Crafts

Sparkly Ornament Advent Calendar

3 · Nov 7, 2013 · 8 Comments

Well ho ho ho hello there! I'm so happy to be back here again this month! I'm stepping away from my usual food posts, and instead I've got a little Christmas project to share with you. I know, Christmas feels very far away, but it's not really, especially if you want to make your own advent calendar which needs to be ready for December 1!

Every year we have advent calendars for the kids and they love the countdown to the big day (secrets be told, I do too)! I've always just bought those candy or picture advent calendars, but this year I wanted to do something a little different and make my own. I was inspired by this advent calendar that I saw on Bower Power blog a couple of years ago, so when I received a box of ornaments in the mail recently, I knew they would make an amazing advent calendar.

$Ornament-Advent-Calendar-{A-Pretty-Life}7-_edited-1$

The idea with this advent calendar is that there is a unique ornament for each day leading up to Christmas that the kids can hang on our tree.

Here's How To:

Materials:

A picture frame
A piece of cork board to fit the frame
Paper or fabric to cover the cork board
25 paper key tags (you can find these in any office supply store)
25 silver push pins
25 ornaments
number stamps & silver stamping ink
Large ribbon for hanging the frame.

Instructions:

First choose a frame for your calendar, then string through a 2 1/2 foot long ribbon for hanging.
Then cut a piece of cork board to fit the frame, and wrap it in paper or fabric. I liked this sparkly wrapping paper, as it was very forgiving when I needed to move around the push pins…it hid tiny holes well.
Place the covered cork board firmly into the frame.
Chose 25 different ornaments to hang in the frame.
To mark each day, you can use paper key tags, and stamp them with the number of the day.
Now it's time to hang the ornaments! First lay out the ornaments approximately where you would like to hang them.
Use a push pin to first hang the date tag, then the ornament.

That's it! SO simple!

$Ornament-Advent-Calendar-{A-Pretty-Life}2-_edited-1$

Here's what mine looks like all done! Sparkly, fun & festive!

The fun part of making your own advent calendar is you can tailor it to your own Christmas decor. Have fun with colours, textures and different kinds of ornaments!

Here are some ideas for your calendar:

Use a picture frame that you can hang on your wall each season.
Or put heavy duty magnets on the back of the frame so that you can hang it on your fridge.
Keep the background on the frame neutral so you can change the ornaments every year. I just used silver sparkly wrapping paper.

Instead of tree ornaments you can hang:

Little envelopes with Christmas messages.
Or put a little note in an envelope that has a seasonal activity to do for that day: things like skating, make hot chocolate, go for a walk, bake cookies…
You can hang little bags filled with candy.
Fill envelopes or little boxes with tiny treasures like money, earrings, erasers…fun little dollar store items.

I hope I inspired you to make an advent calendar of your own!

Thank you so much for reading today! Have a wonderful day!

Feel free to stop on by anytime! I'd love to have you!

Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter | Instagram

Autumn Inspired Red Bird Buttercream Cake

0 · Nov 5, 2013 · 6 Comments

This buttercream cake post brought to you by Craftsy // Have you ever had that experience of learning a new skill, and then the excitement of wanting to practice, practice, practice? That is totally how I felt after taking the FREE Modern Buttercream Class on Craftsy. I have always wanted to create beautiful cakes and I have learned some skills over the years, but this class really helped to take me to the next level. I learned how to shape the cake so that it looks more professional, not all rounded and wonky. That amazing trick of adding simple syrup to the cake to keep it moist. So many fun fabulous tricks. Not to mention the step-by-step instructions on how to make Swiss buttercream. That helped me with my first practice my simple buttercream cake. You can check it out here. You can tell in that picture I still had some stuff to work on. With all of that, I had to try my hand at another cake. This time I was going to conquer a challenge of mine… FONDANT. In the class Joshua John Russell teaches how to make gum paste embellishments, but I decided I wanted my decor to be made out of fondant. I didn't want my fun graphic elements to be hard I wanted them to be soft but, the steps are pretty close.

For this cake, I was inspired by the beautiful time of year we are in. When we first moved here to Lincoln last year, we arrived at this time of year. It was so fun to actually have a real fall for the first time in 8 years. I had a very special morning one day early on here. I was feeling a little blue with the move and looking out the window at the new scenery. The trees and the leaves were beautiful, but I was feeling weighted down. Then all of a sudden a beautiful Cardinal flew right up next to my window and just sat there for a moment. My spirits soared! I hadn't ever seen such a beautiful red bird. From that time forward, Cardinals have been a special fall friend for me. I decided to make a modern little red bird cake to celebrate the season…

Now remember, I have a little bit of a fear of fondant. For some reason, it has always been one of those elements that only really cool cake decorators could use. I just didn't feel like I was at that level yet. I lacked confidence. After taking Modern Buttercream I felt like it was time to tackle this skill!

I found these fondant cutters from Wilton that are normally leaves, but I thought they could easily turn into cute modern looking birds. I used a fondant roller with rolling pin guides to make sure I had a uniform thickness just like Joshua did while working with the gum paste. He made little butterflies and affixed them to his amazing cake…

I cut out my little birds in just the same way…

Then I pinched the front of the shape to make it look a little more bird like…

I used a little gold Gragée for the eye and then affixed it to the side of the cake.

Because the cake is buttercream, it's super easy to affix the fondant birds right to the side of the cake. I kept things simple with the cake to keep the modern feel. I didn't want a completely smooth cake so I kept a little bit of movement in the buttercream, but not a ton.

It turned out so cute… It also helped that I had the cutest little red bird cake plate that I found while I was at the Smucker's Company Store in Ohio. I just adore it!

Now, as Joshua teaches in the Modern Buttercream class on Craftsy… You can have the most beautiful cake, but if I doesn't taste good, you've missed the mark. Here's one of my little secrets… If you don't have time to bake a cake, but you want to decorate your own cake, go to your favorite bakery! You may want to call a day or two ahead, but you can purchase pre-made cake rounds that are generally frozen and ready to decorate. For sure a time saver, but if you have a good bakery, you know you will always have a scrumptious cake to serve.

I CAN'T WAIT to practice some more. I also can't believe how just a little bit of education can help boost my confidence. I now love cake decorating and can't wait to learn even more though Craftsy. Have you guys checked it out yet? What classes would you like to take?

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Craftsy. The opinions and text are all mine.

DIY Thanksgiving Garland

0 · Oct 28, 2013 · 10 Comments

DIY Thanksgiving Garland //

Hi Whipperberry readers! Haley here, from Life Is Sweet. I can't resist festive garlands, and this year I made a few! I'm enjoying them on our mantle, but any of these would be great on bookshelves, windows, railings, or just up on the wall. Two embraced the feeling of autumn and one embraced the wonderful holiday coming up next month, Thanksgiving! Jenn said it perfectly in her post of her fabulous Thanksgiving Centerpiece–it's a beautiful time of year dedicated to expressing gratitude for blessings, surrounding yourself with loved ones, and making and enjoying great food!

The first two garlands I'm sharing how to make are pretty simple. The leaf garland just calls for needle+thread along with leaves bought from the craft store (I've tried displaying real fallen leaves but they shriveled and lost their color within a couple days). The second one calls for needle+string and pompoms. I happened to find my pom balls at a thrift store (cheers to pre-loved nick-nacks!) but you can order felt poms in an array of colors from Hello Maypole. Then string away!

The "Give Thanks" garland takes a little more work, but is still very doable and you can create whatever message you'd like!

SUPPLIES:

Black cardstock

Scissors

White color pencil

Pencil

Rope/String

Paper hole-punch

Pencil sharpener (not pictured)

Ruler (or Colorbök Scrapbook paper pack has a ruler on the back)

You'll first want to decide the shape and size you want your garland pieces to be–pentagons, triangles, rectangles, circles, etc. Mine are pentagon-shaped that measured out to be 7.5 inches tall and 5.5 inches wide.

For a pentagon shape you cut off two corners–the two short sides of mine measured 2.75 inches and 2.5 inches. Then use that pentagon to trace the rest of the pieces you need–I got two out of each 12×12 inch sheet.

I used a pencil to lightly sketch out the letters (after typing out "GIVE THANKS" in a Word document and chose the two fonts I liked: Snell Roundhand Black and Baskerville Old Face). But stencils would be another great way to get the letters on the garland. You'll then use the white colored pencil to fill in the letters. I loved how it gave it a fun chalk look, without the mess and I was able to be more precise. Now is when the pencil sharpener will come in handy.

You'll use a hole punch to put holes in the top corners of your garland pieces. I used a three-hole punch, and the spacing worked great for me to punch two at a time. Then string them up!

I hung/displayed all three garlands using good ol' scotch tape and, because my mantel is white, colored the tape with a white Painters marker (purchased at Walmart) so it's a bit camouflaged. 😉

Thanks again Heather for having me!

xo, Haley

Thanksgiving Centerpiece

0 · Oct 22, 2013 · 17 Comments

Thanksgiving Centerpiece // Hi all! It's Jenn from My Fabuless Life. Can you believe that Thanksgiving is already around the corner?! The older I get, the more I LOVE Thanksgiving. I love that it gives us a whole month to focus on our blessings, gather with family, and of course, an excuse to throw diet cares out the window and and EAT!!

I loved all of the "Thankful Trees" I saw floating around the blog world last year, so this year, I wanted to create my own. We'll call it the "deconstructed," sparkly version.

I started by cutting out my letters on my Cricut on some mat paper (like for matting pictures). You can pick it up in packages of 20 at Hobby Lobby, and it's super cheap. It's quickly becoming one of my new favorite crafting tools because there are about a million and uses for it.

After I cut out my letters, I just coated them with a layer of Mod Podge, and then glitter. For the sticks, I used some fun paper straws from Target, and for the base, just a stick from the yard.

I drilled holes in the stick and placed the straws in.

Since I wanted the text to be kind of fun and crazy, I hot-glued the letters on at different heights before I trimmed the straws.

Then I trimmed them up and set them on my table.

I wrote down things we were thankful for on some kraft paper (you can see my four year old's on the left–my favorite) and glued them to a few more of the straws. This is my favorite part of this project, because it's a great way to teach my little one about blessings and being grateful, and the responses are priceless–as you can see. You could easily save these in a scrapbook and look back over them each year too, making for some great memories.

Crafts

Footer