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arts and craft, Build It, Crafts, Decorating, DIY, DIY tools, DIYCourage, Do It Yourself, Holiday decorating, Home Decor, jigsaw, nailgun, painting, Uncategorized

DIY Candy Cane Craft

Make this adorable DIY Candy Cane craft using 1 board and 2 tools! These DIY Candy Canes are the perfect complement to your holiday decorations.

DIY Candy Cane Decor

I love this craft because it’s not only cheery but it also helps me add decor at a mid-height. I often find myself decorating something really tall like my Christmas tree or something short, like cute decor items near the ground. These candy canes are super simple to make and add medium height decorations to your home.

Material:

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

1- 1″ x 8″ x 6′ pine board cut to 4′
Wood glue
Paint

Tools:

Instructions:

Step 1: Draw the candy canes

Find something round that is about as wide as your board. I used a cereal bowl from my kitchen.
Draw the top curve of the candy cane, one on each end of the board
Then draw the candy cane stem coming down from the curve on either side of the board.
By rotating the board, you should be able to fit two candy canes on one board.

Step 2: Cut out the candy canes

Clamp your board then use your jigsaw to cut out the candy cane. Mine looked pretty rough at first but no worries.

Sand the candy canes smooth.
Optional: If you have a trim router with a round-over bit, run along the edge of the candy canes to get nicely rounded edges.

Step 3: Paint

Paint the body of the candy canes white. (Or you can paint it red.)
Using painter’s tape, create candy cane stripes and painted them red (or paint them white if the body is painted red).

Step 4: Cross your candy canes

Place your candy canes, one over the other, in the way that looks best to you and use glue and brad nails to secure them together at their intersection. (No brad nailer? You can secure with a screw through the back.)
Cut the bottoms off at an angle so they stand up flat on the ground. (This step isn’t necessary since they won’t stand on their own anyway.)

Step 5: Decorate your candy canes

Using ribbon, ornaments, decor sprays, or picks you have in your Christmas decor box to decorate as it suits your decor style.
TIP: I like to wrap a rubber band around the candy near the intersection to hold the sprays and picks. This way you can change it up yearly.

Now incorporate these candy canes into your seasonal decor. They would look cute inside or outside.

That is about as simple as it gets for a fun DIY project you can do at home. I’m sure the kids would even love to help!

Hi! I’m Kristen, from In Her Garage, and I am a self-taught woodworker and DIY fanatic from Minnesota where I live with my husband and our two daughters. Between being a wife, mom, and registered nurse, I try to make as much time for DIY as possible. My love for building came after our family built our current home in 2015. After we moved in, we needed furniture, and instead of spending massive amounts of money to order the pieces we wanted I decided that I would build them myself. I started with a buffet table plan from the fabulous Ana-white and quickly set out to remodel my entire home office.

Check out all of my tutorials here on the Pretty Handy Girl and head over to my site to see more tutorials for making a Toy Box, Folding Craft Table, or a Rustic Buffet Table. Making something beautiful with your own two hands through a little preparation and determination is an amazing feeling and I hope to bring inspiration and know-how to those looking to tackle a big or small project.

Not interested in making these items yourself? Let me make them for you!! Feel free to contact me and I would be happy to talk with you about any idea you may have for your home.

I am so glad that you found me here and please feel free to connect with me on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and Etsy to see what I am working on right now.

November 18, 2020/0 Comments/by In Her Garage

Crafts

DIY Wooden Bead Christmas Ornaments

finished wooden bead ornaments on greenery

Ready to do some Christmas crafting? You’ll love how simple these wooden bead Christmas ornaments are to make and they look amazing on any Christmas tree.

DIY Wooden Bead Christmas Ornaments

Crafting with wooden beads is a popular trend and I can definitely see why! Not only are they inexpensive, but the fun things you can make with wooden beads seem endless. After you’ve finished making a few of these wooden bead Christmas ornaments, you may want to whip up a few of these personalized keychains too.

What I love the most about these DIY Christmas ornaments is that they can fit in with any type of Christmas decor. Leave them unfinished with a simple bow for a minimalistic tree, paint the beads in different colors for a modern tree, or add a big buffalo check bow to fit in with a rustic tree. Let’s dive into the tutorial so you can get crafting.

Materials:

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

Assorted wooden beads
24 gauge wire
Wire cutters
Needle-nose pliers (optional but good to have)
Ribbon of choice
Beading line or fishing line
Optional: Jute twine or Bakers twine

Instructions:

Step 1 – Decide on size and layout

For the first step, determine what size you’d like the finished wooden bead ornaments to be. The ornaments I made for this project ranged from 3.25″ to 3.5″ in diameter. If you have a small tabletop tree, you may consider smaller ornaments.

Before starting, you’ll also want to determine the pattern of beads you’ll be using. It’s helpful to lay them out in order so that you don’t get confused or lose track when stringing beads onto the wire.

Step 2 – Cut wire to length

Using wire cutters, cut a length of wire to double, plus 1″ of your finished ornament size. The ornaments in this tutorial are roughly 3.5″ in diameter, so I cut a piece of wire to 8″ long. Loosely bend the wire to fold in half, leaving a loop at one end.

Step 3 – String beads

String the beads onto the wire so they end at the looped side. If your beads slip off the end, gently stretch out the loop so that it keeps the beads in place until you are finished stringing.

Step 4 – Tie the ends

The next step can be a little tricky, especially if you don’t leave yourself at least an inch of wire to play with. Slip the double ends of the wire through the loop at the other end.

Then using your fingers or pliers, wrap the ends of the wire around until it is tight and secure. Snip off any extra wire.

Step 5 -Add a bow

Cut a piece of ribbon to approximately 8″. Fold the ribbon in half and loop around the ornament. Stick the ends of the ribbon through the looped side and pull taught.

Finally, tie a simple bow with the loose ends of the ribbon, like in the photo below.

Step 6 – Hang on the tree!

Use some beading or fishing line to hang your finished wooden bead ornaments on the tree! You could also use jute twine or bakers twine to hang them as well.

I want to know: Will you leave the beads unfinished or will you paint yours?

These would make super cute napkin rings for the holidays as well, don’t you think?

Don’t forget to pin this tutorial for later!

I’m Amanda, and I am the creator and voice behind the food and DIY blog, Domestically Creative. What started as a place to share updates with friends and family after we moved from Illinois to Tennessee and then to Texas, turned into a passion for finding creative and frugal ways to feed us and decorate our homes.

I have always had the “make it myself” attitude and I’m not afraid to bust out the power tools or get creative when it comes to decorating our home on a budget. You can usually find me scouring the local thrift stores, garage sales and estate sales looking for my next makeover (like this litter box cabinet), or dreaming up ways to make our new house feel more like home. My most recent project was giving my home office a much needed facelift. Some of the plans included creating a fun inspirational accent wall and adding pegboard to store my craft hoards.

I currently call Missouri home, where I live with my husband, dog, and 2 cats in a pretty dull, late 90’s split level. My husband and I both love to travel the U.S and recently purchased a small travel trailer to tag along in our journeys. In our free time together we can usually be found working together on a home project, exploring a new place, or just lounging with our pup, Delilah.

I’d love for you to connect with me on social media via Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter!

See all of Amanda’s tutorials HERE.

November 11, 2020/0 Comments/by Domestically Creative

arts and craft, autumn fall decor, Crafts, DIY, Holiday decorating, Paintbrushes, painting, tablescape, Thanksgiving, Tutorial, Uncategorized

DIY Leaf Place Cards for the Holidays

view of napkins tied with jute twine and a clay leaf place card

DIY Leaf Place Cards for the Holidays

I hope your fall has been lovely so far. The weather is just starting to turn here in NC. I have to say, I love the weather here compared to Seattle. We never experienced so much sun day after day! Today, with Fall weather on my mind, I’m making you these DIY leaf place cards for the upcoming holidays. These place cards are little clay leaves inspired by nature (hello, fall!) and painted in a beautiful gold color to elevate them for elegant dinners and parties.

You’ll love my secret for getting those fancy leaf edges from your clay too – read on to find out how I do it.

These place cards can be used time and time again, just change out the name tag for each new guest.

I hope you enjoy this craft!

Materials:

Gold Paint
PaintBrush
Air Dry Clay
Flat Screwdriver
Rolling Pin
Toothpick
Leaves from Outside
Jute Twine
Wax Paper
Cardstock
Pen for Writing

Instructions:

Step 1: Roll our your Air Dry Clay

Grab a ball of air-dry clay and with slightly wet hands, roll it out using your rolling pin. You want it to be about ¼ inch thick. If you make it too thin, it will be too fragile and crack.

Step 2: Make a Leaf Imprint

Take your leaf, and lay it on top of your clay. Using your rolling pin, roll carefully over the leaf several times, creating an imprint of the leaf onto the leaf.

Step 3: Cut your Leaf Out

Here’s where the magic happens! You should see a beautiful leaf imprint in your clay. Take a flat screwdriver and make little divots on the side of your clay leaf, where the leaf would naturally have edges.

Do this all the way around, and then carefully remove your leaf. Using a toothpick, make a hole in the top of your leaf. This will be for tying your jute twine later.

I take the leaf in my hands and slightly bend it to give it a more natural leaf shape, but you are welcome to keep it flat too. Place your leaf on wax paper and allow it to air dry naturally for a couple of days.

Step 4: Paint your Clay Leaves

After your leaves dry, take a paintbrush and gold paint and lightly brush a few coats on the top and sides of your clay leaf. Set them aside to dry.

Step 5: Tie on a Nametag

Our leaves are looking beautiful! Now, all we need to do is cut a small tag of cardstock and write the guest’s name on it. Use a hole punch to cut a hole in the cardstock. Tie this to your leaf by threading your jute twine through the hole we created in the leaf in Step 3.

Simply beautiful!

I like to tie my cloth napkins with jute twine, and then tie the clay leaf name tag to it.

How pretty and unique are these!? I’m sure you will get some comments from your guests. And they will feel so special sitting at this elegant dinner with you.

As I said earlier, you can reuse these DIY leaf place cards. Once you get the hang of making one leaf, the rest don’t take long. You can also try this project with different shaped leaves, such as maple leaves.

My daughter and I foraged for some leaves together. She happened to find the pretty ones I ended up using. Thanks, Hannah!

Grab the kids and make this a family project. It’s a great craft to do around the holidays.

~ See More of Karen’s Tutorials ~

Hello! I’m Karen, the creator of the Home Decor and DIY Blog: Decor Hint. I’m a Native of the East Coast, but I currently live in beautiful Seattle with my hubby, our two wonderful children, and our spunky wheaten terrier.

You can usually find me with some sort of craft in one hand and a coffee in the other. And I’m always rearranging furniture or moving lamps from room to room. I have a passion (read: obsession) for decorating, DIY, and gardening. In short, I love making my house into a home.

Like many, I’m inspired by what I see in home decor magazines, but I’m not so inspired by the price tags. Consequently, I love finding and creating beautiful budget-friendly home decor items. In a head to head competition, I bet you’d never know the difference between the designer items and my DIY creations! Many of my DIY projects focus on sewing, crafting, upcycling and organizing. Some of my favorite projects have been making pretty wreaths, sewing my own tassel hand towels, and crafting these trendy wood bead garlands. I can’t wait to inspire you and spark your creativity through my DIY projects.

You can always connect with me on Pinterest, Twitter or Instagram.

If you liked this tutorial, you’ll love these fall tablescape ideas:

October 28, 2020/1 Comment/by Karen Decor Hint

arts and craft, Centerpieces, Crafts, Decorating, Fall Leaves, Home Decor, Thanskgiving

Quick Fall Leaves Centerpiece

Want to make a quick and easy fall centerpiece? Maybe you want to get the kids involved and go on a nature hike to collect pretty leaves.

Quick Fall Leaves Centerpiece

I’m looking forward to cooler weather and the beautiful color of fallen autumn leaves. How about you? Today I have a super quick and easy fall leaves centerpiece you can whip up to decorate your home for autumn. Seriously, this will take five minutes (plus a nice walk outside to gather leaves.)

Granted, our leaves haven’t turned yet, but you know I’m anxiously awaiting them!

Materials:

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

Optional: You can use a drinking glass or candy jar and use foil to raise it higher.

Instructions:

Go out for a hike and collect colorful fall leaves. I was lucky to find these buttery-yellow gingko leaves.

And around the corner, a beautiful pile of Japanese maple leaves were ready for me to scoop up.

Center the smaller vase inside the larger one. Begin filling the space between the two vases with leaves.

Continue adding leaves until the interior glass vase is hidden.

Insert battery-powered candle into center vase. (If using a real candle, do not leave it unattended, and make sure your leaves are not super dry.

Turn on the candle and enjoy the glow.

You can make another quick and easy fall vase by cutting the sleeve off an old sweater and wrap it around another vase or votive holder. Insert another battery-powered pillar candle and set it out with your Quick Fall Leaves Centerpiece!

Set out your beautiful fall centerpieces and get ready for the cozy time inside on cold nights.

Anyone else looking forward to cool weather, hot chocolate, and curling up under the blankets to watch movies?

September 21, 2020/11 Comments/by Brittany Bailey

arts and craft, Crafts, decor, Home Decor

Hand-Lettered Fall Pumpkin Sign

Let’s add a little hand-lettered touch to your front door with this adorable wooden fall pumpkin sign that you can make in no time!

How to Make a Hand-Lettered Fall Pumpkin Sign

Hi, it’s Amanda from Domestically Creative again with another easy DIY project. Today I’m sharing how I made this adorable hand-lettered pumpkin sign that hangs on our front door for fall. Don’t let all of the steps and photos scare you away from making your own fall pumpkin sign! This project is very simple and only took me about 15 minutes to make. Heat up your glue gun and let’s get started!

Materials:

Instructions:

Step 1 – Create the design

The first step is to create a hand-lettered design for this fall pumpkin sign. You can create it in one of two ways. If you feel confident enough to hand-letter your own design, draw it out on a sheet of paper to the same size it will be on the pumpkin. If you are doubting your artistic lettering skills, create a digital design using fonts on your computer and print it out to the right size. Either way will work for this simple fall door decor.

Step 2 – Transfer the design

Turn the paper over and shade over the back with a pencil. Aim for dark and full coverage so that the graphite can transfer in the next step.

Flip the paper back over and place it on top of the wooden pumpkin. Using a pencil, trace over the design using firm pressure. This will transfer the design onto your pumpkin!

When you pull up the paper, you should be left with a light pencil outline of your design.

This is the same method used in this reversible pedestal sign!

Step 3 – Paint on the design

Using an oil-based paint marker, go over the design, and fill in any necessary areas. Since this fall pumpkin sign will be hanging on the front door, using oil-based paint will protect it from fading or running.

Step 4 – Make the bow

Tie a simple two-loop bow with a wired edge ribbon, just like tying your shoes! Fluff up the loops and center knot of the bow until it looks nice and full.

Optional Step: Fold the tails of the bow in half length-wise. Use scissors to cut out a triangle from the wired edge at the bottom of the tail.

Step 5 – Attach the bow

Attach your bow to the pumpkin with some hot glue. Another option is to use a thin gauge wire and wrap that around the stem of the pumpkin. Either way will work!

Step 6 – Attach a ribbon for hanging

Since this fall pumpkin sign will be hanging on the front door, I added a small ribbon to the back of it using a staple gun. First, cut a piece of ribbon slightly longer than the width of your pumpkin.

Then staple one end of the ribbon to just inside the left edge of the pumpkin. Repeat this for the other side and end of the ribbon. You will be left with a loop in the middle to hang your new pumpkin sign from.

Step 7 – Hang on the front door

You’re finished! Hang up your new fall pumpkin sign on the front door (or any place in your home) and enjoy!

What design will you put on your own hand-lettered fall pumpkin sign?

Love it? Don’t forget to pin this project for later!

I’m Amanda, and I am the creator and voice behind the food and DIY blog, Domestically Creative. What started as a place to share updates with friends and family after we moved from Illinois to Tennessee and then to Texas, turned into a passion for finding creative and frugal ways to feed us and decorate our homes.

I have always had the “make it myself” attitude and I’m not afraid to bust out the power tools or get creative when it comes to decorating our home on a budget. You can usually find me scouring the local thrift stores, garage sales and estate sales looking for my next makeover (like this litter box cabinet), or dreaming up ways to make our new house feel more like home. My most recent project was giving my home office a much needed facelift. Some of the plans included creating a fun inspirational accent wall and adding pegboard to store my craft hoards.

I currently call Missouri home, where I live with my husband, dog, and 2 cats in a pretty dull, late 90’s split level. My husband and I both love to travel the U.S and recently purchased a small travel trailer to tag along in our journeys. In our free time together we can usually be found working together on a home project, exploring a new place, or just lounging with our pup, Delilah.

I’d love for you to connect with me on social media via Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter!

See all of Amanda’s tutorials HERE.

September 9, 2020/2 Comments/by Domestically Creative