Awesome Handmade Ornaments of 2013

I am always awed by the great handmade ornament tutorials that come out each year, so this year I decided to share some of my favorites from various blogs. All of these would make a great embellishment on a gift in place of a bow, or would make a great small gift themselves (I'm thinking of making some for gifts to go along with cards at the office this year)! Feel free to share links to some of your favorite handmade ornaments in the comments area below as well :)

I love this terrarium ornament from Farm Fresh Therapy. A great use for small succulents in the Winter months!

I'm obsessed with these cute (and super easy!) felt ribbon candy ornaments over at The Purl Bee. They are so bright and fun (did I mention easy?).

Speaking of easy, these Confetti ornaments from In a Creative Bubble fit the bill! You can change them up with about any confetti filling you like!

Our Nerd Home is one of my new favorite blogs, check out these nifty 8 bit ornaments they made this holiday season!

My ornament contribution this year is this adorable fox. Click over to get the full tutorial and download the pattern!

Have you made any ornaments you are especially proud of this year?

Gift Bow Roundup

The holidays are fast approaching, and there is no better time to start making a batch of your very own handmade gift bows! I found the awesome sweater patterned paper above in a photorealistic package of papers and had to make some snuggly bows of my own. Below you will find a big list of options to choose from (and many can be completed by using fabric, felt or Ribbon instead of cutting paper). Settle down with a great holiday movie and some paper and whip up a stack of ribbons this week!

Paper Bows from How About Orange

Accordion Fold(Snowflake)Bows

Small Gift Bows

Jumbo Gift Bows

If flowers are more your style, you can check out these paper flowers or some easy tissue paper flowers. Happy Wrapping!

Mocha Roasted Almonds

It's rainy and chilly here today in Portland and I'm loving it! I decided a yummy smelling snack needed to be made in my oven today and these Mocha flavored Roasted Almonds fit the bill! They only take a few ingredients and about 40 minutes of your time (they also make a great Holiday gift. You know, if you're thinking about that already.).

To make you own Mocha Roasted Almonds you will need:

2 1/2 cups Raw Almonds
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons Unsweetened Cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
1 egg white

Preheat your oven to 325 (F). In a small bowl (3 cups or more by volume) beat your egg white until it is just frothy and beginning to lighten. Add in your almonds and mix them around until evenly coated with egg white.

In a zip sealed bag, mix together your sugar, cocoa and espresso powder. Shake until evenly combined. Add in your egg white coated almonds and shake to coat. Pour onto a sheet pan lined with parchment or a silpat mat.

Bake in oven for 30 minutes at 325 degrees, stirring every 10 minutes or so (this will clump together a bit if not stirred often- you can break it apart after it has cooled if necessary). Make sure you line your pan, as the mixture will stick to the pan if you do not (melting sugar just does that, you know).

Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before packaging. Eat these as a snack on their own, or put them on ice cream, cupcakes, etc. as a delicious topping!

If giving this as gifts, an easy way to package this is to put it into clear bags and stick that into one of these little boxes as shown below. You can find them at most craft and hobby stores (paper mache boxes would also work well.). Just tie it with a piece of colored ribbon and you have an easy yet cute treat box that is reusable!

Have you made any extra yummy snacks lately?


Don't forget to follow The Craftinomicon on your favorite social media site so you don't miss any upcoming food and gift ideas!

Gift Wrap: Ribbon Plaid

Time for some gift wrap embellishment! For this gift wrap method, you start with a present wrapped in brown kraft paper, and add strands of ribbon to create the look of plaid! This has always been a favorite look of mine, and it's pretty easy to do! It helps to use ribbon in different widths, colors and textures to create the effect, and of course the larger the surface area, the more intricate you could get with your design :)

To start, cut several lengths of ribbon that will wrap around your gift once each. You will want to make these for each direction (width and length--if you have a perfect cube, all lengths will be the same).

Next, take your first length of ribbon and place it around your gift, securing it on the "unpretty side" of your gift with tape.

Then, take a length and go in the opposite direction, overlapping your first length.

Take another length, and add it to the mix, this time overlapping length #2.

Once you get to your fourth length, you will need to start doing a little weaving, overlapping one length, while going under another. My gift was small, so I stopped at 4 lengths of ribbon. However, it really looks quite nice to have many more added in. The best part is you can use any colors you like!

There you have it! Plaid gifts done with colorful ribbon!

Gift Wrapping 101

I know, I know, I was going to post a bunch of gift wrapping tutorials. As usual, life got in the way. Plus, I was half way done editing some photos of a basic gift wrapping tutorial when I came across this totally pro gift wrapping tutorial and thought "I'm pretty much better at accessorizing my gifts, maybe I should forego all of these gift wrapping steps and move straight on to the good stuff!" So, if you are looking for a great way to wrap your gifts, check out that tutorial from The Mother Huddle, and break out some double sided tape to have some fantastic looking gifts!

There will still be more in the gift wrapping realm coming up from yours truly, so go ahead and wrap up some gifts and then check back for ways to make them extra special! One tip I'll give for presents that are to be embellished later on: I love using brown kraft paper. It removes all of the clutter of having 30 rolls of wrapping paper in your closet, and the bows and trimmings really stand out!

Also, if you have lots of gift cards on your list, don't forget my gift card envelope tutorial, pictured above.

Paper Bag Gift Ornaments

As expected, here is a gift wrap tutorial for all of you! These are cute little gift bags that can be hung as ornaments on your tree (if you so choose) or you can leave off the ribbon and just have a little stack of them off to the side. Mine are filled with Hershey's kisses, but they would be great for any small gifts such as barrettes, Match Box cars, etc.

To make these yourself you will start by selecting your paper and cutting it to size. You can make these any size you want, but I chose to make 8"x5" rectangles. It leaves plenty of room for candies :)

Next, fold the 5" edges of your paper together. Do NOT make a hard crease in your paper, just fold so the opposite edges match up, then sew them together (if sewing isn't your thing you could also use glue, but sewing looks so cute don't you think? I chose to add in a ribbon to this edge so I can hang my final project.

Once you have the first edge sewn, you will sew shut the top edge. Simply fold your paper so the edges match up evenly and sew!


If you are making a large batch of these, you may want to make them all through this step, then stuff them and sew them shut at the end. Or you can continue on and make each one start to finish one by one.

To finish, fill your paper package with your little candies, gifts, etc. then fold the bottom of your package to make a little pyramid type shape by lining up the center of your paper with your first sewn seam! Ta-Da! Nice little 3-D paper tree ornaments filled with gifts!


While I haven't made one yet, I plan to try some of these with fabric and close one edge with velcro or a zipper so they can be re-used. I will let you know how that turns out :)

Easy Gift Tags

It's almost time for my gift wrapping tutorials, but first, you may want to cut out some gift tags so you have them ready! These gift tags are made from decorative card stock. To make them you will need:

Scissors or Xacto knife
card stock in desired colors/patterns
ruler
pencil to lightly mark some measurements (if needed)

I have some pretty nifty rulers in varying widths, etc that are made from clear plastic, so I generally skip marking my cuts with pencil, but if you feel more comfortable doing that, go right ahead. Just make sure to make your lines lightly so they may be fully erased on your final project.

I start by deciding how large I want my tags to be. These are 2 1/2 inches wide and 4 inches tall. Cut your rectangles out of your card stock and set aside.

Next, to make your tags a little more exciting than a simple rectangle, pick one corner from which to start your measurements. Measure 3/4 of an inch from the corner in each direction, make a small dot with pencil if needed. Using your measurements, cut out a triangle from the corner. Repeat on other side so you are left with your gift tags as seen here:

If you plan on attaching your tags to your gifts with ribbon or string, you will want to use a hole punch to make it easier to attach your string. This will make your finished gift tag look like this:

If you do a lot of paper crafts you may have some decorative corner punches, or edge punches that you can use to make your edges more decorative, but I like going with standard straight lines on my tags. When not using string, I attach mine to gifts using double sided tape (while not necessary, double sided tape really can make gifts look much more professionally wrapped. I generally prefer to just use regular tape, no one I know generally cares about a little tape showing on their gifts).

Come back all weekend for some great gift wrapping tutorials! I even have some sewn gift bags for the smaller gifts on your list!

Accordion Fold Bow

Today's bow(s) are super simple and can be made any size. If you feel like busting out some sewing skills, you can also make these from fabric (you might want a little interfacing on larger ones to help them keep a crisp shape though)! The best part is that you can alter these to make your accordion bow into a snowflake bow and then every bow is different!

To start, select your paper or fabric (to get nice crisp folds in your end product and assure that it will spread nicely once open, I recommend using thinner paper rather than a card stock. Magazine paper or gift wrap would be perfect as it allows your paper to move pretty freely.

I always use the ratio of one inch wide for every three inches long when cutting my paper into a strip to be folded. The bow seen here is 4 inches wide, so I used a strip of paper 12 inches long.

If you want a "perfect" looking bow, you can measure out inch increments on the back of your bow or score fold lines so each fold is the same size. Then, fold your paper back and forth to make this accordion folded strip (I always fold my accordion an even number of times, so both "ends" are folded with the pretty side facing out and the plain side facing inwards so no one sees it in the final bow.):

Once it is folded you will want to staple it in the middle (or sew if using fabric), and then spread out your little folds to make a circular bow. Secure your ends together with glue, tape or another staple and you will have this:

A little Plain Jane for your taste? Once you have stapled your accordion folded paper in the middle, feel free to cut out some shapes as if you were making a paper snowflake. Here is my accordion folded paper, stapled, with cut outs:

You could use pinking shears or other decorative edged scissors to add a little more "oompf" as well. Again, using a thinner paper aids dramatically in being able to cut out your shapes.


When you spread out and fasten the edges of your snowflake together now you will get a bow that looks like this:

There you have it! Again, this is a great way to start out making bows in an assembly line type of way, but end up with a bunch of great unique bows by cutting out different shapes!