DIY Agate Napkin Rings | Popcorn and Chocolate

Simple Agate Napkin Rings

DIY Agate Napkin Rings | Popcorn and Chocolate

Admittedly these agate napkin rings were meant for our Thanksgiving table but we had so many other great Thanksgiving crafts going up that they just didn’t make it in time for Thanksgiving. It would be a shame to have to wait until next Thanksgiving to share these simple agate napkin rings so before we dive into our Valentine’s day crafts we thought we would sneak these guys in.

DIY Agate Napkin Rings | Popcorn and Chocolate

These agate napkin rings don’t have to just be for Thanksgiving – they are perfect for any holiday table or just a fancy Friday night! You could even set them up for a romantic Valentine’s day table for your special someone 😉

DIY Agate Napkin Rings | Popcorn and ChocolateDIY Agate Napkin Rings | Popcorn and Chocolate

Head on over to Homedit to find the full tutorial for these agate napkin rings.

DIY Agate Napkin Rings | Popcorn and Chocolate

Click here for the tutorial.

Glitter Champagne Bottles for New Years

Glitter champagne bottle for New Years | Popcorn and ChocolateRing in New Years this year with these 2017 glitter champagne bottles. They are easy to make and involve buying a bottle of champagne – my kind of craft! Keep reading below to find out how to make these 2017 glitter champagne bottles.

Glitter champagne bottle for New Years | Popcorn and Chocolate

Glitter champagne bottle for New Years | Popcorn and Chocolate

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas/holiday! Seems like the time just flew by and here we are about to celebrate New Years. 2016 has been quite the year and I for one am glad it is coming to a close. I can’t wait to ring in the New Year and say sayonara to 2016.

2017 Glitter champagne bottles | Popcorn and Chocolate

With New Years just a couple days away we thought we would share a simple last minute craft you can do to prepare for the big night. You can make this craft in a couple of hours and will most likely have a lot of the supplies already at home.

Glitter champagne bottle for New Years | Popcorn and Chocolate

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If you decide to make these glitter champagne bottles be warned that you might end up with glitter in your hair, stuck to your fingers, all over your clothes and pretty much everywhere you are working. I had a trail of glitter following me from where I made the champagne bottles to where I took pictures and back again. My mom wasn’t thrilled. I think I’ve still got some stuck to my leggings too. It’s a dangerous medium to work with, but definitely worth the risk.

2017 Glitter champagne bottles | Popcorn and Chocolate

Materials:

  • Glitter
  • Mod Podge
  • Vinyl sticker numbers
  • Paint brush
  • Newspaper to collect all the glitter
  • Champagne bottle

Making the glitter bottle:

  1. Take your vinyl stickers and place the numbers 2017 down the side of your bottle where there is no label. 2017 New Year Champagne Bottle | Popcorn and Chocolate
  2. Paint on mod podge all over the bottle. Be careful when going around the 2017 stickers and try not to get glue on the actual sticker.2017 New Year Champagne bottle | Popcorn and Chocolate
  3. Cover bottle in glitter. Let dry for about an hour. 2017 New Year Champagne bottle | Popcorn and Chocolate
  4. Gently peel off the 2017 stickers. I used an exacto knife to get underneath the stickers and gently pry them up, trying not peel the glitter off around them. 2017 Glitter New Year Champagne bottle | Popcorn and Chocolate
  5. Pop your champagne and enjoy!

2017 Glitter champagne bottles | Popcorn and Chocolate

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Say goodbye to 2016 and hello to 2017 with these glittery champagne bottles! We hope you all have a wonderful and safe New Years! Let us know in the comments below what you are planning on doing. I’m most likely spending the night at home and cracking open these bottles 😉

Glitter champagne

2017 Glitter champagne bottles | Popcorn and Chocolate

 

Candy Cane Lawn Flamingos | Popcorn and Chocolate

Candy Cane Lawn Flamingos

Candy Cane Lawn Flamingos | Popcorn and ChocolateIt was 5 ° out when I took pictures of these candy cane lawn flamingos. I had to wrap up in my scarf and hat and throw on my gloves between pictures. It was quite the sight, but I got it done and got to go inside to a hot cup of tea.

Candy Cane Lawn Flamingos | Popcorn and Chocolatedsc_0036

I always wonder what it would be like to celebrate Christmas in warmer weather. I love the winter and I love snow but I’m forever curious what Christmas in California feels like or Florida or anywhere that isn’t currently blanketed in snow at the moment.

Candy Cane Lawn Flamingos | Popcorn and Chocolate

Candy Cane Lawn Flamingos | Popcorn and Chocolate

This DIY was definitely inspired by a warmer climate, but these candy cane lawn flamingos look great stuck in a pile of snow as well. They are simple to make and add a bright, whimsical touch to your front lawn to welcome any guests you have coming this holiday.

Candy Cane Lawn Flamingos | Popcorn and Chocolate

I love candy canes and I love flamingos so why not combine the two?? I would just suggest not to eat these guys. The instructions on how to make these candy cane flamingos can be found below.

Candy Cane Lawn Flamingos | Popcorn and Chocolate

Candy Cane Lawn Flamingos | Popcorn and Chocolate

Materials for the Flamingos:

  • White and red spray paint
  • Plastic lawn flamingos
  • Blue painters tape

 

How to make candy cane lawn flamingos:

  1. Start by taping off the beak, eyes, and first half of the legs with blue painters tape.
  2. Spray paint the body of the lawn flamingo white. This took a couple of coats for me – I don’t know if this was due to the extreme cold or it was just the spray paint I used. Let dry completely up to 24 hours.                                           Spray painted lawn flamingo
  3.  Take your blue painters tape and tape off stripes on the body of the flamingo.Striped lawn flamingo
  4. Spray paint the flamingo red. Let dry completely.              Candy cane striped flamingo
  5. Take off painters tape and stick your flamingo in your lawn!

 

Candy Cane Lawn Flamingos | Popcorn and ChocolateWhat a fun and unique decoration to add to your front lawn for Christmas! Let us know in the comments below how you have decorated for Christmas this year!

Candy Cane Lawn Flamingos | Popcorn and Chocolate

And if we don’t stop by again before the holidays – we wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a happy Hanukkah!

Candy Cane Lawn Flamingos | Popcorn and Chocolate

Christmas lights gift wrap | Popcorn and Chocolate

Christmas Lights Gift Wrap Inspired by Stranger Things

Christmas lights gift wrap inspired by Stranger Things | Popcorn and ChocolateThis Christmas lights gift wrap is so festive and fun and it is perfect to make for any of your Stranger Things obsessed friends. Keep reading below to find out how to make this Christmas lights gift wrap!

Christmas lights gift wrap inspired by Stranger Things | Popcorn and Chocolate

When Stranger Things first came out and everyone was raving about it I convinced myself I would not like it. I mean sci-fi isn’t quite my forte. But, I just couldn’t resist all the hype and I am so glad that I got sucked in because Oh.My.God. That show was ahhmazing. The actors/actresses, the costumes, the 80’s vibes… everything – so good.

Christmas lights gift wrap | Popcorn and Chocolate

Once Halloween rolled around there were so many costumes popping up inspired by Stranger Things. My favorite by far was this pair. But, as it is near Christmas and not Halloween, we’ve taken this inspiration into some gift wrap that you can easily DIY onto any present you are giving this holiday season. All you need to make this gift wrap is some colored paper, string, and glue.

Christmas lights gift wrap | Popcorn and Chocolate

Make your holiday season strange this year with this Stranger Things inspired gift wrap.

Materials:

  • Colored paper
  • Black string
  • Scissors
  • Mod Podge
  • Paint brush
  • Glue gun
  • Black marker
  • Present

Instructions:

  1. Start with a wrapped present. We used just plain brown craft paper because the wall was a yellowish/brown color but feel free to use any plain color you desire!DIY Christmas lights wrapping paper
  2. Cut out small Christmas light bulbs from your colored paper.DIY Christmas lights wrapping paper
  3. Cut out small black rectangles to top your bulbs.DIY Christmas lights wrapping paper
  4. Using Mod Podge and a paint brush, glue on the bulbs and black tops to your present. Be careful not to glob a lot of glue on – just a little bit will do. DIY Christmas lights wrapping paper
  5. Taking a black marker write out either who the present is for or a festive saying.DIY Christmas lights wrapping paper
  6. Cut a piece of black string to the length you desire and then place it on your present above the bulbs. Lay out how you want the string to fall – we added some curlicues to ours by just twisting the string into a circle.DIY Christmas lights wrapping paper
  7. Once you have your string placed where you want it, take your glue gun and put the tiniest of dots underneath various points of the string. We glued ours down at the beginning and end and then where it met the Christmas lights as well as any curlicues so they would stay in place.

Christmas lights gift wrap | Popcorn and Chocolate

Your friends and family will love receiving a gift wrapped up in Christmas lights reminiscent of the wall on Stranger Things. It is simple to make and a lot of fun to give out!

Christmas lights gift wrap | Popcorn and Chocolate

Let us know in the comments below if you watched Stranger Things and who your favorite character was! Make your holidays strange this year!

Christmas lights gift wrap inspired by Stranger Things | Popcorn and Chocolate

 

DIY ornaments | Popcorn & Chocolate

Marble Salt Dough Ornaments

Marble salt dough ornaments | Popcorn and ChocolateLearn how to make these marble salt dough ornaments to decorate your tree this year!

Marble salt dough ornaments | Popcorn and Chocolate

DIY Christmas Ornaments | Popcorn and ChocolateOne of my absolute favorite things to do during the holidays is to decorate the Christmas tree. I love pulling out each of our carefully wrapped ornaments and remembering different stories about them. Sometimes the story is as simple as I remember picking that up at Target with my friend (Target has the best ornaments, fyi). Sometimes you pull out an ornament and laugh and remember the time when your dog stole it off the tree and ate half of its leg or ear (this is a lot of our ornaments).

DIY salt dough ornaments | Popcorn and Chocolate

Letter ornaments | Popcorn and Chocolate

But the best stories are when you stumble across an ornament that you made yourself. Most of mine are from when I was 5 years old and it is just a giant piece of cardboard with my hand print painted on it. Talented as I was back then I think my ornament DIY game has stepped up a bit.

DIY marble salt dough ornaments | Popcorn & Chocolate

Today we are sharing marble salt dough ornaments to create fun holiday memories for years to come as you pull them out next year or the year after to decorate your Christmas tree. Maybe one will have a missing limb from a large dog that eats everything (several of mine already do). Maybe one will be the one your little sibling made and they will be able to remember it when they are older.

Marble salt dough ornaments | Popcorn & Chocolate

Either way, these marble salt dough ornaments are simple to make and involve ingredients you should already have at home. If you enjoy marbling with nail polish you should definitely give this craft a go. We’ve been known to marble a few things before so we thought it might be fun for Christmas to take simple salt dough ornaments to the next level.

DIY marble salt dough ornaments | Popcorn and Chocolate

Materials:

  • 1  cup flour
  • 1/2 cup salt
  • 1/2 cup water
  • Rolling pin
  • Cookie cutters
  • Baking sheet
  • Oven
  • Straw
  • Nail polish in various colors
  • A bin or container you can ruin
  • Towel/rag
  • Ribbon

Making the salt dough ornaments:

  1. Start by making the salt dough. For this you will mix together the flour, salt and water until it forms a dough.  Note: we halved the recipe here as it seemed to make a lot a lot of ornaments with a full cup of flour but if you have a big party I would recommend to double our recipe.
  2. Once the salt dough is ready sprinkle some flour on a work surface and some on your rolling pin and roll out your dough. We rolled ours to about 1/4 inch thickness but you can keep yours as thick or as thin as you like. It is definitely easier to cut out the shapes with a slightly thicker dough, though.
  3. Start cutting out your shapes with cookie cutters or drawing your own using a knife. We made some letter ornaments by just gently cutting into the dough with a knife – this was a bit difficult on curvier letters so I would recommend getting a stencil if you want them to look nice.
  4. Place your ornament on a baking sheet and using the tip of a straw, poke a hole into where you want it to hang.
  5. Once all your ornaments are cut out pop them into the oven at 200°F for 2-3 hours. Note: you are basically drying out the dough so this takes a while. I think mine were in the oven for about 2.5 hours. Alternatively you could leave them out to air dry but this would take a really long time.

Marbling the salt dough ornaments:

  1. I highly suggest doing this outside. Get a bin or container you can ruin and fill it with room temperature water.
  2. Have your nail polish open and ready as well as your ornaments easily reachable because once you pour the nail polish you will have to work quickly.
  3. Lay out a towel/rag for the ornaments to dry on after you dip them in the nail polish.DIY salt dough ornaments | Popcorn & Chocolate
  4. Gently pour the color or colors of nail polish you want to use into your bin. If you want a thick marble effect use more nail polish but if you want it thinner then only pour a small amount of nail polish.DIY salt dough ornaments | Popcorn & Chocolate
  5. Quickly take your ornament and dip it into the water face down and pull it out. If you are unhappy with how the marble came out you can always dip it in the water again.
  6. Let dry on your towel/rag.
  7. If you still have a good amount of nail polish in your water quickly dip another ornament in, otherwise pour more nail polish and repeat the process.
  8. Since you basically had to dry out the salt dough and now got it wet again you will have to let it sit out in a dry environment for about 24 hours.
  9. Take a ribbon and loop it through the hole to hang up your ornament.

Now you have plenty of marble salt dough ornaments that you can pull out next year and remember when you made them. These salt dough ornaments would also make wonderful gifts to give to your friends and family.

DIY ornaments | Popcorn & Chocolate

Let us know in the comments below if you have any favorite ornaments or holiday traditions!

DIY marble salt dough ornaments | Popcorn & Chocolate

Now I just have to keep Olive from eating them all…

Marble Salt Dough Ornaments | Popcorn and Chocolate

Thanksgiving no sew placemat

No Sew Thanksgiving Table Runner & Placemats

DIY no sew Thanksgiving table runner and placematsLearn how to make this no sew Thanksgiving table runner and placemats

Thanksgiving leaf no sew table runner

Ugh. Sometimes I really hate sewing. We’ve had our fair share of very very simple sewing projects in the past but neither Rose or I are very good at sewing. Sometimes you can get away without breaking out the ol’ needle and thread, other times not so much. We try to finagle our way out of having to sew anything if we can. Like this Thanksgiving table runner and placemats for instance.

DIY no sew Thanksgiving placemats

It’s a shame because both of our grandmothers were incredible sewers and we both would love to learn how to use a sewing machine butttt in the meantime we gotta stick to our guns and either use a simple running stitch for every single project or break out the glue gun.

Thanksgiving leaf no sew table runner

If you hadn’t guessed by now this project was the latter. We wanted to keep things nice and easy for all you Thanksgiving hostesses. These Thanksgiving table runner and placemats couldn’t be easier. All you need is some plain fabric, some felt, and a handy dandy glue gun. Though, if you are not like Rose and I and actually are good at sewing you could also sew on the leaves.

Thanksgiving no sew placemat

To learn how to make this no sew Thanksgiving table runner and placemats head on over to Homedit

And if you like any of the other decor, check it out here:

1.pilgrim hat wine stoppers

2.wood slab serving tray

3.thanksgiving-themed copper lettered plates

The agate napkin rings are coming soon!

Also, don’t forget to check out our Thanksgiving printables!

DIY Thanksgiving no sew table runner and placemats

Wood slab serving tray

Thanksgiving Wood Slab Serving Tray

Keep reading to find out how to make this Thanksgiving wood slab serving tray.

Wood slab serving trayWant to hear a completely unrelated Thanksgiving story that has to do with this wood slab serving tray? K, cool, I’m not giving you a choice anyways. Flash back to when Rose and I were wee ones at Skidmore college, I believe it was our senior year (Rose can fact check this for us). We made it a habit to go to A.C. Moore and just look around without having any specific crafts in mind… and yes we ended up buying random bits and pieces that we still haven’t used.

Wood slab serving tray

On one of such trips we saw these wood slabs and thought we must have these in our lives. ‘Cause this is how our brains work at the craft store: There isn’t time for rational thoughts. Well once we came home with the wood slabs and let them sit around for a couple of weeks, we finally came up with a fun way to decorate them – use some painter’s tape and just paint in random squares. Let’s just say there is a reason that craft never made it to our blog. They weren’t the prettiest… and truthfully i’ve been a little scared to pick up a wood slab again.

Thanksgiving wood slab serving tray

I think, I hope, this diy Thanksgiving wood slab serving tray has redeemed our original wood slab fiasco. You can head on over to Homedit to find the full instructions on how to make these wood slab serving trays.

Thanksgiving wood slab serving tray

Let us know in the comments if you ever had a craft go horribly, horribly wrong.  We’d like to know we aren’t the only ones who’ve graced the #pinterestfail list.

Learn how to make these Thanksgiving wood slab serving trays here on Homedit or pin it below for later.

Thanksgiving wood slab tray

Copper writing Thanksgiving plates

Thanksgiving Plates with Copper Lettering

Copper Thanksgiving dinner platesI can’t wait for Thanksgiving to be able to pile these witty copper Thanksgiving themed dinner plates high with all sorts of scrumptious food. Usually, in years past, I have started planning for Thanksgiving in October but for some reason this year I am way behind the times. What side dishes will I make?? Is turkey necessary?? How many desserts do we need???

Copper stuffed Thanksgiving dinner plates

I’ve got some serious Pinterest pursuing ahead of me in the next couple of days. I feel like I do different recipes every Thanksgiving. Partially because I can’t remember what I made last year and partially because everything looks so good and I want to try it all! Do you have any go to Thanksgiving recipes you always follow?

Copper writing Thanksgiving plates

Anyways, these copper lettered plates are the perfect thanksgiving plates to fit the copious amounts of food I will sure to have on my plate come Thanksgiving. To learn how to make these plates visit Homedit! Let us know in the comments below what you typically make (or eat!) for Thanksgiving.

Copper writing Thanksgiving plates

To find the full tutorial on how to make these Thanksgiving themed copper plates head on over to Homedit.

 

Thanksgiving Copper Dinner Plates

Sculpey Pilgrim Hat Wine Stoppers

Thanksgiving table | Popcorn and Chocolate

It’s finally starting to look like fall in Boston, just in time for Thanksgiving! Wait… how is it already Thanksgiving? Is it just me? I feel like this year is seriously flying by… To decorate the thanksgiving table, we made these sculpey pilgrim hat wine stoppers! Or, if you don’t drink wine, you can cork whatever you want with them like olive oil!

Pilgrim Hat Wine Stoppers | Popcorn and Chocolate

Before we get to the DIY, I’m going to tell you my thanksgiving story. Here it goes. A bunch of years ago, my parents met at thanksgiving because my mom’s best friend and my dad’s best friend were dating. In my head it’s a lot longer of a story than that…

Holiday gifts | Popcorn and Chocolate

And I’m so thankful my parents met each other, not only because it means that I’m here, but because they love each other so much and they are always so endlessly supportive. So every year when we go around the thanksgiving table and talk about what we are all thankful for, I always feel obligated to say, “well I’m thankful for my parents, so I’m thankful for thanksgiving…” And as a kid it always felt silly, like I had to say that and wasn’t allowed to think of anything else. But now, as I get older, the more I don’t care because at the top of my list is always that I’m thankful for my parents because I’m so lucky to have such an incredible family.

holiday table | Popcorn and Chocolate

This is getting way soppier than I had intended when I sat down to start writing! Besides family and friends, and food… what’s the next best part of thanksgiving? Did you say drinking wine with family and friends and food? Good. That’s what I thought. In honor of wine, we decided to make these cute pilgrim hat wine stoppers. They would make the perfect gift with a bottle of wine as a guest or make them for your own table at home. If you’re having thanksgiving with fellow crafty people, I’d suggest just making a few sculpey pilgrim hats and bringing your glue gun and gluing them to the corks of each wine bottle you open through the night. Or just make them at home before you get there.. whatever floats your boat.

wine cork DIY | Popcorn and Chocolate

Here’s what you need to make the sculpey pilgrim hat wine stoppers:

  • Sculpey – black, white, yellow (if you don’t have colors, you can always paint white sculpey when it’s dry)
  • Cork wine stoppers – you can either buy these from the craft store, or just use the cork of bottles you open, up to you!
  • A hot glue gun and glue
  • Parchment paper

wine stoppers | Popcorn and Chocolate

It couldn’t be easier to make these cute wine stoppers, so you literally have no excuses this time! Here’s how to make them:

  1. Lay out your parchment paper on a surface you can work on.
  2. Roll a clump of sculpey into a ball – this will be the body of the hat, so use as big of a piece as you want the hat to be. Make sure it is at least as big as the cork wine stopper, but we thought it looked nicer if it was even bigger (about an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half in diameter).
  3. Start shaping your ball into a cone shape with a flat top and bottom. We did this by rolling it at an angle on the parchment paper on the table and pressing the top and the bottom flat. Keep working at it until it looks hat shaped! (See photo below).
  4. Grab a new piece of black – about an inch or so – and roll it into a ball and press it flat into a pancake. This will be the brim of the hat. Once it’s in the shape of the pancake, lay the body of the hat on top of it and see if it looks ok, if it’s too big or small, add or take away clay and redo this step. Once it’s just right, firmly press the body and the brim of the hat together so they stick well.sculpey pilgrim hats | Popcorn and Chocolate
  5. Roll the white out into a snake and press it flat. This will be the trim between the brim and the body of the hat. You can decide how thick you want it to be. Wrap it around the hat.
  6. Roll the yellow into a thinner snake but don’t press it flat! carefully make a small rectangle to place on the white rim. thanksgiving pilgrim hat | Popcorn and Chocolate
  7. Once your sculpey hat is assembled, bake it according to the package instructions – Mine said to bake at 275 F for 15 minutes per 1/4 inch, so mine was in there about 30 or 40 minutes, checking every 10 minutes after the first 20 minutes. I baked it on a baking sheet lined with parchment.
  8. Once your sculpey is baked and cooled, warm up your hot glue gun and glue the hat to your cork! Now you’re ready to cork some wine bottles with your pilgrim hat wine stoppers!

cork bottle stoppers | Popcorn and Chocolate

I love playing with sculpey! Let us know in the comments if you have other sculpey crafts we should do! Or if you have other wine stopper ideas… Also, if you like any of the other table decorations in the first picture, keep checking back here because we’re doing a whole thanksgiving table DIY series!

thanksgiving pilgrim hat wine stoppers | Popcorn and Chocolate

Halloween pumpkin air plant holders

Halloween Pumpkin Air Plant Holders

Halloween pumpkin air plant holdersAs you might recall we are big plant people here at P&C, we are also big pumpkin people. Naturally, we like to decorate every inch of our house when the holidays come around (especially Halloween!), which means you certainly can’t neglect those plants you lugged from apartment to apartment for the past 2 years (we’ve moved a lot).

Halloween pumpkin air plant holders

These cute little pumpkin air plant holders were the perfect thing to house said precious air plants and add a festive orange touch to our apartment. You can find out how to make these fun plaster pumpkin air plant holders over on Homedit.

Halloween pumpkin air plant holders

What better way to showcase your plants than with fun jack-o-lantern pumpkins?? Let us know in the comments below if you end up making these silly guys and what you plan on doing for Halloween this year! We’d love to hear from you 🙂

Halloween pumpkin air plant holdersimg_2517

To find the full instructions on how to make these pumpkin air plant holders click here.

 

Halloween Pumpkin Air Plant Holders | Popcorn & Chocolate