12 Days of Christmas: Handmade Christmas Cards

One of my favorite activities to do every Christmas is to make Christmas cards. I don't have a ton of people to send to, so it's a fairly quick project for me. I think the largest amount I've ever made was maybe a dozen and this year it's even less than that. 

Every year after the holidays all the Christmas decorations, crafting supplies, etc. always go on sale for really cheap so I grabbed a card-making kit from Michael's last year. (I'm pretty sure they come out with new ones every year if you're interested in purchasing one). The colors and patterns of the papers and elements were right up my alley and I figured a kit would stream-line the process. It even had a small cheat sheet with card ideas if you really wanted to make things simple and quick. It also limits my focus so I only have a limited amount of supplies to choose from. (I have a slight addiction to paper-crafting supplies and sometimes it gets a little overwhelming to choose what I want to work with!)

This kit included everything I needed to create the cards except for adhesive which I have plenty of. I also delved into my stash and grabbed a few extras like glitter, sequins, trims, etc. to give the cards a little glitz and glamour. Plus, I'm pretty sure it's a rule that Christmas cards have to have glitter, right?

 Basically I just laid everything out on my table and picked what I wanted to work with and started putting things together. It's as simple as that really. Once I had each card laid out how I wanted, I glued things down and that was it! 

I hope you liked my cards as much as I do! For anyone reading, do you prefer to make your own cards or do you purchase some of those fun boxed sets that are everywhere this time of year? 

12 Days of Christmas: Christmas Stockings Tutorial

I figured what better way to start off my 12 days of Christmas than with a tutorial on how to make Christmas stockings. My family somehow manages to lose their stockings each year and we were down to a pretty rag-tag group of mismatched leftover ones. So I decided to make everyone new ones this year! 

Our stockings don't stay in one place since we all live in different locations so instead of having them match each other, I made a different one for each person based on what I thought they would like. I did try to unify them a bit by adding a white cuff and accents. 

Here's what you'll need:

• Fabrics for the outside of the stockings. I chose flannel and I bought 1/2 yard of each if it was an allover pattern, 2/3 yard if the pattern was 1-way.
• White fabric (again I chose flannel) for the cuff, heel, and toe. I used 1/4 yard for each stocking.
• Fabric puffy paint in colors to match your fabrics
• Patterns for stocking, heel, and toe. Find patterns here.
• Pins, scissors, thread, sewing machine.

Optional: I found a fun font and printed out each person's name on sheets of paper. I then traced over that (process is explained below).

I wanted to make sure the names looked fairly uniform so I looked online and found a great font that I wanted to use on the stockings. I made sure to print them all the same size and I made them bold so that I could really see the names through the fabric. For the cuffs, I cut 2 9"x11" pieces of fabric (I didn't attach a pattern for this since it's just a simple rectangle). I laid one of the pieces on top of the paper and used the fabric paint to trace the letters. (If you like your handwriting and aren't worried about them looking the same, free-hand the names onto the fabric.) I did all the cuffs ahead of time so the paint was completely set before I continued with the stockings.

Next, you'll want to cut out the patterns. You'll need two pieces of the stocking fabric and two each of the heel and toe (cut out of the white accent fabric). The toe and heel both have two layers of the white since you could see the base fabric with just one layer. I laid the cut pieces onto the stocking base so you can get an idea of what the finished product will look like.

Now you'll need to sew the heel and toe onto one of the stocking pieces. Make sure you're using the same side for all your stockings so they all face the same way. First I used a straight stitch to tack the pieces to the base, then I used a small zigzag/button stitch to applique the edges down. 

I forgot to take a picture, but you'll need to sew the front stocking piece to the back making sure the right sides are together. Turn the stocking right side out after you've finished.

The next part is in two steps. First you'll need to sew the two cuff pieces together (again, right sides together and turn right side out when finished) and fold the sewn cuff in half with the name on the outside. The best way I can think to explain this is you'll fold the bottom edge up so it meets the top edge. You'll have a skinny tube if you've folded it correctly.

Next you'll need to pin the cuff to the stocking. This is where it gets a teensy bit tricky to explain because you have to make sure you're pinning the side of the cuff with the name to the front of the stocking. The cuff is pinned to the inside of the stocking, with the name facing the wrong side of the front part of the stocking. Hopefully the photo above shows that alright. Sew the cuff and flip right side out.

And you're done! This is my first tutorial, so please let me know if there's anything you liked or you think I could do better. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions and thanks for looking!

12 Days of Christmas

My favorite time of year is Christmas. Everything about it is just absolutely magical and I don't think I'll ever outgrow that giddiness and sense of excitement whenever the day grows near.

And don't forget about the snow! I'm not one of those outdoorsy types who loves being in the cold, brisk air swishing back and forth on a ski slope but I can't imagine Christmas without snow. The way it blankets the ground and glitters on tree branches just makes me smile. Have you ever seen bare branches just frosted with the stuff? Again, magical.

This was taken several years ago on my way to work. Digital overlay by Robin Gough Designs.

So with all that being said, I've decided to do (attempt to do) 12 days of Christmas here on my blog. I'm going to try my best to have a post everyday from December 14th through December 25th. 

A little sneak peek at what's to come!

 The posts will be a mix of Christmas crafts, decor, and baking along with fun holiday makeup looks. It'll be everything from full tutorials to quick and simple photo posts. This time of year gets busy for me and for everyone (and I work in retail which is hectic on a normal day!)so this is a pretty big undertaking. If anyone is reading this, please feel free to share ideas or things you would like to see. I have several of my posts planned out already but there is definitely room in there! Thanks for reading and I hope you'll join me in the next few weeks for my 12 days of Christmas adventure! 

Ursula makeup and costume

This past April, I attended an anime convention called Anime Detour. I've been there a couple times before but this was the first year I dressed in costume, or cosplayed. I decided to go as Ursula from the Little Mermaid.

Photo by WM Andrew Murphy

 It was really fun! I made the tentacles and underskirt myself out of fabric, wire, and fiber fill. I purchased the corset because there was no way I was going to try and tackle that project! I also made the necklace and earrings out of air dry clay and paint. I originally considered making them out of polymer clay but thought they might get a bit heavy. My favorite part of the costume by far was the makeup.

Photo by WM Andrew Murphy

The base was just standard cream face makeup available at party stores. The rest was almost all eyeshadow! The contouring was done with a Fergie by Wet n Wild palette, and I'm pretty sure the actual eye makeup was done with a large E.l.f. palette. (I did three trial runs to get the look right and I don't remember what I finally decided on.) The  hardest part was covering my eyebrows so I could create Ursula's dramatic brows. I did some research and eventually chose to cover them with a standard school glue stick. It worked pretty darn well! Now I just need to decide who I'm going as next year...

Quick FOTD

With the holiday weekend, I didn't have time to put together a proper post so today will just be a quick face of the day featuring Revlon's Kissable Balm Stain in Lovesick. Regular posts should resume on Friday!

Happy 4th of July!

Just a quick face of the day post. I wanted to create a fun, patriotic look in celebration of Independence Day. I used a white shadow all over the lid with a matte blue to create sort of cut crease (my first attempt!), winged liner, and falsies to finish the eyes. Bright red lips complete the look. Bonus pic of my fancy schmancy nails!

 

e.l.f Eye Transformer Palette

Today's post will be a short review on the e.l.f. Eye Transformer Palette. This was another birthday gift from my lovely sister (Happy Birthday to her, btw!) and I'm glad she gave it to me because otherwise I wouldn't have known it existed. I've never seen it reviewed or talked about elsewhere so it was brand spanking new to me. The palette consists of 4 very pale, pearly shades and comes with a small, stiff brush.

 At first glance, the colors aren't exactly impressive but they're not really meant to be used alone. According to the package, "Wear alone or in combination with your favorite dark eyeshadow or line color to transform the shade." And as you can see in the photo, when swatched over a dark color (in this case Nyx's Jumbo Eye Pencil in Dark Chocolate)the shades really do come to life. I also applied each color to my eyes to get a better idea of what they would look like:

 I was most impressed with the green and purple/blue colors - they popped the most on top of the dark base. The other two were more muted, but still pretty. It's definitely a fun concept to be able to change your shadow color but the extra step doesn't seem like it would necessarily be worth it. If I want any of the colors in the photo above, I would be more likely to just choose them from an eyeshadow palette instead of creating them myself. Still, not a bad little palette and for $3.00, it's worth it just to play around.