home decoration ideas diy

hi everyone, thank you for tuning in todayto made with michaels live. this is the holiday edition. my name is donna. i'm from michaels;it's an arts and crafts store. it's a place where creativity happens every day, not justat the holidays. with me today is courtney. hi everyone, i'm courtney from creativebug.we're an online resource for creative classes and we're gonna be sharing with you this hourideas for inspiration and projects to get you through the holiday season. there arethings that you'll be able to find after this on michaels.com and on creativebug.com. we'regonna kick this off, it's about an hour that you'll be with us, and we're doing this liveso you can write in and ask us questions along the way. be sure to include your name andwhere you're writing in from so that we know.

stay with us because we have a special surprisefor you at the end. we're gonna start with giftwrap, which is one of my favorite thingsto do for the holidays. so let's roll up our sleeves and let's get started. i hope you'llenjoy it. we're gonna actually make our own giftwrap, which might sound like a dauntingthing at this point in the year, but really it's so quick, and we're gonna do this togetherso you can see how much fun it is to make. we're starting with just a regular piece ofdrawing paper, which comes in a pad and this one, i've done a little painting technique,which is a class on creativebug.com that i teach different ways to do painted patternson your giftwrap. we're gonna create a repeat pattern, using snowflake rubber stamps andink. sounds like a lot of fun. so what kind

of rubber stamps are we using? these are somuch fun; they're snowflake stamps. they come in a little package so that you get a varietyof sizes and we're using just a dye based ink because it dries really quickly. if youhaven't used any rubber stamps before, i think the best way to apply ink is just kind ofthese little pats. it's a good way not to get too much ink on your stamp. then therearen't a lot of rules about how to proceed. you're gonna re-ink every time and becausedonna and i are using two different colors, we're kind of overlapping. this is a lot offun. do you enjoy doing this with your friends and family? i love, love making giftwrap;i especially love wrapping packages. it's something i used to do with my mom when iwas a little girl. so pretty, i love it. i

would recommend stamping right off to theedge, if you're working on a protected surface. we're gonna keep it just slightly inside ofthe edge here. i think that's pretty good. then what about maintenance on your stamps?they get pretty dirty. if you're switching colors between inkings and after you're donewrapping, you should definitely give those a little wipe with a baby wipe or a wet papertowel. you can make dozens of these sheets and then set them aside for when you're ready.donna's gonna show us how to actually use them for giftwrapping. we have a package that'salready been giftwrapped with our stamps here and she's gonna add a bow. you're a bow expert. things we want to remember though, with our wrapping, once you have your paper on, you do want touse a bone folder or your fingers to make

all of your nice edges sharp. it just makesyour box look so much nicer and neater. things to have on hand for any type of wrapping - it'sgonna be your tapes, your scissors for cutting your paper and your ribbon, a variety of differentwraps, tapes, washi tape is handy because it adds more color. the other thing we didn'tmention about this, with cleaning off your stamps, it's gonna keep your stamps clean.it's also gonna keep your ink pads clean so that you don't mix colors and get a real muddyeffect. so here we go. first thing we're gonna do. what kind of ribbon are you using? i'musing wired-edge ribbon. wire-edged ribbon really holds up well and it allows you todo so many things versatile-y. we're just gonna wrap it around the one time, kind ofcriss-cross it in the middle. i know that

this is pretty basic so most of you have donethis before, but you want to have it nice and tight. you leave about a six inch tail,maybe a little longer because you want to cross it over and actually i think i usedthe wrong one. i'm gonna quickly make a change here. this one is for our wrapping. it lookslike we have a little over a yard, the box is about six inches square. really what wewant to do is just go through here, anchor it well. i'm gonna put the pretty side outand just tie a knot. you can tie a bow or you can tie a knot. we're gonna make a fancybow and because of that, we're just gonna leave these tails here and i'll show you whatwe do with them in the end. now we're gonna add a fancy bow. the thing to remember isyou do want the wired ribbon. your fingers

are your tools. you're gonna have everythingpinched between your forefinger and your thumb. you're gonna start with a loop here. the lengthof your ribbon is really gonna determine the size of your bow. i'm twisting every timei get in the back because some ribbon has a single pattern on one side and so what youwant to do is be sure and have whatever's the prettiest side out. i've started witha loop in the center and i'm gonna add maybe up to four to five on each side. notice i'mtwisting it as we go. each time i come to the reverse, i give it a twist. i love this;i always wondered how these bows were made. they hold their shape so well when we do itthis way. once you have the bow here, how do you get it from your hand onto there? i'mgonna count...1,2,3,4,5...1,2,3,4,5...and

this last one is gonna become a tail. tento eleven loops. if you would cut this for me, i'm gonna hold it taut. it doesn't matterwhere you cut it. what courtney's doing right now is an angular cut. she's also gonna cutthis end, just in the middle on the loop. we're gonna fold it in half. if you'd justhang on to it for me there, the key is to cut at an angle. this is gonna be your fishtailend. a little tip - if you fold the ribbon in half and cut from the fold out, then youget that nice little... let's do that on the other one too. if love that little pointed,it makes such a difference. these are the things that make your package look pro. youcould use a piece of ribbon or you could use a twist tie. i really prefer the twist tie.this is a chenille stem or pipe cleaner. pull

it through the middle, pinch it as tight asyou can, give it a few twists, and then i'll show you what we're gonna do with it. becausethis one is already tied, we're simply gonna slip it under. i'm using it as a securingfeature. i'm gonna tie it up, give it a couple of twists and then we're gonna do somethingwith those tails. first we want to fluff up our bow, kind of give it that rise, that heightthat's so important. whether it's your tablescape or your packages under the tree, it just givesit a good look. now, we have some raw tails so let's do something with those raw tails.we're gonna tip it up for you so you can see it. we're putting fish tails on most of them.what do you do with these little pipe cleaners? these little pipe cleaners that are left,what i like to do is create a little tendril.

i'm gonna bring that pencil in as close asi can and i'm simply gonna wrap it around. if you want to have a nice touch, you canuse a contrasting color and that's just gonna twist around. you can bring these out or pushthem in but i think it has a good look to it. that looks like a drawing of a packagein a kids book. it's so vibrant. the other thing you can do, especially if you're usinga bow like this on a wreath, is to hand pleat to make these a little bit more decorative.we did leave a few long so we could do that. i'm gonna trim that off. that's that cascadethat you see in trees. remember too, if you want something a little bit more adhesive,you can use your washi tape. so this is ready to go under the tree except for we need toknow... who is this gift for, addressed to?

i was gonna show you how to make a reallysimple and quick gift tag. it's a lot of fun; we're gonna use a rubber stamp and embossingpowder. have you embossed things before? i like it; it's a lot of fun. if you haven'tembossed something before, it's so amazing and seductive. you're gonna be embossing everythingin your house. what you need for embossing is some kind of gift tag, michaels has thesein all different shapes and sizes. i've got your larger standard mailing tag. you'll needa rubber stamp and we're using gold ink. this one happens to be the brilliance. then i'musing silver embossing powder. your embossing powder is actually going to be the final colorthat you see so if it doesn't matter what your color combination is here. will yourembossing powder stick to any stamp pad? i

prefer to use pigment based inks. that's whyi'm using this gold one because it stays wet a little longer and your embossing powderwill stick and you have a little more working time. the technique for stamping is identical.i'm working on a little bit of scratch paper and it's just like we did with stamping ourgiftwrap. there's a good example of going off the edge. we'll clean that guy a littlelater. while this is wet, we wanna just put some embossing powder on top. it looks likewe're using a lot but we're gonna recycle that. you'll see that if i just give thata little tap, all the embossing powder is stuck to where my stamp ink is wet. it hasa bit of a dull look right now. that's something you want to think about for a first step.don't touch it because it's not set 100%.

we do want to recycle this back into our littlepacket here. put a cap on that so you don't spill it. that will last you a really longtime. then using an embossing gun, which if you haven't used one before, it's a heat tool.it's like a hair dryer but it gives much higher heat with less force. we're just gonna heatthis up until it melts and you'll see it change. so this isn't going to blow the embossingpowder around, it's just going to heat it up and create a heat bond. it's gonna be meltingour powder and it'll go from sort of a matte grey to a shiny silver. just keep moving yourembossing tool around until the powder starts to melt. that's so beautiful and it looks likea lot of fun too. it's so pretty, the transformation is incredible. we're almost there with thislast snowflake. perfect and you could do many

of these at time. you could do maybe six orseven and just heat them all at once. you wanna let them come back to room temperaturebefore you touch them and then it's a permanent adhesion and you get this foiled look andit's something that you can really only get with embossing powder. we wanna write ourrecipient's name on here. i might need a new pen. then we wanna add that to our package.this one is for brian. you can tie it on or you can tie a knot in the end. if you tiethe knot in the end, it's going to allow you to just simply slip it through your previousribbon. just slide that underneath and then place the tag through the loop. and it's allready to put under the tree for brian. it's important to put that on before you put it underthe tree. i know my mom always loses a present

every year that she forgot to mark. why don'tyou tell us a little bit about the other papers that you've got and your other tie-ons? thesepapers are so easy to make. you could make dozens of these in one sitting. it feels likemaybe a lot to do right toward the end of the holidays, but it actually goes super quicklyand you have such variety with different stamp choices. you can play with ink color.here we've got that same patterned paper that i used with the brush paint and some goldacrylic paint and then we added this really cool buck stamp, which is really fun, andthen a little ornament as a tie-on alternative. this is really two gifts in one; it's what'sin the box, the handcrafted paper, and then this cute little bauble you could hang onyour tree or hang in your car. not everything

is that easy to wrap. sometimes you have at-shirt or a gift card or something that maybe when you wrap it, it just doesn't have thatsame wow factor. michaels has a lot of options for that. we have some containers here thatyou can use for those hard-to-wrap gifts. tell me a little about what kinds of thingsyou can find in the store. in addition to the containers, which can be the square boxesthat we have in three sizes, we also have these round cookie and mailing tubes. theycome in a variety of sizes and what you've done to personalize this is to add a coupleof things. why don't you talk about that? we added a belly band with giftwrap andif you're trimming any of your handstamped giftwrap to make it go even further, you cansave those scraps to add to shipping tubes

or to wrap gift cards. then we just did asimple bow tie here. we've got gift cards as well so that's something to think about.i love this application; this is a craft box covered in yarn. it's a really cute patternand then instead of tying on a gift tag, we actually did a gift card topper, which isa great way to do a presentation. that can go on the tree too but it is a gift card topper.then i think these are just so cute and i know that you have plans for how to presentthem at christmas time. we have a class on creativebug.com with lia griffith. she usesa cricut machine, which is a die-cutting machine. you could also hand cut something like thisor find some paper in the papercrafting aisle. you just add this little cut, which allowsthe gift card to tuck inside of there and

then there's this great four fold envelopeto go with it. in addition to paper wrapping of gift cards and the unusual sized boxesthat we have... i love this little basket and it's available from michaels. you canput your gift inside. it can be bath bombs, it could be flavored vinegars, olive oil.i noticed also, if you don't have pretty foil like this, you could use stickers and createyour own personal wrapping. i really like this and then this is one of our mailing tubesand it's also got just one of our selections of gifts at the store right now. it's reallypopular, star wars and the disney princesses. you've got that stamp technique around this.i feel like a t-shirt is something i always have to wrap and come up with something creativefor it. you don't have to; you could just

put it out there. it's the teaser on yourtable. this is so great; i love all these different options. in addition to this, iknow that something that's really popular right now if gift baskets. that's somethingthat you can choose all different kinds of goodies to give to people. this is one ofmy favorite gift baskets. the fun thing about this is not only what's inside of it but thefact that you could use this basket throughout the season, in your kitchen to hold towels,in the bathroom to hold paper, just a really nice gift. inside of it, we have a numberof things that you can purchase at michaels. i had no idea that you had these adorablegift items. we're not just a craft store; we also can be a gift-giving destination,just about everything that you could want

to please somebody on your list is here. we'veadded, this is kind of the cocktail lover, your bar kit setup. we have paired with theselovely items, you've got a flask and some moscow mule kinds of cups. we've got thesegreat infused vodkas and liquors. this is a class on creativebug.com with kelly wilkenson,who's our in-house boozie expert and we've used some bottles from michaels, just to decantand distill these. then we've added little ties to give it more of a handmade look. ifyou're not sure what's in the bottle, you can go ahead and write right on the outside,embossed tag that you saw. then this is actually an image transfer ornament that we used toadd, just to liven it up a little and add than handmade feel. so much of this is soeasy, you can combine handmade with store

bought. you can use the paper shreds to raisethe level so everything is visible. what else have we got? this one's really fun too; thisone's sort of a rustic box. i love that look and we've put in these mugs. this is alsoa class; this was a michaels and creativebug collaboration this year. this is a class byliana allday; it's a knit mug cozy. i love the stitch that she uses. it's a great opportunityto use a variety of yarns and a variety of vessels. your gift, in this case, the marshmallows,is going right into the cup. you could do this on a mason jar. we've got tucked intohere some handmade marshmallows. this is a class on creativebug.com with karen solomon,who is a food expert. then we've done some just packaging, repackaging of store boughtitems, some chocolate almonds and coffee,

instead of giving it in the foil bag, justusing mason jars, which michaels also has. we have them in a variety of sizes so whateverfit you need. then i love these little crates as an interesting presentation forthe kids table or maybe for that teenager that you're never sure what to get. candyis always a good option. we've got a class on creativebug with wilton where they show you howto do an ombre dipped pretzel. we also have cookies that could accompany this. we've gota hanukkah look with our blues and cool winter-y themes and then our more traditional christmaslook. then i love all the packaging options that you have at michaels. we have quite afew this year so please come in and take a look at them; they're a lot of fun. we havecones and little skinny bags. it's just a

nice way to kind of make a few items reallyspecial and it's also another opportunity to tuck in a gift card, if this is the itemthat you want to give and sit underneath the tree but then there's a little something extra.also, we want to remind you, at michaels, most saturdays, we have a $2 kids club activity.it takes about a half an hour. the kids sign up before the class starts, the parents shopin our store while they're crafting. this weekend, it's this cute little santa bellyband coaster. this is adorable. these are made with the fuser perler beads. so cuteand you could probably do any kind of pattern. i love this for the holidays and then thiscould be a gift as well, it's a coaster. keep in mind too that we're doing this for theholidays now but they're the winter holidays.

you could also do these for valentine's day,st. patrick's day, birthdays. i had no idea that michaels had so many great options justfor gifts that are ready. if you don't have time to make the stamped wrap or to make thegift basket, you can actually just buy stuff that's ready to place under the tree. thisone is a three set of travel cases. you could fill this with craft supplies and add a littlegift card, which i think would be really cute. everybody would like something like this.remember we're coming to you live, which means that you can write in and ask questions sowe have some questions. our first question is - is the buck stamp available at storesand this is from calisso. yes, the buck stamp, i got at michaels. it's this awesome deerstamp and you should really browse the aisles

and also at the end of the aisle, sometimesthere are holiday featured stamps and you may find something that you really like there.particularly at the end of every season, if they're left over, you're gonna find them markedway down but the buck stamp is one we carry throughout most of the year and i think you'lllike it along with our other woodland animals. our next question is - how do you secure thebow if you don't have pipe cleaners. this is bobby from virginia. thank you for writingin, bobby. you can do the conventional way. you can simply use a piece of ribbon thatyou already have, maybe the same one that you made your bow from. tie it in that way,it's not a problem, or you can add floral wire. sometimes it's handy to have a friendon hand, an extra set of hands is always helpful.

that's a good tip. i know adding those bowsreally makes a difference in the package so it's nice to figure out how to add those.this is jane from grand rapids, michigan. thank you for writing in, jane. she says "howdo you clean up glitter"? the glitter... i feel like every holiday season, you just lookat your craft table and glitter is everywhere. then it winds up in your hair, it's on yourtable so cleaning that up is actually quite a trick. i actually like to use a lint roller.it's sticky and i can just use that to quickly clean up glitter and then give it a reallygood pass with a strong vacuum after. put something down like a sticky mat and thenwhen you get ready to move, you move the mat off the table or whatever work surface you'reusing. that's really smart, just a little

forethought beforehand makes all the differenceafter. then this is gloria from burlington, vermont. thank you for writing in. do yousuggest wrapping all of your gifts and then tying all your bows like an assembly line?you can certainly do that but i don't want aunt pat to get uncle george's gift so ratherthan do them all at one time and then come back and do bows, i may make some bows inadvance that i know i'm gonna use, have them at hand and then do each gift one at a time.whatever works for you, i say go with it. you could make the bows, put them on the packagesand then fluff them at the last minute maybe. fluff them at the last minute and then addyour tag. my mom always wraps her gifts and then writes the initials at the bottom andthinks she's gonna go back and add that tag

and she sometimes forgets and we always havea missing package so do whatever works best for you. you don't want to add too much pressureto yourself. do what you can do and you'll figure out what works best for your practice.these are great questions, continue to write in and ask us questions because we'll be doingthis throughout the entire class. so once you've wrapped your packages and you've thoughtabout what you're giving, there's also home decor to think of and that's something that,it feels like it's something that you can wait til the last minute and you can. we'vegot some really quick ideas. this is one of my favorites; this is creating a little winterscene inside of a vessel. we've got these great vessels. tell me a little more aboutwhat you have at michaels for that. our glass

vessels at michaels are not limited just tovases and jars like this. we also have apothocary jars but our vases come in a variety of shapes,sizes, widths, from the garden vessels to the one-sided terrariums to these. these evencome in three sizes and these open-topped hurricanes, closed-bottom, they're a greatbuy. this is so great because they do come in so many sizes so you can choose what isgonna work best together. you just wanna make sure that there's something, an opening largeenough to reach your hand in. then we've got some artificial snow. you can get this, itcomes glittery, we have a matte version. then we have some little 3d elements to add insideof our scene. we've got these little bottle brush trees, this adorable little camper,these are actually ornaments that i cut the

top of, so just gather some objects. we'rejust gonna fill our vessel up about a third of the way. it could be a little higher ifyou have a really deep vessel and want to have your scene sit up a little higher. thiswill kind of settle so i always put in a little more and shake it. this stuff will also geteverywhere, just like glitter, it tends to go everywhere. give it a little shake to levelit out. i'm a camper so let me go ahead and take some camping things and some little trees.i think i'm gonna go with the non-traditional. christmas in yosemite would be nice, herein california. i'm gonna go ahead and i'm gonna place mine down in here. it's a littleheavy so we may want to settle a little bit. if you have a lighter object, you might wantto move it around until they have a good seating

in the jar. kind of give them a little wiggleuntil they sit in. if you need to add more snow or remove some, that's totally fine.then i love these little trees. just give those a little shake to get them in there.it's fun to do a vintage look, little pink. shall we give these people some gifts? wouldyou like to put a gift in here? this is a mystery box out on the trail. it gives color,the more you use. really, you can't go wrong. that takes so little time; you coulddo that so quickly while watching your favorite television show. actually these come togetherreally quickly so we want to show you how we put them together to create a little scene.i love the way you told us that you can simply snip off the top of a hanger. before we showyou how they're set up, i actually didn't

know that michaels carried these. it's a littleplastic mason jar and it has everything that you need, screw-on lid, not as many piecesto keep track of, and inside, you've got pretty much all of the elements that you would needand it's labeled happy holidays. this one's got a little angel in it and some woodlandcreatures. that was such an unexpected find; i've hadn't seen that before. you never knowwhat you'll find at michaels, it's a place for creativity. what have we got backhere? back here, we have set up and entire little scene using these villages. where wouldyou put this? this could go on a mantle, this would look really beautiful on a mantle, couldbe on a side table like this one or you could use this as a centerpiece. i think this wouldbe a really lovely centerpiece. you could

do this down the center of your christmastable or your cookie table. what's great about using these vessels is that you can see thelittle scene from all sides. you don't have to worry too much about that. these are thoseapothecary jars that we talked about. also, the small minitures here, these are ones thatare carried year round so if you don't have a christmas one, you can still use a lot ofthe same elements here. it's like the dollhouse furniture. we want to talk to about heighton a table. this is giving us a lot of different elements of height. these rounds are available;the pedestals are also available. just glue them with your glue gun together. we madethis just using hot glue. then to bring the theme together, you've got a candle lit hereto give us a little brightness so it reflects

off of everything. i noticed too you havesomething beside the scenes. this is a good example. what else could you put in an openvase like this? i love the idea. if you didn't want to use little miniature objects, you could keepit a little more rustic and wintery. you could mix pinecones in with your bottle brush trees.i like the idea of keeping that scene and spilling those elements on to the rest ofthe table. we've added fake snow and more of those trees, scattered around. could youuse ornaments? you absolutely could use ornaments. it's a great use for antique ornaments, maybefamily heirlooms that can't go on the tree, especially if you have a naughty cat or somethingthat might knock off those ornaments. putting them in an apothecary jar is a really niceway to display them. then adding a little

bit of light, this is actually a project oncreativebug.com. it's a cricut stenciled votive but you could of course use stickers or anyother stencil that you can find at michaels and just pop in a little led votive. speakingof naughty cats, you will not have a singed tail because this is a battery-operated light.those led's are so great. we've actually got them on our mantle as well and they're somethingthat you can just...they even have remotes now. they do; they'll run for a period oftime and then shut themselves off. once you've thought about your decor, then it's time toeat. the holidays are really about eating and crafting to eat. some things like foodcrafts are things that i always shy away from because i feel like they take a lot of timebut we have some really quick and easy ones.

this first one is so much fun; it's somethingthat you can do on your holiday table, on your dessert table or for a cookie party.what we have are these little reindeers made from marshmallows, pretzels, and then we'veadded some little details. we've got handmade marshmallows. again that's something you canmake on creativebug.com or you can use store bought marshmallows. anything that makes lifesimple is for me. it's so easy. so those guys, you need those on hand, some pretzels. we'vebroken them in half with a knife but you could also just break them with your hands. thoseare gonna be our antlers. then you need a skewer because you want to pre-drill a holefor your antlers. in the top third of your marshmallow, just use your skewer to drilla hole and then use your little antlers, your

pretzels rather to become your antlers, andthose just get shimmied in to this little opening. already he's looking really cute.then these guys, i found these at michaels as well, these are for cake pops. these comein really handy. you're just gonna put them into the bottom of your marshmallow, maybegive it a little twist. last he wouldn't be complete without a red nose. donna has hershere; we're gonna add a nose for some personality. we have ready-made icing. this is such a saver.it keeps your kitchen clean. you just twist off this top. we're gonna put a little dallup,kind of smack in the center of his face and then using a little red hot, we'll add a littlereindeer nose, a rudolph nose. this could be part of your tablescape. we may have somequestions about tablescapes. we'll put this

in a little vessel and this goes in just aregular glass vessel. you guys are such a great resource for that. then we just filledit with colored m&m's. next we have some cookie packaging. you've started thinking about theholidays and your sweet table and i know that cookie parties are something that's reallypopular. cookie parties are a great way to get together with your friends, have a littleconversation, maybe do a craft, and eat a lot of really good holiday treats. there aresome things that you might already have in your kitchen that are great for cookie packaging.we've got a few different ways to use parchment paper here. parchment paper, i always thoughtof it as just for baking. this is a presentation of a tiny little fruitcake that was bakedin the parchment. we just added a ribbon to

give that for the presentation. there areother ways you can use parchment too that i had never thought of. we've done a littlecookie wrap here so that you have a really special gift for someone, just five or sixspecial cookies. you could do a similar wrap with maybe some handmade candies. then i lovethis little package. this is just a bag made with some decorative thread. then we pinkedthe edges here. tell me about this; this is actually something you made in the kids club.these are small clothespins that have been painted and then, we've attached eyes andlittle accents too. you can see the little santa snowman here. this was also part ofkids club. again, for $2 the kids came in, made a half an hour craft, the parents shoppedin our store. it's a momento and this is cute

for both holding this. you can also clip thisto your christmas tree. if you're playing one of those reindeer games where people savethings, you can give everybody a clothespin and see who walks away with most of them atthe end of the night. this is so cool and i notice that you're lining your paper boxeswith the parchment papers. you can do wrap or baking with the parchment but you can alsouse it for these cookie plates. this is a little cookie container that you can makewith a paper plate. it's super easy; it's so much fun to do and we're gonna show youhow to make them. is there anything you need to remember about the parchment paper, howit's different maybe from some other baking wraps? parchment paper is a little bit differentto work with than maybe wax paper. if you're

familiar, sometimes people confuse the twoof those. wax paper is kind of crinkly and holds its folds but parchment paper is reallynon-stick, truly non-stick, so you have to use twine or ribbon with it. just using washitape is not gonna hold. for our paper plates, it's a similar thing. you wanna use a heaviermasking tape. they come in great patterns and colors too so it looks a lot like washitape or you could use scotch tape. this is strong so you need that for the structureof your little cookie box. show me how we do this. this is really, it couldn't be easier.we've got just an inexpensive paper plate and we like that it's a little pliable becausethat's going to help us make our box. with your plate face-up, you're gonna fold it fromone edge in towards the center. you're folding

about a third. again, you can use a bone folder,you can use the edge of your scissors, you can use your hand, maybe a fingernail. you'regonna turn it around and fold again. it's okay if these are touching or overlapping.you're really just eye-balling this; it doesn't have to be perfect. what's great about theseis they just conform to whatever you put inside. you're gonna open this up and using a sharppair of scissors, we're gonna snip right along these folds, just about a quarter of an inchinside that ridged edge. straight along the fold line. these couldn't be easier to do.inexpensive as well as fun. now that we've got our cuts made, what's next? we're gonnafold up the smallest tab, just right where those cuts end. these are gonna be the sidesand the deeper these fold, the higher the

walls of your box so you can adjust this dependingon what kind of treat you're giving. you might have two, look, you made two at once. nowwe're gonna take these ends and we're gonna bring them over to our short edge and we'regonna tape. i'm gonna give you some masking tape. i like the color here; it's right inthat fall/winter. i'm gonna try the long strip, i think. you can do a long strip or do twoshort strips. that way, i can go across and make it kind of cohesive. the nice thing aboutthis tape too is although it's strong, you can pull it off. it's very forgiving, if youwant to change something, make the curve a little more, it's perfect. this really isa super simple craft. you can add more decoration to this; you could do a second layer of washitape. then that guy's ready. you can line

in with some parchment paper or wax paper,fill it with a bunch of treats. you can do candies or cookies. so simple. then here,we have other ideas. this one's got a ribbon, it's filled with this little crinkle. herewe've got our golds and these are filled with cookies also from creativebug.com. these arewilton's classes, we partnered with wilton, and this is a slice and bake cookie with thisamazing cookie crunch on the top, candy cane crunch rather. i love this fondant style;this is beautiful christmas tree patterning for this kind of cookie. then of course wehave gingerbread cookies, as well. if you're not a great baker, can you just buy theseat the store and decorate them? you could, absolutely. this is a nice way to add a handmadetouch to something that you store bought as

well. this one, i actually did that same paintingtechnique that was on our giftwrap beforehand. we painted the plate and then we made ourbox after so you can kind of dress this up as much or as little as you like. it stillgives you that handmade element. remember we're doing this live so you have an opportunityto write in and ask us questions. we have our second round of questions. thank you againfor writing in; we really appreciate that and that's the best part about doing thislive so you can really ask questions in the moment. we'll do one more round of questions.what's the difference between parchment paper and wax paper? this question comes from karenlynn from minnesota. we touched on that a little bit. parchment paper is really non-stick.that means you can't use washi tape with it,

some masking tapes won't even stay, you reallyhave to use twine with it but it's great for baking. again, it's that pretty frosted color.you can get the tight roll. what about grease coming through on parchment paper? is thatsomething you need to worry about? i think the parchment paper is pretty sturdy and it'sreally easy to work with, both in the kitchen and for crafting. wax paper's a little different;it really holds a crinkle. it's slightly more translucent; it actually makes a great surface.either of them make a great surface to do other crafting on, just to protect your worksurface. i use wax paper and parchment paper all the time. do you ever use it for crafting?all the time, including under the fusible beads. under those perler beads. joan fromutah asks "what is a cookie party and how

does it work?". if you haven't been, you shouldhost your own or get an invitation to one. have you ever done a cookie party before?i love cookie parties because it gets all my friends and relatives together. we allbake and we bake enough that we can share at the end so you eat a little, you drinka little, you talk a little, you play a little, maybe you craft a little. at the end, youfill a little bag and you can certainly purchase the bags from us at michaels or handcraftthem with creativebug. i love the cookie party because you have the opportunity to make adozen or so cookies and then it's so fun to see people come with their grandmother's cookierecipe or something. some people are really ambitious; they have these amazingly decoratedcookies and some people have the best classic

chocolate chip. do you have a favorite recipe?i have lots; i like oatmeal raisin. that's my favorite. is that your favorite holiday?i love the spritz cookies; we have that class on creativebug.com too and it's somethingthat reminds me of my grandma. she used to make them every season. you could of coursebring fudge too. you could be that cookie alternative. we have another question. thisis carrie from freemont. thank you for writing in, carrie. i love the scented pinecones atmichaels. is it possible to make your own at home? that's an excellent question. canyou make those? absolutely, you can make them. probably the easiest way is to buy the scentedoil over in our candle section and simply shake them in a bag. another way, it's a littlemessier so i will say that, spray them with

a spray, glue unscented or a very inexpensivehairspray, shake them in a bag with cinnamon and you'll have that scent. if cinnamon isnot the only scent that you like, you can use the scented oils for others. i love thatidea of maybe doing a pine oil scent or something or you could do it for other seasons maybe.i love that. okay, i think we have a few more questions. this one comes from kathy in miami.thank you for writing in. what else can you use apothacary jars for? with apothacary jars,and we're talking about the taller lidded ones, of course you can use them for candy.you could also just use them for displaying your collections, whatever your collectionsare. you can use them for storing things in your craft room like buttons. what else wouldyou use them for? they're a beautiful presentation;

i'm a big collector of a lot of old ephemeraand they make a great container for that. they're a really nice way to keep all of yourcollections dust-free but you could also fill them with little tiny twinkle lights. that'snot something that we showed but it'd be beautiful mixed in with your winter scene. you can doit on a mantle. there are a lot of great options for those and they're super easy to cleanand now they're really affordable. just use a battery candle. that's always the safestway to go. use those led candles. jenny from thousand oaks writes in and she says "i lovethe minitures but my local michaels is out. any ideas for substitutions?". that's a reallygood question; donna touched on that. i would definitely raid your kid's toy boxes becausethere's a lot of things in there. it's okay

to visit other craft locations. we know youwant to do that sometimes as well. i think, kind of look around your house. ornamentsare easy. if you have a broken ornament that maybe can't hang on the tree anymore, youcan put that into the apothacary jars to create your little scene. i love the idea of usingkid's toys. i know there's those tubes of safari animals. you could make a really fundinosaur scene. i like to transform them a little bit by maybe spray painting them orusing some craft paint and making them monochrome. you could do them gold, you could do themall white, and that would be a really fun kind of cheeky little scene. you can go anywherewith this, really anywhere. at the end of every holiday, we talked about the cookieparty, it's about eating and sharing and sharing

that creativity with friends. we've kind ofgot the ideal cookie party setup. this is something, a cookie party's something i'vethrown for the last few years and it's probably something that you've gone to. i know as ahostess, i'm always kind of scrambling at the end. where do i have space? how am i goingto fit all these cookies on the table? it's really about height and choosing your vessels.we've got a lot of options on how you're going to lay out your table and do that cookie partytablescape. this of course would work for any dessert table for the holidays or anybuffet table. what do we have on the table here? we have everything from cardboard, theseare pre-made, pre-folded, all sanitarily wrapped, food safe. you can get these at michaels.i love those, you could use those to present

your cookies or your guests could take theircookies home in that. how do you protect that? does that slip into something? the bag canslip into it or it can slip into a cellophane bag and be tied. i really like these a lot;they could take the place of the handmades if you don't have time to do that. we've alsogot the great little pedestals on which to display them. we have the little loaf pans,which you can bake in too. these are food-safe, so good for presentation but also for cooking.those are the loaf pans and we also have the rammekins, which are great. it's a good landingpad for things at your party. then we've sprinkled some really cute little paper cuts. this issomething that i didn't find in the baking aisle. it was just at the end of an aisleand i combined these different elements. this

one's gold, this one has like a snowflakefeel, silver, it's a good way to kind of change up your decor and keep it really wintery.then the same wooden rounds that we used in the little miniture scene, we used for heightas well. then i love these, the little paddles. these are great for indicating what the rulesare for the game, so to speak. i've had a lot of people come to cookie parties and they'relike "can i eat a cookie? there are all these cookies here" so you want to remind them thatthere's enough to eat some now and then take some home for later. these are chalkboardso if you make a mistake on your writing, you can just wipe this away with a wet papertowel. i love this, you can use this over and over. then we have all kinds of ideasfor cookies for you. we've got these adorable

little gingerbread houses and this is sucha fun spin on a traditional sort of gingerbread house. this is a wilton class on creativebug.com.she shows you how to make these and i love this kind of pro tip on how to make this adorablelittle pine tree. isn't this amazing? it's actually just an ice cream cone, store boughtice cream cone. it makes the perfect little tree. we've got our slice and bake cookiesthat you saw earlier. where do you learn how to make those? creativebug.com, these areall wilton's baking classes. these are great because you can make the dough in advanceand then freeze it so it's a good way to prepare for the holidays in advance. i know everyone'slooking for shortcuts and ideas for preparing in advance. you know, we used to have to standin the kitchen with that rolling pin and crack

and the candy. now you can get the brittlepieces and the peppermint pieces already smashed for you and just roll your cookie in it. we'vecome a long way with crafting. this one is an ombre dipped cookie; you can do this isany color palette but i love the wintery blue. that would be great for hanukkah. we've gotour classic gingerbread man. maybe your guests are going to decorate these when they're there.that could be a fun crafting opportunity. we've got our spritz cookies. i mentionedthese earlier, this is another wilton and creativebug class. this is something thatmy grandma used to make with me when i was a little girl. i love seeing them on the table.they're such a fun texture and color. we've got an alternative to a slice and bake. thisis a twisted candy cane cookie, dusted with

this awesome sugar that you sell at michaels.it's the coarse sugar, we like it a lot. again, something that can be prepared in advance.then i love this idea, to give your guests something to go home with. we definitely wantto hold this up so you can see it. this is a layered cookie mix. directions for theseare available online from a lot of sources and i'm sure you've done this at creativebugtoo. in addition to saying who it's from, it's gonna give you directions for the recipein case you want to replicate it at home and certainly so you can bake it yourself at home.it's so easy, just layer all of the ingredients in the mason jar. then in this case, we useda little cookie cutter as a tie-on. it's a gift for your guests and it's an easy wayfor them to go home and make more cookies.

again, we're just about making it easier.you wanna think about all the things that can make your life a little easier duringthe holidays and these are good tips and tricks as you're going through the season. we'veeven added some washi tape here so that your guests can package up their cookies. i likethese because these speak to our heritage. so thank you for sticking along with us forall of these ideas and inspiration. it's been a lot of fun, courtney. you can find theseprojects and ideas on michaels.com and on creativebug.com. remember we said we had alittle surprise for you. we actually have an awesome offer. it's gonna be a year-longsubscription, that's twelve months of all the classes that you can watch, all the craftsyou can make and if you purchase that one

for $50, you also get one for free for yourfriend. you get to be creative all year long and then you also get to give it to a friend.it's definitely a two-for. you can find that online at creativebug.com/gift. you want togo to that page so that you can redeem your gift subscription and buy one for a friend.i want you to know too that you can buy your michaels gift cards both in the store andonline, which is super easy. while you're there online, if you've forgotten about creativebug,there is a bar where you can find creativebug on the michaels website. it would be amazingto give the gift of creativity, do a subscription for creativebug and then pair it with a michaelsgift card. they can get all of their supplies, give something to wrap, it's like the perfectgift. if you're really in a pinch, don't forget

that we have lots of ready-made gifts, particularlythis year. gifts for her, gifts for him, star wars, disney princess collections, gifts forkids, educational gifts, gifts for everybody on your shopping list. we hope that we'veinspired you and given you some ideas to get you through the holiday season and we wishyou a very happy holiday. thank you for joining us. thank you courtney. thanks donna.