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.

Vibrant DIY Washi Tape Composition Book

My kids are halfway through their summer vacation and I am already thinking about what they need to go back to school. I thought my daughter would like a washi tape composition book. She can use it at school or as a diary during the school year. Be sure to read through the entire post because I have a video of me making the washi tape composition book at the end of the post.

{ Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this post. }

Supplies:

• composition book
• 8.5×11 piece of white cardstock
• 8.5×11 piece of coordinating cardstock or patterned paper
• assorted washi tape (I used the Scotch Expressions brand)
• Scotch ATG adhesive (not pictured)
• honey bee scissors

Instructions:

1. Cut the cardstock. I bought my composition book at Dollar Tree and the measured dimensions were slightly smaller than specified on the notebook. Trim both pieces of cardstock to be the height of the notebook. For the white cardstock, I measured from the right side of the notebook to just left of the right edge of the black spine. For the pink cardstock, I left it as 8.5 inches wide because it covered the back cover and the entire black spine. My white cardstock measured 6 3/4 inches x 9 5/8 inches and the pink cardstock measured 8 1/2 inches x 9 5/8 inches. Be sure to measure your composition book because the size varies by brand.

2. Add washi tape to the white cardstock. I used an assortment of Scotch Expressions washi tape. The washi tape was lined up in a pattern and added one at a time to the white cardstock. The ends of the washi tape go off the edge of the cardstock.

3. Fold the washi tape ends over to the back of the cardstock. The quickest way to pick up each piece of washi tape was to get each piece to stick to my finger and then use that to fold the washi tape down.

4. Adhere the pink cardstock to the back cover. Add ATG adhesive to the edges and an X of adhesive in the middle of the cardstock. Line the cardstock up with the edge of the composition book and press down. Add extra adhesive near the spine and press down.

5. Adhere the washi taped cardstock to the front cover. I added ATG adhesive to the composition book cover and the back of the cardstock. Maybe a little overkill but I want that paper to stick.

6. Trim the corners of cardstock with scissors. This easily rounds the corners of the composition book without using any other tools.

Here’s a time lapse video of how I created this washi tape composition book. This was the first time I have recorded and edited a video on my iPhone 6.

I only customized the front cover of the composition book but you could also customize the back cover with washi tape. This craft lightning project was fun to make and the best part is that my daughter loves her new vibrant washi tape composition book! Back to school seems like it is just around the corner so I’m going to squeeze the most fun I can out of these last few weeks before school starts. Happy crafting.

 

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

Completed Personal Yearbooks For 2014-2015

Personal yearbooks are one of my favorite projects. I create a personal yearbook for each student in my children’s classes. The front page of the personal yearbook contains a photo of the student at the beginning of the school year and a photo of the student at the end of the school year. I love to see how they’ve grown.

Each month, I took a photo of each student at school. The students in my daughter’s second grade class wrote about their photo in their own words. I interviewed each of the kids in my son’s kindergarten class and wrote down what they said. The last page of the personal yearbook contains a photo of the student with their teacher and a handwritten note from the teacher. This year I completed 40 personal yearbooks – 20 for each class. The personal yearbooks were given to the moms at the Mother’s Day breakfasts at school.

I loved seeing all the moms look through the personal yearbooks with their kids. My son had seen his pages throughout the year but he hadn’t seen them all put together. After we looked through the album together, he said, “I really wish we could keep this mom.” I was only too happy to tell him that we were taking it home!

Here’s a quick glance inside my children’s personal yearbooks.

My son’s book contained pages for school events, everyday activities and field trips. Interviewing the kindergartners was such a joy. They were so sweet and I never knew what they are going to say.

My daughter’s teacher assigned project that were done at home each month. Most of the pages in Kara’s book are about those monthly projects. You can see that she wrote a lot because she knows that is what her scrapbooking mom expects. The other students in her class started out the year writing brief descriptions until specific questions were provided for them to answer.

The personal yearbooks are definitely a labor of love. The time involved for each month totaled several hours for each class but it is a wonderful feeling to know that these children will have these memories for the rest of their lives.

I hope to continue with the personal yearbook project next year!

DIY Conversation Hearts Temporary Tattoos

I have always loved the conversation hearts candy that pops up every year around Valentine’s Day. We are trying to stay away from candy this year. Instead of giving out candy, I designed these conversation hearts temporary tattoos for my kids to wear and give to their friends for Valentine’s Day.

This post is for the monthly Silhouette Challenge but you do not need a Silhouette to make these temporary tattoos.

Supplies:

• Silhouette Printable Temporary Tattoo Paper (affiliate link)
• inkjet printer
• Silhouette machine or scissors or paper trimmer

Instructions:

1. Download the printable PDF here or Silhouette Studio cut file here. These files are only for your PERSONAL USE.

The two files are different so please make sure you download the correct one!

2. The Silhouette Printable Temporary Tattoo Paper is actually two sheets. One is a printable sheet and the other is an adhesive sheet (one side of the adhesive sheet is green). Use an inkjet printer to print the file out onto the glossy side of the printable paper. Let the ink dry for a minute or two. The printed designs will be the mirror image of how they will look when applied. This is my printed Silhouette Studio file. Notice how the words are all mirror images.

3. The adhesive sheet has two sections of green backing. Remove the small strip of backing. Line up the exposed adhesive with the top of the printed temporary tattoo paper and smooth it down.

4. Carefully pull back the large piece of green backing a little bit at a time and smooth the adhesive sheet as you go. Make sure there are no air bubbles.

5. If you aren’t using the Silhouette, use scissors or a paper trimmer to cut out tattoos. The closer you cut to the border of the tattoo, the better the tattoo will look when applied. If using the Silhouette, follow these directions to cut out the tattoos in Silhouette Studio Version 2.

• Place the tattoo paper face up onto a Silhouette mat and load into the Silhouette.
• Open my cut file in Silhouette Studio.
• Select File->Send To Silhouette from the Silhouette Studio menu.
• Choose Click here to skip printing in the Print Image window.
• Select Continue.
• Select Detect Automatically. The Silhouette will now detect your registration marks so it will know where to cut the design.
• Make sure your cut settings are for the Temporary Tattoo Paper Silhouette Brand. Adjust the depth of your blade if needed.
• Select Cut.

These are some of the tattoos that I cut with my Silhouette. At this point the text should be a mirror image.

6. To apply the tattoo, peel the clear adhesive off the tattoo and place the tattoo with the image face down on the skin. Place a damp paper towel or damp washcloth on the tattoo for 20 seconds. Remove the washcloth and white paper backing to reveal the temporary tattoo!

If you want to create your own temporary tattoo designs, I describe how I create mine in How To Create DIY Temporary Tattoos.

If you love temporary tattoos you might also like my DIY Dr. Seuss temporary tattoos.

 My Silhouette Challenge friends and I are all sharing projects on our blogs today. Check out the projects below for more print and cut Silhouette inspiration!

1. Clever Someday // 2. TitiCrafty // 3. GingerSnapCrafts.com // 4. My Paper Craze // 5. Simply Kelly Designs // 6. Little Blue’s Room // 7. Mama Sonshine // 8. Small Stuff Counts // 9. Dragonfly & Lily Pads // 10. GiveMeAPaintbrush // 11. Please Excuse My Craftermath… // 12. Barb’s Life // 13. GetSilvered // 14. Lil’ Mrs. Tori // 15. Minted Strawberry // 16. unOriginal Mom // 17. Where The Smiles Have Been // 18. Persia Lou // 19. Silhouette School // 20. From Whine to Whine // 21. DailyDwelling // 22. Creative Ramblings // 23. Paper Garden Projects // 24. It Happens in a Blink // 25. Perfectly Fabulous // 26. Adventures in All Things Food // 27. Create & Babble

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.