DIY Easy Wrapping Paper Art!

I (Emily) made this easy wrapping paper art in less than 15 minutes with items I already had in my home and you can, too! My project started by cutting a triangle out of poster board. I freehanded this, but feel free to use a straight-edge or a template. I’m not that into straight lines. Obviously.

Making A Merry Christmas: Easy Wrapping Paper Art!

I used my scalloped circle hole puncher to cut lots of circles from my wrapping paper and pages from an old book.

Starting from the bottom, I arranged lines of circles on my tree, glueing them as I went. I decided to do every other line out of the book print because…well, no reason. Just because.

Many lines later, I placed my final, red circle on the tree. That process took me a total of 7 minutes. I found a sheet of woodgrain wrapping paper in my closet that I’d picked up at Paper Source last year. I think it’s perfect for this project! I cut the paper to fit inside an old frame (minus the glass) and attached the tree to it using double-sided tape. I doubled up my double-sided tape to lift it off the woodgrain a bit. And, that was that. Another 7 minutes gone. I love fast projects!!

I love these projects because A) they were super fast to complete B) they only cost me supplies from my closet and C) they can be 100% tailored to your own personal Christmas decor. Is your wrapping paper Silver and Gold? Blue and White? Turquoise and Red? Yep, those colors will work too. See what I mean?! Perfectly tailorable!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Hi, I’m Emily from 52mantels.com. I’m the wife to a wonderful hubby who puts up with my constant projects and I’m the brand-new mommy to one perfect little bow-wearing baby. I’m also a habitual DIY girl with a passion for creating a beautiful home on a budget. When I’m not crafting and creating, I’m planning my next craft or creation. Obsessed? Perhaps. But, I prefer the word focused. I’m focused on making my house a home and doing it creatively. Because, let’s face it, creativity is the best friend of the frugal gal. I’m always up to something at 52 Mantels. Won’t you join me on my journey?

Check out more holiday DIY projects!

DIY Oh, Christmas Tree Wreath!

by Dian 1 Comment

DIY Oh, Christmas Tree Wreath!

Each year I (Emily) get to spruce up my baby girl’s room for Christmas, and I love this easy and affordable idea for holiday decor – the Oh, Christmas Tree Wreath!

Making A Merry Christmas: Oh, Christmas Tree Wreath!

The two, thin gold trees were HomeGoods finds from last year and the paper tree was a project I featured previously.

I added a cute, pink church and bowl o’ shiny ornaments and her room is officially spruced for Christmas!

Do you like the Oh, Christmas Tree wreath? Well, stay put and I’ll break it down for you. I started with a large, wooden embroidery hoop, a square of cream burlap, a handful of shiny, tiny ornaments, aqua and green yarn, a vinyl stencil and pewter fabric paint. Oh, and my hot glue gun. To stencil my words, I used my silhouette to first cut them out. Then I did the opposite of what I usually do. I discarded the letters and kept the negative space.

Here’s a picture:

For the sake of pictures, I should have chosen a different color vinyl, huh??

I then used a foam sponge to paint the stencil. This is burlap, so it doesn’t have to be perfect. The weave kind of hides imperfections. I wanted it to look a bit aged and distressed, so I used a light touch when painting the letters.

After the paint dried, I stuck the burlap in my hoop and trimmed the excess. Then I wrapped the top with a length of yarn. Easy as can be!

I glued the ornaments on after the burlap was placed in my hoop. This was also easy. Simply, arrange your tree and glue each piece down with hot glue. I put a scrap of fabric down under the hoop in case any glue dripped through the loose weave of the burlap.To make the tree trunk, I took a small cardboard square (a scrap of an old diaper box) and wrapped aqua yarn around it and then glued the trunk in place.

I love how it turned out! I love how festive my sweet punkin’s room is! And, I have another cute project to show you on the opposite side of her room. But, you’ll have to come back to see it! (Is the suspense killing you?)

Let me know if you try this project out. I’d love to see what you come up with!

Hi, I’m Emily from 52mantels.com. I’m the wife to a wonderful hubby who puts up with my constant projects and I’m the brand-new mommy to one perfect little bow-wearing baby. I’m also a habitual DIY girl with a passion for creating a beautiful home on a budget. When I’m not crafting and creating, I’m planning my next craft or creation. Obsessed? Perhaps. But, I prefer the word focused. I’m focused on making my house a home and doing it creatively. Because, let’s face it, creativity is the best friend of the frugal gal. I’m always up to something at 52 Mantels. Won’t you join me on my journey?

DIY Woodgrain Gift Tags!

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DIY Woodgrain Gift Tags!

If you still need to wrap up those gifts, I’m going to give you a tutorial for woodgrain gift tags today.

Making A Merry Christmas: Woodgrain Gift Tags!

For my gifts, I used: 1. yarn 2. brown masking paper 3. 1-inch circle cutter 4. corner rounder 5. alphabet stamps/brown ink pad 6. silver & gold glittered letter stickers (Target @ $2) 7. hole punch 8. 2-inch circle cutter 9. 9 foot cheap garland ($1 @ Dollar Tree) Gather your supplies.

I used the above supplies plus woodgrain contact paper ($1 @ Dollar Tree) and white poster board. First, I took a section of the contact paper and covered about 1/4th of the poster board with it. Then I cut various size rectangles and 2-inch circle tags from the (now) woodgrained poster board.

On some of the gifts, I used the 2-inch circle cutter to cut directly from the contact paper. This allowed me to use the circles as stickers for a handful of the packages.

Using my tiny alphabet stamps, I stamped words directly on some of the gifts or on round 2-circles cut from the masking paper.

On the remaining tags, I used the glittered letters to add a pretty monogram.

After all of my gifts were wrapped, I used yarn and varying lengths of garland to attach my tags to the gifts. Each package and each tag is different. Anything goes, so have fun with it!

I added a large letter j out of garland and a woodgrain sticker (cut from the contact paper with my 1-inch circle cutter) for my hubby’s gift.

The packages look so festive under my Christmas tree! All that’s left to do is sit back and enjoy this Merry Christmas!

Hi, I’m Emily from 52mantels.com. I’m the wife to a wonderful hubby who puts up with my constant projects and I’m the brand-new mommy to one perfect little bow-wearing baby. I’m also a habitual DIY girl with a passion for creating a beautiful home on a budget. When I’m not crafting and creating, I’m planning my next craft or creation. Obsessed? Perhaps. But, I prefer the word focused. I’m focused on making my house a home and doing it creatively. Because, let’s face it, creativity is the best friend of the frugal gal. I’m always up to something at 52 Mantels. Won’t you join me on my journey?

Hanging Advent Calendar + FREE Printable Tags!

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Hanging Advent Calendar + FREE Printable Tags!

Emily is back with her awesome holiday crafts! This week’s “Making A Merry Christmas” craft – Hanging Advent Calendar + FREE Printable Tags!

I placed my advent calendar across a large door-turned-chalkboard in my kitchen. It’s the perfect spot for adding Christmas cheer, but well out of reach of tiny hands. Momma gets to control the advent calendar!

I started with a turquoise clothesline from Dollar Tree. To that, I added 8 kraft bags (stamped with a peacock feather), 8 hanging white tags and 8 chevron treat bags. I attached it all to the clothesline with clothespins. I then attached my number squares. Easy peasy!

What’s in my bags? Well, I decided we’d focus on creating memories by doing activities together as a family and with our friends. With that goal in mind, each day has a different activity attached to it. In the kraft bags, I’ve simply placed inside one Christmas-themed coloring sheet because my daughter LOVES to color! On those days, we’ll have some mommy/daughter coloring time. I’ll use this activity to chat about the meaning of Christmas and spend quality, focused time with my little punkin. On the tags and in the bags I’ve written various activities including: checking out Christmas books from the library, having our playgroup friends over for a Christmas party, visiting grandparents, adopting an angel tree angel and several others. I chose things that we’d likely be doing anyway and, because the tags are moveable, I’m free to swap activities whenever I want! If the thought of coming up with 24 activities is overwhelming to you, consider doing 12 days of Christmas instead.

My clothespins came from Dollar Tree in a pack of 36. I simply placed a piece of washi tape on each one and trimmed the excess. Easy breezy!

Feel free to grab my printable tags below! To use them, right click each image and save it to your computer. They’ll print on a standard 8.5″ x 11″ piece of card stock.

To see another Advent Calendar and grab those FREE printable tags, click here.

Hi, I’m Emily from 52mantels.com. I’m the wife to a wonderful hubby who puts up with my constant projects and I’m the brand-new mommy to one perfect little bow-wearing baby. I’m also a habitual DIY girl with a passion for creating a beautiful home on a budget. When I’m not crafting and creating, I’m planning my next craft or creation. Obsessed? Perhaps. But, I prefer the word focused. I’m focused on making my house a home and doing it creatively. Because, let’s face it, creativity is the best friend of the frugal gal. I’m always up to something at 52 Mantels. Won’t you join me on my journey?

Check out more holiday DIY projects!

Making A Merry Christmas: Mini Parfaits At The Holly Jolly Jingle Hoppin’ Cousins’ Christmas Party!

by Dian 1 Comment

Making A Merry Christmas: Mini Parfaits At The Holly Jolly Jingle Hoppin’ Cousins’ Christmas Party!

In the spirit of spending quality time with our family this Christmas, my daughter and I hosted my nieces and nephew (along with my sisters and mom, of course) for a Holly Jolly Jingle Hoppin’ Cousins’ Christmas Party.

(You know I like to title things.)

Today I’m going to show you some cute, mini (and oh, so jolly!) parfaits, perfect for my cute, mini (and oh, so jolly!) party guests.

For these little treats, I used:

1 box of lime jello

1/2 of a large container of strawberry yogurt

and approximately 12 strawberries, quartered.

I’m not even calling this a recipe because all I did was make the jello according to the instructions on the box, divide that evenly among 8 small dishes (I used the Tasting Party Dessert Bowls from Pier 1), add a layer of strawberry yogurt and top with a few strawberry slices.

Easy as can be! When I do party food I do things that can be assembled ahead of time. Who wants to be stuck in the kitchen when guests arrive?? Not me.

Of course, I had to dress these little parfaits up a bit, so I created a set of toppers and printed those out on my trusty epson. Like the last free tags I made, I did these to fit my 2 inch circle cutter. Because that turns a cute topper into a cute and EASY topper.

After I punched them out, I attached them to toothpicks with glue and stuck them into a strawberry.

The kids gobbled them up while my lil’ punkin watched in amusement.

It’s safe to say the parfaits were a hit.

You didn’t think I would leave without sharing my toppers with you, did you??

Of course I wouldn’t. Here they are:

Download here

Hi, I’m Emily from 52mantels.com. I’m the wife to a wonderful hubby who puts up with my constant projects and I’m the brand-new mommy to one perfect little bow-wearing baby. I’m also a habitual DIY girl with a passion for creating a beautiful home on a budget. When I’m not crafting and creating, I’m planning my next craft or creation. Obsessed? Perhaps. But, I prefer the word focused. I’m focused on making my house a home and doing it creatively. Because, let’s face it, creativity is the best friend of the frugal gal. I’m always up to something at 52 Mantels. Won’t you join me on my journey?

GSFF

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DIY Easy Wrapping Paper Art!