Easy Jingle Bell Wreath

The sound of jingle bells always makes me think of Santa Claus and his reindeer. I made an easy jingle bell wreath so I could hear jingle bells every time our front door is opened or closed.

Supplies

• links in supply list are affiliate links
• 14 inch Floracraft foam wreath
• 1.5 inch wire edged red ribbon (ribbon doesn’t need to be wire edged)
• 5/8 inch wide red glitter ribbon
• 3 curly bows (bought mine from Hobby Lobby)
• sequin pins
• 3 jingle bells (32 mm size)
• 5 jingle bells (20 mm size)
• scissors
• stapler
• duct tape (optional)

Instructions

The correct ribbon size for this project is key. I tried wrapping a 2.5 inch wide ribbon around the wreath and it was a big fail. The 1.5 inch wide ribbon was perfect for this project. I started the ribbon by attaching it to the foam wreath with duct tape but you could have also used sequin pins.

The ribbon was wrapped with some overlap around the wreath. I used sequin pins to pin the ribbon every couple of wraps.

When the wrapping was complete, I folded the ribbon over so there would be no fraying. Then I used several sequin pins to secure the ends.

Next I cut 1/8 inch wide strips of the red glitter ribbon and put one through each of 3 medium jingle bells and 5 small jingle bells.

 I gathered the ends together and stapled them several times.

Then I used sequin pins to hang the jingle bells from the front of the wreath.

Finally I pinned the 3 curly bows on top of where I added the ribbons to the wreath.

This easy jingle bell wreath looks great on my front door!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you order through the links I receive a small commission. Thank you for supporting Simply Kelly Designs.

Christmas Mason Jar Photo Frame

I saw this mason jar card holder a few months ago and it gave me the idea to create a Christmas mason jar photo frame. I made this mason jar photo frame for my husband to display in his cube at work.

Supplies

• links in the supplies are affiliate links
• wide mouth quart sized Kerr mason jar
• 3.5 x 5.5 inch piece of glittery gold card stock
• 3 x 5 inch photo
• ATG adhesive (Advanced Tape Glider)
• Merry Christmas washi tape
• 5 cotton balls
• jingle bells (20 mm and 32 mm)
• scissors

Instructions

Use adhesive to adhere the photo to the card stock. I recommend the ATG adhesive for this because it holds well with glitter card stock.

Place 3 jingle bells on the bottom of the photo. The photo will go through the slits on the top of the jingle bells. The jingle bells will help hold the photo in place and prevent the other jingle bells from falling behind the photo. Place the photo inside the mason jar.

Wrap the Merry Christmas washi tape around the outside of the jar lid. This washi tape was the perfect size.

 Use cotton balls to make “snow.” Stretch 5 cotton balls and place them in the mason jar lid.

 Add a few jingle bells to the “snow.” This will help the mason jar photo frame look festive.

Now screw the lid onto the mason jar with the jar upside down. Make sure all the jingle bells are in front of the photo. This Christmas mason jar photo frame is now ready to proudly display.

 

Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link. That means if you order through the link I receive a small commission. Thank you for supporting Simply Kelly Designs.

DIY Football Jersey Ornament

If you follow me on social media, you know that I am a huge Denver Broncos football fan. I grew up in Colorado and have watched the Broncos for as long as I can remember. I have several Denver Broncos Christmas ornaments but this year I decided to make my own Denver Broncos football jersey ornament. Player 18 is Peyton Manning who happens to be my second favorite quarterback of all time.

My Denver Broncos football jersey ornament is day 16 of the 31 Days of Handmade Ornaments blog hop. Each day in October, one blogger will share a new Christmas ornament. Why October? We wanted you to get an early start on your crafting of course! You can see all the amazing ornaments at the end of this post.

Supplies:

The colors of your ribbon and paper will vary based on your team’s colors. The Denver Broncos colors are orange and blue so here’s what I used. All the links in the supplies are affiliate links.

• football jersey cookie cutter (part of the Wilton 4 piece football cookie cutter set)
• Xyron X sticker maker
• Glossy Accents with precision tip
• Silhouette Portrait
• Silhouette Portrait mat
• 3/8 inch wide orange twill ribbon
• blue glitter ribbon
• white cardstock
• dark blue cardstock
• orange cardstock
• hot glue gun and hot glue stick
• scissors
• pencil

Instructions:

1. Wrap the orange ribbon around the cookie cutter. The spool of ribbon was too large to pass through the cookie cutter so I cut a length of ribbon and gathered it into a big ball. I added hot glue where I started the ribbon. The ribbon was pulled tightly and overlapped slightly as I wrapped it. I used hot glue every couple of wraps and anytime there was an abrupt change in the shape of the cookie cutter such as peaks or large angles. I used about 12 inches of ribbon but the length may vary based on how much the ribbon overlaps.

This is the ribbon wrapped football jersey cookie cutter.

2. Trace the cookie cutter onto the orange cardstock. One side of the cookie cutter is designed to cut the cookie and is thinner than the grip side. We want to use the grip side DOWN in this step. I traced the grip side of the wrapped cookie cutter onto the orange cardstock. I found that standing up helped me make a more accurate outline.

I cut out the orange jersey.

3. Create the jersey number. The Collegiate Heavy Outline font from fontspace.com is perfect for a jersey number. I opened Silhouette Studio and used the text tool to type my jersey number at 110 pt size. I started separating the layers by right clicking and choosing Release Compound Path.

 

Then right click again and choose Ungroup.

I deleted the middle cut lines from all the shapes.

Next I want to group the inner layers and separate them from the outer layers. I selected the layers I wanted to group together and then right clicked and selected Group. Then I separated the two layers.

I used the Silhouette and mat to cut out the top 18 in white cardstock and the bottom 18 in dark blue cardstock. Next I used my Xyron X sticker maker to put adhesive on the back of the numbers. The cardstock is always loaded in face up.

I added the numbers to the orange jersey.

4. Add the ribbon to hang the ornament. My glitter ribbon was too wide so I cut it in half lengthwise. I attached the ribbon to the valley at the top of the jersey. I ran the ribbon through the ornament and made sure that both sides were even. Then I crossed one piece of ribbon over the other perpendicular to the ornament. This will ensure that the ornament hangs correctly on the tree. Double knot the ribbon on the ornament and then tie the ribbon ends together.

5. Adhere the cardstock to the back of the ornament. As a scrapbooker, I am picky about adhesives. The area to add adhesive to the cardstock wasn’t wide so I wanted to use a permanent adhesive that would be precise in its application. Glossy Accents is perfect for this with its precision tip. I quickly applied the Glossy Accents on the grip side of the cookie cutter and then pressed my paper onto it. Glossy Accents dries clear.

This Denver Broncos football jersey ornament is ready to hang on my Christmas tree!

Here are all the ornaments for the 31 days of handmade ornaments.

Here are all 31 Bloggers in order of their appearance over the 31 Days.

Yesterday on Tuesday
The Silly Pearl
Cupcakes and Crinoline
Celebrating Everyday Life
AnExtraordinaryDay
All Things Heart and Home
Petticoat Junktion
Sew a Fine Seam
Creative Crochet Workshop
Shabby Art Boutique
Morena’s Corner
From My Front Porch To Yours
Pet Scribbles
Sweet Pea
Dukes and Duchesses
Simply Kelly Designs <– you are here
Town and Country Living <– tomorrow’s ornament
One Artsy Mama
The Crafting Nook
Our Southern Home
StoneGable
Love of Home
Lovely Etc.
Remodelando la Casa
504 Main
Knick of Time
Refresh Restyle
The Cottage Market
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Heathered Nest
Sum of their Stories

I hope my football jersey ornament has inspired you to create an ornament featuring something you love!

Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this post. I receive a small commission if you purchase through those links. Thank you for supporting Simply Kelly Designs.

Free Santa's Reindeer Word Search Printable

I have fond memories of singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer during music class in elementary school. I am pretty sure that the first year or two I didn’t know all the reindeer names but then I became a pro.  This word search contains the names of all Santa’s reindeer including the most famous of all! The printable is only for your personal use but teachers may use it for their classsrooms. Click here or on the photo below to download a printable PDF file. Please leave a comment if you download.

Enjoy!

A Purrfect Christmas Ribbon Wrapped Cat Ornament

I love everything about Christmas trees: the fragrance, the lights and the ornaments of course! The Silhouette Challenge Facebook group organized a handmade ornament swap and I knew I had to join. We were paired up with a partner and encouraged to get to know our partners so we could make them the perfect ornament. My swap partner Karen owns several cats and volunteers at cat shelters so it was easy to come up with an idea for her ornament.

If you follow my blog, you know that I LOVE puns so I decided to make Karen “a purrfect Christmas” ornament. I know you just laughed! { Disclosure: The supply list contains affiliate links. }

Supplies:

• cat shaped metal cookie cutter (affiliate link)
• 3/8 inch width holiday ribbon ( I used slightly more than 3 yards)
• glue gun and glue sticks
• ribbon to hang the ornament
• white cardstock
• Glossy Accents with precision tip (affiliate link)
• Silhouette Portrait (affiliate link)
• Silhouette mat (affiliate link)
• Silhouette Studio software
• flatbed scanner
• Adobe Illustrator software or a pencil

Directions:

1. Wrap ribbon around the cookie cutter. I found it difficult to push the spool of ribbon through the cookie cutter so I removed the ribbon from the spool and just gathered it up in a big ball. The ball of ribbon was much easier to work with. I added hot glue where I started the ribbon. I pulled the ribbon very tight and overlapped it slightly as I wrapped it. I used hot glue every once in a while and definitely anytime there was an abrupt change in the shape of the cookie cutter such as peaks or large angles. The bottom right photo in the collage below is how close I got to finishing the ornament with 3 yards of ribbon.

Just the wrapped cookie cutter looked so pretty that I almost wanted to send Karen this simple wrapped ribbon cat.

2. Create an outline of the ribbon wrapped cookie cutter. One side of the cookie cutter is designed to cut the cookie and is thinner than the grip side. We want to use the grip side DOWN in this step. There are two methods you can use at this point but both involve a scanner scanning at 300 dots per inch (dpi).

• Pencil method – Place the grip side of the cookie cutter down on white cardstock and trace around it. Scan the white piece of cardstock with the traced image.
• Adobe Illustrator method – Scan the ribbon wrapped cookie cutter (grip side facing down). Import the image into Illustrator (File->Open) and then use the pencil tool to trace the outline of the pencil. I traced in the middle of the ribbon. Delete the scanned image but keep the pencil tool tracing. Export the file as a JPG at 300 dpi (File->Export and select JPG file type).

3. Create the cut file.

• Open the scanned image or the JPG file in Silhouette Studio (SS). The image should be true to size. The grip side is going to be the back of the ornament so we need to flip the image along the horizontal by selecting Object->Transform->Flip Horizontally from the SS menu.

• I want the text to be straight when the ornament hangs from the tree so I had to think about how the ornament will hang. My ornament has a natural peak for the cat ears so I rotated my cat image so the peak is at the top.

• Open the Trace window by choosing Object->Trace from the SS menu. Click on Select Trace Area and then outline the area around the cat. Adjust the Trace Settings until you get a good outline of the cat. I usually uncheck High Pass Filter and go from there. Then choose Trace Outer Edge to get a cut line. Delete the original JPG or scanned image.

•  Add the “a purrfect Christmas” text. I used the Branboll Fet font.
• Turn on registrations marks by choosing File->Registration Mark Settings from the SS menu. Then check Show Reg Marks. Reposition the cat and text if needed so that they don’t overlap the registration marks.

4. Print the cut file and cut the paper with the Silhouette. Here are detailed print and cut directions for Silhouette Studio (SS) version 2.

• Open the cut file in SS.
• Place cardstock into the printer.
• Select File->Send To Silhouette from the SS menu.
• Choose Click here to print in the Print Image window.
• Select Continue to cutting page.
• Place the printed paper onto a Silhouette mat and load into the Silhouette.
• Select Continue.
• Select Detect Automatically. The Silhouette will now detect your registration marks so it will know where to cut the design.
• Select Cut.

5. Add the ribbon to hang the ornament. The ornament has a peak so it was natural to attach the ribbon there. I ran the ribbon through the ornament and made sure that both sides were even. Then I crossed one piece of ribbon over the other perpendicular to the ornament. This will ensure that the ornament hangs correctly on the tree. Double knot the ribbon on the ornament and then tie the ribbon ends together.

6. Adhere the paper to the ornament. As a scrapbooker, I am picky about adhesives. The cookie cutter isn’t that wide so I wanted to use a permanent adhesive that can be precise in its application. Glossy Accents is perfect for this with its precision tip.

I quickly applied the Glossy Accents on the grip side of the cookie cutter and then pressed my paper onto it. I checked closely to make sure that the paper was flush with the ribbon.

Voila! This purrfect ornament is ready to hang on your cat lover’s tree!

I hope you liked the ornament I made you Karen!

Want to Check Out More Silhouette Projects?

My Silhouette Challenge buddies and I are all sharing projects on our blogs today, so peruse the projects below for a wealth of Silhouette inspiration!

1. Pineapples and Pinecones // 2. Simply Kelly Designs // 3. Architecture of a Mom // 4. Just a Girl and Her Blog // 5. Two Purple Couches // 6. Chicken Scratch NY // 7. Creative Ramblings // 8. One Dog Woof // 9. Ginger Snap Crafts // 10. The Thinking Closet // 11. Please Excuse My Craftermath… // 12. Designer Trapped in a Lawyer’s Body // 13. weekend craft // 14. Dragonfly & Lily Pads // 15. Practically Functional // 16. Living My Given Life // 17. My Paper Craze // 18. The Kim Six Fix // 19. Home At Eight // 20. Queen of Everything // 21. Tried & True // 22. McCall Manor // 23. unOriginal Mom // 24. Create it. Go! // 25. From Wine to Whine // 26. GetSilvered // 27. It’s Always Ruetten // 28. Nearly Handmade // 29. Mama Sonshine // 30. Silhouette School // 31. It Happens in a Blink // 32. Create & Babble // 33. Sowdering About // 34. Where The Smiles Have Been // 35. My Favorite Finds // 36. Lil’ Mrs. Tori // 37. Designed Decor

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you order through the links I receive a small commission. Thank you for supporting Simply Kelly Designs.

Coffee or Latte Container Christmas Gift Tags

My name is Kelly and I am addicted to chai tea lattes. We have a Tassimmo machine so I can make the single serve portions at home but every once in a while I go out to have a latte with a friend. A few weeks ago I took an Instagram photo while at Starbucks and inspiration struck.

The baristas wrote our names on our cups and that reminded me of names on gift tags.

Supplies:

• The supply list contains affiliate links.
• Silhouette Portrait
• Silhouette mat
• white cardstock
• patterned paper such as DCWV Christmas Stack or DCWV Christmas Glitter Stack
• kraft paper
• paper adhesive – Xyron 510 , Xyron Tape Runner or Tombow MONO Adhesive
• Sharpie fine tip pen

Instructions:

1. Download a file with the design (for personal use only):

• Silhouette Studio file (for use with the Silhouette Studio software)

• PDF file (added because of many requests)

2. Use the Silhouette Portrait, Mat and Studio software to cut out the different pieces. I used white to cut the container tops, craft paper to cut the container sleeves and patterned paper and glitter cardstock to cut out the containers. Each container is also backed with a container cut from white cardstock.

3. Apply adhesive to the cuts (except for the white cardstock container bases) and assemble them to create the containers. I used my Xyron 510 but you can use any paper adhesive.

4. Use a pen to write your to/from on the container sleeve. I used a Sharpie fine tip pen.

Now check out all the other awesome ideas on how to enhance brown paper packages this Christmas!

1. Pom Pom Ice Cream Cone Gift Wrap by Let’s Wrap Stuff
2. Embroidered Wrapping Paper by Lines Across
3. Holiday Lights Gift Wrap by Burlap and Blue
4. Printable DIY Watercolor Gift Tags by Dawn Nicole
5. Chalkboard Painted Wrapping Paper by The Winthrop Chronicles
6. Let it Snow Neighbor Gift Printable by Ginger Snap Crafts
7. Upcycled Cardboard Gift Tags 3 Ways by Eat. Sleep. Make.
8. Kraft Paper Gift Card Envelope Printables by Delia Creates
9. Make + Give Christmas Tree Gift Topper by Make and Tell
10. DIY Wrench Wrapping Paper by Maker Mama
11. DIY Stamped Trees Gift Wrap by Shaken Together Life
12. Brown Paper Packages by Delineate Your Dwelling
13. Yarn Tassel Gift Wrap 2 Ways by Hands Occupied
14. Holiday Writing with Washi Tape by Club Chica Circle
15. Glitter-Dipped Gift Tags by The Thinking Closet
16. Coffee Container Christmas Gift Tags by Simply Kelly Designs
17. Gift Wrapping Ideas by C.R.A.F.T.
18. Holiday Gift Wrap Ideas by Making Home Base
19. Sewn Brown Paper Gift Card Gift Giving by Dream a Little Bigger
20. Chalkboard Gift Tag & Ornament by Tried and True
21. Easy Holly Ornament Gift Tag by Rae Gun Ramblings
22. Printable Hand-Lettered Christmas Tags by Persia Lou
23. Christmas Gift Wrapping Ideas by Eighteen25
24. Washi Tape Christmas Tree Gift Card Box by That’s What Che Said

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you order through the links I receive a small commission. Thank you for supporting Simply Kelly Designs.