.

This first one is just something that you can put around the house, on shelves, on coffee tables, basically, anywhere that can use a touch of Christmas.

Christmas Tin Can

You will need the following: a used and washed can (this one is from a canned good), Christmas ribbon (recycled, preferably), twine, burlap holly, plastic figs (from an old wreath perhaps), glue gun and plier.

The first thing that you need to do is to remove any label from the can. Then, bend the sides of the can so that the edges don’t cut you. I also glued some paper twine around the opening for extra protection.
I got the ribbon and glued this around the can. I glued a second ribbon for contrast (note that you can switch up the colors to suit your overall Christmas theme).
I then cut a small piece of burlap, about an inch, to hide where the ends of my ribbon were glued.
Then, I tightly would up some paper twine to glue at the base of then can. This will hold my figs upright.
I decorated my twigs with a bit of holly first before I stuck them to the bottom of the can.
Optional: You can add some tulle, or green fruits bags and fashion them as leaves.
Optional: You can use a white marker to put touches of white on the ends of the fig to make them look like they’ve been snowed on.

I hope that you learned something from this tutorial! For the full tutorial, do head on to the Craft Time Studio – https://youtu.be/0A3n9SoLlh0

Clay Slab Tutorial

I’ve been claying on weekends and so far have been really obsessed with making clay slabs. It’s a really simple way to make a lot of fun and funky earrings.

For this tutorial, I will teach you how to make a clay slab in bold colors.

For this slab, you will need:

polymer clay in glitter black, gray, turquoise, periwinkle and pink

mountain-shaped clay cutters

detail needles

clay blade

clay roller

What to do: 1. Flatten your main slab (black) into the number 3 setting on your clay roller.

2. Flatten your accent slab in the number 7 setting.

3. Get your clay cutters and punch out the shapes.

4. Arrange the shapes on the main slab and flatten using the number 2 setting.

5. Add texture by using a detail needle.

6. Cut into earrings, and then bake the clay following the instructions on the packaging.

I hope you enjoy making these super simple clay slabs!

Cookie Squishy from Used Makeup Sponges

My daughter and I love watching this Youtube craft channel, Moriah Elizabeth. One of her most popular series is her squishy makeovers.

We tried it out using my old makeup sponges and I’m happy to report that it actually works!

To make these cookie squishies, you will need:

3 pcs 3D Paint

Acrylic Paint

Paint brush

Popsicle sticks

Fabric glue

Scissors

Mod Podge (Optional)

What to Do:

1. Get one makeup sponge. Cut about ¼ inch around the sponge.

2. Slather a thin layer of fabric glue on top of the makeup sponge. Get another makeup sponge and put it on top of the sponge with glue.

3. Do the same on the other side so that the smaller sponge gets “sandwiched” between the two bigger sponges. Set aside to dry.

4. Once the fabric glue dries, coat the entire sponge sandwich with 3D paint. Set aside to dry.

5. Once the 3D paint dries, coat the entire sponge sandwich with acrylic paint.

You can decorate your cookie squishy any way you prefer. Optional: You can also coat the squishy with a layer of Mod Podge.

P.S. Moriah Elizabeth did discourage the use of acrylic paint because they tend to crack . I just wanted to be honest and let you know that I used acrylic paint because I didn’t have a wide color choice from my 3D paint. The paint on the squishy did eventually crack, but it took a long while, probably because I did do a first coat of 3D paint.

Summer Crafts for Kids #3: Gaudi-inspired Coaster

Since we’re always at the beach these days, we got to collect a lot of sea glass. At a certain point, we had one too many. So, we thought of another super simple craft to make use of these beautiful beach finds.

Level of Difficulty: Beginners

In this craft activity, you will need:

Used paper bowl (cleaned and dried)

Sea glass

Scissors

Silicon

Acrylic paint

Paint brush

What to Do:

Cut the bottom of the paper bowl.
Flip it and paint the sides with acrylic paint. Set aside to dry.
Once the paint is dry, fill the bottom with silicon. (Note: silicon sets very quickly so your sea glass pieces should be on hand).
Decorate with sea glass. Leave overnight to dry.

Summer Crafts for Kids #2: Bohemian Keychain

As a tourist in a foreign country, I found it very challenging to engage my child in crafts, while making sure that 1.) we don’t spend on too many craft supplies that we can’t bring home and 2. We also don’t create more garbage.

As a result of some creative thinking, we came out with this very simple and whimsical accessory.

Level of Difficulty: Beginners. This is literally a 5-minute craft. The only part that took long was for the glue to dry.

In this craft activity, you will need:

0.5 cm wide ribbons, cut into 8 cm strips (the ones we had on hand were from clothing tags)

Jump ring

All purpose glue

Feathers (*optional. We picked these feathers on the beach)

What to Do:

Get a strip and fold into half.
Attach to the jump ring using a cow hitch knot.
Continue to do this until you’ve covered about half of the jump ring.
To achieve a more bohemian look, you can also glue feathers.

Rainbow Rain Craft Tutorial

Hello!! It’s been a while since I did a tutorial. It’s not because I don’t craft anymore. It’s more of because I’ve been doing so many, but failing to take pics of the steps =)

So for this craft, I’m featuring my daughter’s work of art. I’ve always encouraged my daughter to craft. So, when she saw a tutorial on melting crayons, she decided she’d try it out!

For this craft, we used:

clean paper, a printout of a silhouette of her original drawing, scissors, old crayons, double-sided tape, glue gun and a blower

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What to do:

Using your glue gun, stick the crayons to the top of the paper.
Cut the outline of the silhouette and stick this to the bottom of the page using double-sided tape.
Melt the crayons using the blower. Hold the paper standing up so that the melted crayons flow downwards.
Let this dry completely. You can add cutout of clouds to make it even cuter! You can mount this on a frame and hang as a room decor.