Category: DIY

Christmas crib decorations make the festive season creative and more joyful. It’s always great fun and laughter when we sit together to make Christmas Crib at home.

Easy Christmas Nativity Scene:

The base is made of thermacole and plastered using plaster of Paris. The roof is made out of sola wood paper. It was an age-old tradition to create paddy fields around a manger. We soak the paddy and ragi overnight and sow them directly on the soil as they sprout. This was our first ever Christmas crib decoration that we made.

DIY Christmas Nativity Scene:

The following year, we used rock paper, and it was so much fun to craft the rock paper in a huge rock shape. We created a fountain using thermacole and Plaster of Paris mixture.

Easy & Simple Home-Made Crib Using Cardboard Materials:

Whenever we think of creating a Christmas Crib, thermacole sheets come to our rescue. We made the house using thermacole and plaster of Paris mixture.  We used empty cardboard boxes and plastered them along with the thermacole house.

We were so impressed by the Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban movie and loved the beast Buck-beak. We tried replicating Hagrid’s house, and it came out well. We made little pumpkins using clay.

Simple Christmas Crib Decorations:

We used hay and neem sticks to create a hut to depict a Christmas manger scene. We kept it light and simple.

2 Corinthians 9:15 – Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

Here are some Christmas Cribs we have posted in our blog.

How to make an outdoor nativity scene
Christmas Crib using thermocol sheets

Pin for later!

 

With luv,

Are you wondering how to make a Christmas Crib this year? Here are some Christmas Crib ideas to make at home with easily available materials.

How to make a Christmas Crib:

We made this Christmas Crib using cardboard. We made small houses out of empty cardboard boxes depicting scenes from a Christmas village. Then, we used mixed media paste to plaster the walls. Once it dried, we used chalk paints to color it.

Now the base is made to resemble a Christmas tree. We used layers of cardboard glued together, and the sides were covered with artificial green Christmas Pine garland. Furthermore, cover it with a cotton gauze pad for the snow effect.

Re-arrange the cardboard houses in each layer and decorate them with lights.

Here are some Christmas Cribs we made in the past.

How to make an outdoor nativity scene
Christmas Crib using thermocol sheets

I’ll share some more simple Christmas Crib ideas in the next post.

 

Pin for later!

With luv,

November is here. It’s time for the festive season. Would you love to make simple handmade DIY Christmas Ornaments?

Here are easy and simple DIY Christmas tree ornaments we made this year. I’ve also shared links to the materials that I’ve sourced from Amazon.

DIY Gnome Christmas Ornaments:

Make a Christmas Gnome with some yarn, wooden beads and cotton. The adorable red-colored gnome looks great on the Christmas tree.

For the hat, we can use either red velvet cloth, red textured paper, felt sheets and for the beard, use cotton, or a large pom-pom made out of ribbed yarn. Glue a wooden bead as a nose for the gnome. Decorate the hat with paper flowers and beads.

DIY Christmas Stars:

These simple DIY Christmas stars are so easy to make and they are adorable. I’ve colored the stars with chalk paint. Allow it to dry and seal it with a coat of varnish. Decorate it with paper flowers, beads and sequins.

DIY Ball Christmas Ornaments:

All you need is paper mache baubles to start with. Color them using acrylic paints or chalk paints. Allow them to dry and decorate it with beads, paper flowers and glitter. Stunning ball Christmas ornaments are ready to deck!! This looks simple and easier to do. However, the output would be classic.

DIY wood slice Christmas Ornaments:

Create a personalized wooden ornament using the art of decoupage!! Turn your favorite photo onto wood slice to make beautiful ornaments this Christmas!

I got my wood slices from Amazon. Paste your photo or decoupage paper using glue. Once they are dried, apply a coat of varnish to seal it.

DIY Origami Star Christmas Ornaments:

Origami stars are easy to fold and make beautiful Christmas ornaments. These 3D paper stars had a beautiful vintage feel.

DIY Mini-beaded Wreath Christmas Ornaments:

All you need is colorful velvet beads and floral wires to get creative! String the wreath using colorful beads and secure the end with some green leaf wire.

DIY Joy Noel Christmas Decorations:

Joyeux Noel is a French word for Merry Christmas. It’s easier to do with MDF or cardboard alphabets.

Prime the letter with mixed media paste. Once dried, use chalk paint to color the letters. Allow it to dry completely. Seal it with a coat of varnish. Decorate the letters with paper flowers, sequins and beads.

You could make these DIY Christmas Ornaments to sell. So, which Christmas Ornaments do you like?

Comment on what are the best DIY Christmas Ornaments you made this year.

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With luv,

Learn how to recycle plastic bottles? The weather is too hot… You could feel the real summer blaze this year with temperatures reaching 108 deg F… We desperately need some refreshing rain!!!

Today, I felt so bored and was watching a movie on Netflix, “The Boy who harnessed the wind”.

A decent movie with great thoughts! It was so touching… How different parts of the world struggle to meet their basic needs…  How climate change affects the livelihoods of farmers… It has beautifully depicted life in rural villages and how they overcome every struggle they face in their lives.  They don’t even have electricity, a proper school…

How lucky are we? We’re living life in our own comfort zone yet we find it a difficult space to live!!

DIY Recycle Plastic Bottles:

Coming back, what’s the best way to recycle plastic bottles? Turn them into a planter or a name plate or how about both? Ever since we moved into our new home, I had been thinking of making a name plate. I wanted it to be unique with a touch of nature!  It’s the right time to create a name plate combining Dot Painting and Mandala art.

I was so excited about trying something with Dot painting. It’s also known as ‘Australian aboriginal dot art’ as it originated from Indigenous Australians. Combining it with Mandala art is trending in recent times.

Dot mandala art on bottle:

Painting dot mandalas needs a lot of patience and time to do it. Etching alphabets in dot mandala art is quite interesting!! All you need is some acrylic colors and different sized tools. I had a few empty surf excel bottles lying in the store room which could now be repurposed as a planter and a name plate. I’ve used a pencil and crochet needle as my tools to do dot mandala art.

If you’re wondering what to make with empty plastic bottles or how to use plastic bottles for decoration, then here’s the deal. It’s the best way to recycle plastic bottles into something amazing!!

Take a look at the video on my YouTube channel.

Do subscribe for my Youtube Channel for more videos on easy do-it-yourself projects.

Here’s how to create a name plate…

1. Cut the openings into a desired shape in the plastic bottle.
2. Make holes at the bottom for air circulation and to drain water.
3. Prime the bottle using Gesso. Apply two coats and allow them to dry in-between coats.
4. Dab two colors in a sponge brush and create a textured effect. Allow it to dry for a while.
5. Draw the design using a pencil and create a dot pattern along the design using different sized tools.
6. When it’s dried, add soil and some plants. I prefer hanging plants like baby tears, string of hearts vines, wandering Jew and purple hearts.

Dot Mandala art on a bottle is ready to deck the wall!

Have you done any crafts with plastic bottles? Do comment below about how you have recycled plastic bottles…

With luv,

Learn how to do DIY planters. Yesterday’s summer rain left our porch soiled with the leaves of Allamanda plants. Its absolute happiness to see my colorful terracotta planters refreshed in rain.

Today is Day 17 of #21dayslockdown. The increasing COVID – 19 status freaks me out… The deeper I think about the daily wagers, homeless people, and stray animals; the more I’m stressed out! We have made sure to help people around and to feed the cats in our streets.

So, what do I do during the day? I end up my day painting something in and around our home. That’s very comforting!

I came across the contest held by an India – art blog here and thought of participating in it.

At home, everyone loved the antique finished terracotta planters. So, I decided to give a colorful splash to all the terracotta pots that I had placed on the staircase adjoining the porch. I had already decorated our porch with two simple wall mural arts here and here.  Leaving out the yellow, grey color is the only left-over color that I have got at the moment.

DIY Planters:

I’ve cleaned up all the planters and have applied the base coat with grey color. I’ve allowed it to dry for a while. Then, I used some chalk paint colors and acrylic color to add some design.

For the recycled paint bucket planter, I used the leaf imprints method to create a design. This time, I used Bhrami leaves from our garden. You can check the post DIY – Wall art decor using leaf paintings  for more details. And, for the rest of  the planters, I did a simple design.  Unlike empty planters, it’s quite difficult to paint a planter with plants in it.

It took me 4 hours to complete it. It’s worth the time!

It’s been a long time that I’ve taken part in a painting contest besides office work. I feel so happy to be a part of this contest.

Did you like it? Comment below…

With luv,

Here we come…. Day 10!

It’s pretty good to know how quickly time flies!! Ten days flew so fast… At least at the moment, it consoles the anxious and helps us to stay strong for the coming days.

So, how to be productive during this lock-down period? Try to do things that you are passionate about. You will be engaged with that completely and it helps you stay focused!

After completely remodeling Our Bedroom in Scandinavian décor style, I’m all set to start with our living room makeover. I’m a little uncertain whether to pick a nautical style (coastal décor) or a farmhouse style for the living room.

Today, I thought of giving an antique finish to the terracotta pots to go with the vintage settee. It’s actually a Dahi handi and I’ve turned it into a planter as the lid got broken. Luckily, I bought all my craft supplies before the corona lockdown. The two fevicryl liners in yellow and green came in very handy.

Take a look at the video on my YouTube channel.

Do subscribe for my Youtube Channel for more videos on easy do-it-yourself projects.

Here’s how to give an antique finish for the planters…

What you’ll need:

Ceramic color
Gesso
Fevicryl liners
Metallic wax
Brushes

How to do diy terracotta pots:

Prepare a paper draft of your designs. It helps to finalize your design and there won’t be any last minute changes. Besides, you could save time!

• First, I used a gesso as a primer to cover the pot completely. I gave two coats of primer and allowed it to dry between coats. I covered only the outer surface as I would be using it as a planter.
• Then, I used fevicryl ceramic color to paint the pot and allowed it to dry.
• I used a chalk stick to outline the design because it’s easier to clean it up later. Then, I used the liner over the design.  Allow it to dry for atleast 1 – 2 hours.
• Finally, I used metallic wax along the ridge to give an antique finish. You could also use the wax over the design! It looks beautiful…

I did two pot planters in two different designs. One, I’ve gifted it to my sister and other one decks my study table with some string plants.

How do you like it? Comment below…

With luv,

Why do we have nativity scene or Christmas crib on Christmas? There’s an unbound happiness surrounds us when depicting the scene of Jesus Christ’s birth. It was popularized, way back in the year 1223 by St. Francis Assisi, creating the first nativity scene at Greccio.

Christmas crib making ideas:

Creating a Christmas crib as part of the Christmas celebration is a fun-filled activity for families around us.  As always, this year we did a simple nativity scene outdoor with clay, wooden sticks and date palm leaves.

Here’s how to make an outdoor nativity scene

First, a layer of sand is filled to cover the plastic sheet. Then, a cuboidal structure is made with wooden sticks over the sand layer.

We used earthen clay to make a wall covering the cuboid to resemble a stable. We covered the top with date palm leaves.

When they saw the star, they rejoiced – Mathew 2:10

Merry Christmas to all…

Do check our nativity scene and Christmas crib decorations that we did in 2021.

With luv,

Woven burlap mats measuring 18*23 in size has been stocked up for newborn photography.

Woven woolen mats are available in purple, grey and olive green colors.

Check out our page elzaprops in Instagram.

With luv,

We had a great week celebrating Christmas this year! Besides, it’s the first festival we celebrated as a family, post our marriage… I felt so happy and excited!!

During our schooling, my sister and I would be doing a lot of science projects in exam holidays. Those projects will help us to get an extra credit of ten marks apart from our regular marks especially in our science paper.  So, to get a full score all my friends would be there at our home regularly during the ten days of exam holidays. Both, our Quarterly and Half-yearly holidays was spent in doing some science projects. I’ve always wondered on how to do terrarium for science projects.

Now, Whenever we get to see succulents in the plant nursery, it reminisces our school days.. Today, I’ve planned to do a terrarium with a dessert rose seedlings.

What you’ll need:

1. Glass Jar
2. Activated Charcoal
3. Potting Mix
4. Moss
5. Pebbles
6. Saplings
7. Any miniature toy – I had a miniature ceramic toy at home.

How to do:

First, clean the glass jar thoroughly in soap solution and air dry it. Then, add a layer of pebbles and then cover it with a layer of potting mix. Now, add a layer of activated charcoal and cover it up with a layer of moss. Now, carefully plant your saplings and place your miniature toy.

It’s ready to deck your study table… Spray water occasionally to prevent from drying.

With Luv,