Holidays

DIY Farmhouse Felt Christmas Ornaments

56 · Nov 14, 2018 · Leave a Comment

I am going to label this season at WhipperBerry the felt season. I LOVE all things felt and I love being able to cut and customize my felt designs using my Cricut Maker & my cute little Cricut EasyPress 2. I have been wanting to create a farmhouse style tree that is all black & white so I thought some simple and elegant felt ornaments are a perfect addition to the tree. Farmhouse felt Christmas ornaments are sure to be a classic staple for years to come as you decorate for the holidays, plus they are super easy to store and won’t break! I love it!! Here’s how you can make a set of your own.

+ This post is sponsored by my favorite folks at Cricut +

What I love about these ornaments is that you can tell your Christmas story right on your tree with these simple word ornaments. If you love Santa and would like to have a tree dedicated to words that evoke fond memories of all things Santa, you can create that!

If you would like to tell the story about the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ you can do that as well. I know that each family is different but that’s what’s beautiful about these simple ornaments. You create your own story.

Not to mention the fact that YOU can select the colors. If you are like me and would like to stick with black & white, great. If you want to have a rainbow tree, awesome! It’s all up to you and I LOVE that. Here, let me show you what you need and how to make these simple but elegant ornaments for your tree.

Farmhouse Felt Christmas Ornaments Supplies

Instructions

First, what you’ll need to do is to click on this LINK to my project in Cricut Design Space. My design will let you add your own words and customize it how you would like OR, open Design Space and create some ornament designs of your own.

Now, if you are using my design, everything is sized and ready to go for you. If you are creating some ornaments of your own design, double check the sizes and make sure everything is prepped and ready to cut. If you don’t know how to do that you can visit this post that has a full video tutorial on how to prep your design for cutting in design space.

Once you are ready to cut, all you need to do is load your felt onto your Fabric cutting mat and follow the directions on the Design Space screen.

Now for cutting the felt, I have been more successful using the rotary blade than the deep cut blade so, you’ll have to manually change that when you’re ready to cut.

Here are a couple of VERY IMPORTANT RULES…

When cutting felt on the Fabric Cutting Mat, DON’T worry about the fuzz that is left behind. I have been cutting all kinds of felt on just one cutting mat with fuzz and all and it’s not a problem. The more you play around with the cutting mat and try to scrape or wash that felt fuzz off, the more you are damaging your mat. Just keep going and ignore the fuzz. Of course, test to make sure that your felt is secure on the mat. It will after quite a few cuts become difficult to use and at that point, it’s a better idea to dispose of that mat and start using another one.
DON’T FORGET TO MIRROR YOUR IMAGES! I’ve done it more than I would like to admit which drives me CRAZY! When you are cutting your designs when using the iron-on vinyl, make sure to mirror your images. Remember, the design is cut on the back side of the Everyday Iron-On. You will flip it over and iron on your design onto the surface of your project.

It looks like a crazy bunch of backward letters but, flip it over and cut out your words and it looks just fine.

Now that your words are all cut along with your felt ornaments now, it’s time to press the EveryDay Iron-on onto the felt.

HANDS-DOWN the best tool to press any type of iron-on material is any of the Cricut EasyPress tools. I love these gems and don’t know what I would do without them in my crafting arsenal. The EasyPress and the EasyPress 2 machines are far superior to a regular iron. If you love to create anything with an iron-on element you need to invest in one or more of these great machines. The heat plate holds a consistent temperature all throughout the plate. With irons, you will have hot and cool spots. Also, the EasyPress 2 heats up super quick! I LOVE all three of the EasyPress 2 sizes. For this project, I’m using the small 6×7 size. CUTEST LITTLE EASYPRESS EVER!!

Now, all you need to do is to lay your felt down on your EasyPress Mat, place your words on the felt in the proper place, cover your ornament with the Cricut Protective Mat or a cotton tea towel and press with the small Easypress 2 set to 35o˚ for 60 seconds.

I use the remover tool to save my heat sensitive fingers from the Easy Press Mat and let it cool for about 1 minute.

Then I carefully pull the protective sheet from the top of the Everyday Iron-on material. Always start slow and pull carefully. If you see any lifting, stop and give it another run under the EasyPress 2.

Now, all you need to do is add some ribbon bows if you’d like and some ribbon for the ornament to hang from.

And, that’s it! You have some great non-breakable ornaments for your tree or to use as gift tags or even for a simple gift for neighbors!

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

White Chocolate Ginger Scone Mix In A Jar

50 · Nov 6, 2018 · 6 Comments

This post is brought to you by Ball® Fresh Preserving Products by Newell Brands

When it comes to Holiday gifting, I wholeheartedly believe the best friend, neighbor, co-worker, and teacher gifts come wrapped in a jar. Don’t you? Scrumptious jellies, jams, preserved fruit, and veggies. Not to mention; candies, cookies, fudge, cupcakes, rolls… I could go on and on. I LOVE what you can do with a simple Ball® Mason Jar. This year, I’m working on all kinds of fun gifts for the Holidays that will look spectacular gifted inside of a jar. One of my favorites is the White Chocolate Ginger Scone Mix in a jar. It’s really easy to put together a whole bunch of these gifts and really not expensive at all. It’s always a bonus to save a little money during the holidays.

To put these together you will need to gather a few ingredients, grab some classic BALL® WIDE MOUTH QUART JARS and in no time you’ll have a bunch of scrumptious gifts to share with your friends and neighbors. Here’s what you need…

White Chocolate Ginger Scones Mix Supplies

BALL® HOME CANNING FUNNEL

2 tsp Ginger, ground
3 3/4 cups All-purpose flour
2 Tbsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Baking soda
1/2 cup Brown sugar, packed
1 tsp Cinnamon, ground
1/4 tsp Cloves, ground
1/4 tsp Nutmeg, ground
1/2 tsp Salt

1 cup White Chocolate Chips

3 – Quart size wide-mouth Ball® Jars

Printed copies of the baking instructions and labels on card stock paper

Ribbon

Greenery

Instructions

Now, this project makes 3-quart jars, however, feel free to double, triple… quadruple the recipe to make however many you need.

One tool I find invaluable when creating gifts like this is my handy funnel. I love this thing! It’s specially designed for wide mouth mason jars and it helps so much with keeping the mess down, not to mention wasted ingredients.

I like to line up my jars like an assembly line and then layer each ingredient.

I start with the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. In a small bowl, I combine those three ingredients and then evenly distribute them into the 3 jars.

Next, I add the brown sugar, then the spices & salt.

Then, top it all off with the white chocolate chips.

Now is the extra fun part, decorating the jar. I have two options for you here. If you are a Cricut owner and would like to use my Cricut cut files for the jars, you can access those HERE.

The graphics for these labels will be different than the printable labels, however, they are both just as classy.

If you would like to print your labels, HERE is the link to be able to download this printable label, jar topper & mixing directions.

Now, all you have to do is add your jar toppers to the lid and tie your label on with ribbon along with a sprig of greenery.

Michaels Dream Tree Challenge 2018

23 · Nov 1, 2018 · 2 Comments

+ This post brought to you by the amazing folks at Michaels +

I am beyond honored to be able to participate in the Michaels Dream Tree Challenge again this year. I LOVE getting to put together my perfect tree and share what I’ve created with you guys. This year’s tree is standing majestically in our entryway and it looks beautiful!! I love how Michaels makes it so easy to create a cohesive holiday look. Michaels holiday décor collections make it easy to find your holiday style and bring your vision to life! From the perfect tree and trimmings to creative gifts and DIY supplies, Michaels has all the ingredients to create wonder-filled memories for family and friends.

I had so much fun working on this tree! Several of the decorations on the tree were made with inexpensive items that you will find at Michaels that have been crafted into something simple and timeless for the tree. For example, we’ll start at the base of the tree and work our way up. I purchased this bucket at Michaels a little while ago and spray painted it a bronze-like gold and that is what I am using for my tree stand. I removed the official tree stand from the tree and fill the bucket with styrofoam cake rounds from Michaels to secure the tree in place. Then I filled the bucket the rest of the way up with matte white Christmas balls.

I wanted the tree to look nice and full regardless of the fact that it is a pencil tree so I filled in the tree with batting to make it look like it has been out in a glorious winter snowfall.

It’s crazy how the batting can add so much to the look of the tree. I wanted this tree to have a farmhouse style and what’s more farmhouse than some greenery? I wanted to think a little outside of the box and add greenery that isn’t the typical evergreen that you find during the holidays. I opted for different types of eucalyptus and some other basic greenery that you can find in the Michaels floral isles. I also tucked some wood snowflakes in as a base element for the tree.

Now for the extra fun part! This year I made my own clay ornaments out of oven-baked clay that you can find at Michaels.

I rolled out the clay and cut out stars and circles with cookie cutters that I found at Michaels. Then, I used a leather alphabet stamp set to imprint words into the clay. I will have a full tutorial on how to make these fun ornaments in the next few days. Stay tuned!

One of my favorite parts of the tree are the ball ornament clusters.

Instead of just hanging the balls on the tree, I hot glue them together in clusters and then wire them to the tree with floral wire.

This little trick can take your Christmas tree to a whole other level. It makes it look like a professional decorated your tree for you. Also, making ribbon picks by folding a 6-inch piece of ribbon in half and then wiring the ends together also make your tree look professionally decorated.

Then there is the star! I made mine using 1 inch unfinished wood balls that I found at Michaels. I did have to drill holes in them myself but, that was totally fine. I wanted a nice large wood ball for this star tree topper. I will have a post shortly as well for how to make this classic Christmas star.

And, finally… The fabulous Christmas Farmhouse decor that I just HAD to add to my Christmas scene. You guys REALLY need to check this stuff out. They have come up with some fabulous collections for this season! This is the Fireside collection that I used for my tree inspiration.

photo credit | Michaels Instagram

I LOVE the Advent House that is huge and will be a Christmas treasure from now on in our house. the reindeer, the wood presents and the pillows! Michaels has fabulous holiday pillows right now. AND then… there are the signs! You guys, enamel signs!! Metal signs!! So many incredible signs!!

All you need is to stock up on some Command Strips and you can add all kinds of great holiday signs all over the house! Are you excited to start your holiday decorating?! I know that I’m loving my entryway tree corner and can’t wait to put up my main Christmas tree in a few weeks! I can’t wait to see what you guys create this year!

Snowflake Lantern Holiday Gift Idea

855 · Oct 17, 2018 · 7 Comments

I’m not sure if there is anything more glorious than the thought of the first snow each year. I don’t care if you love or hate snow, the first snowfall of the year is always a fun event.

The autumn is full of fun treats like all things pumpkin, apple preserves, hayrides through the pumpkin patch and so much more.

Towards the end of the autumn festivities there arrives a great anticipation in the air… when will it snow? I feel like no matter what part of the country you live in, snowflakes are truly magical. I’m thrilled that this season’s Ball® Keepsake Collectible Holiday Jar is an ode to the stunning snowflake!

I decided that a fun way to use this fun collectible jar is to make snowflake lanterns that are perfect for dressing up your home for the winter season or, as a fabulous holiday gift.

I can just imagine an army of these snowflake lanterns lining the walkway up to your home this winter season, warmly inviting your friends into your holiday gathering.

Won’t that be pretty? Let me teach you how to make them.

Snowflake Lantern Supplies

This project is pretty simple and doesn’t really require much in the way of supplies. Here is what you’ll need.

There are three different options for the Ball Mason jars. You can get a 4 pack of Keepsake Ball Mason jars, an 8 pack of regular Ball Mason jars, or a 12 pack of Snowflake Holiday jars. Now that I’ve redone this project a few times, I recommend the Snowflake Jars.

You can make these every Christmas! The snowflake jars add a really nice touch.

Ball® Snowflake Holiday Jars (12 Pack) This is the best option!
Regular jars in a set of 8
Regular jars set of 4
decoupage glue & Foam Brush Kit
Epsom salt – 1/2 cup for every 4 pack of jars
2 1/2 inch circle vinyl sticker (optional)
decorative sand filler (optional)
small candles
3/8” black ribbon
greenery with small berries
hot glue gun with sticks

Snowflake Lantern Instructions

This first part of the project will be super fun to do with your older kiddos. Grab your Ball® Keepsake Collectible Holiday Jars, decoupage glue, foam brush, stickers (if you are using them) and Epsom salt.

You’ll want to protect your work surface and have some type of container big enough to fit the jar into along with a large spoon at the ready.

ball

Fill your container with the Epsom salt half way.

Place your sticker over the snowflake to protect that area from the decoupage glue and Epsom salt.

If you don’t want to bother with the sticker, that’s totally fine. I made mine using my Cricut Maker or you can order them online. I prefer the sticker method because it creates a nice crisp line for the circle window of the lantern.

You are more than welcome to freehand a circle around the snowflake with your foam brush. Just know that your lines won’t be as perfect.

Cover your jar from below the rim down with the decoupage glue. Do not place glue on the bottom of the jar or on the jar threads.

Using your large spoon, carefully cover the jar with the Epsom Salt. Make sure not to touch the surface of the jar with the glue on it. It will make for uneven coverage of “snow” on the jar. I also found that rolling the jar in the Epsom salt really didn’t give the desired effect as well. You really want to pour the “snow” over the decoupaged jar to create the nice snowy effect.

Let your jars dry, undisturbed overnight.

This is a great project to make an assembly line. Grab a friend or your older kiddos and go to town and make a bunch of these fun gifts for friends, neighbors, teachers, bosses… I could go on and on. I LOVE that it could be a great holiday gift that doesn’t involve sugar!

The following day, carefully remove your vinyl sticker. You may want to use a toothpick or tweezers to help get the sticker removal started.

Also, you may want to wear eye protection, the Epsom salt tends to fly in this stage of the process. I managed to have a little piece fly into my mouth and it was NOT tasty. So…eye protection and keep your mouth closed.

Now you’re ready to decorate your jar. Fire-up your hot glue gun and prep your ribbon and winter greenery. I found my greenery at Michaels. It was a little wreath that I disassembled, and it worked perfectly.

I hot glued the greenery just above the lip of the jar that leads into the jar threads. I found that a little hot glue dot helped to secure the bottom section of the greenery to the jar creating it a nice frame around one side of the snowflake window.

Next, I tied the ribbon around the top of the jar, covering the hot glued section of the greenery, and tying a little knot. After that, I snipped off the ends using the inverted point technique.

Then, fill the bottom of the jar with a 1/4 cup of either Epsom salt or decorative sand.

I found the Ball® preserving funnel came in handy here.

After I placed the little candle into the jar, I lit-her-up!

These snowflake lanterns made from the Ball® Keepsake Collectible Holiday Jars look snowy and beautiful. All ready to usher in those Hygge winter nights!