Make This DIY Gingerbread House Advent Calendar With Brown Paper Bags

DIY Advent Calendar with paper gingerbread houses

* this post contains affiliate links. 

Brown paper packages tied up with string…these are a few of my favorite things! This mini brown paper bag wrapped up with string is our version of a sweet gingerbread house, without all the sugar. That’s right, we didn’t use a pinch of sugar with this project. Just paper bags and a white paint pen! We haven’t mastered the gingerbread baking thing (it’s on our list). But, we love the ambiance and festive feels of gingerbread houses during the holidays, so it was the next best thing, and a wonderful DIY advent calendar for our families this year. It’s easy to do (no artistic abilities required; in fact, get the kids involved to draw their own houses), and it’s very economical. Sometimes the costs of Advent calendars adds up, and it feels outrageously expensive to countdown to Christmas (where we spend even more money).

Let’s make our cute DIY Gingerbread Advent Calendars before December 1 (we are known to be a little late, and that’s ok). You’re in luck, you can draw these houses and build your tiny village of brown paper bag houses in a couple of hours.

Materials:

  • Brown paper bags, small craft size, not the lunch size
  • Marker pen, white
  • Hole punch
  • Twine
  • Goodies to fill the bags
  • Optional: number stickers

Directions:

Step 1: Fold over the tops of the paper bag. It should look like a the top of a triangle, or “roof” on one side, and the other should have flaps.

diy brown paper bag gingerbread houses

Step 2: Decorate the bags with a white paint pen. You can look online for inspiration, but swirls, circles, squares, hearts, and lines are the source of all the fun decorations. Get creative, and remember that gingerbread houses are unique, whimsical and not perfect. Add a small number sticker on the front of the bag, 1-25.

diy brown paper bag gingerbread houses

 

Step 3: Using a small hole punch, punch a hole on the top of the roof, one on each side. You want to keep it folded as you hole punch through the bag. After you fill it with goodies, toys or ideas for random acts of kindness, insert twine through the holes from the back of the bag, and tie a ribbon.

diy brown paper bag gingerbread houses

diy brown paper bag gingerbread houses

Open one each day as you count down to Christmas! After your done with the bags, don’t throw them away. Save them for gift cards to give friends and family. They are so adorable, and great gift bags. Simple remove the number, and re-use it.

diy brown paper bag gingerbread houses

diy brown paper bag gingerbread houses

 

DIY Embroidery Sweatshirt: For The Homebody

diy embroidered sweatshirt-homebody-cozy-clothes

I saw this photo on instagram, and fell in love with the words, Homebody. The welcome mat is adorable, too! Anyone else a self-proclaimed homebody, like me? I love a great party and good people, and am definitely energized by them; however, 90% of the time, I am happiest at home with my family. I am a homebody at heart. Comfy clothes, a good movie, yummy pizza, snuggles with my husband and kids is the perfect night for me. I’ve been looking for ways to get in on the DIY embroidery trend, so this was the perfect opportunity to give my cozy sweatshirt a makeover.

Ladies, no sewing machine required. Let’s get this embroidery party started…

DIY Embroidery Sweatshirt

Materials:

Directions:

Step 1: Print out a copy of your favorite word the size of your sweatshirt tie on the Sticky Fabric paper. BTW, the wider the tie’s on the hoodie, the better. Cut out the word, remove the backing from the sticky paper, and stick it on the hoodie tie.

diy embroidered sweatshirt-homebody

Step 2: Thread the embroidery needle with black embroidery floss, and begin to embroider. To this this, you will tie a knot at the end of the string, and insert the needle through the back of the tie on the top point of the first letter. For me, it was the top of the H (the photo below shows how I did the letter Y for a visual). When you pull it all the way through, begin to insert it along the line of the letter a couple millimeters down, and back through the tie. Now, instead of coming back up through it like before directly next to the first stitch, you’re going to move it a couple millimeters down the letter, pull it through, and then go down in the middle of the first stitch.

diy embroidered sweatshirt-homebody

 

diy embroidered sweatshirt-homebody

diy embroidered sweatshirt-homebody

diy embroidered sweatshirt-homebody

Step 3: Continue this split stitch process until the word is done. When the word is complete, tie a knot with the embroidery string on the back of the tie. If you have to cut any of the embroidery string through the word (either you run out of string, or your word is not attached with script and you have to do each letter separately), be sure to start each strand the same way with a small knot at the end of the string.

diy embroidered sweatshirt-homebody

Step 4: Wash the sticky soluble fabric with water. It comes right off! Let it dry, and you have a cute custom embroidered hoodie sweatshirt to stay cozy in all year long! This would be a fun gift for friends – find their perfect word, and embroider a custom sweatshirt for them this holiday season.

diy embroidered sweatshirt-homebody

 

Gaga Over These DIY Diaper Babies

DIY diaper babies for baby shower idea

It’s been awhile since I have purchased, or changed a diaper. I don’t miss changing dirty diapers at all, but I do miss the days when my kids were tiny. The days of those precious newborn smells, first giggles, first steps and holding those tiny hands passed by in the blink of eye. Working with diapers again had me reminiscing on all those wonderful times.

Whether the days of diapers are in your past, present or future, these DIY diaper babies are worth making. They make the perfect gift for new moms, or a fun baby shower activity.

I shared all the details with Momtastic, so check it out here.

Last-Minute Halloween Printable + Cheesy Halloween Jokes

halloween jokes for kids-school halloween snacks-free printable

So, Jessica is last-minute with most everything she does. Jenna would have had this planned months ago, and she would have designed. But, with life being busy right now, and this being an extremely last-minute idea, Jessica created with Canva.

If you don’t know what to bring to the classroom Halloween party this year, grab bags of snacks or chips at the store, and we’ve got you covered with a free printable (see at the bottom of this post). You don’t need to bake anything, or come up with another cute Halloween party snack. Just print on Astrobrights sticker paper (or regular paper), and add it to a bag of chips (or oreos, or goldfish, etc). It has less sugar than the usual candy, and kids will love the cheesy laughs. A little effort goes a long way with this one!

Happy Halloween!

halloween jokes for kids-school halloween snacks-free printable

halloween jokes for kids-school halloween snacks-free printable

halloween jokes for kids-school halloween snacks-free printable

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE PRINTABLE. Thanks, Canva.

DIY No-Sew Maleficent Costume

DIY maleficent costume

*this post contain affiliate links. Thanks for your support! 

We love Maleficent around here, especially our girls. We still haven’t seen Maleficent, Mistress of Evil, and can’t wait to watch it. When Jessica’s daughter said she wanted a homemade Maleficent costume, we were a little hesitant because it looks intimidating, but after we shopped around and got creative without a sewing machine, and with plenty of duck tape, and a trip to Target and the vet’s office, it all worked out magnificently.

We know Halloween is less than one week away, but this can easily be done within one day, maybe two for the paint to dry! You can do it!! If not this year, put it in the files for next year. We may have the horns you can borrow. wink wink

You’ll Need:

Directions:

Costume
The best part about the top, skirt and shoes is that you can wear all year-long! I hate buying costumes that are worn once, and never re-worn. Now that my kids are older, they don’t dress up like they use to, so I like buying everyday clothes that can be transformed into a costume. Most of her outfit is from the Girls Cat and Jack line from Target.

diy maleficent costume

Maleficent Horns
Cut 5 to 6 inch strips of duct tape. Begin to wrap around the small Maleficent horns. You will just wrap and wrap until you build a larger size. Maintain the shape of the original horns, but this step will make them thicker. You don’t want them too big, or it will be top heavy. But, they need to be somewhat large for effect. Once the horns are set, add hot glue to the bottom of them, and glue to the headband. Now, begin to wrap duct tape around the base of the horns and the headband. Wrap, wrap and wrap some more, until the horns and sturdy on the headband and it looks like one unit. When it’s done, put on the swim cap, and then add the headband/horns.

diy maleficent horns

Maleficent Staff
This was a really fun prop to make. We got messy, and it kept the kids entertained. We found a stick outside, but it was just too small, and didn’t have much texture. So, we texturized it with newspaper and paper mache. We cut small strips of newspaper, and once we had our “glue” or flour and water mixture (1 part flour, 1 part water), we dipped the strips in the mixture, slid off the excess with our fingers, and wrapped it around the stick. We made some parts bumpy by twisting the newspaper, and other parts smooth by wrapping it tight. At the top, we tried to create a little “nest” effect for the green, glowing magic stone. You can do whatever you want with the paper mache, which is the beauty of it. We let it dry for two days, then spray painted it black.

As for the green “stone,” roll Model Magic into a stone shape (basically a tall ball with a flat bottom). Then, paint it green, and once that paint is dry, paint a layer of Glitterific Plaid Paint. To glue it on, I used hot glue on some parts, but wasn’t sure if it would hold, so used Gorilla Glue as well.

diy maleficent costume

diy maleficent horns

Maleficent Collar
This was a tricky one, until Jodi mentioned a dog collar. Luckily I have an amazing friend (that’s you, Atlanta), and she dropped off dog collars for me to get creative with. We tried cutting it exactly like Maleficent, but it didn’t maintain it’s dramatic shape as much, so we kept it as is. We lined it with pieces of black duct tape (for color, and to soften it against the skin), and sparkly duct tape. It works great!!

Other props
Find a crow at a local store. They are everywhere this time of year. We found the wings at Michaels. But, we’ve seen them at Amazon, Spirit Halloween and Walmart.

Happy Halloween. Never let your wings get stolen from you. 🙂

diy maleficent horns