Lisa Storms

winter wonderland hot chocolate bar

Winter Wonderland is a fun theme for any winter party, from birthdays to showers to classroom parties. And a hot chocolate bar is not only delicious, but decorative! Even if it doesn't snow where you live, you can still have fun with a faux winter wonderland. =)

I've come up with some fun ways to add cute touches to your winter party and sharing them over at Fiskars here.

... including updating some classics with Fiskars-style!

You can find full photos and directions here.

And if you if you are looking for a wintery gift to give, here's a fun way to give hot chocolate on a smaller scale. 

And lastly, you can check out more of my snowflake posts here.

quick snowflakes

In honor of our snowy week in Oregon, I thought I would share a couple of scrapbook pages with ideas for super quick snowflakes.

First up is a layout I had in Scrapbooks Etc. magazine.  Just clip off the rounded tips from a white, punched flower.  Full details here.

Another quick idea is to wind white embroidery floss around punched scallop circles in a whimsical snowflake design.  This layout was also featured in Scrapbooks Etc. magazine with full details here.

clay pendant tutorial

My daughter had a winter wonderland themed 10th birthday party recently ... or a "brrr"thday as we called it.  While I hope to eventually share her party here on the blog, I wanted to stop and share the necklaces we made now because I thought they could be useful for last-minute DIY gifts for the holidays.

We used Sculpey oven bake clay.  The girls picked from an assortment colors and broke off half of one of the scored bricks...

Next condition the clay and roll it into a ball.

Then flatten into a disk.  I found an easy way for the girls to get theirs even by pressing down on the ball with a paper cup.  The rim on the bottom of the cup was very short, so the edges stopped the pressure evenly.  This wouldn't work with any paper cup.  These particular cups I happened to have had a very shallow rim.  I assume this varies by cup brand.  You can just flatten with anything you can find around that won't stain.

Stamp your design into your clay disk.  Be sure to leave room for a hole for hanging. We used toothpicks to widen a hole for hanging.  Be sure the hole goes all the way through.  After baking, we noticed a couple of the girls had holes that didn't reach the back.  Luckily I had my handy craft drill, which you could opt to use after baking instead of the toothpick method.

We used a snowflake from the Winter Wishes stamp set by Fiskars.  This is the set that has the "warm winter wishes" stamp I've been using constantly.  

Bake according to manufacturer's instructions and allow to cool.  Paint inside snowflake with white acrylic paint and wipe away excess with a paper towel.  Use a large jump ring to attach to a necklace to complete.

These were inspired by my clay jewelry dishes I created a while back which can be viewed here.  I've become quite addicted to making things with oven bake clay ... it's just so easy =).

diy snowflakes

Here's a shout-out to my peeps on the East Coast who are experiencing a winter wonderland.  Thought it would be a good time to share a scrapbook layout featuring snowflakes.  Specifically, how to make your own snowflakes using other punches.  I love using tools in unintended ways!

(I miss those chubby cheeks!)

Tutorials and detail pics can be found here at Fiskars.

winter table

When decorating for a season or holiday, I often forget about the table.  So I came up with some ideas to add lots of warm texture for winter here at Fiskars.