DIY Christmas Blanket (on a Budget!)

How to Make a DIY Christmas Blanket using the Cricut Maker and Iron On HTV | This polyester blanket is the perfect budget handmade Christmas gift idea. No sew and super easy, this fleece blanket is perfect for everyone on your Christmas list and can be made in minutes. Includes free gift tag and design SVGs and images as well as a full tutorial. 

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I am one of those people who always likes to be snuggled up in a book. It doesn't matter the time of day or the weather, whether I'm reading a book or watching TV, you'll find me curled up under a blanket as cosy as can be.

And I know I'm not the only one - I have so many other friends and family members who share my blanket love - and that sparked an idea! A Customised Blanket would make the perfect Christmas gift, so I had to come up with a super easy way to do just that. 

And with a $5 blanket in hand, my Cricut maker and some iron on HTV, I did exactly that and created the easiest (and most impressive!) budget friendly handmade gift idea that anyone would be happy to receive this Christmas.

So let me show you how to make it! >> 

How to Make a Shadow Lantern (Disney Inspired Peter Pan Lantern Tutorial)

How to make a DIY Shadow Lantern on a Budget | Learn how to turn an IKEA Rotera Lantern into a DIY Disney Peter Pan Shadow Lantern with this easy tutorial. A perfect weekend craft project you can make in under an hour for less than $10. Customise your lantern for a birthday present, handmade Christmas gift idea, custom home decor piece or whatever you fancy. Made with the Cricut Maker and adhesive vinyl.

Click to pin this project on Pinterest!

Our Disneyland trip is just 41 days away - so naturally, all of our free time has been filled with Disney things. Jesse and I have been making t-shirts with our Cricut Maker, and this weekend we decided to come up with a super quick weekend project.

This Shadow Lantern is SO simple to make. It can be made for less than $10 and in less than half an hour - and you can customise it to create any theme you like. 

So what are we waiting for? 
Let me show you how to make it!

Unique Gift Wrapping Ideas for Christmas (On a Budget!)

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This is a sponsored post for The Reject Shop, however, all recipes, ideas and opinions are entirely our own! Your support of these posts helps us to keep the blog and our recipes free for you and we are so thankful for YOU! ♥

We're now into the first official week of December and my excitement for Christmas has reached a whole new level. When my friends at The Reject Shop asked me if I could share some gift wrapping ideas for Christmas, I decided that I'd show you some super simple and slightly out-of-the-box ways to jazz up your Christmas wrapping whilst having a bit of fun along the way.

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Christmas wrapping shouldn't be expensive - but that doesn't mean it has to be boring! I'm going to show you how you can take one $2.50 roll of brown paper wrapping from The Reject Shop and make it your own. 

Let's jump into wrapping! >> 

12 Unique Chocolate Bark Recipes for Christmas Gifting

This is a sponsored post for The Reject Shop, however, all recipes, ideas and opinions are entirely our own! Your support of these posts helps us to keep the blog and our recipes free for you and we are so thankful for your support! ♥

Chocolate bark was actually the first foodie gift I ever made for a friend - and something I've been making every Christmas for at least 15 years. 

Why? When I was about 8 or 9 my teacher in primary school taught us all how to make Rocky Road (this Super Simple Kid Friendly Rocky Road Recipe actually!) and I fell in love with making homemade chocolate treats. 

When our friends at The Reject Shop asked me if I could come up with a delicious recipe for their customers - I knew I had to put together something a little more than that. To help you really wow your loved ones this Christmas, I put together a collection of delicious chocolate treats that are the perfect Homemade Christmas Gift! 

All 12 of these Homemade Chocolate Bark Recipes are super easy - all you have to do is melt, pour and sprinkle. They're perfect for making with kids and are what we like to call deceptively simple... that is, they make you look like a bit of a domestic goddess even though it takes all of five minutes to make them.

They're the perfect treat for Christmas and I'm sure you'll fall in love with at least one of these delicious combinations... 

So let's get onto the recipes, shall we?! 

The Easiest Two Ingredient Coffee Body Scrub Recipe

Christmas is just eight days away and the stores are full of different gift packs filled with beauty products ready to be gifted this holiday season. But instead of giving a cheap, chemical filled box of lotions and potions - why not give something you've created yourself? 

My sister and I have been making this scrub for months - and I only just realised I hadn't ever shared the "recipe" with you. I say "recipe" because, with just two ingredients, I don't know if it even qualifies as one! 

This homemade body scrub recipe not only exfoliates, but moisturises your skin to leave it feeling silky smooth. Once you've made it and realise how easy (and cheap!) it is, you'll be wondering why you ever bought body scrubs in the past!

So let me show you how to make it! >> 

Our Nordic Inspired Christmas Table + DIY Tutorials

Christmas is just twenty five days away! Our tree is up, the decorations are out and each night our house is lit up with Christmas lights. 

As we're on the final countdown to my favourite day of the year, we've been planning our Christmas celebrations and have decided on our table theme for this year. Each year we look forward to decorating our table for Christmas lunch/dinner with the family and love coming up with new ideas and themes each year.

This year we're going for a Nordic inspired red and white Christmas theme, paired with yummy edible place cards, cute decor pieces and lots more. 

But enough chitter chatter!
Let me share our Christmas Table and Christmas DIY Projects with you! >> 

DIY: Holiday Decor Blocks

It's no secret that I love special occasions. The decorating, the food, spending time with our family and friends, having time off work and the memories made are just some of the reasons I love when holidays or birthdays roll around.

A few months ago I told Jesse I thought we should have decorations year round to celebrate every kind of occasion. We got to thinking and decided that the best idea would be to create something that could work for a variety of special occasions - and we decided on these blocks!

They are seriously so easy to make and they can be personalised for whatever special occasions you want to celebrate - and they can also be used to display your favourite quotes! 

But enough chitter chatter, 

Let me show you how to make your own DIY Holiday Decor Blocks! >>

DIY: How to Create a Gorgeous Christmas Table

You're nearing the end of your Advent Calendar, the Christmas Tree is up, the lights are on, the Christmas Cookies are baked and gifted and the Christmas Presents are wrapped - now it's time to start thinking about your Christmas Table! 

As a family who love Christmas, the Christmas table is very important and now that Katrina and I are older, each year we spend quite a bit of time thinking up a theme and how we're going to style it. 

This year, keeping with our red, while and silver theme you saw on our tree and presents - we decided to do the same with our Christmas table!

So let me share our tips with you and show you our table! >>

DIY: Beautiful Gift Wrapping Ideas on a Budget

One thing I loveeeeeee about Christmas is spoiling friends and family with gifts - and my second favourite thing about doing that has to be wrapping said gifts! 

I've always loved wrapping presents as my Mum taught me how to wrap pretty early on, however, the older I got the more creative I got and I went from using simple printed Christmas papers to adding ribbons and patterns and bits and pieces. 

I thought as Christmas is fast approaching, I'd share some of my favourite gift wrapping ideas that we're using for our presents this year so that you can be inspired when it comes to wrapping your own - so let's get to it! 

DIY: Homemade Edible Christmas Gift Ideas!

Naturally, as someone who loves to cook and bake, I love sharing delicious homemade Christmas treats with our family and friends.

Each year I can be found baking away in the kitchen to Christmas songs whipping up batch after batch of shortbread or gingerbread cookies which are then left to cool before being wrapped up and shared with the people who make our life sweet. 

This year I wanted to share our favourite tips for making and presenting edible Christmas gifts so that you can share some with your family and friends this holiday season! 

So let me share our recipes and tips with you! >> 

DIY: Christmas Tree Decorating on a Budget PLUS a DIY Christmas Ornament for the Kids!

It really feels like Christmas now! Our Advent Calendar is all set, our Christmas Lights are up we've been baking lots of Healthy Christmas Recipes and we have lots of fun events planned for the coming weeks (and Jesse's brother will be here before we know it!).

But you just can't have a Christmas-y home without a tree - right?! I loveeeeeeee Christmas decorations but Christmas trees have to be my favourite. I'm the one who squeals with delight when Christmas decorations start popping up in shopping centres (even if they do start in October - that's fine by me :P) and the one who begs Jesse to have "picnic dinners" by the Christmas tree - twinkling lights and all. 

I'm also very particular when it comes to Christmas tree decorations. There has to be a theme and it has to match - and pleaaaaaaaaaaaaase do not try and touch my tree with tinsel (tinsel gives me the heebie jeebies!). 

This year, we decided to show you how you can create an incredible tree (and super cute DIY decorations) on a budget - because Christmas shouldn't cost you the earth! Together with our friends at The Reject Shop, we've created a gorgeous Christmas tree for under $100!

In fact, the tree, lights and all of the decorations only cost us: $94.50

Let me show you how we created our tree on a budget - as well as show you our super cute DIY Snowman Ornament! >>

DIY: Christmas Lights on a Budget!

Do you want to know something about my family?

In our area, we're known as The Christmas Light People. When we first started going to our church, when people asked Jesse or I where we lived they'd simply nod their head and say "Oh, the Christmas Lights House".... yup, that's it!

Every year, for as long as I can remember - we've put Christmas lights up on our house. They've changed over the years but without fail, there's always lights up on our house at Christmas time. 

Last year, for the very first time we almost didn't have them up - and we had so many questions from people in the street! "We're waiting for your Christmas lights!", "When are you putting your Christmas lights up this year?", "You still live in the big yellow house, right? You don't have your Christmas lights up!" "It's not Christmas without your lights".

Work had gotten in the way and we got to mid December and we stilllll didn't have lights up - but one weekend of hard work and they were up - and the cute Christmas thank you cards from kids in our street started turning up in our letterbox. 

This year, we decided to do things differently - we decided to put our Christmas lights up last weekend whilst we had some time off before work gets too busy and we run out of time to put them up! 

But let me tell you more about them! 

DIY Christmas Advent Calendar! [PLUS Christmas Activity Ideas!]

Christmas is fast approaching and we are getting seriously excited. When I was a kid, this is the time of year when I started begging my Mum for one of those chocolate advent calendars. 

I'd anxiously wait until December 1st and open that little window to reveal my sweet chocolate treat.... But the truth is, by about December 6th I'd realise that the chocolate inside actually wasn't that great and the advent calendar totally wasn't worth all of my anticipation.

That's why we now create our own anticipation-worthy advent calendars!

I wanted to show your how to create your own advent calendar, filled with Christmas activities and delicious treats that will have your family anxiously awaiting each new day - so let me show you 

How to Make your Own Easy to Make DIY Advent Calendar >>