Christmas Crafts Part 2

The Sparkling spruce

One of my favorites!

What you will need:

• 2x8 piece of wood, or whatever size fits your fancy (all depends on how large you want your tree)
  
• Sage colored Burlap, or clothe of your choice (i.e. white felt), cut into 3”-4” strips         *we bought the left over scrap pieces they have at the cutting table so they were marked down!
  
• Glitter. I used silver. Spray glitter will also work.
  
• Spray adhesive. If you use spray glitter, you won’t need this!
  
• Hot glue gun with sticks.

The Steps:

1. Cut a triangle out of the 2x8. The dimensions of my tree were  16”x16”x7.5” (the true width of a 2x8). I used my husbands circular saw, but a hand saw should work as well!
   
2. Cut ~1-inch flaps in the strips of fabric. Don’t cut too deeply, however; halfway through should do the trick.
   
3. Take your hot glue gun and squeeze a strip of glue along the bottom of the triangle. Place your strip of fabric on the glue so that the flaps hang off the wood. Then turn the wood piece and do the same on the small side, then the back, and then the other small side, so that in the end you have completed a 360, and fabric completely lines the bottom of the tree.
   
4. Continue with these same steps over and over as you move up the tree. Make sure to overlap fabric so that no wood shows when the flaps come up.
   
5. Optional: Once the tree is covered with fabric spray it with the spray adhesive and dust with glitter. (This would also be a good time to curl the edges of the fabric up if you want them to stand up more). 

Have some fun!
Sydney

Christmas Crafts Part 1

Christmas Trees that are Sure to Please!!

Nothing adds to the spirit of the season like a few festive decorations placed around your abode! For starters, here are a few crafty ideas for some cute Christmas trees!

The Poster-Board Trio: All these trees have the same base, a poster-board cone!

 

The Fall Leaf Tree

This is an easy tree to make, and best of all, you can make it for under $1!!

Materials:

• A single sheet of poster board. It doesn’t have to be thick, any gauge will do!
  
• clear tape such as scotch tape or packing tape
  
• A can of spray adhesive.
  
• Hot glue gun with sticks.
  
• Colorful fall leaves, size and color of your choice. (I would go with already dried or close to dry, otherwise they end up drying once they are already glued and may flap up in a way you don’t like.)
  
• Glitter. Again the color of your choice.

Steps:

1. Take one sheet of poster-board (I used white but a color with work as well). Make a cone, I followed these steps. I ended up using the reverse steps because I wanted mine to be taller and skinnier and felt like the reverse instructions were easier to do that with (if you want shorter and fatter trees, feel free to make them that way as well). Also my tree ended up being about 14 inches tall, but fit your cone to whatever size you want your tree to be.
   
2. Plug in the hot glue gun and allow to heat up. Get a bag or bowl full of the leaves you are planning to use. (You’ll need more or less depending on how big your tree is so just round up a bunch so you don't run out!)
   
3. Starting from the bottom of the cone squeeze a strip of hot glue around the poster-board. Then place leaves all facing the same direction along the glue. (Don't make too long of a glue strip because you wont have time to place all the leaves before it cools down). Continue around and up the entire poster-board. Make sure to overlap the leaves as to eliminate any open spaces through which you can see the poster-board.
   
4. Optional Step: Once all the leaves are on, if you want to put glitter on it, spray the tree with spray adhesive and then gently shake glitter over the tree. Set aside and allow to dry.

 

The Winter Wonderland Tree

This is a very quick and simple tree! (It may need a touch-up each new year if you plan on storing it; it loses its flakes fairly easily)

Materials:

• A single sheet of poster board. It doesn’t have to be thick, any gauge will do!
  
• clear tape, scotch or packing tape                                                        
  
• A can of spray adhesive.
  
• craft glue or Elmer’s glue
  
• one paint brush, used for brushing on glue
  
• One package of Twinkle Flakes (confetti will also work but then most likely it will be a different color)

 

Steps:           

1. Refer to step one of the Fall Leaf Tree
   
2. Pour twinkle flakes out into a flat pan with an edge (I used a cookie sheet)
   
3. Using the paint brush, quickly (as to not allow for much drying) apply a layer of glue around the entire poster-board.
   
4. Roll the tree into the twinkle flakes so all the glue is covered as best you can.
   
5. Spray the tree with the spray adhesive and roll in the flakes again to give it another coat
   
6. Optional: You can follow up with another coat of spray adhesive.

   *Dump the leftover flakes back into the bag to use next year or for another purpose later!                                                             

The Beaded Tree

Also very simple, not as fragile as some of the other trees either!

Materials:

• A single sheet of poster board. It doesn’t have to be thick, any gauge will do!
  
• clear tape such as scotch tape or packaging tape
  
• Hot glue gun with sticks
  
• String of beads, can be simple or fancy, I used a three stranded bead string that I found at my local craft store! (depending on how large your tree is and how long the strand of beads are, make sure you buy enough to cover the entire poster-board)

Steps:

1. Refer to step one of the Fall Leaf Tree
   
2. Heat up glue gun and once hot, begin gluing the beads to the poster-board. You can start at the bottom or the top, either works since you wont be overlapping. Glue the beads in a circular motion, like a spring, all the way around the tree.

  *one tip, the white poster board shows through on this one, so you can either use colored poster-board or take a simple acrylic paint and give it a coat before you wrap the beads. (I coated my poster-board with a yellow acrylic paint and sprinkled some gold glitter over it before I wrapped the gold beads around it.)

          
These are the first three of six total trees! Thanks for reading, let me know what did and didn't work for you.
Sydney

Santa Suit Nails

Now that it is finally the Christmas season I can start doing some fun festive nails! These are the first ones I tried. They are my Santa suit nails and are not too difficult. They do take a little time though, so keep your patience if you try them!

Alright first you start off with the base red coat. I would say do 2 coats to make sure its not see through. Next you do the white stripes down the center and at the bottom. Personally I thought that it would look better with a thin white line at the bottom but after I did them I decided that it would probably look better if it was a little thicker. I also think the line would have looked better if it was straight across my nail instead of following the shape of my nail. But hey that's all up to you! Which ever way you would like best is what you should do! Next after the white is the black stripe across. Don't do it too thin because it is supposed to be a belt. And lastly is the belt buckle. All you do for that is paint a square around the intersection of the white and black stripes. I used silver for my belt buckle because that is what I had but gold would look great as well!! Don't forget a clear top coat to protect them from chipping too quickly!!

Just a reminder I used thin brushed nail polishes for all the stripes and detailed work. I use Art Deco by LA Colors nail polishes. You can get them at Dollar Trees generally! So they aren't too expensive. If they don't have the colors you want I know Sally Hansen makes some too and I'm pretty sure you can get those at Walmart or Target. I hope they work out for you if you try them, and I'd love to hear how it goes!!

(P.S. Sorry the picture is so horrible, but my camera wasn't working so I had to take the picture with my phone and it doesn't have the best camera!)

Hot Cocoa Cookies

My ward is having its Christmas party tonight and there is going to be a dessert contest, so of course I have to participate! All week I was trying to figure out what I was going to make and couldn't decide on anything. I kind of wanted to make a cheesecake, but then I decided I really didn't have the time to do that. And baking a cheesecake makes me nervous because I can never tell when it's actually done. So I searched around and found this delicious looking cookie recipe on Pip & Debby called Hot Cocoa Cookies. It always makes me anxious to try out new recipes when I have to take them somewhere, but I  figured that it couldn't go that wrong being mostly chocolate. :) 

Sorry the pictures are so blurry, but I wanted you all to see how good these babies look! And yes, that is my dorky husband Abel! :) 

I'll be sure to let you all know if I win the contest!

Makes approximately 5 dozen

**On the second batch, instead of putting chocolate under the marshmallow, I put 2 milk duds and it was also delicious for those who like caramel!

Ingredients:
1 stick (4 oz.) unsalted butter
7 bars (3.5 oz. each) semisweet chocolate –
     12 oz. chopped, 7.5 oz. cut into 1-inch
     squares and the rest for garnish
1 ½ cups flour
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups light brown sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
30 marshmallows

Directions:
1. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and chopped chocolate, stirring frequently, over
medium heat. Let cool for 15 minutes.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar, eggs and vanilla at low speed until smooth, 2
minutes. Mix in the cooled chocolate mixture just until blended. Add the flour mixture in 2
batches, mixing on low speed until just combined. Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a
tablespoon, scoop the dough and roll between your palms to form 1-inch balls. Arrange
about 16 balls 2 inches apart on each cookie sheet, flattening slightly. Bake until the tops of
the cookies crack, about 12 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, snip 8 marshmallows in half crosswise and stick 1 square of chocolate onto
each of the cut sides.
6. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven; gently press a marshmallow half, chocolate side
down, into each cookie. Bake until the marshmallows are just softened, about 4 minutes.
Transfer the pans to racks to cool for 5 minutes; grate the remaining chocolate over the hot
cookies. Using a spatula, transfer the cookies to the racks; let cool. Repeat the process with
the remaining dough.