Not so boring Christmas wreath

Materials: Ikea SNÖVITA wreath, felt, scissors, glue

Description: I personalized the SNÖVITA wreath using stash of felt I had at home.

I made one with Saint Nicolausand another one with the 3 magic kings (a spanish tradition, on the 6th of January they come to every house and leave gifts and stuff).

It was a nice easy way to get a different Christmas wreath for less than 30$!

See more of the Christmas wreaths.

~ Julia, Zurich/Barcelona

Santa Claus lighting advent calendar

Materials: Dudero lamp

Description: My children love this lighting advent calendar, which returns every year.

Paint your Dudero standing lamp (cost around 10 euro) with simple water colour to red, and create a Santa Claus. Stick cotton beard on it, and put a red Santa Claus hat on the top. You can hang on small bags with sweets, number it 1-24.

Have good fun!

See more of the Dudero Santa Claus advent calendar.

~ Dekormama, Budapest, Hungary

Unexpected advent calendar

Materials: Expedit, Kraft paper, Scotch tape, red paper

Description: This is an advent calendar unexpected (25 days) we did in our agency for our audience/clients.

Find below the instructions to make it.

1- Buy an Expedit
2- Cut out squares of paper
3- Print and cut the figures
4- Stick figures
5- Arrange the gifts in boxes
6- Hang the squares with scotch tape
7- Play day by day


See video of the advent calendar.

~ Agence nu, Paris

Thanksgiving Centerpieces

Materials: Florera Fin 4-inch candles, Palitig Vase, Onska Ribbon, autumn leaves, and a hot glue gun

Description: This Thanksgiving, decorate your holiday table with a simple centerpiece made from IKEA products and leaves from your backyard!

1. Take 1 Palitig vase and wrap a length of beige Onska ribbon around it twice. Hot glue the ribbon onto the the vase just below where it widens.

2. Insert a single autumn leaf into the ribbon wrapped around the vase.

3. Place a Florera Fin candle in a fall color (purple, green or orange), and you're done!

See more of the Thanksgiving centerpiece.

~ Biscuitwheels

Let them eat cake!

Materials: Lampan Table Lamp, Tin Tray

Description: The IKEA Lampan shade is removable for bulb replacement, and the shape of the base resembles the pedestal of a cake stand. It just so happened that I needed a cake stand, or more specifically, a cupcake stand.

I began by disassembling and removing the electrical and lighting components. Next, I spray painted the base, shade, and food tray orange. Gorilla Glue was applied to secure the tray on top of the base. To add visual interest, and a layer for food safety, I cut a circle of scrapbook paper for the tray top. The shade found a new life as a vase - the perfect accompaniment to some Halloween cupcakes.

See more here.

~ Melissa, Austin, TX

Halloween costume - Toxic barrel of waste

Just a few more days before Halloween and if you're desperate for a costume, this is a quick and easy one from Rebecca.


"My oldest son's Halloween costume this year is an Ikea hack. He's going as a barrel of toxic waste. We made this from an Ikea Dimpa hamper. We cut head and arm holes, and painted it up."

Post Christmas hacks

Now that all the feasting is done, I have a couple of post Christmas hacks.

Christmas chalice
Tara says, "I made a Rattvik white wine glass into the Ye Olde Pimp Chalice! I used a Rattvik white wine glass, faux gold leaf, decoupaged images I made using digital collage of copyright-free clip art, resin and faux rhinestones to make this pimp chalice for my man for Christmas. I was my first attempt at doing any of these things on glass and my first use of resin at all and for the most part I'm really pleased with how it turned out! The inside of the bowl really does glow like movie special effects gold in the light! If I had to do it again, I'd use higher-quality rhinestones, though." 

See more of the chalice on craftster.

Digital Ribba photo frame
John from Australia shares with us his Ikea hack, put together as Christmas presents this year.

He says, "I decided to purchase two cheap 7" digital photo frames on sale from K-Mart for $30.00 AUD and mount them in Ribba frames.

The larger frame is the 30 cm x 40 cm Ribba ($20.00 AUD). Since the window cut out of the mat board that comes with the frame is larger than the LCD, I had to get a mat board cut to size with a window that matched the size of the frame, this cost me another $20.00 AUD. I simply removed the clear plastic frame from the digital photo frame before mounting the LCD inside the mat board. Total cost was $70.00 AUD.

The smaller frame is the 18 cm x 24 cm Ribba ($9.00 AUD). The window on the mat board was smaller than the LCD, so it was simply a matter of cutting out a larger window before mounting the LCD. Total cost was $39.00 AUD.

I apologise for the poor lighting in the photos. I don't have access to a digital camera at the moment so my iPhone had to suffice."

Last minute Christmas hacks

Kex gift tags
Sarah has a super easy and quick hack that is great for this gift-giving season.

She says, "After eating the Kex letter biscuits I decided to use the box for another purpose. The Kex package is great; a bright design and with a background of red cloth. After breaking the box down, simply trace a tag pattern on the package and cut them out. The last step is punching a hole at the top for the string to go through. The inside of the box is a neutral tan so it's ready to write on. Super easy!"



Sleeve Blanket from the Polarvide
Want to give some thing warm and fuzzy this Christmas? Tien's Sleeve Blanket may just make the cut.

Tien says, "Here's my $8 holiday gift that I'm giving a bunch of people this year. It's based off of the Slanket. It's really easy that even I, who cannot sew worth a crap, can make it. It's simple straight cuts and sews with little measuring (more eyeballing, really).

It just requires two $4 Polarvide blankets from Ikea and a sewing machine. You can use a larger $15 blanket like this one, but for double the price and little difference. Plus, the Polarvide has a nice decorative trim on the ends that makes it even more interesting and festive.

If they're good with sewing, there are many ways to personalize it - monograms, patches, case for the blanket, etc. You can also use ribbon trim to hide the middle line or even highlight it with a different color of fleece. If you're really wanting to put forth an effort, you can also sew pockets on the outside middle for stuff like tissues or remote controls. (I suggest pockets like a pullover hoodie so they can stick their hands in it.) Instead of buying extra material, simply cut off a small section from one end since the blankets are rather long, so no one is going to miss 8 inches off the bottom. I was just too lazy to make pockets.

I've made about 10 of them and so far, everyone's loved it. Oh, one last thing - you can actually get two gifts out of it, the blanket and a cool scarf. Just take the decorative edges that are leftover and sew them together (either back to back or connected).

Click here to download the pattern that I made."

Ho ho holidays at Ikea

I've always thought Ikea carries some of the most interesting holiday decor and items. This year, they deliver yet again. I've just had a quick browse of their holiday catalogue and it looks fabulous. Whether you want the ice maiden crisp white winter look or warm and cozy tingly feeling, they are all there.

Here are some I like.

And this last one that looks pretty much like one of our previous hacks. ;P

Browse Ikea's winter collection.

Make a Halloween lantern sans pumpkin

Some humor for the spooky season.

A Halloween lantern
Ben shares his Halloween lantern, made with one 8ml tube of cadmium orange Cotman water colour, one 17¾" Regolit paper lampshade and one Hemma lamp cord. Just an hour or two and out came Jack.

What do you think? Should he draw a Jack o'Lantern face onto it or just leave it as a harvest moon?

See more on Regolit Jack o'Lantern

Halloween must have: the Pumpor
Well, the next one, I won't call it a hack, more like a spoof. It's a flat-packed Ikea Halloween pumpkin, complete with Ikea name, nuts, bolts and confusing illustrated assembly instructions. Conrad, you made my day.

See more of Conrad's flat-packed pumpkin.

Related posts:
- Ikeaslyvania!

glamorized isig christmas ornaments

one more holiday hack before the big day hits us.

grace glams up the ikea isig ball ornaments with some glue and glitter. she also does the same with vintage ornaments.

see more christmas ornaments.

what are your favourite gifts from ikea?

was browsing ikea's winter collection and feeling a little warm-fuzzy-chestnut-roasting-rudolph-red-nosey, so i thought i'll pick out a few i like and get the ball rolling on a gift-ideas-exchange of sorts.

so what are your favourite things to give (and receive) from the big yellow and blue box? click on the comment link and share your gift ideas.

click to flip the online holiday brochure.

($1 s a fortune continues. with every soft toy you buy at ikea from now till dec 24, $1 goes to unicef's save the children education fund. )

hacks for the holidays

two little hacks to get us in the festive mood.

a polarvide santa suit
sabine from germany sent me this some time ago but i decided to keep it for the holidays. "for a christmas party, we made out of 2 red polarvide throws and a litte bit of plush, a santa claus costume. it was a cheap and fast way to have a costume."
see more of sabine's santa.

an ikea menorah

anna of forty-two roads makes a modern hanukkah menorah with an ikea candle holder.

just hammer some tacks into the center of the metal cups in the hallare candle holder to hold the candles upright. after placing in the candles, add some white rocks (florera) for stability.

see more of anna's hanukkah menorah.