Holiday | A Joyful Riot

DIY Mini Bottle Brush Tree Garland

December 2, 2017 ·

I’m not going to write one of those posts apologizing for my lack of content creation lately. I’m not. Ok…I guess I am. Machelle has been single-handedly keeping this blog alive while in school with two kids. She is amazing. I on the other hand have no kids and am not in school. But I have a job. That is not a great excuse now that I am typing it out though.

So sorry for my lack of project creation lately. I thought I would ease back into it with a 5 minute project for you all. And I thought that this was so simple it must have been done a hundred times already but I searched and couldn’t find it. So if any of you have already seen one done go easy on me ok!

Bottle brush trees are my favorite Christmas decoration and have been for years. They’re timeless that way. I have included them in my holiday decor for at least the past five years. Last year I got a great deal on a bunch of these mini trees and used them as ornaments on my tree which I loved. This year, however, I got rid of my white Christmas tree (RIP) and opted for a green one. This left my mini trees discarded to the side and I had to use them for something!

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DIY Circus Animal Cookie Family Costume

October 27, 2016 ·

Today we are revisiting two of our favorite DIY costumes – the animal cookie costume and the original sugar cookie costume! These two combine in the best possible way: A cookie + lion = lion animal cookies! That’s right, only the most delightful family costume you could imagine!

We love this family costume idea we are revisiting it again – see Machelle’s family two years ago! All of these costumes are quite simple to do so if you find yourself mere days before Halloween looking for a family costume we got you! But first, how awesome does this family look? That is my husband’s twin, his wife Shayly and their two kids Ellie and Mila. Thanks for being the best models ever!

Animal Cookie Kids Costume

This animal cookie costume looks cute at any age but especially on babies and toddlers! And after Machelle originally using it for Stella two years ago I am still obsessed with it. If you model yours after the Mother’s animal cookies (the best in our opinion) you just need all white or bright pink clothing.

Next, you need a ton of colorful circles for your sprinkles to sew on the clothing! From there you can decide what type of animal you want to do. The lion is our favorite because it adds cute ruffles and ears but you could do an elephant, giraffe, and more!

Next, get creative with the face painting and add some whiskers!

Look how much Ellie, my adorable niece, loves this costume! It is perfect for girls because it matches up girly sprinkles with the playfulness of dressing up as an animal. I still think it would be perfect for a boy though.

The instructions for the circus animal cookie can be found here.

DIY Color Blocked Wood Christmas Forest

December 17, 2015 ·

I used to dream about having a fireplace with a mantel so that I could decorate it for holidays. Now that I have one it has proven to be quite difficult for me to actually come up with decor ideas. Some people are really good at styling mantels, I am not one of those. Please teach me your ways people! This year all I wanted was a bunch of bottle-brush trees and I did try to make my own yarn ones but they were too time consuming to be realistic (says the woman who spent 6 hours making that pom-pom garland ha). So after that attempt I brought out my trusty balsa wood and fashioned a whole forest of colored trees and it took maybe an hour and was much cheaper than buying 15 trees!

See all the fun angles and colors you can use? I was limited in width by the size of the balsa board I had so I also just went ahead and made a few trees from multiple triangles that you can see above.

You probably don’t need directions on these little trees, but click through for the super simple how-to just in case!

DIY Printed Faux Fireplace | Free Printable

December 12, 2015 ·

So I don’t have a fireplace.

This is sad to me for a number a reasons, all the charming decor you can do around them, the instant warmth they seem to add to a room even if there’s no fire crackling within. But mostly, I don’t think about it much until Christmas rolls around. Then I feel like my home is missing a necessary appendage. I mean, where will we hang the stockings and more importantly how on earth will Santa get in to leave us our gifts?!

Because I need me some gifts and also because I love hung stockings for the weeks leading up to Christmas, I decided to take care of this problem with some hand DIYing this year.

I’ve seen some really fabulous chalkboard fireplaces, cardboard fireplaces and even flat out fake-but-look-just-like-the-real-thing wood built fireplaces but I wanted something even less permanent and especially less work than all of those options. So I made one to print out instead!

DIY Snow Globe Kits

December 3, 2015 ·

There’s possibly nothing that I love more that DIY gifts. Its so fun to make something and then give it to those you love knowing that they’ll appreciate it simply because you made it and that they’re not judging it like a customer would. But, at this time of year, it can be overwhelming to even think of making gifts when we’re already so stressed about having to get them at all! That’s why I love this DIY gift idea. It’s really easy, really!

Not only does it come together in a snap, but it’s a fun activity you’re neighbors and friends will really enjoy doing together and it’s a gift that they can keep and use and enjoy year after year. This gift provides your giftees with everything they need to make their own unique snow globes!

I love the DIY snow globes that have hit the blog scene these last couple years. Tutorials abound and they’re absolutely delightful. There is really no limit to what you can create and they’re so much more personal than a store bought globe, even though those can be great gifts too!

But, this tutorial isn’t for creating those snow globes, it’s for helping you gather all the supplies and putting them together in a pretty way to hand out as gifts this year so that others can create them!