No Sew T-Shirt Scarves

Remember a few weeks back when we shared this sneak peak of the Christmas gifts I was making for my friends? 

Well now that gifts have been opened, we can show our MIHM readers the final products: DIY t-shirt scarves!

Finished scarves, waiting to be wrapped.

We'll just share some quick photos here on the blog, but if you want to try making them for yourself this is the link I used, complete with step-by-step directions and a how-to video. 

For each scarf, I used an extra large t-shirt I bought at Joann's, a burlap flower embellishment from Etsy, and scraps of leather fabric from my mom. In total, I spent about $12 per scarf. These scarves were so simple to make. After some cutting and hot gluing, each no-sew scarf was completed in about 20 minutes. I used new t-shirts from Joann's so washing the t-shirts was the most time consuming part of the process! 

T-shirt strings.

Leather & burlap embellishments.

I was so excited to give these scarves to my friends and it made me really happy to see how much they loved them. I had so much fun making the scarves, so I'm glad my friends are having fun wearing them :)

My beautiful friends and MIHM models, Marisa & Elisa.

I'm always looking for crafty and unique gifts for my girlfriends. These scarves were the perfect Christmas DIY gift! A big thank you to avid MIHM reader Julie for the idea and directions :)

Next Monday is Christmas Eve, so the Girls Team will be taking the night off to enjoy the holiday. Merry Christmas to our dear MIHM followers! 

Holiday Spritz Cookies

Every year, my mom and I bake Christmas treats together. We make them for friends, family, coworkers and even ourselves, so often times we have multiple Christmas baking nights together. Last night we whipped up the first batch of holiday goodies for the season. My mom made her famous chocolate fudge and I made my favorite spritz cookies. Spritz cookies are a Christmas baking staple in our house, so the Girls Team wanted to share the recipe on MIHM :)

First we gathered all of the ingredients together. Here's what you'll need:

1 cup margerine or butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar (we use bakers sugar)
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract (MIHM tip: use the almond extract for more flavor!)

Ingredients for spritz cookies and fudge.

Start by preheating the oven to 400 degrees. Mix the butter and sugar together. Once combined, add the rest of the ingredients. Mix until all of the ingredients are combined into a dough.

Dough.

 

After the dough is ready, place it in a cookie press. We have a few shape templates for our cookie press. I chose the star and Christmas tree ones. 

 

Cookie press.

 

The cookie press will compact the dough as you place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet. Once you do the first 2 or 3 cookies, you'll find a rhythm for how many seconds you should let the dough come out of the cookie press. I usually go about five long seconds before lifting the cookie press off the baking sheet. The cookie press is LOUD, but the high pitched whizzing sound reminds me of Christmas so I love this part of the baking process :)

Spritzing time!

 

Once all of your cookies are on the baking sheet, add sprinkles for color. Then bake at 400 degrees for 6-9 minutes. I think 7 minutes is the magic number. The amount of dough in the recipe will make about 2 and a half sheets of cookies, or about 50 cookies. 

 

Ready to bake.

 

As soon as the cookies are done in the oven, take them out and remove them from the hot tray to cool. Now, it's time to eat! I always try my first cookie while it is still warm because they have a light, fluffy quality to them that is delicious :)

Christmas trees and stars, ready to eat.

 

While I was making the cookies, my mom was making chocolate fudge. I have never made fudge on my own, and have helped in the past, but there is nothing like my mom's fudge! This should be ready to eat tonight after spending some time in the fridge. YUM :)

 

Homemade fudge ready for the fridge.

 

DIY Ornament Wreath

This week my Girls Team partner was off on a little vacation, so I was left alone with the hot glue gun and some Christmas spirit. I saw an ornament ball wreath on Pinterest and decided I could tackle it myself. 

I went to Target to buy plastic ball ornaments and stopped by Joann's to get a foam wreath. I bought one pack of 12 large ornaments for $5, and three packs of mini ornaments for $3 (I originally only bought two, but went back for one more pack to be safe.) In total, I spent $17 on supplies for my wreath. 

My directions from Pinterest said to hot glue all of the large ornaments on first and fill in the blank spots with small ornaments. The image I used as my sample was completely covered on all sides with ornaments. As I started gluing, I realized that I wouldn't have enough ornaments to cover the foam completely.  I knew leaving foam showing would bug me, so I ended up ripping the ornaments off and starting over with a new plan.

One trip to my parents house for ribbon later...I used gold festive ribbon, to cover the foam wreath. I used a small amount of hot glue to secure the ribbon in place. 

Now I was ready to start re-gluing! There was no exact science to this but I started by gluing the large ornaments around the wreath even distances apart, and then filled in the rest with small ornaments. Once the first layer around the wreath was finished, I filled in open spots by adding a second level of small ornaments and building the wreath upwards. 

I made sure to leave a little space open for the metal wreath hanger so it would fit between the ornaments. My Pinterest sample attached a piece of ribbon to hang the wreath instead, but my ribbon was too thick for that. 

It took me two nights to finish this project because once I decided to cover the foam with ribbon, I didn't have ribbon on hand! So the next night, I went to my parents house to borrow some ribbon. Had I not done this, it would have only taken about one hour to finish all of the hot gluing. 

Here is my finished wreath: 

And a side view, which makes me really happy I added the ribbon: 

After reading comments on other DIY ornament wreaths, I decided to hang my wreath inside. A lot of comments mentioned that ornaments attached with hot glue snapped off in cold temperatures when hanging outside. I didn't want to risk it! 

Even though I could have just bought a pre-made wreath very similar to this at Target for about the same amount of money that I spent on supplies, I'm glad I made this myself. It was relatively easy once I got the hang of things! This was a great project, but I'm excited for my Girls Team partner to be back next week. It's not as fun doing MIHM solo! 

20 days until Christmas :)

Fleece-Tie Baby Blanket

A few weeks ago, my dear friends Megan & Andrew welcomed their first baby into the world! While I have yet to meet little Aiden because we sadly live in different states, I already love the little guy. Megan is my first close friend to have a baby, so my mind was racing to create the perfect homemade baby gift before Aiden was born. I was having trouble deciding what to make for him as I was wandering aimlessly through Joann's. I was getting frustrated, but that's when I saw it! Indianapolis Colts fleece fabric! At the Folsom Joann's! It was meant to be! Megan and Andrew are originally from Indiana, and having watched the 2010 Colts SuperBowl loss (sorry Andrew) with them both in Seattle, I knew this was a gift the whole family could enjoy. I swooped up the Colts fabric and matching gray fabric for the bottom, and raced home to get started on a baby blanket :)

Although this wasn't an official MIHM project, I wanted to share it on the blog. Fleece crafts are a favorite gift idea among the Girls Team. We love the sports team fleece because it makes for unique gifts. You can't buy these at your favorite team's website! My Girls Team partner recently made a fleece-tie pillow for my brother, one side Giants print and one side 49ers print. We've also made Giants scarves out of Giants fleece and of course, Lola has a fleece-tie blanket in Giants print!

Ok, so here's the quick and easy guide to making a fleece-tie blanket. They are so simple!

First, purchase your fleece fabric. You will want two patterns, one for the top side, and one for the bottom side. I purchased one and a half yards of both Colts fleece and solid gray fleece.

After washing the fleece, find a space large enough to lay out your blanket. You don't need to iron it. Lay it flat with the sides you do NOT want showing, touching each other. Cut off any excess fabric to make sure they fit together nicely.

Cut 4 inch squares out of each corner. This will help when you need to tie knots at the corner edges. Notice that your blanket will shrink in size as you cut and tie knots. Factor this in when you are deciding how many yards to buy. I've had fleece blankets turn into lap throws because I didn't think about this when meauring ahead of time!

Now, cut 4 inch strips into all four sides of the blanket. They don't have to be perfectly measured, but you're aiming for 4 inch long cuts, about 1 inch apart. Do not move the fabric after this cutting begins or the blanket will not align correctly when you are tying knots. Once all of your cuts are made, tie the strips (one strip from the bottom fabric, one strip from the top fabric) together with a double knot to secure.

Continue tying strips together until you have tied up all four sides. This is pretty tedious, but doesn't take longer than 20-30 minutes.

 

Once all of your knot are tied, your blanket is complete! No sewing required :)

 

I finished Aiden's blanket in one night. Then I packaged it up, and sent it off to Seattle. I'm hoping with the rain coming down, and football season in full force, Aiden will get lots of tummy time on his new Colts blanket. Another benefit of fleece baby blankets are that they are machine washable, which will come in handy. I've heard Aiden already spit up on his blanket, surely to let us know he approves of his gift :) Megan is a fellow blogger, and if you want to see baby Aiden wrapped in Colts pride, you can check him out on Megan's blog. What an adorable fan!

Hot Glue Gun Palooza

Quick post this week! My Girls Team partner and I both had some DIY projects that we needed to finish up before the holidays arrive. This week we each finished our own projects, sharing one common tool - the hot glue gun! I love the hot glue gun. It's a great alternative to sewing if you need to quickly secure materials and it is so easy to use. Although, I burnt myself last night and am now nursing a nice little blister on my finger, so maybe it isn't that easy. Hmm. Anyway...

My mom made beautiful napkin rings for Thanksgiving. Using wooden rings, ribbon, and fall themed flowers she was able to make pretty, homemade napkin rings in just under one hour. I think they will add a special touch to our table decor next week and they look store bought! Good job mom :)  

 

My project has to remain top secret because it is a DIY gift that I am giving to many of my friends for Christmas. But, I will leave our loyal MIHM readers with a little sneak peak...

 

 

One week until Thanksgiving! The holidays are here!



DIY Gift Boxes

Guys! Christmas is coming! Can you believe that? We can't, but we want to be prepared for all the gift giving we plan on doing. So this week, we made homemade gift boxes out of scrap book paper. I have to admit, I was a little skeptical at first, but I LOVED how they turned out. They were so easy and cute.

 

We found this cool Martha Stewart craft tool which helps score paper, and then pulled out all of our scrap book paper for lots of options.

 

After selecting our paper, we cut two pieces into 8 inch by 8 inch squares.

 

Lining the paper up on the scorer per Martha's instructions, we scored each 8x8 piece of paper. This marked the paper so it was easy to bend, but not cut completely through to the other side.

 

 

Then we folded along the scored lines and made one cut on each corner, all facing the same direction.

 

 

 

Lastly we folded the sides of the box up, using double stick tape and glue dots to secure the sides. We also used a piece of tape inside the box to secure it.

 

 

When making the second half of the box, we scored the lines in by 1/16th so the bottom box is smaller and can fit into the top.

 

For some flare, we added paper on the inside too :)

 

 

Once we got the hang of making these, the Girls Team was cranking out gift boxes! We plan to make many more. There are no limits, all we need is scrap book paper and a few embellishments. These boxes will be perfect for gifting baked treats, small gifts and even these magnets. 

 

 

Here is a close up of my favorite one :)

 

Sometimes I find Martha Stewart pretentious and annoying in her craft instructions. However, these were so easy to make. Her directions were simple to follow and we didn't have to spend a ton of money on supplies to make these. Martha's kit also had instructions for greeting cards and envelopes, so the Girls Team is brainstorming for that project too. We are really happy with our DIY Gift Boxes and can't wait to give them away at the holidays :)

 

Mini Apple Pies

My Girls Team partner made her annual adventure up to Apple Hill and returned with more apples than we knew what to do with! This week, we made mini apple pies, because apple pie is awesome, and mini versions of things are MORE awesome :)

Freshly picked apples.

 

We found this recipe for Mini Apple Pies from a blog. The only part we changed was that the Girls Team used pre-made pie crust, saving us a lot of time on a work night!

 

After peeling and cubing the apples, my mom prepared the apple pie filling on the stove.

 

I cut out the dough for our mini pies. We ended up not using the cupcake molds because we didn't have enough of the apple filling. I also cut out strips of dough to create a lattice top. The Girls Team got clever with a cookie cutter and cut out apple shaped dough which were a cute addition to our mini pies.

 

 

Once the filling was ready, we scooped it into the mini pie pan. Then we added the lattice top, and a few apple dough cut outs for fun :)

 



 



Before we even pulled the pies from the oven, they smelled delicious. After letting them cool a bit, they were ready to eat. Apologies for the blurry picture - I was REALLY excited to try the pie and was rushing :)

 

 

We topped the warm mini pies with vanilla ice cream and dove right in. These were delicious! They are about 5 inches across, so they were the perfect size for one person. Or for those on a diet, they can easily be shared between two people.

 

The Girls Team bought the mini pie pan just for this MIHM project, and now we want to try making mini berry pies. We may even make these apple pies for Thanksgiving because they are the perfect fall treat in the perfect size.

 

Happy Halloween from the Girls Team!!

 



Festive Funkins

Halloween is here! As one of our favorite holidays, the Girls Team used MIHM to make festive Funkins. What’s a Funkin? It’s a fun pumpkin! We saw the idea in a magazine and after a search around town for fake pumpkins and Halloween and fall themed scrapbook paper, we were ready to go.

Fake plastic pumpkins in all shapes and sizes.

Halloween and fall themed paper.

 

To make a Funkin, you decoupage (our favorite!) paper onto a fake pumpkin. At first we were having some trouble smoothing the paper onto the pumpkins since they had unusual contours. By cutting the paper into strips, and even making a few side cuts into each piece of paper, we were better able to manipulate the scrapbook paper onto the pumpkin. If you're trying this at home, do not put the Mod Podge onto the pumpkin - it's too slippery! Add Mod Podge onto the back of the paper, then stick the paper onto the pumpkin, holding for a few seconds to secure. To prevent the pumpkin from rolling around and messing up the wet decoupaged strips, we placed our pumpkins in a bowl and completed one side at a time, allowing the strips to dry for about 10 minutes before rotating.

Adding paper strips.

After allowing the paper to dry for about 15 minutes, we then added a thick layer of decoupage as a sealant which helped smooth the paper to the pumpkin.
 

Generously applying Mod Podge as a top coat.

Our Funkins dried overnight and the next day we added raffia to two of them for some rustic flare. We may need to hot glue the raffia down for longevity, but as of now we think it looks great as is.

Spiderweb pumpkin and raffia detail.

 

After getting the hang of applying the strips in a non-lumpy manner, the Girls Team enjoyed this project. We are very happy with how our Funkins turned out, and hope that our work was quality so we can keep these DIY décor items for years to come.

All four finished Funkins.

 

Since some of the scrapbook paper we used wasn’t specifically for Halloween, we can keep these Funkins out through Thanksgiving! Meaning we’ll get to laugh each time we say Funkin for the next month :)

Happy Halloween from the Girls Team!