Easy Last Minute DIY Christmas Gifts

If you're anything like me, you're pretty good at appearing like you've got your life and holiday shopping completely in order.

But in truth, it's Wednesday and Christmas Eve is tomorrow and you may have several people that you still haven't checked off your list.

I wanted to remind you all of a few simple DIY gifts that can be whipped up rather easily and make a huge impact on your gift recipient. In my opinion, homemade gifts can be just as thoughtful if not more so than those found in stores.

My go-to DIY for the ladies in my life:



Honey Lavender Body Scrub

All ingredients can be found in a supermarket/health food store. Fairway has all ingredients and I'm fairly confident that Whole Foods has you covered as well!

My go-to cookies:



Cool Whip Cookies

These cookies are unbelievably easy and can be customized for Christmas with red and green sprinkles or with Red Velvet cake mix instead of standard chocolate/vanilla.

My go-to Snack Gift:

 


Rosemary or Toasted Coconut Popcorn

Another fun and easy recipe:

Sprinkles Bakes' 3 ingredient Peanut Butter Fudge




*BONUS*


My go-to Subscription Services:

 

Salted

Petit Vour

Blue Bottle Coffee

Quick Washi Tape Update

This was such an easy little update-one could argue that it's not even worth a whole blog post but what's the point of a blog if not to update you on every little part of my life? So, here is a super quick update to a bulletin board that we have in our kitchen.  

As you can see, its 1. overcrowded and 2. missing a decorative piece (see below). 

At some point, a piece of wood molding fell off and we've been looking at this unsightly glue trail for at least 6 months. 

I had finally had enough and I decided to just place some lime green sunglasses print washi tape over the gap and call it a day. Also, that is definitely a poop sticker from the doggie waste bags we just purchased. 

I also threw out about half of all the junk that was on the board to make it a bit easier on the eyes. 

Now we just have to work on that hideous floral wall paper . . . 

Whimsey Box's Gold Leaf DIY

Whimsey Box is like many other subscription boxes out there. Once per month, you receive a box in the mail with an unknown thing inside that causes extreme delight and creativity. Whimsey Box offers beginner/intermediate craft projects for $15 per month. This Valentine's Day, my husband went against my usual wishes and gave me a subscription to Whimsey Box, instead of my usual preference of jewelry. I was so thrilled that he decided to take a chance! My original 3 month subscription ended in April and I immediately signed up for another 3 months. So far, I have learned calligraphy, found the recipe for my beloved  Honey Lavendar body scrub, and worked with Gold Leaf for the first time!

I can tell you this, I consider myself pretty crafty, so I find most of the projects easy to execute. I feel that most of the projects are easy to execute and can be picked up rather quickly by crafting noobs. This was my first time working with gold leaf and it brought to mind a little tidbit that my high school art teacher left me with. She despised loose glitter and deemed it the "herpes of the craft world". Well, Pavese, I'm sorry to disagree but I strongly feel that gold leaf is the herpes of the craft world, but it looks damn good on nearly everything!

When you open your box, you find it tied in a colorful ribbon and the instructions are printed on a 5x7 piece of art!

Everything you need to complete your craft is contained in the box!

I chose to paint my wooden frame first with Martha Stewart all surface paint.

After painting, I had to brush adhesive onto the frame, allow it to dry, and then cover it with the foil. This proved to be the most time consuming, tedious process on the planet, but I really love my frame now! After applying the leafing, I brushed the entire frame with a sealant and allowed it to dry before popping my new fave picture inside. 

Agrarian

On July 1st, I realized it had been 2 years to the day since our wedding and that Bed Bath and Beyond would be purging our registry from their system. It was a bit upsetting for me to lose another little piece of the time leading up to our wedding. To console myself, I began a Williams-Sonoma registry for our future home (Sept 1, 2018). It's important for you to know that we have no immediate plans to purchase a home-just to give you an idea of the level of crazy you are dealing with here. While making said dream registry (found here), I was throwing everything under the sun into this registry-hello wine fridge, pizza maker, and all-clad 15 pc set. I stumbled up Agrarian (definition: rural; agricultural), which offers really cute, giftable kits and sets. In addition to adding most of them to my registry, I found a few that I'd like to purchase in the short term!

These kits are a really fun, easy way to give someone an experience without breaking the bank and wondering if they will resent you for making them leave the house!

DIY Mozzerella/Ricotta Cheese Kit $25.95

IPA Beer Making Kit $44.95

Soothing Lavender Crate Kit $89.95

Lorann Oils Lip Balm Making Kit $34.95

Lotion-Making Kit $21.95

Sparkling Wine Making Kit $79.95

Hogwarts: Class of 2014

You may have noticed here and here that my sister just graduated from High School- with honors no less! She is a huge Potterhead and my mom threw a surprise Harry Potter themed graduation party for her. I had to snap shots of the party to share with you guys, because everything was amazing. I kept telling everyone, my mom is the original Pinterest-I mean this woman didn't sleep for weeks to pull this off, and the execution was FLAWLESS.

Each table's centerpiece consisted of potion bottles, flying keys, wands, quills, and mini owls!

Menus were printed on scrolls and rolled up with twine!

Our cousin made this amazing cake for my sister, from her home!

My mom handmade wands for every child in attendance, and they were gender specific. She's a bit crazy, no?

Dainty-Wire Earring Tutorial

You may have noticed that I have a serious affinity for accessories-jewelry specifically. I could very happily live my life without purchasing another piece of clothing as long as I had access to unlimited jewelry! In short, I'm warning you that this is yet another post about making jewelry (see here, here, and here). I'm normally all about statement pieces and lots of layer- I maintain that I must have been a Christmas tree in a past life- but for some reason, these dainty earrings really struck a chord with me.

I previously saw these gorgeous earrings from Kathleen Whitaker (via HonestlyWTF) and while I absolutely love them, I couldn't justify the price tag, especially because you have to purchase each earring separately. I am a subscriber of Whimsey Box and happily I receive their Friday afternoon emails detailing easy DIYs that can be executed over the weekend. In its most recent iteration, I saw this tutorial for these wire earrings and I was SOLD.

I ended up making 2 pairs, because my first pair sucked (honestly). But I promise you, this tutorial is very easy. At first, I cut the disc of my earring posts and left them too large and it didn't give the look that I wanted, so I threw them out and cut my next set (using kitchen shears) down to a tiny dot-just enough to support the post. Also, you should know that this is a big step for me. I'm one of those people that when I find a place for something, it's not moved to a new place for any reason short of catastrophe. I'm a one and done kind of girl-so it's actually a big step for me to stand in my kitchen and think, "These are okay, but I can do better. Let's start over". Life is all about baby steps, and if I can work on improving myself while making jewelry, then I'd say I had a productive Saturday!

________________________________________________

Dainty Wire Earrings: 

Earring Posts/Backings (Sold Separately)

Strong Adhesive (I recommend Gorilla Glue or E3000)

Sharp Scissors

Wire (I used 16 Guage Jewelry Wire)

Pliers (Needle Nose if possible)

• Cut jewelry wire to your desired length and straighten if needed. 
• Snip earring posts as small as possible while still leaving a circle of metal attached to the post for the wire to sit on. 
• Apply glue to earring post, let sit for a minute to become tacky. 
• Attach wire-at this point, I stuck my earring posts into a slice of an apple to help them stand up straight without me holding them.
• I recommend allowing them to dry for at least 2 hours if you can wait-the longer the better!

As you can see, I left the original posts too large. On my second go 'round, I left a very small circle-just enough to balance the wire. 

I've been loving these earrings-I find myself reaching for them everyday and I'm very pleasantly surprised by how sturdy they are!

You should also check out Virginia Wynne's Etsy shop for similar styles at a fraction of the price- I love every single piece of her collection!

Washi Framing

Seriously though, how easy is this? I'm still working on our bedroom decor, (by working, I mean not doing a damn thing). So I saw this and thought it would be an easy, temporary way to update my bedroom. My husband isn't a huge fan of it (he actually hates it), and when I decide to be extra nice to him, I'll take it down. 

He just said to me, "I don't think you should post that, it looks stupid".

Vanilla Bean Donuts

I know that the whole world has been dying for donuts recently (hello, Kate Spade x Darcel) but I saw the picture above and had been thinking about them all last week. I grabbed this donut pan from Sur La Table and also picked up a Wilton Sprinkle Medley (yes, that's a real thing) and went to town over the weekend. Admittedly, I wish my glaze looked more like the ones above, but that will just require a little time and patience to finagle the recipe. I found the whole process to be no harder than baking cupcakes, with a whole lot more wow factor! 

Heartfelt Handmade Valentines

I was inspired by the two photos above to create my own Valentines to pass out to friends and family. They were so easy to make, the only reason they took longer than 30 minutes was because I kept stopping to take pictures!

What you'll need (all supplies found at Michaels):

• Note cards with envelopes in the size of your choice 
• Initial stamp pad and ink are optional (I found my stamps and ink for $1.50 each!!)
• Heart hole Punch
• Adhesive lines or dots (typically used for scrapbooking)
• Paint swatches in as many colors as you can grab!

*I went to Home Depot and snagged about 50 paint swatches in various colors. Glidden offers swatches that are larger than an index card with very little wording on them!*

To craft these beautiful babies, simply hole punch hearts from the swatch(es). Then affix with either glue dots or glue zip lines, place on front of card and/or envelope. Write your love note inside and place in envelope. Stamp the envelope with your recipients initials and pass them out!