These 3 projects I whipped up today. They are all quick, easy and make great last minute gifts.
FOR THE TEENAGERS BEDROOM
We have slowly been transforming Jay's bedroom into a surfing/skateboarding theme. He has all black and gray furniture and we are accenting it with blue. At the moment he has a lot of posters on the wall. I would like to eventually frame them (or mysteriously lose them) so I thought it were about time to give him a gift that would actually look nice on his walls.
The photograph was edited using Picnik - and thanks to a special offer between Walgreens and Snapfish last week I was able to have the photograph printed as an 8x10 for free. I picked up the frame from Michaels using a 40% off coupon. The graffiti was created using Graffiti Creator which is a free site that Jay happened to show me quite a while ago.
HOME MADE PLAY DOH
About a week ago I brought out the play doh out for the twins to play with. That night I was so exhausted that I went to bed forgetting to pack it away. Needless to say it was hard and dry by morning and had to be thrown out. I thought this would be a great opportunity to try my hand at making some. I kept the old containers, re-labeled them and filled them with natural home made play doh.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup warm water
- 1/4 cup salt
- 2 tsp Cream of Tartar
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- food coloring
How to make:
Mix all ingredients together in a small saucepan. Heat, stirring frequently until the mixture thickens. Spoon onto a cutting board to cool. I separated the mixture into 1/4's to make 4 colors. Make a small well in the middle of each pile and add a couple of drops of food color. Wearing gloves knead until completely mixed.
POLYMER CLAY
The first project I made was a key ring for Jay. He doesn't have one for his set of keys and he normally loves the hand made things I put together for him so I thought I'd try my hand at polymer clay.
I shaped blue polymer clay to look like a surfboard, used a knife to carve his name and a pencil to make a hole in the top. I baked it according to the instructions on the packet and let it cool. I found an old broken necklace and removed the charm on it. Once the surfboard was hard I threaded a key ring on, as well as smaller rings for his keys and the charm.
I couldn't stop at making just one clay project so I made ornaments for each of the kids Christmas trees too.
For these ones I used Christmas cookie cutters to make the shapes. Punched holes in the top and then baked (again according to the instructions on the packet).
The mitten was simple enough to thread a tie through the hole.
With the stocking, I threaded a tie through the hole, then using glue attached a little cotton wool to the top.
For the angel I wanted to make a halo. I cut a small piece of wire and twisted it into a halo shape. I lay it on the back of the angel and placed the gold tie over the top. I very gently tapped a fabric stud over the top of both to hold them in place.
These would make fabulous gift tags too. You could use a stamp to put the initial of the recipient.
