Monthly Archives: December 2011

New Year’s Eve Party in a Pinch

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Food for Thought
  • Think small and easy.  Start with your basics – fruit and dip, veggies and dip, cheese and crackers.  There is not much prep work and usually you can find produce precut and ready to buy or the pre-made trays if in a real pinch.
  • Add some quick baking items, like the Mini-Dog Christmas Wreath, except form your mini dogs into another shape, or spell out 2012 like the pizza above.  Probably a lot faster and easier than making the pizza above.
Drinks on Me
  • Jello Shots are quick and easy to make.  The staple recipe I usually use is 1 box of jello, 1 cup of hot water, 1 cup of liquor.  One of my favorite Jello Shot recipes is Black Cherry jello shots using DeKuyper’s Washington Apple Burst liquor.  Refrigerate for at least 3 hours to set.
    • You can also get the Jello Shot holders from GFS (Gordon Food Service), Walmart, Meijer, or other grocery stores.  If you are in a quick pinch, add a little more water and a little less liquor and make the Jello Shots in ice cube trays or mini-muffin baking tins.
    • My Science Project – http://www.myscienceproject.org/j-shot-3.html
  • Sangria with fruit is always a crowd pleaser.  Just get some strawberries, raspberries, oranges, or whatever other fruit you enjoy and add it to red wine.  There are also many brands of wine that carry a Sangria flavor, such as Oliver Winery Sangria wine (usually found in the US Midwest).
Party Fun
  • Get creative and decorate quick.  Dress up your wine & champagne glasses.  Make some fun party favors.  Use ribbon, leftover wrapping paper, and tissue paper.  Ask for help or get your kids involved to get crafty.  Or, ask everyone who comes to decorate their own glasses.  It keeps the dishes low and everyone will know which glass is theirs, just provide the crafty supplies.
  • Create a time capsule for next year.  Get a mason jar, cookie tin, box, or other container and have everyone write down what they think they will do next year.  How about New Years’ Resolutions.  Or have prewritten papers with questions and have everyone fill them out.  Here is an example of one for you to print (PDF) or you can create your own:
  • Open a bag every hour with fun questions or tasks for everyone to complete.  Start at 8:00pm and work your way up to Midnight doing one per hour.  Or make a game out of it and do one every 10-15 minutes for an hour.  You can use paper bags to hold the questions or challenges.

Here’s to everyone having a safe and fun New Year’s Eve!  Enjoy the holiday and I will see you all in 2012 with more ways to bring Pins to Life!!

Julie

DIY Cord Covers

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Something I saw on Pinterest and Etsy was a way to make your cords look more colorful and fun.  It is the same idea as making the knot bracelets as I’m sure many of you did when we were little.  The “rollercoaster” bracelet knot is the method I used.  Here is how I made my cord covers:

Items Needed:
  • Headphones, Cell phone charger, or any other cord you want to cover
  • Sewing Floss (cross-stitch yarn)
  • Scissors
  • Tape

Step One:  First you will want to cut the sewing floss at least four times the length of the cord of the cord.  It’s always better to have extra, then to not have enough.  For mine, I used three different colors.  One thing you want to check first is your pattern.  If you will be repeating a color more than once in a pattern, you will need to have more of that color floss cut (see photo below).

For mine, I repeated the light pink twice in the pattern; therefore, I added more of the light pink.  So I had one strand of white and one strand of dark pink, both of which were 4 times the length of my cord.  And I also had one strand of light pink, which was 6 times the length of my cord.  All of which were under the 8 yards in each packet per color.

Step Two:  Start making your bracelet.  First you will want to tape down the end of your cord to something sturdy.  Also, using a hair clamp helps to hold it in place.  You will then tie your strands to the beginning of the cord.  Then you’ll begin to make the bracelet pattern with the sewing floss.  It is hard describe, so I have made a video to teach you the technique I used in case you don’t already know it.

Finished Product:  Here is my finished iPhone cord plug, as well as another cord that I wrapped on my old iPod headphones.

You can make whatever pattern you like, with any colors you like and add it to any cord.  It’s also really cheap to make, since each sewing thread pack is less than a $1.00 and has at least 8 yards.  Most likely you won’t use the entire thing on one cord.  Have fun making all your cords colorful and fun!!

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Ornament and Cookie Exchange – Cookie

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This year for Christmas I was invited to my first Christmas Ornament & Cookie Exchange Party.  A friend of our family invited me and I was excited to get started on finding some great ideas on Pinterest!

The cookie I decided to make is called Sweetie Pie Pops, like Cake Pops, but with mini pies.  I did a little rendition of that recipe without the lollipop stick because of the size of my cookie cut-out shape.  Here is the recipe and photos below with my end results.

Recipe (from blog Our Best Bites – link below)
Sweetie Pie Pops (“Apple Pie Bites”)

Yields 16-18 2″ Bites

1 refrigerated pie crust dough (or homeade pie crust)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Course sugar or sprinkles for top
Canned pie filling, or homemade apple filing below
Cookie Cutters

Apple Pie Filling (combine all ingredients below):
1 medium tart green apple, peeled and grated
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon cold butter, grated

Glaze (Whisk all ingredients until smooth.  Add milk until desired consistency is reached):
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1-3 tsp milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat if desired.

Roll out pie dough on a floured surface about 1/8 inch thick. Cut out heart shapes (or other shape of your choosing) and place them on your baking sheet.  Place about 1-2 tsp of filling on one cut out, keeping it at least 1/4 inch away from the edges.  Wet your finger in a small bowl of water and wet the edge of the pie dough shape.  Wet the edges of a 2nd pie dough shape (one without filling) and place on top of the other.  Press together gently with your fingers to seal the pieces together.  Use a fork to crimp edges.  Poke a fork into top of pie one time so steam can vent.  If desired, brush top of pie in melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.  (Or leave plain to glaze after)

Bake pies for 15-20 minutes until barely golden brown.  Cool for a few minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.  If glazing, gently brush or spoon glaze over pies while still warm.  Cool completely before packaging.

Note:  These could be made into Pie Pops (like Cake Pops) using a lollipop stick found at craft stores.  Place lollipop stick in center of shape, with the top of the stick near the top of the shape.  When crimping edges, be careful to seal edges around the stick.

Personal Note:  Never make 96 of these at once!  It’s torture!  This is what I had to do for the Christmas Exchange – everyone got 6 cookies each.  A good dozen, maybe two is quite enough for the family during the holidays.

Photos:
Here are some great photos of the process of my first time making these.  We decided that they tasted best with the frosting on the top instead of just sugar.  So yummy!
Ingredients Needed:
Apple Pie Filing mixture:
The cut-out assembly line.  Cut out shapes and wet edges.  Add pie filling to center.  Press cut-outs together with both wet sides touching to seal.  Crimp edges and poke hole in center for steam to escape while baking.
Tree Apple Pie Bites on parchment paper completed
Finished product, half glazed and half plain.  They are much better glazed.
Variations:

I also made a variation on this recipe, but instead cut out circles and pressed them into a  mini-muffin pan, added the apple pie filling, covered each mini pie and baked them for the same time.  I also covered them with the same icing recipe as above.  A true mini apple pie.

Links:

Ornament and Cookie Exchange – Ornament

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This year for Christmas I was invited to my first Christmas Ornament & Cookie Exchange Party.  A friend of our family has invited me and I was excited to get started on finding some great ideas on Pinterest!

The ornament I decided to make is a glass globe covered in old/vintage book pages that are written in German.  I also printed a tag that said Noel and added gold glitter to the ornament.  I love it because it’s DIY vintage!  I love anything vintage and what better way to dress it up for a Christmas tree than to add a lot glitter.

Here is what the original ornaments looked like from the blog Flea Market Style:

Since her blog is just about what she found at a flea market/craft shop and didn’t have much in the way of directions on how to make the actual ornament, I decided to take a chance and make my own with some variations.  Here is a photo of my final product:

Instead I used gold glitter and distressed my paper to give it a antiqued look.  Since she didn’t have a how-to, I am going to add it below on how I made my ornament.

Items Needed to Make Ornament:
  • Clear glass bulb ornaments
  • Mod Podge (glossy finish)
  • Vintage print papers from a book, newspaper, etc.
  • Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad (walnut stain)
  • Paint (gold)
  • Glitter (gold)
  • Tacky glue
  • Hemp yarn/string (tree hanger and tag)
  • 2 paint brushes (paint and mod podge)
  • Sponge (distressing ink)

I found a great shop on Etsy called Sadie Olive, which has tons of vintage items for sale at really great prices–this is where I found the vintage books.  If you search on Etsy, you can find anything you’re looking for–it’s my new favorite website!

Note:  It’s best to do everything in stages if you are making a lot of ornaments at once, like me.  I’ll need to make 17 ornaments total, so I am doing them in batches of 6.

Step One:  It’s best to start by separating the hanger part from the ornament bulb.  Since my ornament tops were silver and I was going for a gold look, I painted the tops gold.  I set them aside to dry and began to work on the ornament bulb.

Step Two:  Rip up the sheets of paper you are using into smaller pieces.  I usually started with 3 bigger pieces that would cover the entire top then used smaller pieces to form around the rest of the bulb.  Once I had my pieces torn, I distressed them with the Tim Holtz Distress Ink (walnut stain).  I made sure to lightly distress the edges and lightly dabbed the face of the paper.

Step Three:  Begin the mod podge process.  This will be quite messy, so you will want to do this over a paper plate or put down a sheet of wax paper.  First, I applied a very thin layer of mod podge to the glass ornament in the spot where I would begin.  Be sure to cover the full area the paper will cover.  I then laid down the paper and began to bend, fold, and tear some of the edges to create a more smooth surface on the round bulb using my fingers.  I then added a light layer of mod podge on top of the paper and smoothed it out again with my fingers, being sure to get out any air bubbles and to flatten the paper as best as possible.  I did this piece by piece, until my entire bulb was covered.

Note:  Since you are using such a thin layer of mod podge, by the time you have finish the bottom half of the bulb, the top half should be dry enough to set back in the holder to finish drying.

   

Step Four:  While your bulbs are drying, get your ornament tops that you painted gold and add a thin layer of mod podge, then shake on the gold glitter on the top and around the edges.  It’s easiest to first roll the edges in the glitter, then shake the glitter on the top.  Tap it lightly to shake off excess glitter and let sit to dry.

Step Five:  Now it’s time to glitter the bulb.  Use a light layer of mod podge and spread it on top of the paper.  Then you will use the tip of your finger and dab it in a the gold glitter and then dab your finger on the bulb to stick to the mod podge.  It’s easiest if you do this in rounds, starting from the top of the bulb and working your way down.

Step Six:  While everything is drying, you will make your tags.  I decided to handwrite my tags and use the leftover pieces of paper from my vintage paper.  I also distressed the edges and both sides of the tag with Tim Holtz Distress Ink (walnut stain).  You could also use a piece of neutral colored paper and print out the word Noel, cut them down to size and antique the edges.  Make sure when you cut your tags, you leave room to punch a hole in the tage to hang it on the ornament.

Step Seven:  Finally, you will assemble all of the parts.  First you should put the ornament top back into the bulb.  Then add the hemp yarn to your tag and wrap it around the base of the top piece with the gold glitter.  I used Tacky Glue to keep the hemp yarn attached to the bulb.  Then you will add a piece of hemp yarn around the top hanger as the hook.  And you are done!

It’s a little messy and labor intensive, but they are so worth the effort and look gorgeous on the tree!  (Just don’t make 17 of them at once).  You could use any size ornament and use any color scheme:  gold like mine, or more silver like the original photo, or other colors!  Customize it to your heart’s desire!

Have fun creating and let me know if you were inspired by this post and what you made.  Leave a comment below!  :)

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Happy Holidays

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I hope everyone is having a good holiday. I’d imagine many of you are preparing for family visiting, giving gifts, and time off of work. I’d also bet that many of you are getting ideas for the holidays from Pinterest. Hopefully you’ve found great food, gifts, DIY decorations and all else on Pinterest to get those creative juices flowing.

I’ve been hunkered down working on a couple large projects and of course preparing for the holidays. That means a lot of travel for us, so forgive me during these holiday weeks for not posting as much. I can’t wait for the New Year and making many new things for From Pin to Life to share with everyone.

Enjoy your holidays!! Safe travels and happiness for everyone!

Julie

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Christmas Wreath Mini-Dog Appetizer

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Last week my Aunt Lo tried another Pinterest idea for Christmas.  It was a pay on “Pigs in a Blanket,” but instead you form them in the shape of a wreath for Christmas.  A fun food inspiration and easy to make for an appetizer during Christmas that everyone will love.

Ingredients:

  • Crescent Rolls (1 can)
  • Lil’ Smokies (mini hotdogs)
  • Baking Sheet

Step One:  Roll out the crescent rolls onto a flat surface or pan and cut each triangle into 4-5 strips.

Step Two:  Roll the Lil’ Smokies mini hot dog inside one of the crescent roll strips.

Step Three:  Begin to line a circle “wreath” around your pan.  If you want you can use a circle baking pan, or free hand a circle shape on a regular baking sheet.

Finished Product:  The circle Christmas Wreath using an entire package of Lil’ Smokies and Crescent Rolls.  There was even some crescent roll dough left that she formed holly and berries and “painted” it with food coloring.

Enjoy and let me know how your Christmas Wreath Appetizers turned out by leaving a comment below!

Original photo pinned by my Aunt - http://pinterest.com/pin/22377329368146488/

My Aunt’s Pinterest Boards – http://pinterest.com/govertkj/

DIY Christmas Wrapping Bows

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It’s always fun to add a little personality and custom items while wrapping Christmas presents.  Plus, this will save you lots of money if you love to add bows to your wrapping paper by using all of those scraps!  Not to mention you’ll have bows that match or coordinate with your wrapping paper.

I’ve tried three different types of bows:  curly bow, traditional bow, and fancy straight bow. Below are the instructions for making all of these bows.

Traditional Bow:

First you will want to cut out strips of paper at the same width.  Start with at least 5 long strips, then 2-3 shorter, 2 more shorter than that, and 1-2 small strips.

Next you will want to form each of the strips into the shape below.  Take the first end and curl it around to the left to make the first side of the loop.  Attach using a glue stick or double stick tape.  You will want to make sure the same sides are showing (white up and red down for mine).  Do the same thing, but in the opposite direction, curling the paper around to the right to make the loop on the opposite side.

  

Once you have curled each strip of paper into the loops above, you will begin to stack them together.  Attaching them using a glue stick or double sided tape inbetween each layer.  Make sure to turn your pieces in the opposite direction as the last layer, to continue to build up your bow.

  

Curly Bow:

Start by finding a piece of paper that is a rectangle.  Mine was about the size of 1/2 a sheet of computer paper, but any size will work.  Then you will fold it in half like a book, with the pattern on the outside.  Then you will fold the top down to meet at the bottom.  Your folded edges should be along the left and top as shown in the second photo below.  Tape shut the left (short) edge.

  

Then, you will begin to cut strips along the paper.  Holding the paper from the taped edge (short side), you will cut open the top folded edge (long side).  Be sure that you do not cut all the way through–just leave about an inch from the taped edge.  Once you have cut all of the strips, fold open the middle so it will be easier to curl the strips of paper.  Using your scissors open faced, curl each strip of paper.  Don’t worry if you accidentally rip off a piece.  I did to a couple by accident and didn’t notice because there were a lot of curls.

  

Finish curling and fluff.  So pretty!

Fancy Straight Bow:

You will start with at least 6 strips that are the same length and width and 1 strip for the bottom.

Once you have cut all of the strips, you will make each one (except the bottom piece), into half loops by attaching the two ends together.  Then you will begin to build each layer, working with two half loops at a time, and attach it to the bottom strip of paper.

Each layer will move in closer together and the flat ends will begin to overlap as you work inward.

To finish off my straight fancy bow, I decided to add a circle to the center since it was such a long bow.  If you made it shorter in length, you could wrap a piece of paper around the middle of the bow like in the example on Pinterest (see link below).

Have fun creating lots of great bows.  Let me know what you tried and how it turned out by commenting below.

Links:

DIY Easy Christmas Ornaments

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There are some really great ways to personalize and make your own ornaments this Christmas.  You can use any size bulb and practically any kind of “stuffing” or arts and crafts on the outside.

First you will need to get some glass ornament bulbs.  You can get any size from any store.  I bought the clear glass bulbs in the standard size.  I have seen these types of bulbs at JoAnns, Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Menards, and many other stores.

Next you will want to find all of the arts an crafts you’ll use.  I bought glitter, Stickles (glitter glue), feathers, paint, and used many supplies I already had on hand.

Now it’s time to get creative.  Personalize your ornaments by painting someone’s name or the year on the outside.  You can also add some glitter to the outside.  Or just stuff the inside of the clear glass ornaments.  Be creative, get your kids involved to make handmade ornaments for family and friends.

Here are the ornaments I’ve made:

Photo printed on printer paper and hanging from top (the example I saw was printed on vellum/opaque paper and looked really cool, but I couldn’t fine mine) –
Curling scrap pieces of wrapping paper (mine said Merry Christmas) –
Adding glitter glue to feathers and stuffing feathers inside (this one glitters a lot more in real life, it was hard to capture the glitter in a photo) –
Inspired by the feathers a Twilight feather ornament with scrapbooking font stickers –
Painted phrase & glitter snow on the inside –
Pretty much you can add anything you’d like to the inside of the ornament bulb.  I’ve also seen beads, scrapbook paper, buttons, fake snow.  You can also decorate the outside how ever you like.  Paint the whole thing or print something out and attach it to the outside using mod podge.  Be as creative as you’d like and get everybody involved!!
Let me know what kind of easy DIY Handmade Ornaments you created.  Leave a comment below!  Thanks!
Links:
Here is the original photo on Pinterest that inspired this post - http://pinterest.com/pin/86342517825640564/

DIY Christmas Photo Magnet Gifts

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After making the Ceramic Tile Photo Frame (see post), I was inspired to find other fun ways using mod podge to make photo gifts.  One idea I had was to use the old magnets that were on my fridge as the base of a project.  You know, those ugly ones that you’ve gotten in the mail or have multiple of the same one from a store.  Why not personalize them to have something pretty on your fridge?  It is quick, easy and you can do multiple at a time.  Be as creative as you’d like.  This would be a great idea for kids to help and give as gifts to Grandparents or friends.

Items You’ll Need:
  • Old magnets
  • Favorite photo
  • Scrapbook paper
  • Mod Podge
  • Sponge brush

Step One:  Trim the paper, and photos down to size of the magnet.

Step Two:  Begin the mod podge process–a layer of mod podge on the magnet, then lay down your first piece of paper, then add another layer of mod podge.  Press out the bubbles and repeat for each layer of paper or photo.

Note:  If you plan to write on the paper, make sure to let it dry completely.  You can also test it on a scrap piece of paper, letting it dry, then putting some mod podge on top to make sure the ink won’t smear.

Finished Product:

Set out to dry and you’re done!  Easy, fun, handmade Christmas gifts.

Let me know how your Handmade magnets turned out!

Christmas Simmer Potpourri

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I am excited for this Christmas season and cannot wait to finish decorating.  Last night I decided to add a little Christmas smell to the house by making a Christmas Simmer Potpourri recipe.  I found a couple websites with different recipes, one blog called Linaloo and another called Tipnut.  I had the ingredients on hand for the recipe on Linaloo’s blog, so that is the one I tried.

Linaloo’s Christmas Simmer Pot Ingredients:
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 3 lemon slices
  • 1 Tbsp cloves
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 cup apple juice

It smelled good.  I reminded me of something that you would smell in a old cottage or maybe back in the 1800s.  It wasn’t quite what I was hoping for, so I will try another recipe from the Tipnut blog since they have many different ones to choose from.  Here are some of the other recipes that sound good from Tipnut:

Tipnut Recipe #4 – Christmas Potpourri Simmering Pot
  • 3 sprigs evergreen or handful pine needles
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 2 TBS whole cloves
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 pieces orange rind
  • 2 pieces lemon rind
Tipnut Recipe #7
  • Peel from a whole orange
  • Whole cloves
  • 2 Cinnamon sticks
Tipnut suggest to dry your orange, lemon, apple peels before adding them to the pot.  They are also economical and suggest to not throw away expired juices, expired spices, and fruit rinds and instead use them in a simmer pot recipe.  Such great ideas!
Let me know which ones you tried and how they turned out by commenting below.  Hope that your homes will be smelling wonderful soon!
Links: