DIY Body Scrub

Hi there, I hope you had a good Christmas! 
I thought I would start posting a few of the gifts that I made for my family over the past few weeks. 
The instructions for this DIY can be found here.

 I made this for my soon to be sister-in-law, and she loved it. She even asked if she could eat it because it smelled so good! The only change that I made was to use sweet almond oil instead of regular almond oil, because I didn't want a giant bottle of almond oil sitting around at home. The only difference I noticed was that I didn't get the organic sort of smell that Rhiannon described. Once I had finished making the scrub, I printed out the labels I had made and used Mod Podge to stick them to the jar. 

What did you do for Christmas? Did you make any gifts for friends and family?

DIY Ipad Case/Clutch

I came across this tutorial last week and thought that I would try it out for myself. 
It was so easy to do! 

I modified mine slightly from the original and sprayed the front flap with silver spray paint when I was finished, to dress it up a little.

I hope everyone is having a great week so far!

My Week In Photos

Christmas Tags

I was looking through Pinterest the other day and found myself inspired by this card. 

I decided to make some gift tags in a similar sort of style. I've included instructions in case you wanted to make your own gift tags :) You could do all different shapes of baubles, or even something else, such as a Christmas tree.

What you will need:

Card for tags and decorations

Stamp pad

Scalpel

Glue

Cut out your card into the shape of the decoration that you want, as well as cutting out some tags.

Next, take your stamp pad and gently run it along the edges of your shapes. You will need to do them in groups of three or more. 

They will look something like this. Then, you will need to fold the shapes in half, making sure to leave one flat.

Then, glue the folded shapes together. Once they have dried, glue them along the fold to the flat shape that you have remaining. 

Glue the final shape to your tag, punch a hole and attach some string, then you are done! 

How are you tagging your gifts this year? I promise I will post some non-Christmas related posts soon! :)

DIY Christmas Cards

Hi everyone! Today I thought I would share my simple DIY Christmas cards. This year is Dave and my second Christmas together, but our first as an engaged couple. I decided to start a tradition of sending Christmas cards to our families. Here is how I made them:

What you will need:

Cardboard to make the cards and stencils out of.

Envelopes to send the cards in.

Paint (I just used acrylic.)

A sponge (or paintbrush if you prefer.)

A scalpel.

A pen.

A lightbox (if you have access to one.)

Cut your stencil out of a piece of card (I chose a tree because it was easy to cut out.)

Next, get your paint ready to use with the stencil. Sponge the paint onto the cardboard. You can get different levels of coverage with the sponge, so experiment a bit! I didn't press too hard, so some of my trees have a bit of texture and makes them look at bit more homemade :)

You will need to leave the card for a minute to dry, then you can start tracing your text on. 

I printed out a font off the computer, because my handwriting isn't the nicest in the world. You could free hand the text if you are confident enough to do so. 

Now, I used a light box because I own one. These days they can be quite expensive (this one is very old, it was my mum's before she gave it to me.) An alternative would be to simply put the text that you are tracing and your card against a window during the day, and the light shining in will act as a light box for you! Remember to allow yourself a little more time if you are doing it this way, as your arms will get tired quite quickly. 

This is my final product! I added the rhinestone once everything had dried.

I also found some wrapping ribbon in a drawer, so I added that too.

Are you making your own Christmas/holiday cards this year? What else are you making yourself for the holidays? Feel free to share your ideas and projects with me, I'd love to see them.

My Christmas List

I can't believe it's only three weeks until Christmas! This year, we are mainly giving handmade gifts as I haven't been working the last few weeks. It's been fun trying to think of different things to make for our families. I think that handmade gifts hold a little more meaning as well, because of the time and effort that has gone into making the gift. 

This is my 'if only I had the money and we weren't saving for a wedding' Christmas wishlist :)

1: The Body Shop has come out with these home fragrance oils just in time for the lead up to Christmas. You can get them in vanilla, cranberry or ginger. Yum! 

2: These throw rugs from Adairs look so comfortable, I'm always on the lookout for more blankets. They're cotton too, so they won't be too hot in summer.

3: I love the idea of this bookshelf from Ikea, all of your books and precious items would be protected, but you would still be able to see them. 

4: These little skull and feather earrings from Lovisa are so cute!

5: The sweet couple behind Young House Love have written a book. This is one of the things on this list that I will actually buy, and I can't wait to read all their ideas. You can pick up their book here.

6: I love these cute flats from Walnut Melbourne, perfect for summer.

What's on your Christmas wishlist?