25 DIY Awesome Advent Calendars to Make

25 Awesome DIY Advent Calendars to Make @savedbylovesSince the mid 1800’s, we have been counting down to Christmas with advent calendars, and the tradition continues.  It is a favorite childhood Christmas memory for people around the globe. Get a jump start on your Christmas anticipation with this round-up of 25 amazing DIY advent calendars you can make!


DIY Upcycle Lighted Santa Bottles

DIY Santa Light Bottle Upcycle Project @savedbyloves

 

This handmade Santa light-up bottle adds a warm and cozy feeling to any space for the Christmas season. This project requires a recycled bottle and drilling a hole in the lower backside of the bottle. Also required is a fun search for a Santa image. The choices are endless, ranging from recycled Christmas cards, magazines, printed images, and the imagination goes on. Most importantly don’t forget a strand of Christmas lights. Now let’s get started and enjoy the fun.

 

Materials for drilling a hole in glass

  • Drill
  • Drill Bit
  • Safety Glasses
    • Facemask
  • Spray Bottle With Water

 

image 1 Drilling Materials

 

 

Directions

  1. Drill a hole in the bottle. Through my research I found that using a 1/2 inch hole saw diamond grit drill bit works best for drilling a hole in a bottle. You can find this type of drill bit in most hardware stores and online.

 

  1. Safety first: Wear safety glasses and a facemask to prevent eye injury and inhaling glass dust.
  2. Starting on the backside and lower end of the bottle place the drill bit at an angle. This will allow you to start a groove in the bottle. Once you have the groove started you will begin to slowly bring the drill to an upright position. Apply pressure but not too much as this will cause the bottle to break. Periodically stop drilling and spray the drill bit and bottle where you are drilling the hole to keep the drill bit and bottle cooled off. This also keeps the glass dust level down while you are drilling.

image 2 drill at angle

image 3 b groove started

image 2b Drill Perpendicular

image 3c spritz with Water

image 3d Hole Drilled

 

Tip: I have also seen websites online where you can purchase predrilled bottles from suppliers.

 

 

Materials for Santa bottle

 

 

  • Empty Bottle (most types of bottles will work for this project)
  • Cork (optional)
  • Strand of Christmas Lights (20-30 bulb strand with a one-ended plug)
  • Santa Image (of your choice)
  • Raffia
  • Christmas Bells (two)
  • Glue
  • Water
  • Paintbrush

Santa Bottle DIY

 

  1. Removing labels from the bottle. Soak bottle in warm soapy water until the label is saturated with water. Use a putty scraper or a scraper with a razor blade on the end. Once the bottle is clean allow it to dry.

Tip: If the inside of the bottle has any residue from the drilling process you can tear off a small piece of a cleaning cloth and swish it around with the water in the bottle and that will help to rid of it.

 

  1. Apply the Santa image. I prefer to make a mixture of Elmers glue and ¼ water. If the image is on thick paper this mixture will work well. If the image is on a thinner paper use a thicker consistency of glue (less water). Note: Other types of glue or Mod Podge products will work. Check your local craft stores to see what products they carry.

 

Measure the Santa image up to the bottle to insure the placement of the image will be where you want it. Using your paintbrush brush glue on the area where the image will be placed. Starting from the center of the image place your image on the bottle and gently glide your fingers from the center to outer edges of the image. Once you have the image glued down brush some more glue over the top of the image. Start this from the center working your way out as well. If any bubbles occur on the image you can smooth them out with your fingers from center to outer edges. Allow image to dry. Note: Once dry you can add glitter or a coat of crafting varnish on the Santa image.

 

Santa Bottle DIY 2Santa Bottle DIY 3

 

  1. Wrap raffia around neck of the bottle. Two or three strands of raffia will cover the neck of this size bottle. More strands may be required if your bottle is taller. Start by tying one end of the raffia around the neck of the bottle leaving a little excess on one end to tie off in the end of the wrapping process. Begin wrapping it fairly tight around the neck of the bottle. If your strand starts to run out tie the next strand to the one you started with and keep going until you have covered the neck of the bottle. Now tie off with the excess. Note: Twine, yarn, or ribbon can be used in place of the raffia.


Wrap Raffia around bottleWrap Raffia around bottle 2 

  1. Tying on the Christmas bells. Using another strand of raffia, tie the raffia around the top of the bottles neck, leaving a generous amount on both ends so that you can tie one bell on each end.Tying on Bells

 Tying on Bells 2

  1. Place a cork in the top of the bottle. (Optional)Place Cork
  2. Inserting the strand of Christmas lights. Turn the bottle upside down to insert lights (this helps the light strand to flow more evenly throughout the bottle). Starting from the bulb end of the light strand insert each bulb individually into the bottle. Once you have your strand of lights in it is time to plug in and enjoy.Insert Lights

Insert Lights 2

Gelli Printing DIY Fall Art

DIY Gelli Printed Fall Art @savedbyloves

A creative friend introduced me to gelli printing, and I am hooked. I think you will be too! Today I will show you how to use leaves from your yard and die cut leaves to create beautiful one of a kind fall art prints. Use gelli printing for your art journal and mixed media backgrounds, for handmade greeting cards or frame them for instant art!

DIY Fall Art

MATERIALS

DecoArt Mixed Media

Gelli Printing Plate; I purchase this 8×10 inch plate (*this is my Amazon affiliate link)

Brayer

Acrylic Paints in fall reds, oranges and yellows; I used DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics

White Card Stock 8.5 x 11 inches

Rubber Stamps, bubble wrap or other texture materials

Leaves from outside

Die cut leaves

TUTORIAL

Gelli Printing Tutorial

Drip paint in yellow, orange and red as shown.  It doesn’t take much paint to cover the gelli plate.

Mixed Media Background Technique

Use the brayer to spread the paint over the gelli plate.

Use Bubble Wrap to Create Texture

Create texture in the wet paint with bubble wrap, stamps, combs, etc.

Crafting with leaves

Place the real leaves or die cut leaves over the texture you just made. Now you are ready to lift your first print!

How to Gelli Print

Place the white card stock over the gelli plate and smooth out with hands, ensuring contact all over the card stock.

Gelli Print Ideas

After lifting the first print, and removing the leaves, you are left with this, which creates a cool second print.

How to Create Mixed Media Backgrounds

The left is the first print and the right is the second print after removing the leaves.

Mixed Media Techniques

Here I followed the above steps, but used leaves I die cut from cardstock with the Sizzix Tattered Leaves Die instead of real leaves.

DIY Leaf Art

I love this technique, and the DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics are great to use for it.  I tried a few other paints, but got blurred lines with the leaf outlines.  I am excited to do more gelli prints!

Have you tried gelli printing?

DIY Graphic Centerpiece from Reclaimed Wood

How to Make a Reclaimed Wood Crate Centerpiece

 

Make a Reclaimed Wood Chicken Wire Crate

Now that I have your attention with a seriously adorable puppy and his one blue eye, I would like to show you how to make this chicken wire reclaimed wood graphic centerpiece! This piece definitely evolved as it was being made.  My friend came over to see if we could come up with a centerpiece for her square kitchen table, and we started at my wood pile.  We ripped some chippy painted trim, and added it to some pallet wood and wire.  We thought we were finished there,  but had the idea to visit The Graphics Fairy where we found the perfect vintage spoon and fork images to transfer onto the pallet wood sides.  The result is just what she had in mind, and now I want to make one for myself!

SUPPLIES:

Scrap wood (we used wood pallets and old trim)

Chicken Wire

 Ryobi Air Nailer

1 inch brad nails

Kreg jig

1 inch Kreg Screws

Wood Glue

White Tissue Paper

Mod Podge Matte

Printer (laser jet or ink jet printer are fine)

Card stock

Painter’s Tape

Mitre Saw

Drill

Metal Snips

TUTORIAL:

DIY How to Make a Reclaimed Wood Crate Centerpiece

We knew we wanted a square crate.  Starting with the bottom, we used two 5.5 inch wide pieces of pallet wood that we cut to 11 inches long with the mitre saw.

We attached the pieces together with the Kreg Jig Pocket Hole System and 1 inch screws (I showed you how to use that here: How to Use a Kreg Jig).  The blue circles show the Kreg pocket holes.

We cut two pallet wood sides to 11 inches and attached them with pocket holes and .75 inch screws since the pallet wood sides were to thin for 1 inch screws.

Next we lined up the trim pieces we had ripped and marked them, cutting them with the mitre saw to the appropriate length.

How to build a crate

Next we cut the chicken wire with aviation snips to fit the sides of the crate.  We attached the chippy painted trim piece over the chicken wire to hold it in place.

DIY Centerpiece idea and beagle puppy

We thought we were finished, but then Victoria had the great idea of adding the chippy trim to the pallet wood sides where the arrows are in the photo.

DIY Reclaimed Wood Decor

We cut the trim to fit and nailed it into place with the Ryobi nailer.  This is what we were left with at that point.  I decided the wood area at the arrow and the side opposite it were perfect for graphics.  We chose the vintage spoon and fork graphics linked in the first paragraph and used the tissue paper image transfer technique I showed you here: DIY Image Transfer Recycled Glass Bottles.

DIY Fall Centerpiece

Not bad for a couple of hours and $0 spent!

How to Make a Reclaimed Wood Chicken Wire Crate

For more inspiration, visit our  50+ Image Transfer Techniques!

DIY Butcher’s Chart Cow Vintage Kitchen Art With Free Graphic

[pinit]DIY Kitchen Art Tutorial With Free Printable Butcher Cow Art @savedbyloves[pinit]

Vintage kitchen art in the form of the butcher’s beef chart is tops in the design world these days.  That is why I was thrilled to score a cookbook from 1898 with the perfect image for such a piece!  I scanned it in, cleaned it up in Photoshop and enlarged it to fit a 28 in x 14 in piece of art scored from a garage sale.  This tutorial shows you how to transfer a large image to a chalky finish surface, and provides the butcher beef chart cow art for you to download for use in your own projects!

SUPPLIES:

Vintage Butcher’s Beef Chart Image  (Click link for image download page)

Image transfer kitchen cow art

Paint brush

Chalky Finish Paint by DecoArt in Whisper

Image Transfer Medium

Clear Wax DecoArt

Laser Printer and Photoshop or other editing software

Painter’s Tape

Spray bottle with water or cup of water

Image Transfer Cow Butcher Art

TUTORIAL:

Image Transfer Vintage Cow Butcher Art

Prepare the surface for the image transfer by painting with Chalky Finish in your choice of color.  I used Whisper.  It took 3 light coats with 15 minutes of drying in between to cover the image on the garage sale art.

While that is drying, prepare your image.  I resized mine in Photoshop to fit the 28×14 inch recipient surface.

 Make sure you reverse the image before printing it so the numbers won’t be backwards in the transfer!

If you are making art larger than your printer will print, you will need to print it in sections and tape it together like I showed you in the video found here:

DIY Rustic Sign Tutorial Using DecoArt Chalky Finish Paint

How to Make Vintage Wall Art

Print the sections, align them and tape together on the back with painter’s tape.

Chalky Finish Home Decor Project Vintage Kitchen Art

Large Art Image Transfer Tutorial

Paint the surface with a thin layer of Americana Image Transfer Medium, and paint the ink side of the image to be transferred with the medium too.  For more detail on using this product, see my Vintage Image Transfer Coaster Tutorial shared at Printable Decor.

How to do an image transfer

Spray water on the back of the printed image and let soak for 3-5 minutes.

Rub paper backing away with your finger tips (there are detailed pictures of this in the graphic coaster tutorial linked above).

Seal the piece with clear wax and you are all set!

DIY Kitchen Cow Art Tutorial With Free Printable Butcher Cow Art @savedbyloves

Check out more cool ideas in our 50+ Image Transfer Projects

50 Plus Clothespin Crafts To Make

[pinit]Clothespin Crafts to Make Over 50 Great Tutorials @savedbyloves[pinit]

How have we gone this long without sharing a collection of clothespin crafts? It is a mystery.  Whether you have the one piece wooden peg, or the two piece wood or plastic version held together with a spring, you can use these simple laundry inventions to make some cool stuff.  From home decor, to jewelry, to toys and games for kids, we are all sure to find something we can enjoy in this gallery of things to make from clothespins.

clothespin craft for headphone storage

My personal favorite?  This headphone cord organizer found at Buzzfeed.  

Are you with me on this?

What are your favorite clothespin crafts?  Do you have one we missed?  If so, let us know!

ENJOY!!

DIY Image Transfer Recycled Glass Bottles

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Image Transfer Recycled Glass Bottle Tutorial @savedbyloves

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Bring a touch of vintage chic into your décor with this chalk finish image transfer technique. This project works particularly well on bottles with texture, as you can sand after painting to remove the paint from raised areas for a chippy, old world feel.  Head to The Graphics Fairy for  thousands of free images to transfer to your bottles with this simple tissue paper transfer  technique I am sharing today!

How to Upcycle Wine Bottles

MATERIALS:

-Textured glass liquor bottles
-Chalk paint in several colors
-Printer (inkjet or laserjet is fine)
-White Tissue Paper
-Decopauge medium
-Medium Grit Sandpaper
-Flat paint brush
-Wax brush or lint free cloth
-Rubbing alcohol or glass cleaner and towel
-Clear wax or other sealer
-Images for transfer (I got all the images used in this post from www.graphicsfairy.com)
-masking tape
-cardstock or photo paper

DIRECTIONS:



Image Transfer Bottles 1

1. Remove any labels from the bottles and clean the glass with hot soapy water or use Krylon Spray Adhesive Remover.  This stuff works great!

Paint on chalky finish
2. Paint on chalk paint layer. This can be cross hatched and messy since we are going for a distressed look. Do several layers in different colors if you want different the sanding in a later step to reveal base colors. It is also fine to just do one layer.
Image Transfer Bottles 5
3. Prepare image transfer by using masking tape to adhere tissue paper to a piece of cardstock or photo paper sized for your printer and image.
Image Transfer Bottles 6
4. Print images, making sure you have sized them to fit your bottles.
How to transfer image to glass
5. Cut out image and apply a thin layer of decoupage medium to the back of it with your flat brush or sponge brush. Be careful not to rip the tissue. If the medium is too thick, you may need to thin it with a small amount of water.
Image Transfer Bottles 7
6. Apply a thin layer of decoupage medium to the painted bottle and carefully place your image, ink side up. Smooth out any wrinkles with your fingers and apply a thin layer of the medium over the top of the image.
Sand to distress
7. Once the decoupage medium is dry, lightly sand distress the texture areas of the bottle until you are happy with the degree of distressing.
Apply wax with wax brush
8. Wipe away the sanding debris with a lint free cloth and seal entire bottle with clear wax using your wax brush. Another option is to seal the piece with the decoupage medium. I prefer clear wax with chalk paint. I love the unique shine it brings, and the fact that you can buff it to a shine when it dulls.

EXTRA TIPS

○ Use antiquing wax after clear wax to create more of an aged look. This project would be great with photos of family made to look aged in photo editing software, like I showed you in the “Photo in a Bottle” project.

For more inspiration, visit our 50+ Wine Bottle Upcycle Projects and 50+ Image Transfer Techniques!

Chalk Paint Map Decoupaged Table Revamp

[pinit]Furniture Flip Chalk Paint Table Old Map Decor @savedbyloves[pinit]

Today I am sharing another furniture flip! We will be taking a retro 50’s side table to a chalk painted, old map bearing, stylish addition to the master bedroom.  A little decoupaging and glitter blast add a special touch.  Let’s do it!

SUPPLIES:

Table Before Furniture Revamp

Old table

Mod Podge Satin Finish

Decoupage Map Paper from Martha Stewart or actual old maps

Foam Paint Brush

Pen or pencil

 Scissors

Chalky Finish Paint in desired color

Americana Clear Creme Wax

Krylon Gold Glitter Blast

Krylon Glitter Blast Clear Sealer

TUTORIAL:

Americana Chalky Finish Paint Projects

I lightly painted 2 coats of Americana Chalky Finish in Timeless, allowing 20 minutes to dry between each coat.

How to Decoupage Furniture

I removed the doors/hardware and outlined them onto my decoupage paper, then cut out the paper to size.

Decoupage a Table With Mod Podge and Map Paper

How to Decoupage a Table

Next I added a layer of Mod Podge to the door surface with a foam brush.

Decoupage Table Tutorial

I smoothed wrinkles out from the center with the palm of my hands.  A brayer would work too.  Then I added a uniform layer of Mod Podge to the top of the map paper to seal everything.

Krylon Glitter Blast

I sprayed the pulls on the door, and the shoes on the table legs with Krylon Gold Glitter Blast.

DIY Old Map Table

I applied a coat of Americana Decor Creme Wax in clear to the whole piece and replaced the glittery hardware once everything dried.

DIY Map Craft

I love our new side table.  Just the perfect colors and style for our decor.

I hope you are inspired to get chalky and decoupagey!

DIY Tissue Paper Scripture Chalky Finish Wall Art

[pinit]DIY Chalk Paint Reclaimed Wood Scripture Art @savedbyloves[pinit]

On a recent trip to Michaels, I found Hazel and Ruby tissue paper that just had to come home with me.  It is big, comes in super cool prints and is perfect for decoupage projects.  I used it to make this scripture word art on reclaimed wood, with a stencil mask technique.  Today I will show you how to create your very own.  You can use the text provided in a downloadable file below, or bring your own verse to the game.  Let’s do this, want to?!

SUPPLIES:

Decoupage Home Decor

Hazel & Ruby Tissue Paper

Mod Podge

Paint Brush

Wood Surface

Chalky Finish Paint (I used color “Relic”)

Vinyl Sheets and Cricut or Adhesive Word Stencils

TUTORIAL:

Tissue Paper Decoupage Wall Art DIY

Apply a generous layer of Mod Podge to your wood surface.  I am using the back of the art I showed you several years ago here:

DIY Cheap Wall Art Faux Oil Painting

It was time to change this art to fit my new decor!

https://savedbylovecreations.com/2011/03/bird-faux-oil-painting-frugal-wall-art.html

Apply the tissue, smoothing out wrinkles with the palm of your hand.  This tissue didn’t really wrinkle, so that was pretty awesome! Apply another layer of Mod Podge to seal the tissue and cut or tear the excess paper from the edges.  I actually cut mine to fit the board before applying, so there wasn’t excess.  Either way is fine.  The edges don’t have to be perfect since you are painting over them in a future step!

Phillipians Bold

I used the jpg file to cut the text out of adhesive vinyl using my cricut and Sure Cuts Alot.  You are free to use this file as well.  Just right click the thumbnail to pull up the full resolution version and save to your computer.

DIY wall Decor

I applied the stencil to the tissue paper after letting the Mod Podge cure overnight.  I used Cricut transfer tape to transfer the vinyl words.  You can do this by hand, but the transfer tape makes the process way easier, faster and neater.

DIY Wood Sign

Next I painted over the entire surface with Chalky Finish Paint in “Relic”.

Cricut Home Decor Project Tutorial

I used tweezers to remove the letters before the paint dried completely.

DIY Scripture Sign

I sealed the piece with Clear Creme Wax to finish.

DIY Budget Friendly Wall Art

I am super happy with how it turned out!!

If you like this project, be sure to check out 50+ Scripture Art DIY Tutorials:

Over 50 DIY Projects Using Old Maps

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50 Best DIY Projects to Make Using Old Maps @savedbyloves[pinit]

Do you love old maps?  Well if so, today’s round-up is going to make you dance and celebrate.  If not that, you will at least find some inspiration in super cool things to make with old maps.  Here is a collection of over 50 of the best projects “on the map”!  Enjoy, and as always, if you have a tutorial you would like included in the collection, send me the link for consideration.


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