Ohh Christmas!

I love all the pretty lights in the city around the holidays!

DIY Candle | Holiday Gift

Hello!
Here is post #2 of the DIY Holiday Gift Series. This one is easy but takes about an hour to get together. That is still pretty quick for a candle, right? The girl you are giving it to will enjoy it

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Things You Will Need:
A Pot
Stove
water
Tongs
Glass Jar
Candle Wax
Candle Wick

Step 1: (I skipped the picture. I know you know what water in a pot looks like )
Pour a small amount of water into your pot and place it on your stove burner. You want to heat the water but not necessarily bring it to a boil.

While you are waiting for the water to heat up get your glass jar and remove all of the department stickers (if you haven’t already). Tip: using soap and hot water helps to rub off the soap much faster.

Step 2:
Break up your scented wax of choice and put it in the glass jar.

When your water is toasty and steaming use your tongs to pick up the glass jar and place it in the hot water. Now you will be waiting for a while. Make sure you stay in the kitchen while you are waiting to make sure your glass jar stays upright. Ideally you would hold it there with your tongs but I am as impatient as you are so I realize that this isn’t going to happen. Honestly, it will be fine, but stay in the general area.

Step 3:
After all of your wax has melted pick it up with your tongs and place it on a hard surface. Put a wick down into the wax and secure it however you want. I find wrapping the wick around a utensil to be the easiest. You will have to let it sit for while until it dries. The waiting time will depend on how big the jar you chose is. Smaller ones will take less time.

Step 4 (optional):
If you want to be cute you can add another layer of a different scent when the first layer is dry. Just pour the wax on top and let it dry.

The first layer of wax has to be completely dry though! If it isn’t dry when you pour the hot wax from the second batch then, the first will cave in and the waxes will mix. It really doesn’t look pretty… I tried. I’ll spare you the picture though.

When the wax is dry, cut the wick to about 1/2 inch above the wax.

You can decorate the jar if your feel extra crafty. The shape of mine is a bit awkward though, so I am going to pass on that.

Option 2:

You can do it like Shey does on her blog. This is more of a from scratch method. It is a good one but if you are in a pinch and don’t have more than an hour or two to get something together then you can go the route I went. I don’t like to procrastinate but I understand why people do so, this is a quick and easy way to get something pretty together

Happy crafting

DIY Holiday Party Decorations

I was searching for something completely unrelated to this article and came across some useful DIYs for holiday parties on BlogHer. There are some great ideas on here guys! Check them out! Click the picture to go to her site for tutorials

DIY Tiered Serving Tray

Christmas Kisses

Mason Jars

DIY Beaded Bracelets

Since we are getting closer to the holidays and so many people are Christmas shopping I thought I would make it easier for everyone. From now until Christmas I am going to post Make Something Mondays that you can give as gifts. Quick and easy DIYs. This is the first one.

Things You Will Need:
Beads
String
Clasps
Scissors
Fasteners

*You can get all of these materials at your local craft store in the jewelry section.

Step 1:

Thread the string of your choice through the first half of your clasp. String the fastener from the other side and squeeze it tightly around the end of the string. Cut off the excess string.

Step 2:

String on your beads until you get close to the opposite end of the string.

Step 3:

This time, string the faster on first. Then, string on the other end of the clasp and pull the string down toward the faster. Pull it through the fastener and squeeze it tightly and, again, cut off the excess string.

It is a good gift for your best (girl) friend, daughter, mom, etc. It is cute, inexpensive, and is something they will wear.

This one is relatively light weight so, if you want to give it a little more weight, add some metal separators and/or beads like on this black and pearl bracelet.

Or try some diamond shaped and metal beads. Either way, she will love it

Happy crafting

DIY Candy Cane Vodka

Okay, I’m not usually festive. I’m kind of a scrooge when it comes to holidays so, I’ve decided to work on that. This is my first step… Candy Cane Vodka! Yummy! It is very easy to make and I assume that it will taste amazing. I’ve never made this before but I have made cherry and watermelon Jolly Rancher vodka and that was pretty good.

What can you use this for you ask? I recommend pouring a small amount of it in your hot chocolate on a cold day. That would be pretty good. Maybe it would taste good in your coffee (I am definitely not suggesting that you to indulge in an alcoholic beverage before work), and maybe sprite. If you come up with any other ideas let me know and I would be happy to add them!

Things You Will Need:
Mason jar
Candy canes
Unflavored vodka

Step 1:

Break up a few candy canes (I think I used 7) and drop them into the bottom of your mason jar. The more candy canes you use the more flavorful your vodka will be.

Step 2:

Pour in the vodka.

Step 3:

Let the jar sit for a a few minutes and shake it up.

Put it in the refrigerator. Shake it periodically. When the candy canes dissolve it is ready to drink!

Happy Monday!

ENJOY!

DIY Candy-Cane Wreath

Look Mom, I’m being festive

This is a quick and easy dollar store craft. I bought two small boxes of candy canes (only because they didn’t carry full boxes) at the dollar store for $2.

I think this craft would also look nice with colored candy canes. Possibly the red and green or the blue and purple ones that come out around the holidays.

 

 

Things You Will Need:
Hot-melt glue
About 20-25 candy canes

 

 

Step 1:

Place two candy canes side by side facing in the same direction. Apply hot-melt glue wherever they touch. Ideally you would be gluing at the top and the bottom.

After repeating step 1 a few times you should have something like this.

Keep going…

 

 

Step 2:

Make a ring of glue (a lot of glue) around the bottom of the candy canes, like so. The wreath is pretty fragile so the glue helps to hold it together. If you want, you can add a circle of cardboard to the back to help with that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tis The Season!

 

Happy Holidays Everyone!

 

Holidays Around The World

I found this article on the Smashing Magazine website . I just wanted to share it with everyone!

Smashing Photo Contest “Holidays Around The World”: Best Entries!

A couple of days ago, we launched a photo contest in which you could submit a photo of how upcoming holidays are celebrated in your city. For those who have participated, thank you for taking the time to shoot the photots and sending them to us. We’ve received hundreds of pictures from all over the world and we have to be honest and say that it was really hard to pick only ten winners! All winners have been contacted.

Of course, the owner of each photo owns all the copyrights.

Winners

Photo taken by Dorin Moise: Brussels, Belgium.
“All made by swinging a simple LED Christmas light decoration from IKEA…”

Photo taken by Dorte Fjalland.
“This photo is taken in London, UK.”

Photo taken by Angela Henderson: California, USA.
“My kind of Christmas…on the coast of California.”

Photo taken by Sankar Govind.
“This was taken at the Empire State Building, New York.”

Photo taken by Ken Thorsteinsson: Whitsunday Island.
“The image was taken at Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island. Christmas seems to be a bit different here in Down Under.”

Photo taken by Dennis Vieira.
“As a fulltime RVer, i gotsta light up the motorhome! Peep the wifi antenna! ”

Photo taken by Maya Bielik.
“My photo was taken in Tel-Aviv, at the Silvester party at my house!”

Photo taken by Doug Cornett: Richmond Kentucky, USA.
“Smells of the holidays…”

Photo taken by Wesley F. Oliveira: São Paulo, Brazil.
“Christmas in love…”

Photo taken by Denys Mishunov: Tønsberg, Norway.
“A Ukrainian girl who speaks Russian and lives in Norway The text says “Happy New Year” in Russian.”

Merry Entries

Photo taken by Hoang Nguyen Khanh Nhat: Quang Nam Province, Vietnam.
“This picture is taken from Hoi An acient City…”

Photo taken by Jordan Hilario: Manila, Philippines.
“My entry to the Christmas photo contest…”

Photo taken by Brenda Gottsabend.
“Happy Holidays!”

Photo taken by Melissa Steep: Ontario, Canada.

Photo taken by James Doan: Greenwood, Indiana, US.

Photo taken by Tif Mulally: New York City.
This picture was taken from my first holiday trip to NYC.”

Photo taken by Dear Daniel: British Columbia, Canada.

Photo taken by Sabina Abou Daher: Lebanon.

Photo taken by Māris Meļņikovs: Riga, Latvia.
“In this picture you can see our Christmas fair. Happy holidays everyone!”

Photo taken by Debbie Burkhoff.

Photo taken by Juliette Giannesini.
“Happy holidays!”

Last Click

Photo taken by Kamala Crestwell.

Smashing EditorialThe team here at Smashing Magazine. Mostly Vitaly (vf), Sven (sl) and Iris (il).