Everywhere I go, there’s wrapping paper for sale. And I, being a lover of pattern, am always tempted to buy another roll. But this year I thought it would be a fun project to make my own! So I broke out my craft paints and combined a hand-made stamp technique along with a little painting.

Hand-made stamp DIYs are hardly anything new, but they never get old. I remember the first time I tried my hand at making stamps after seeing an article in my American Girl magazine in the ’90s. All those years ago I used strips of rubberbands glued to wood blocks (“with the help of an adult” as they would always add), but this time I’m a full-fledged grown-up, so I used my X-acto blade, and kept some band-aids on hand just in case. (I didn’t end up needing any! Hooray!)

This particular project works best in small scale. If you’re wanting to stamp a larger piece of wrapping paper make your pattern more spread out or follow the directions of another method like this.  For my version, all you need to make the stamps is an X-acto blade and rubber erasers.

To create the stamp, carve your design into the top of the eraser, keeping the blade straight up and down slicing downward about 3/16″ into the eraser. Then turn the blade to the side and cut into the side of the eraser, notching out the negative space in your design. To use the stamp with acrylic craft paint, you’ll need a foam brush to lightly dab the paint onto the stamp. Don’t use too much paint, or your design will look globby. But make sure you apply enough for the design to show vividly, especially if you’re using white paint on a colored background.

After your paper has dried, go ahead and wrap the gifts! I even made some tags with craft card stock and one of the stamps I had made. Add a little twine and maybe a pom pom or two (tutorial here), and you’ve added the perfect handmade touch to your holiday gifts!

The past two Christmases I had my eye on a very expensive stainless steel insulated coffee press, but it went unnoticed on my wish list each year. Well I finally realized that nobody wants to spend that much money on a coffee press! Especially not when you can insulate the one you already have.

So here we have it- my very own insulated coffee press that I threw together with items I already had on hand- a coffee press (life changer, by the way!), scrap fabric, quilt batting, and white thread. It was a pretty simple project, and now I’m trying to share the magic of pressed coffee with all of my loved ones, so I can make them this fun homemade gift for their new coffee presses next year! Come on guys, it really does make better coffee.

The perfectly fluffy pom pom can be a frustrating thing to make! I’ve done my fair share of pom pom making, and finally discovered the perfect way to make them- without even needing to shape them with scissors at the end. Finally! Another multi-tasking craft to do while watching Netflix in the evenings.

I used my pom poms to make a garland over our windows and to decorate wrapped gifts. (I’ll show you those later!) But for now, here’s how you can make your own- and if you’re interested, here‘s the video I watched to learn how to make them.

Find a small piece of cardboard (I used a flap from a cardboard box) and trace a circular object from around your home, and a smaller one inside of it. Do this twice and cut out around the circles and inside of them. It’s okay, and even helpful, to have a slit on your circle in order to cut out in the inside.

Next, stack the two circular pieces of cardboard on top of each other and wrap with lots and lots of yarn. I wrap 6 strands of yarn at once, to save time and joints while wrapping- this is the most time consuming part. After you’ve wrapped it so much that you can barely wrap any more, cut the yarn around the edges, sliding your scissors in between the two pieces of cardboard to make sure you’re trimming it on center. After trimming, slide a long piece of yarn in between the two pieces of cardboard and tie very tightly, double and triple knotting it to keep the yarn secure. Now pull off the cardboard, and your pom pom is complete! So fluffy, and no extra trimming necessary!

Tip: A lower ply yarn (I like the 3 ply soft baby yarn for this) makes a more sumptuous pom pom. It will take longer to wrap, so you will want to warp about 6 strands of yarn at a time.