I love the idea of a portrait rubber stamp as opposed to traditional signing my name on holiday or greeting cards. I wanted to make one for Justice as he's still too young to be able to write his name. Rubber stamps are easy for his little hand to grab and the coordination to stamp is simpler to understand and follow than writing at his age. With the stamp, he can leave a mark on notes and greeting cards himself with little guidance. After making a stamp for my holiday wrapping paper, I got a little addicted to carving and making my own rubber stamp. There's something about gliding through rubber that makes it so therapeutic. It's like carving butter. But instead of just carving out his name, I thought it'd be cute to turn his portrait into a stamp this time. It was a lot harder to carve on such a tiny surface without losing the details. Here are my step-by-step and tips for this DIY so you can also make one for your LO!

Tools and Supplies for Making Rubber Stamp:

• Japanese Rubber Block or Carving Block
• Carving tools 
• Pencil
• Paper
• Ink Pad

Japanese Rubber Block v.s. Carving Block

I used Japanese rubber block for this stamp. But any carving block meant for block printing would do as well. If you're a beginner or first-timer in carving, I recommend starting off with a Japanese block. It usually consists of 2 layers in different colours. The top thin layer is what you'd carve away. The different colours make it easy to tell which areas to carve and which to keep. It'll also prevent you from carving too deep into the block, making your stamp look even and clean. With the carving block, since it's all in one colour, it can be tricky for the brain to remember that you're actually carving out the negative space that you don't need. 

Start With a Sketch

I started by sketching a simple caricature form of Justice's face with a pencil. You can draw directly onto the block but I like to draw on a piece of paper first then transfer to the block. If you draw directly onto the block, it'll be hard to erase if you want to refine or correct a mistake. It's also important to make your portrait as simple with as little details as possible. The carving surface is small and fine lines could easily be tear apart in the carving process. After I'm happy with the drawing, I transferred it onto the rubber block by burnishing the back of the paper. 

Burnish Sketch Onto Rubber Block

To burnish the drawing, place your drawing onto the rubber block, portrait facing down. Shade the back of the paper with a pencil. The portrait will then be transferred onto the rubber block. Now, grab a v-gouge or u-gouge carving tool and start carving away all the unwanted areas. Pro-tip: carve in the direction away from your hand.

Refine your carving as needed. 

Check out my video below to see these steps in action.

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A post shared by Ms. Ting Ting | Ting & Things (@tingandthings_)

I hope you like this DIY tutorial! If you give this a try, be sure to share your pictures with me on IG @tingandthings_ or use hashtag #diywithting. I'd love to see your version!

Happy Crafting!

Every year, I try to add some new ornaments to our Christmas tree. And this year is no different. I added a few including these yarn-wrapped letter ornaments that I made from my Amazon cardboard boxes and yarn that I have lying around my house. I made the letters in our initials and they turned out super cute! 

Justice loves these ornaments since he's at the stage where he can identify alphabets. He'd point at his initial and say, "J" out loud. He had fun helping me put up ornaments to our tree. But at the same time, it makes me realize how fast he's growing up. He was only able to crawl under the tree and touch the ornaments at the bottom last holiday. 

I think this DIY ornament would be a great craft idea to do with kids too. It's so simple and requires almost zero cost (well, except the money that actually went into your Amazon purchases). But isn't it fabulous to put those Amazon boxes to good use? And nobody could tell that these were made from cardboard boxes!

How to Make Yarn-Wrapped Letter Ornaments

Supplies you'll need:

• White Yarn 
• Tinsel Yarn (I got mine from Oomomo's craft section!)
• Cardboard (Put those Amazon boxes to use!)
• Mini pom poms (The dollar store is your best friend)
• Scissors
• Glue gun
• Tape (optional)

Instructions:

Trace out letters onto your cardboard and cut them out with scissors. I cut 3 pieces for each letter to add some dimension to the letters.

Then, glue the end of the yarn to the letter and start wrapping the letter until the entire letter is covered. Seal the yarn end with hot glue.

Cut out a piece from the tinsel yarn and tie a knot at the bottom. Hot glue the knot onto the top of the letter. And that's it!

This tutorial is so straightforward. But in case, you want to watch how I did it. Head over to my Instagram for the video of this tutorial.

I hope you like this DIY tutorial! If you give this a try, be sure to share your pictures with me on Instagram and tag @tingandthings_ or use hashtag #diywithting. I'd love to see your take on it!


Happy crafting and have a wonderful holiday!

Check out my other Christmas DIY ideas!

DIY Stamped Holiday Wrapping Paper

DIY Holiday Shaker Cards

DIY Paper Cutout Holiday Cards

Make Your Own Holiday Cutout Cards

Rudolph the Reindeer Christmas Cake Pops

DIY Gold Hand Lettering Christmas Ornament

Sweetest Present to Give: Christmas Cupcakes Bouquet 

Tis' the Season to Make Gingerbread Cookies

Holly Jolly Chocolate Cake Pops

As parents, we want to give our children everything in this world, we want to provide them with what they ask for within reason. While it's recommended to buy toys that help in learning and development, we tend to buy things they've been asking for most during the holiday season. Below is a simple approach to follow to make our holiday shopping easier.

The simplest way is to shop for things that follow these four categories: Wants, Needs, Wear, Read. You don't have to stick to the philosophy of just one item per category but it's a great method to implement to make sure the holiday gifts are both something useful and something they'd like. Let's expand on each section to get a sense of the things you could gift in each area.

Wants

For this category, you get to have a lot of fun. Perhaps, they want an elaborate dollhouse or train set that they've been eyeing for a long time. Expensive video game systems or anything else you wouldn't usually buy on a typical Target run falls into this category. This category is also useful when other people shop for your child. It's like putting together a wish list. This is especially useful for yourself too to indicate to your partner what you want for the holidays. You might be eyeing the most popular perfumes or a pair of boots. You can be specific with your list. The holidays can be stressful for mamas, and we deserve to get a treat too!

Needs

You know your children's needs best. Does your child need a new snowsuit or new winter boots? These are the types of things you can buy from this category. You can also include big-ticket items like a "big kid bed" if your toddler is transitioning out of their crib or toddler bed. You can even get your family members to help get the items in this category too. When you buy from this category, you'd know the items will be used and not wasted.

Wear

While some items in the "needs" category can also fall into this category - let's face it, children run through and ruin clothes pretty quickly! So, you can go for items that they could wear a lot, something trendy or you can make it seasonal. Since the holidays occur during wintertime, the wear category could include warm, winter clothing like mittens, scarfs and toques. 

Read

The holidays are all about making memories with our loved ones, and that includes our children! Studies show that reading with one another can be beneficial to children's language development. Instilling a love of reading and learning in your children is helpful for the long run. So feel free to splurge in this category! The more extensive your child's library, the more diverse the selection is for them to choose from - and you! We've all been there reading their same favourite book night after night, and as much as we love it, it can also get old! Books are great options for other people looking to buy a gift for your child during the holidays. You might even want to consider a gift card from your local book store so the child can choose a book on their own - it also eliminates the chance of getting duplicates that you would have to return or donate.

Utilizing the want, need, wear, read method of shopping will save you a ton of time, energy, and money. As parents, sometimes it might seem like we don't have enough of one or all of these categories. So, if you're feeling overwhelmed this time of year, as many can, try implementing this method for a more effortless shopping experience. That way, you have plenty of time to enjoy the time with your kids and other loved ones, which is what the season is all about. Have a Happy Holidays!

If you're looking for ways to add some personal touch or pizazz to your gifts this holiday season, I've got you covered! In this tutorial, I'll show you how you can make your own stamped Christmas wrapping paper that will definitely make your gifts unique and stand out under the Christmas tree. 

Forget store-bought wrapping paper and make your recipient feel extra special with this DIY wrapping paper that you create using a stamp made from an eraser! All you need is a simple polymer eraser that you can purchase from any dollar store, some carving tools, paper (of course), a stamp pad and a pair of crafty hands. 

How to make your own gift wrapping paper with a stamp carved from an eraser 

There's something about carving an easer that makes it so therapeutic to me. With the right tool (I used Speedball carving tools),  the blade just glides onto the polymer material so smoothly. It's like gliding through butter! And, the possibilities are endless. I can go from the simplest shape to a more intricate pattern like a greeting or a phrase. 

And the best thing? No two papers are the same. It's low cost to make and you can reuse the stamp every year. Just switch out the ink colour and experiment with different colour paper for a whole new look. Let's get right into it, shall we?

Supplies You'll Need:

• Speedball carving tools
• Polymer eraser 
• Pencil
• Kraft paper
• Ink Pad
• Printer (optional)

Instructions:

First, type out the greeting in a font that you like. Choose a font that is bold with straight, simple lines. The thicker the strokes are, the easier it is to carve. Avoid fonts that are very thin with a lot of curvy lines. Mirror this font so that it's flipped horizontally and print it out. 

Then, with a pencil, trace the outline of your font. Put your outline directly onto your eraser and burnish the font by shading over the back of the outline. The outline of the text will appear on the eraser on the right side.

Start carving out the unwanted areas (not your text!) carefully with your blade. I like to start with a smaller blade to carve an outline of the text first. Then, carve larger areas towards the text outline. That way, I could avoid carving the text because the outline serves as a border for my larger blade to stop. There's no right or wrong technique here, as long as you're carving the unwanted areas. Refine as needed. 

Lastly, plot the eraser onto an ink pad and stamp it onto the paper. That's it! 

Check out my video below to see these steps in action.

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A post shared by Ms. Ting Ting | Ting & Things (@tingandthings_)

I also carved Justice's face on another eraser. The possibilities are endless! 

I think I might have started a new obsession with stamping! I hope you like this DIY tutorial! If you give this a try, be sure to share your pictures with me on Instagram and tag @tingandthings_ or use hashtag #diywithting. I'd love to see your take on it!

Happy crafting and have a wonderful holiday!

Check out my other Christmas DIY ideas!

DIY Christmas Holiday Shaker Cards

DIY Paper Cutout Christmas Holiday Cards

Make Your Own Christmas Cutout Cards

Rudolph the Reindeer Christmas Cake Pops

DIY Gold Hand Lettering Christmas Ornament

Sweetest Present to Give: Christmas Cupcakes Bouquet 

Tis' the Season to Make Gingerbread Cookies

Holly Jolly Chocolate Cake Pops

Hello everyone, I can't wait to share with you my latest shaker cards for the Christmas holiday! In case you don't know what shaker cards are, they are cards that have clear windows and are filled with little bits of decorative items such as confetti, sequins or ornament fillers. I'm so in love with how they turned out and they are so easy to make! Follow along my step-by-step tutorial and learn how to make these shaker cards with my hand-lettered svg file at the bottom of this post.

Supplies You'll Need:

• White and red cardstock
• Ornament fillers/sequins/confetti
• Acetate
• My handlettered SVG file
• Foam mounting tape, glue/adhesive tape
• Cricut or other cutting machines

Instructions:

To make these cards, You'll need some cardstocks. Choose a colour for the outer layer (I used red) and a lighter colour for the inside. I used white for higher contrast but you can reverse the colours for a different look, like my papercut holiday cards, for example.

To create this card, you'll need my SVG file for your cutting machine (I use Cricut). Load the svg file onto Design Space and click Make it! Put red cardstock onto your cutting mat. Press the Load button. I like to use the default settings (fine point blade) for cutting paper materials. Choose cardstock setting (unless you're using a different kind of material, then you'd need to choose that specific setting for that) to cut the file onto the cardstock.

Now, you should have the red outer layer in 4.25 x 5.5" cut out as the front window trim of your shaker greeting card. Next, you'll need to create the actual window using the acetate. Cut out your acetate in the same size (4.25"x5.5" or slightly smaller) and attach it to the back of the red layer using glue or adhesive tape. 

Create a border to contain all your fillers by attaching your foam mounting tape along the edge of the red layer and acetate. Next step is my favourite part, add the fillers, confetti, glitters (you can get creative here!) inside your border. You'd want to make sure that you leave a bit of room for these fillers to move around when you shake the card. So don't go overboard with your fillers!

Take a piece of white cardstock and trim to the size of 8.5 x 5.5" and fold in half. This will be the inner layer for your personal message. To close off the window and contain the fillers, peel off your foam mounting tape and carefully attach the front of your white cardstock onto the border. The fold should be on the right hand side of the red layer. You'd want to make sure the red and white layers align with each other for a cleaner look. Apply pressure onto the card and that's it! 

You've just created a beautiful shaker card! Pretty easy, right? I love the endless possibilities for these shaker cards and they are soooo fun.

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A post shared by Ms. Ting Ting | Ting & Things (@tingandthings_)

I hope you like this DIY tutorial! If you give this a try, be sure to share your pictures with me on Instagram and tag @tingandthings_ or use hashtag #diywithting. I'd love to see your take on it!

If you don't have time to make your own, you can also grab this card made for you in my shop as well! 

May your holiday sparkle like these shaker cards! 

Happy creating! 

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Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links and I may receive a cute commission if you make a purchase through my links at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support :)

Check out my other Christmas DIY ideas!

DIY Papercut Christmas Holiday Cards

Rudolph the Reindeer Christmas Cake Pops (Tutorial)

DIY Gold Hand Lettering Christmas Ornament (Tutorial)

Sweetest Present to Give: Christmas Cupcakes Bouquet (Tutorial)

Tis' the Season to Make Gingerbread Cookies

Holly Jolly Chocolate Cake Pops (Tutorial)

Tools

• Draft paper, pencil, eraser
• Micro Gel Ball Pen 0.5
• Cardstocks
• We R Memory Keepers® Foil Quill™ Fine Tip Freestyle Pen

Instructions

Step 1

Always begin with your design on paper. Since Christmas is around the corner, I picked Christmas wreath as my design.

Step 2

Once you are comfortable with the design you can start drawing on the greeting cards. I used 0.5 Micro Gel Ball pen for the outline on the cardstock.

Step 3

Since I only want to highlight a few leaves, to achieve this result place a tracing paper on top and trace the leaves you want to do foiling on it.

Step 4

Plug in the Foil Quill Pen, it takes around 5 minutes to heat up. While waiting for the pen to heat up you can place the foil paper in between the card and tracing paper. Add tape to secure the placement when necessary.

**Remember you need to purchase HEAT ACTIVATED FOIL SHEET specially. A regular foil sheet will not transfer the foil onto another surface.

Step 5

Trace the leaves and remove the tape with care once you are done. There you have your foil piece. 

ENJOY!

You can watch the tutorial on my IGTV. Visit my Instagram @sincerelybo.

View more of my work here. 

Join my online workshops here. 

Sincerely,
Margaret

This post is contributed by: Margaret Wong
Margaret is the creator behind Sincerely.Bo, a Toronto based boutique design studio specializing in custom lettering and calligraphy. She provides calligraphy and hand engraving services for events, brands and workshops. Calligraphy is a very therapeutic form of art especially in this busy world. She is excited to inspire you to the many possibilities of applying calligraphy to things around us.

We've made it to December! What a fun ride 2020 has been. Now we all just need to do our part this holiday season so we can have a normal 2021 to enjoy. But what if you're thinking of venturing out to buy those Christmas gifts for your loved ones? I'd like to convince you to think twice. A perfect gift doesn't need to be expensive or store-bought. It's the thought that counts. Here is a round-up of 7 of my favourite DIY gift ideas to help you this holiday season while staying home. Any of them can definitely put a smile on someone's face.

Christmas Cupcakes Bouquet

Desserts always win people's heart, especially if they have a sweet tooth! These edible poinsettias are actually cupcakes decorated with homemade fondant! Check out how I decorated these cupcakes and assembled them into a bouquet in my tutorial! 

Holly Jolly Christmas Holiday Cake Pops

These festive-looking cake pops are so easy to make and you won't believe it! Simply roll out homemade marshmallow fondant and cut them out using small cookie cutters. To gift them, just wrap them up in cellophane bags and attach with a gift card. Follow my tutorial to see how I made them.

Fererro Rocher Chocolate Bouquet

Like I said, desserts for the win! Chocolates can easily win on my book. To make things a little bit fancier, you can dress up chocolates into a flower bouquet to gift someone this holiday. Here, I used one of my favourite chocolates of all time: Ferrero Rocher.

Decorated Gingerbread Cookies

It's not a magical holiday without Santa Claus and gingerbread cookies! Bring this traditional gingerbread recipe to life and gift your loved ones these treats to enjoy! Follow along in this tutorial to see how I made these with Martha Stewart's gingerbread recipe.

Personalized Gold Handlettering Ornaments

This is one of the most popular DIY tutorials on my blog! These fancy ornaments were made from globe ornaments, ribbons, mixed beads and an oil-based sharpie marker! Personalize these with your loved ones' names or greetings this holiday with my step by step!

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer Cake Pops

Even if we don't have a Christmas party to go to this year, it's fun to make these cute looking cake pops with your kiddos! These are great to make ahead of time and both kids and adults would love them too! 

Check out my tutorial to see how I made these Rudolph the reindeer cake pops!

Handmade Paper Cutout Holiday Cards

It might be an especially long winter this year...But even if you’re unable to see your family and friends this holiday season, a thoughtful handmade card can help you remind them that you care. Make these gorgeous but easy paper cutout cards with my template! 

I hope you enjoy these DIY gift ideas! Which one is your favourite?

If you give this a try, be sure to share your pictures with me on Instagram and tag @tingandthings_ or use hashtag #diywithting. I'd love to see your take on it!

Have a safe and wonderful holiday! Happy gifting~

Check out all the Christmas DIY ideas!

Make Your Own Christmas Cutout Card
Rudolph the Reindeer Christmas Cake Pops
DIY Gold Hand Lettering Christmas Ornament
Sweetest Present to Give: Christmas Cupcakes Bouquet

Holly Jolly Chocolate Cake Pops

'Tis the Season to Make Gingerbread Cookies

It's that time of the year again! One of my greatest joys for the holidays is that I can get creative and crafty to decorate my home. I like to deck out my home and get as festive as I can starting from the Christmas tree. But, nice, sparkly decorations can be expensive. So I often go for the DIY route. I believe that you don't need to spend a lot of money to make your tree or your home pretty. And this tutorial will show you how.

Since moving into this home, I've been adding something new to the tree every year. And this year is no different. Some of my DIY decorations made it to this blog like these gold hand-lettering ornaments were a huge hit. With some time (and perhaps some crafty hands), you can also turn inexpensive items into impressive holiday decorations. This Christmas letter garland is definitely one of them!

How to Make Christmas Letter Garland for Your Tree

Supplies

• Glitter Fabric or Glitter Paper - I got my glitter fabric in a roll from Dollarama for $2! I love the champagne gold colour.
• Illustration Board -got mine from Curry's
• Fish String/Twine or Cotton Rope - I used fish string for invisibility
• Glue Gun and Glue Stick
• Cricut or any cutting machine (optional)
• Cricut's Knife Blade
• Scissors or Exact-o-knife
• A Template - or you can use mine 

Instructions:

For those with a cutting machine - 

Download my template and load onto your cutting machine. Cut it out onto the illustration board and the glitter material. I used an illustration board because the thickness is what makes the garland look fancy and expensive. The material is durable and hard. I wanted my garland to withstand the test of time and be able to handle wear and tear.

For those without a cutting machine - 

First, you'll need to create a template using a bold sans serif font. System fonts such as Arial Bold also works well for garland. To create a template, type out the words in the size that you want your garland to be. For my garland, each letter is 4.25" in height. Print it out in outline and cut each letter out. Trace these letters onto the illustration board and cut the letters out using scissors. 

Once you've cut out both glitter paper and illustration board, glue them together using a glue stick or scrapbooking adhesive.

Attach a piece of fish string to the back of the letters using a glue gun. To determine the length, I first measured the distance I want the letters to be on my tree before I glue them to the fish string. This is the beauty of DIYs, you can customize it however you want to your liking.

Finish up by tying both ends with a loop for easier hanging on the tree.

Check out my Gold Handlettering Ornaments DIY here

That's it! I love how this turned out! The champagne glitters make the garland that much more magical. I even made a smaller version for my studio space.

Download my Falalala Template here.

I hope you like this DIY tutorial! If you give this a try, be sure to share your pictures with me on Instagram and tag @tingandthings_ or use hashtag #diywithting. I'd love to see your take on it!

Check out my other Christmas DIY ideas!

DIY Paper Cutout Christmas Holiday Cards

Make Your Own Christmas Cutout Cards

Rudolph the Reindeer Christmas Cake Pops

DIY Gold Hand Lettering Christmas Ornament

Sweetest Present to Give: Christmas Cupcakes Bouquet 

Tis' the Season to Make Gingerbread Cookies

Holly Jolly Chocolate Cake Pops

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links and I may receive a cute commission if you make a purchase through my links at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support :)

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Hope y'all are enjoying this warm weather in November! I know it's still a little early but I've already put up and decked out my Christmas tree. Yep! And you can expect lots of DIYs. For example, check out these DIY Christmas ornaments I did for my tree.

With all the pandemic restrictions and safety measures, holidays this year will definitely be very different. But just because we might not be able to see our families and friends for the holidays, it doesn't mean we can't tell them that we're thinking of them, right? Today, I want to show you how I made these beautiful papercut holiday cards that I plan to send out to those who I don't get to see this upcoming Christmas season.

How to Make these Papercut Christmas Holiday Cards

Supplies I used to make these cards:

• White cardstock 
• Blue, Red, Light green cardstock
• Cricut machine
• My papercut design SVG file
• Glue or scrapbooking adhesive tape

I first created the holiday papercut designs using Illustrator. I was inspired by the whimsical winter theme so I wanted to make 3 designs that would work together as a set and also on its own.

The holiday scene was incorporated into a Christmas ornament in which I used to create the cutout effect. Once I loaded the design file onto Cricut's Design Space, all I had to do is send it to cut on a piece of white cardstock. Then for the insert, I trimmed a piece of coloured cardstock of the same size and folded it in half. I taped the coloured cardstock with scrapbooking adhesive along the fold line onto the inside of the white cardstock for a cleaner look.

I loved how it turned out! It was so simple to make yet the end result looked absolutely stunning!

What do you guys think of these holiday cards? If you don’t have a cutting machine to use my digital file, I have some good news for you. I’m now offering these cards in my shop! They will be made to order and all come with their own white envelope and cellophane bag for protection. You can get them individually or as a set. Simply choose a design that you like. You also have an option to print a personal message inside the cards. I can even send them on your behalf so that there's one item off your to-do list ;)