Ugly Christmas Sweater DIY

I wrote this post as part of a paid campaign with I Love to Create and Blueprint Social. The opinions in this post are my own.

For the past few years I have been invited to a couple of Ugly Sweater Christmas Parties. And each year I am always scrambling to find a sweater. I would go to Goodwill, thinking they should have something, but surprisingly they don't have very many. A worker at Goodwill mentioned that ugly sweater parties were becoming quite popular, so they usually sell out of ugly sweaters fast.  This year I will be prepared.  I was sent a kit of sparkles and glitter to decorate my own ugly sweater. This is how I made my ugly sweater, hopefully it will give you some holiday inspiration.

The materials I used for this ugly sweater were as follows:

1 sweater 

1 old child's onesie (optional)

1 set of red poinsettias

Tulip iron-on transfers

Tulip Glitter Dimensional Fabric Paint

Tulip Fashion Glitter

Tulip Fashion Glitter Bond

Aleene's Tacky Glue

The sweater started off pretty ugly itself.  The yarn was mixed rainbow color.  To ornament it and make it even tackier I decided to put fake pointsettias on the sweater.  I put extra glitter on the poinsettia leaves using Tulip Fashion Glitter and Fashion Glitter bond.

To attach the poinsettias onto the sweater I used the existing wire that was on the flowers, but I also secured it with Aleene's tacky glue (seriously the best glue ever, I use it for everything).

I had an old onesie that I cut up to use the snowmen for the sleeves.

To attach the snowmen I used the Aleenes Fabric Glue and the Glitter Dimensional Fabric Paint to make borders. 

Using the iron on glitter paper I cut out Christmas trees.  To cut a perfect tree you first fold the glitter paper in half and cut a triangle.  Then you cut the indentations of the tree.  

Iron on the trees and viola Ugly Christmas Sweater complete.  The possibilities are just endless with the materials from LoveToCreate.

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How to Update Jewelry and Choose Outfits for a Family Photo

This weekend we took family portraits.  Planning outfits for pictures are always tricky, there seems to be so many rules.  I've read no sleeveless, no patterns, don't show too much skin etc.  Some of these rules make sense, some not so much.  I came up with my own guidelines in picking out outfits for family pictures.  

First off do not match the entire family.  You want everyone to coordinate but not match (ie no white turtlenecks and khakis for the entire family).

This photo is from awakardfamilyphotos.com.  The caption reads "the family that caters together stays together".  

Below is one of my favorite pictures for clothing coordination (I also really like the photo pose):

Photo Credit: Laci Davis Photography, from site itsoverflowing.com

To pick outfits here some of my tips.  

Start with a color scheme.  One way to do this is find one outfit that you love and work off of that. For our portraits, I found a blue and maroon ikat dress that I was going to wear. 

Coordinate the other outfits (not match them). For my girls I coordinated with pink dresses with maroon accents, and for the boys I bought blue with khakis.  To tie in the girls and the boys outfit's I made maroon bow ties for the boys.  The key to having a consistent outfit is to have a accessories that tie the outfits together.

Here are the outfits that I picked out for the kids (sorry for the bad picture, I was in a rush to pull everything together).

Notice that the girls outfits coordinate, but are not exactly the same.  The boys outfits are exactly the same because they are twins, but if they were not twins I would have probably mixed up the shirts a little to have more variety in the photos.

Accessorize with matching colors. To pull everything together you can using accessories that match, maybe a scarf, bow tie, necklace headband, jewelry or shoes. My dress had a mixture of maroon and blue.  To tie in the pink of the girls dresses I wanted pink jewelry to coordinate.  I didn't own any jewelry that had touches of pink on it so decided to revamp one of my old necklaces.  

This necklace was purchased off Ebay for only two dollars (new, seller from China).   I liked the color, but decided that I could part with this necklace, so I decided to paint it with nail polish.  NOTE: do not do this with jewelry that you love, it produces decent results for photos, but it is not perfect. Especially if you do not have a steady hand for painting.

I painted the necklace with two coats of polish and a top clear coat to protect and maintain the shine.

A couple of other but not mandatory tips for picking outfits are:

Buy outfits at the same store.  This is not a absolutely necessary, but if you are on a time crunch and don't have time to shop, it's easier to buy all the clothes (at least all the kids clothes) at the same store like Gap, Old Navy, Target, Carters.  These stores usually come out with outfits all in the same color palette and pattern but different cuts and styles, which makes shopping a breeze.

If not shopping at the same store, bring the outfits to the store you will be shopping at.  This will save you time and extra return trips.  You may think that pink is pink, but with store lighting you never know if a dress is the same color as the other one you choose.  It's just easier to bring the clothes you need to match to the store.

I can't wait to show you my final family pictures so you can see how the outfits all tied together!
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