DIY tree form and garland Christmas trees

You can see details for my entire Christmas mantel HERE

I wanted to decorate my mantel this year, but (as you have all figured out by now) I'm a cheap-o. As in, I won't pay the $2.50 for a styrofoam tree form kind of cheap-o. I mean, all my money is going toward Rapunzel and Disney princess merchandise, so I can't really afford styrofoam tree forms.

At least that's what I tell myself. It sounds way better than "cheap-o." (Husband if you're reading this, you can thank me later for saving us $2.50. You're welcome.)


So I decided to make my own tree form because I have lots of these:

Here's what you need to make your own cardboard garland trees and be a cheap-o too!

Supplies:

• Cardboard cereal box (for the biggest tree template, you'll need a large cereal box (think Frosted Mini Wheats)
• Hot glue
• Scissors
• 9+ feet of gift wrap garland
• Free downloadable tree forms with 3 sizes HERE

Step 1: Create your tree form.

First, cut out one side of your cereal box. If you're making the large tree form, make sure you don't cut the sides of your cereal box out (found that out the hard way :)

Next, print out and trace my tree form template onto the unprinted side of your cardboard and cut out.

To make the form, you'll need to gently ease your cardboard into a tree shape. Start on one side and gently roll your cardboard (don't fold or bend) until it's all curvy-like.

Pinch the tip of your tree form and secure with hot glue (make sure the tab portion of your tree form is on the inside.) Continue gluing along the tab until the tree is secure.

Ta-dah! Tree!

Now make a forest of them.

Now that you have your tree form, there are a ton of decorative Christmas trees that you could make with your tree form, but I included a tutorial for a simple garland tree below.

Step 2: Attach garland.

I found some cute garland used for wrapping gifts in the Christmas section and decided to make some festive garland trees with my new tree forms. First, put a dab of hot glue on the bottom of your tree form and attach the end of your gift wrap garland.

Continue twisting your garland around the tree, adding dabs of hot glue as you go to secure your garland.

When you reach the tip of your tree form, leave an extra 1/2 inch of garland and tuck the end into the hole of your tree form.

Merry Christmas, enjoy your $2.50 savings ;)

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No-Sew iPhone Costume

Halloween is 7 days away. Oh wait, you knew that? Apparently I chose to completely forget that fact. And also the part about how my son still had no costume for his first trick-or-treat.

We're not huge into Halloween at my house. I have no decorations up and I still don't have a pumpkin (it's probably a lost cause by now), but there is one thing I celebrate very passionately in October: candy. Halloween has always been all about the candy for me. You can keep your suckers and Pixy Stix (and if you are one of those families that give out toothbrushes I know who you are and I will be skipping your house), give me the chocolate! Specifically the Reese's cups and the Baby Ruths.

As a kid, I always made sure to go through my stash after I went trick-or-treating and pick out the good stuff to hide in my room somewhere because we all know that when parents do the "candy inspection" they're not really looking for needles and opened candy, they're looking for chocolate. Now that I have young kids, you better believe I will be doing plenty of candy inspections myself until the kids catch on.


I was feeling the pressure this past weekend since it's my son's first trick-or-treat experience, but since I was low on time and resources I decided the costume had to be inexpensive, quick, and no-sew since I didn't feel like sitting down to a major project. Then as I was surfing the net for ideas on my iPhone, then I realized the answer was right in front of me. I got to work and whipped this baby up in roughly 1 1/2 hours (the apps were what took the longest to cut out and piece together) and while I made this for my 11-month-old, it would easily make a great costume for any age. And I even designed some apps for you to print and cut out. Consider it your Halloween treat!


Supplies:

• Shirt that fits to use as a template
• Felt or fleece for the main fabric
• Assorted felt squares for the apps
• Free app template HERE
• Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks
• Scissors
• Disappearing ink marker

Step 1: Make your main piece.

First, fold the piece of felt or flannel that you chose for the main fabric in half with the fold on top. Tuck the sleeves in and lay your template shirt on top of the fabric to determine the length and width you want your final costume to be (extend it 1 1/2 + inches wider on each side to be safe). Using a disappearing ink marker, trace around your shirt where you will be cutting.

Cut out your rectangle, making sure not to cut across the top where your fold is.

Use your template shirt to determine where your neckline should be and how wide and deep it needs to be and mark this with your disappearing ink marker. I would make the neckline slightly larger than your template shirt's neckline because the felt isn't as stretchy as knit.

Use a CD to round each of the corners like an iPhone.

Cut out your neckline and each of your rounded corners.

Step 2: Cut out the detail pieces.

Now, cut out a rectangle for the screen (use a CD to round the edges like you did above), a small rounded rectangle for the earpiece, and a circle and square for the power button. Position and hot glue these components in place.

Step 3: Create your apps.

This was the really fun part! Determine which apps you want to make for your costume. I looked at my phone and picked several of the simpler ones. I designed the 6 you see below and included them HERE if you want to print and cut them out to make yourself. Just cut out each piece on card stock (which I prefer because it's thicker) or regular print paper, and trace onto squares of felt. Cut out each component and hot glue to assemble.

Now, just arrange your apps on the screen and hot glue them down. Simple!

Step 4: Glue sides.

Pretty explanatory. Since the sides are open, you can choose to leave them this way, but I decided to glue the sides together so my little guy couldn't wiggle out. Just lay your template shirt on top of your costume and use your disappearing ink marker to mark where you want the bottom of the sleeve to be. I marked about an inch down from the sleeve on either side. Hot glue the two sides together from this mark to the bottom of the shirt right before it curves.

And there you have it, a super easy no-sew iPhone costume!

Now obviously since this costume is hot glued instead of sewn, it's not machine washable so just wipe any stains with soap and warm water.

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"I'm with the muggle" HP shirt tutorial

Have you seen the newest Harry Potter movie? I'm sure all of you probably have, most of my cash goes to my kids so movies are hard to come by these days unless they come from Redbox. I will unfortunately have to wait until the movie comes out on DVD to watch it (or maybe go the old fashioned route and read the book - I've read all but the last one!) I do, however, have a friend who is a giant Harry Potter fan and who has gone to every midnight showing of the Harry Potter series so far.

I think the midnight showings would be fun to go to just to people watch. You know the people who go that late/early are undying Harry Potter fans. For some reason, I imagine a theater full of costumed people yelling spells at each other from across the theater, popcorn flying everywhere. I kinda wish I had gone to the midnight showing just to people watch.

Being the last movie in the HP series, I just had to make my friend a Harry Potter shirt, so we decided to go the freezer paper route and whip one up. I wanted to do a play on the "I'm with stupid" shirt but with a Harry Potter theme, so I made a "I'm with the muggle" shirt.

Here's a quick refresher on how to make a shirt using freezer paper stenciling (which is one of the easiest ways to make a great looking shirt with minimal work - woo hoo!)

Supplies:

• T-shirt
• Fabric paint
• Freezer paper (found at the grocery store or Wal-Mart in the same aisle as the foil, baggies, etc.)
• Paint brush
• Iron
• X-Acto knife and mat

Step 1: Trace and cut out your letters.

First, go HERE to download the free Harry P. font. If you're using a craft cutter, type up your wording with an arrow underneath in the size you would like, then cut out your wording on the sticky carrier mat using freezer paper.

If you don't have a craft cutter, simply type up your wording (and add an arrow underneath) in a word document in the size you would like, then print out and place under your freezer paper. Trace the wording, then use an X-Acto knife to carefully cut out each letter on a cutting surface.

Make sure to remove the little paper bits you won't need, but hold onto the inside scraps in the e and letter g's (use tweezers if needed.) Using a hot iron on the "cotton" setting with no steam, Iron your freezer paper wording to the front of your shirt with the shiny side down.

 

Step 2: Apply your paint.

We had to represent for Gryffindor, so we mixed up some red and blue fabric paint to make maroon.

Before painting, make sure you insert some cardboard inside of your shirt so the paint won't leak through to the other side. Carefully paint your fabric paint onto your shirt, painting from the outside in so you don't jam paint outside of the stencil area.

Let dry for the amount of time stated on the bottle. You can heat set it with an iron if you want, I never do but better safe than sorry!

 Step 3: Peel off freezer paper and wear.

After you let your shirt dry for the allotted time, carefully peel off your freezer paper and wear! You can wash and wear as usual.

I totally screwed up and touched the wet paint and got a dot of fabric paint on my shirt....which is why I added a lightning bolt and the HP over the smudge. I kinda like it though.

PS, Rachel over at Maybe Matilda made a great Harry Potter-themed shirt too (check hers out HERE.) Nerds unite!

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The Hospital Survival Kit for new mothers (with printables)

Major life events tend to come in waves sometimes. After graduating from college, it seemed like everyone was getting hitched. I spent that summer working to afford the wedding gifts I needed to buy for the 7 weddings I attended and the 2 bridesmaid dresses I needed to buy for the ones I was in. (I have to say though, all that wedding food was delish. I think the treadmill and I spent a good deal of time together that summer working off all the wedding cake). And yes, it was totally worth it.

After the weddings, a little time went by, I got married myself, then those friends whose weddings I went to started having babies And within a month of getting married, I was pregnant myself. When I packed my baby bag, I tried to be as prepared as I could be since I was new at this whole baby thing. I had that bag packed like I was going out of town for a month. But there were a few things I wish I had brought with me.

After having 2 children at different hospitals, and spending a month and a half on hospital bed rest with my last (you can read more about that lovely experience HERE and HERE), I know there are a few things that new mothers don't necessarily think about packing for their stay. Since a good friend of mine is due with her first any day, I decided to put together a bag of some of these things for her. This is more of a supplement to the actual hospital bag, since I assume most mothers-to-be know to pack the essentials like a toothbrush and toothpaste, clothes for the baby, etc.

The Hospital Survival Kit - a bag full of those extra things that help make a new mother's stay at the hospital a little more tolerable. And I'm sharing the printables with you so you can make one for a friend too!

Just print out the "Hospital Survival Kit" label provided below on card stock, cut out, and use craft glue to glue to attach it to the front of a paper gift bag (don't overdo it with the glue or your label will wrinkle).

For the circular tag, cut out the provided tag and use a hole punch to punch a hole in the top, then attach to one of the gift bag handles with coordinating ribbon.

Then fill 'er up!

Here are some ideas for things to include in the survival kit:

1. Headband and hair ties: When you're focusing on riding out those painful contractions everything gets on your nerves, including stray hair in your face. Plus after being in a hospital bed for 10 hours, your hair tends to look like a troll doll's. When a hoard of family and friends show up to visit you and your little bundle, you're gonna want to tie that mess up.

2. A healthy snack: Many times, babies don't plan their arrival at a convenient hour. My first was polite enough to be born in the evening right before American Idol began, so no problem there. My son, however, was born at 12:37am. By that time there was no available food service for this hungry mama, so I ended up eating a handful of graham crackers and a packet of peanut butter. Unless you prefer to eat like you're in daycare again, snacks are a must. They're also a nice substitute for the hospital food if it turns out to be nasty.

3. A not-so-healthy snack: Chocolate. Because you just gave birth to a person. I'd say you deserve some chocolate, wouldn't you?

4. Face cleansing wipes: Facial wipes to remove makeup and dirt are so helpful to a mother who just had a baby because most of the time you can't get out of bed. Plus, something as simple as washing your face or brushing your teeth make you feel human again after having a baby.

5. Chap stick and other personal care items: How torturous is it that you're not allowed to drink anything when you're in labor? Forget the stinkin' ice chips, somebody breathe on my ice chips and melt them into water!! So of course since you're denied water, your lips tend to become dry and chapped. Take it from me, chap stick is a life saver. And it's even better when it's Burt's Bees pomegranate chap stick, because it's the best chap stick. Ever.

6. Breath mints: After hours of labor and ice chips, it's so refreshing to have a breath mint to suck on. Also, Who wants to waste time brushing your teeth when you have an adorable little bundle to snugglet?

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Click HERE to download and print labels to make your own Hospital Survival Kit. I included labels in pink for a baby girl, blue for a baby boy, and a neutral green as well.

(The labels are approximately 7 1/2" x 3")

How fun would it be to do a separate kit with essentials for the father-to-be? I know my husband would have loved some gift cards to his favorite fast food restaurant so he wasn't forced to eat the hospital food.

What would you add to your Hospital Survival Kit if you made one?

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