DIY COLOR BLOCKED SHAKERS

My shakers were nice, but a little boring so I decided to jazz em' up! Really you could make these with any color you want, but I went the gold route. They make great house warming gifts too. See all the details here on Momtastic.

DIY POLKA DOT WALL

What is better than a fun polka dot wall? I had a blast making this wall for Elliott's room and plan on doing another one for our room some time in the future. Check out the whole tutorial here on Momtastic!

DIY tube sock stocking

Finally, our third stocking is done! Preston really wanted his to be funny, and funny it is. I let him take the reins on this one, I just took the pictures :) It's pretty self explanatory, and the execution is really easy. Here we go!

What we used:

Plain white stocking

Fabric paint

Masking tape (ours was pink)

Foam brush

Fabric marker

Card-stock for the inside

Now we have all three stockings done and ready for stuffing! You can check out our other two stockings here and here.

THE WRAPPING (this year)

I love coming up with how I am going to wrap my gifts. This year, I took my inspiration from a few different sources. Brown paper packages and "string" is obviously from The Sound of Music but also from my sister who always uses it to wrap her gifts. The gold on brown paper I borrowed from this pretty paper, but I went with a more speckled polka dot look. And the pom poms, well, they're everywhere this year! I went the bright colors route (imagine that!) and I love them. How are you wrapping your gifts this year? I'd love to see!

DIY REMOVABLE CHALKBOARD

I really wanted a large-ish chalkboard for Elliott's room but we couldn't figure out how we should do it. As renters, we knew that if we painted a chalkboard on the wall or hung a large chalkboard up on the wall, that our landlord might look down on that. After quite a bit of research I discovered chalkboard contact paper! It got great reviews so I thought we should give it a try, and wouldn't you know it, it works great!

All you need is chalkboard contact paper, scissors and a spot on your wall. It goes on so smooth, people will ask if it is painted on. We made ours 3 ft x 2 ft and it seems to be perfect for the space. I was worried that the contact paper would make the writing/drawing a bit spotty as some chalkboard products can be. But I couldn't be happier with it! And when we move, we can just peel it off with no damage to the walls. Pretty perfect, right?

I also made a little pom pom garland to hang above it. I used this tutorial and strung them on some string (like here). After about 2 minutes, Elliott had grabbed it and killed the poor little pom poms. The next one I make will hang a bit higher on the wall :)