Craft: Washi Tape Ornaments

You know what I love about washi tape? You can transform the most basic item with just a little bit of it. Have plain white paper? Add a little tape and it's stationary! Have some old glass ornaments lying around, now they're fresh and contemporary! Try it out and see, your household items may never be the same again. Or in this case, your Christmas ornaments may never be the same again.

Supplies:
Glass ornaments ( old scratched ornaments are great for this project)
Washi Tape

Cut or rip the tape and apply it to the ornaments anyway you wish. One of the wonderful qualities of washi tape is that it's semi translucent which creates a wonderful overlapping effect. You can kind of see what I'm talking about with the Christmas tree ornament. I experimented with shapes, monograms and just random ripped squares. If you don't like what you make the first time, just peel the tape off and start again. Washi tape is low tack so it won't leave a sticky residue.

Warning, these are really addictive to make!

Pom-Pom Monster Salon Giveaway

Klutz recently sent us the Pom Pom Monster Salon to test out. The book/kit comes with directions on how to make 13 different monsters, a pom pom maker, styling comb, glue, accessories for the monsters and yarn. The only other thing you will need to make the monsters are scissors.

The kit is for ages 8 and up but I had both my children (ages 6 & 8) make the pom poms. They were able to measure the yarn (book comes with a built in ruler) and wrap the yarn around the pom pom maker. I ended up cutting the yarn for them because the pom pom maker can come apart while cutting. My 8 year old probably could do it completely on his own but since we were all just learning how to make them, I helped out.

The book shows techniques on how to incorporate different colors into the pom poms. In the picture above we made a green monster with an orange mohawk out of one pom pom.

Out of all the craft kits we've tried out, this is the one kit my kids have been the most excited about so far. Everyday they're asking me if they can make more pom pom monsters.

*One important thing to note is that the kit provides only enough yarn for about 5 monsters. I recommend having an extra ball of yarn on hand in case you want to make more monsters. You can make the monsters with acrylic yarn which is reasonably priced ($3 a ball).

Arts, Crafts, & Laughs! KLUTZ books are the Perfect Holiday Gift for any Child! With Pom-Pom Monster Salon, anyone can make pom-poms and turn them into stylish monsters. Use our exclusive pom-pom maker and follow our cutting and styling instructions to create perfectly coifed mop tops, afros, pigtails, and mohawks to name a few. Add tiny hair bows, punch out feet, and foam horns and teeth for the final touches.

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Get 20% off your entire order - Shop Klutz.com and use coupon code KLUTZ4U
Promo can not be combined with any other offer. Offer expires 12/31/11

On to the Giveaway. . . two lucky readers will win a Pom-Pom Monster Salon. To enter, please share your best pom-pom monster name. One entry per household. Please leave an email address so I can contact you if you win. The last day to enter the contest is Saturday, December 3 2011. I'll announce the winner Sunday, December 4 2011 on this post. If I do not hear back from the winner after two weeks, I will choose a new winner. Open to US residents only.

Contest Closed

Congratulations to Michelle L. and Tina Reynolds who are the winners of the Pom-Pom monster salon kits!

Thank you to everyone who entered.

Black Tie Friday

I did something a little unconventional for Black Friday this year and attended a Black Tie Wedding. It was held at Casa Real at the Ruby Hill Winery, the perfect setting for a wedding. We enjoyed the night with good food, wine, conversation and some dancing.

This is the dress I wore to last night's wedding. This picture is actually from a wedding we attended at the Old Mint in San Francisco on new years eve. We basically looked the same, just maybe a little older now.

Normally I like to spend Black Friday decorating the house for Christmas. For whatever reason, I've never got into going shopping on that day. How about you? Do you like to go shopping for the deals? Anyone go shopping at midnight or stand in line for a day? Please share your stories in the comments.

What I've Been Knitting

For the longest time now I've been wanting a pair of hand warmers. The only thing holding me back was that I thought I was too old for them. I know this might sound strange but for some reason I associate handwarmers with teenagers. I really have no explanation for this. Maybe it's because I've never seen an adult wearing them. Come to think of it, I've never seen anyone wearing them. I'm sure our California weather has something to do with that. Anyways, I decided to get over the whole age appropriate dilemma and knit a pair. Let me just say, I'm so happy I did! They are cozy and warm and will be perfect for when I walk the kids to school. I even find myself wanting to wear them in the house.

There are so many patterns out there for hand warmers, fingerless gloves, fingerless mittens or any other name they go by. I found the pattern for these on the Purl Bee. I made mine two inches shorter than the pattern called for. The pattern is very easy to follow. If anyone is curious, I used Debbie Bliss aran tweed 100% wool to knit them.

While searching for patterns, I stumbled across a pattern on CRAFT for the handwarmers Alice wore in New Moon. Since The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn just recently came out, I thought these might be fun to knit for a Twilight fan. Might make a nice Christmas present too. Just thought I would share.

Photo credits go to my six year old daughter. I had her take the pictures since I obviously couldn't use my hands. I had to do some editing but I think they came out quite nice. Plus, she had fun using mommy's camera.

For The Kids Table

Photo Credit: Fiskars

Lately I've been seeing a lot of great kid ideas for Thanksgiving. If you need some last minute inspiration, here are a few of my favorites. The directions for making the table setting above can be found on the Fiskars site.

One Charming Party shows you how to make this adorable faux pumpkin pie filled with small toys. Too clever!

Printable Paper Crafts is offering up this Thanksgiving printable set to download for free. Stop by their site to see what else it includes.

Find the how-to for these finger puppets on the Martha Stewart site.

Have any crafty ideas up your sleeves for Thanksgiving? Please share.