Teacup Candles

Today I will be showing you how to make these cute teacup candles. It's a nice gift idea for someone who likes vintage things and scented candles. All you need are teacups, old candles, chop sticks, and a pot to melt the wax.

You don't have to buy a new expensive set of teacups for this project. I found these teacups in a thrift store near our house.

And I found these old candlesticks in our cupboard. Nobody uses them anyway. First, melt the old candlesticks in a pot or sauce pan.

Make sure to save the wick. Wind it around a pair of chopsticks and place it on top of the teacup. This will keep the wick stable while you are pouring the hot wax.

Add a few drops of essential oils if you want your candle to be scented. After pouring the hot wax, let it cool.

And when it's completely cool, light up your candle!

There you have it. I prefer using vanilla or coffee extract for a yummier scent. And you can even add food coloring to make it look like a real drink.

Let me know what you think of this cute DIY project. :)

Spruce Up Old Boxes With Wrapping Paper

Hi all! Do you have old boxes in your house? You can jazz them up with wrapping paper. I'll show you how:

I have this iPad box that is large enough to put my growing collection of nail polish, so I decided to use it for this project.

This beautiful wrapping paper is from the Hallmark warehouse sale. I like that the blue flowers are made of felt paper. You can also use fabric with nice patterns.

Just follow the template down below. Solid lines mean fold and dotted lines mean you have to cut them.

I only wrapped the top cover of my box. Brush the underside of the wrapping paper with Mod Podge or office paste.

Then wait for it to completely dry. And that is it!

Reindeer Christmas Cups

After drinking coffee from your favorite coffee shop, don’t just throw your paper cup away. You can still use them for craft time! This craft project is inspired by the Jingle All The Way Cup from Meri Meri.

 I figured I can make this myself and so I did. :)

Materials Needed:

-    paper cup

-    brown paper (better if in 2 different shades)

-    red and black construction paper

-    white glue

-    scissors

Wrap a piece of paper around the cup and trace the bottom and top of the cup. After tracing, the result should not be a straight line, but two curved lines. This will be your template. Use this for cutting the brown paper.

I sketched my design on my notebook first so I know how to cut the pieces of paper. I even made different deer heads to see which one works.

So for my design, I wrapped the light brown paper around the cup as my first layer. The second layer was the darker brown paper, trimmed to form the “nose bridge”.

Then I drew and cut circles on red and black construction paper for the eyes and nose. Just use white glue to stick them to the cup.

For the ears, cut the brown paper into two leaf-like shapes and pinch the end. Glue the pinched end to the sides.

Then for the antlers, I traced my design first with a pencil before cutting. Slightly make a crease at the center so that the antlers won’t look too flat when you put them on the cup.

Wait for everything to dry before displaying them. Don’t use these as drinking cups though! These are made only for decoration purposes. I’m not even sure how you can drink with this when the antlers are in the way. :)

I even made him two more friends! The one in the middle was from my previous sketch, and for the one on the left I used the Starbucks paper bag for the deer’s skin, hence the crumpled texture. It’s still cute nonetheless! :)

All done! Wasn't that easy? :)

Mason Jar Snow Globe

Hi all! I can really feel the Christmas spirit nowadays. So as early as now, we're going to make crafts for the holidays. Let's start with this mason jar snow globe. This is one of the craft projects that we did in Moonleaf.

You will need:
- glass jar (make sure it's clean)
- glitter glue
- glitter powder
- distilled water. I just learned tap water will eventually look cloudy.
- snowflake template, or pencil, if you want your own design,
- paper
- masking tape

Cut a strip of paper with the width a few inches shorter than the jar's height, and the length should be the same as the jar's inner diameter. This paper will serve as your guideline when you start decorating with glitter glue.

Now, on the paper you can either draw your own design, like Allie:

or you can cut out snowflakes and glue them on the paper, like Annie. I just googled snowflake templates on the internet and printed them on A4 paper.

When you are satisfied with your design, put the paper back inside the jar and secure it with masking tape. Trace your design with glitter glue then wait for it to dry, which will probably take 30 minutes to 1 hour.

That's me in action:

And here's the detail of my prototype:

These are my students raising their glittery jars!

Pour in some glitter powder and fill the jar with water up to the brim. Then put the lid back and start shaking! I've read somewhere that adding glycerin will help the glitter settle more slowly. So if you want more drama, add glycerin.

And then you're done! By the way, if you have a plastic toy or a plastic Christmas ornament, you can use hot glue to stick the toy to the inside of the lid.

Let me know if you have comments or recommendations, like using a special glue that's better than hot glue, or using oil instead of water. :)

Magazine Paper Rosette

Hi all! Today I will show you how to make paper rosettes out of magazine pages. It's a fun way to decorate a party, you can use it as an accessory to your present, or you can glue them on a greeting card.

You will need:

- old magazine pages

- or newspaper

- Scissors

- Stapler

- double sided tape/masking tape

So just tear a page...

Then fold it lengthwise like an accordion. I think every fold is about 3/4 to 1 inch

Cut this in half,

And connect the two pieces using masking tape, double sided tape, stapler, glue stick, whatever you have.

Staple the middle portion to keep everything in place.

Then open it like a fan and again use tape to attach the ends of the fan. The end result will be a circle that looks like this:

Experiment with different sizes. We just did 1 magazine page. You can connect two or three pages to make bigger rosettes. You can fold them crosswise to make smaller rosettes. It would also look nice if you group the pages with the same color.

I see this a lot on craft blogs and they use this as backdrop for parties. They're a lot prettier when you layer them. Here are examples I found on the internet:

Chickabug makes paper rosettes in warm summery colors. They layered 2 rosettes in different colors and even glued a circle in the middle.

via Chickabug

Minted hosted a brunch with pastel colors as their theme. This is also perfect for a little girl's birthday or a baby shower.

via The Sweetest Occasion

You can even make it more detailed by cutting holes at the middle section or make it pointy at the edges.

via Ruffled

Bottle Cap Magnets

Pippa from BuzzFeed gave me an opportunity do a craft challenge by using nail polish in unconventional ways. Aside from the water marbled drawer knobs and the earrings makeover, I decided to embellish these bottle cap magnets with colorful nail polish.

You will need: bottle caps, magnets, mounting tape (or hot glue), different colors of nail polish and clear nail polish. These step by step photos below already speak for themselves! :)

via BuzzFeed

Spray Painted Ombre Glass Bottles

Last weekend I did an upcycle project on glass bottles. I turned them into flower vases and spray painted them ombre-style. (Those are fake flowers by the way, haha)

My sister, who is a graduate of industrial design, has a collection of bottles that she used for her packaging class. She doesn't need them anymore so I asked her if I can have them. 

I removed the labels, washed the bottles, and wiped them dry. Make sure you cover the floor with newspaper so that the spray paint won't mess up your flooring. And then place the bottles upside down. I sprayed about 2 coats of white paint with flat finish.

While the white paint was drying, I took a photo of the spray paint that I was going to use as accent colors for my bottles. The colors are (not so) baby pink, cool green, and lilac. I bought these at the hardware store.

Your bottles should still be upside down. When using your accent spray paint, aim your nozzle at the bottle's bottom about 10 inches away and at an angle. You should be able to cover half of the bottle. Sorry I don't have a photo of me doing it, I couldn't take a photo and spray at the same time. But I made this so others can visualize what I did:

The effect should look like this: Saturated at the bottom, and it gets lighter and lighter to the top.

Wait for it to completely dry before you can use them. I bought these fake flowers at the department store and placed these vases in my bedroom. If you're into fresh flowers, then I guess that's better :)

And you're done!