diy magical gifts

Handmade gifts are my favorite, because they are so much fun to make and everyone loves receiving something made especially for them. Every year when December comes around, I love spending my weekends baking treats for my friends or working on DIY projects to give them as gifts! I put together a video showing you some ideas for gifts you can make for your friends and family this year!

merry christmas

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday! I'm in Virginia visiting family, and it's a cold, rainy Christmas Eve- perfect for drinking hot cocoa and making cookies! And if you're anything like me and still have some gifts to wrap, check out the rest of this post for some simple wrapping ideas!

painted wooden ornaments

I was browsing Target the other day and saw these wooden discs in the craft section and thought they would be perfect for making ornaments or gift tags for Christmas! I painted mine with mountain scenes, but there are so many possibilities for decorating them! I think these would be so cute as a little stocking stuffer, adorning a present, or just to hang in your Christmas tree!

peppermint cookie gift + bts video

Every year around the holidays I bake some festive treats for my friends, and this year is no different! When I found a recipe for these peppermint sandwich cookies on the Hot for Food blog, I knew they would be perfect for gifts! I had so much fun making them, and figuring out cute ways to package them! (ps. Check out the end of this post for a behind the scenes video on how I shoot my blog posts!)

DIY stocking stuffers

Some of my favorite things to make for the holidays are stocking stuffers- I love making small gifts and wrapping them up in cute packaging! I have a few super easy DIY's for stocking stuffers, perfect for you to give to all of your family and friends!

free gift tag printable

I've begun to wrap some Christmas gifts, and I'm in love with a blush pink palette for the holidays- rather than red and green. (And it's no secret that blush pink is one of my favorite colors!) I made some printable gift tags because I can never find the perfect ones in the store, and I'm sharing them with you! Check out the end of the post for the download link.

diy gourmet salt gift

Now that Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is upon us, it's time to start making Christmas gifts! I've had some projects planned for a while, so I'm excited to finally start working on them. Today I have a DIY for a little set of gourmet salts! I've been seeing these in the stores but I thought it would be so fun to make it rather then buy it, and I love how it turned out! Keep reading to find out how I did it.

christmas packaging

I've begun wrapping some of my Christmas gifts, so I'm sharing what I've wrapped so far to give you some packaging ideas! I love gift wrapping because it's a great chance to get creative. I like to use simple wrapping paper, so I can decorate the packages with lots of ribbon and tags and stickers. The scrapbooking section of the craft store is a great place to look for packaging decorations!
xoJordan

DIY stocking stuffers

I love little gifts and pretty packaging, so stocking stuffers are one of my favorite things to make for Christmas. I put together a little video tutorial for four stocking stuffer ideas that are really easy to make, and super cute too!


Remember the mini mountain painting tutorial I posted a few weeks ago? I think a set of those would be the perfect stocking stuffer! I also found glass vials at the craft store that I filled with hot chocolate, but you could also fill them with tea leaves or bath salts!


I wrapped up a couple packets of my favorite holiday tea for another cute stocking stuffer. I also painted some clothespins to make one more pretty gift!

I hope you enjoy this video! Let me know if you have any other stocking stuffer ideas, I'd love to try them out!

xoxoJordan

DIY gift: peppermint syrup

Today I have my first holiday DIY of the season for you guys! It's a peppermint syrup gift for you to give to your friends, so they can make all the delicious holiday Starbucks drinks at home. This is a little kit of homemade peppermint syrup and cocoa mix, as well as candy cane sprinkles and a recipe card for a peppermint mocha!


For this DIY, the ingredients you will need are sugar, peppermint extract, cocoa powder, and crushed candy canes. You will also need containers for the gifts. I found the glass bottles at World Market and the candy cane basket from Target!


The peppermint syrup is super easy. You simply bring 1 cup of water to a boil, and mix in 2 tsp of peppermint extract and 1 cup of sugar until dissolved. That's it! Let it cool before you pour it in your bottle, and make sure you store it in the fridge!


I made a simple cocoa mixture to add to coffee for the peppermint mocha- all it is is cocoa powder and sugar (about a 1:1/2 ratio).


I wrapped crushed candy cane in a little envelope and drew a recipe card for a peppermint mocha! (Make sure the candy cane is in an airtight bag or else it will clump together when exposed to humidity)


I combined these four things to make a cute little gift basket to give to my friends! This is a great gift for someone whom you can't figure out what to give to, because everybody loves delicious hot drinks in the winter (especially if they don't have to go out and spend $5+ dollars on a drink every time they want something special).

xoJordan

holiday beauty

Last night was a busy night for me! It was the opening night for a gallery show downtown that some of my photography is being displayed in, and after spending several hours there I headed to a holiday party that some friends were having! I wanted to wear something that was understated Christmas-y, since I was going to wear the same outfit to the gallery opening and the party. I decided to go with a dark green turtleneck, striped skirt, and tights. I wanted to keep my outfit classic, so I went with winged eyeliner and red lipstick for makeup, and soft waves for my hair. I loved this outfit, and I'm looking forward to putting together more holiday looks as it gets closer to Christmas!

{diy} christmas gift wrapping

My roommates and I had a mini Christmas celebration one night a few weeks ago (not our party, this was just for us). It was a nice break from studying; we played Christmas music, drank hot chocolate, and exchanged gifts. I thought I'd share the gifts I bought and how I wrapped them!


I used the same clay from this tutorial and used a mini gingerbread man cookie cutter to make this little shapes. I used a toothpick to poke holes in their arms.


Once they were dry, I painted them gold and gave them glittery edges.


I had a hard time deciding what to get for my roommates for Christmas. I finally decided to pick out a book for each of them, and pair it with tea and chocolate (because who doesn't love sitting down with a hot cup of tea and a good book during the winter?).


I picked out a different book for each roommate, depending on their personalities and what I thought they would like.


I wrapped the book in kraft paper and painted red polka dots on it (using a pencil eraser). I wrapped the tea and chocolate together in Christmas sheet music that I found online.


I strung the gingerbread men on red and white twine, and wrapped it around the stacked gifts.


Last, I added a tag with their name painted on it and the gifts were finished! My roommates loved their gifts (and their wrapping!). So if you're ever stuck trying to think of a gift to get for somebody, you can never go wrong with a book and yummy treats!

If you'd like to know the books I chose for my roommates, they are:
-Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
-Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
-The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
I've read them all and would definitely recommend them as excellent reads!

I wish everyone lots of love this 24th of December, have a magical Christmas ♥

DIY clay christmas tags

I finished my first semester of college, what!? That just sounds crazy to me, and it all went by so fast. I passed all my finals (all A's, yay!), so to celebrate (and to de-stress from finals week), the first thing I did when I came home was some Christmas crafting!


I made some clay for a project I was working on in my 3D Design class, and I had a little extra leftover. I decided to make some pretty tags for Christmas gifts!


The clay is made out of cornstarch and baking soda. I followed the recipe/tutorial from Twelfth House Studio. I used cookie cutters to make different shapes. I love the texture of this clay, it's really smooth, doesn't crack when it dries, and its pure white color gives you so many options for embellishing.

When my tags were dry, I sanded them a little just to make them a bit more smooth. Then I painted and decorated them!


I used some non-traditional Christmas colors, and I really love how they turned out!


Gold is my favorite accent color (I prefer it over silver any day!), so on a few of my tags I used gold paint to give them gilded edges!










There are so many ways to get creative with these tags, I would love to see what you can come up with if you try them out!

Happy Monday! ♥

Christmas dorm party

As our last big hurrah before hiding away all weekend to study for finals, my roommate Ashley and I threw a Christmas party in our dorm Friday night. We invited around ten of our friends, so it wasn't a huge party, but it was fun nonetheless.

Throwing a party in our dorm meant we had to get thrifty and crafty, so if you're a fellow college student like us, maybe you can use some of these ideas to put together your own Christmas party!


Ashley brought a small Christmas tree from home, it's so pretty and festive! She also brought a small Christmas village that you can see set up on the window sill. Ever since Thanksgiving, we've made paper snowflakes anytime we're bored, so we've used them to decorate our window.


We made some snacks, because food always makes it a party.


We set up a little hot chocolate basket, with marshmallows and mini candy canes! We stole borrowed some coffee cups from the dining hall so people could make their own hot chocolate.


Mistletoe is quintessential to a Christmas party, so of course we needed some for our party. I printed out a sprig and hung it above our kitchen.


Towards the end of the night when it was just a few of us left, we had a spontaneous "snowball" fight (we started throwing mini marshmallows around). It was so much fun (although we are still finding marshmallows hidden around the room)!


I really loved our Christmas party, it was the perfect end to our semester! This week is finals week, so I've spent the past few days studying like crazy. As soon as this week is over, I have some crafty Christmas posts planned, so keep an eye out for those!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful December so far, and good luck to all who have exams!