Days of the Week Baskets

So, Rob and I have been trying to eat at home more. We have been planning our meals and then swearing we eat them at home. I have been grouping everything in the pantry. Last weekend, it occurred to me that I needed a better way to do it so I could see what I had. Thus, the idea of the baskets was born. Eventually I want to add a bar and hang them up. But this works for now. 

The Finished Product:

What You Will Need:

• 7 Dollar Store Baskets
• Pretty paper
• Cricut, Pazzle, or pre-cut letters
• Laminating machine (optional)
• Hole Punch
• Ribbon

Let's Get Started:

1. First you need to cut out your tags. We used the Pazzle machine, but you can cut them by hand, with a Cricut cutter, or even use dye-cuts. Be creative!

2. My tags had two pieces, so I had to stick them together. Don't worry if your pieces curl, we are going to laminate them and that will flatten them.

3. Laminate tags. We have a laminating machine, but I have heard that there are cold-laminate kits out there that may be cheaper to get started with.

4. Punch holes in the tags and use ribbon to tie them to baskets. DONE.

Now I can bring my groceries home and throw them in the baskets for the days I need them on. On the day I want to make that, I can just grab the basket and I have all the non-refrigerated items! VOILA!

PS. Thanks to my mom for getting these baskets from the Dollar Store for me!

Fall Wreath

In keeping with my deep, deep, deep desire for Fall weather and the holidays, my mom and I attempted a project today that turned out quite well, in my opinion! This one makes me proud because we used mostly silk flowers that we already had around the house and we used our 50% of one item at Michael's to buy our wreaths, so this project cost about $28 for two 22" wreaths!

The Final Product:

What You Will Need:

• 1 Grapevine wreath in whatever size you like
• Silk flowers
• Optional: gourds and berries
• Ribbon
• Wire
• Wire cutters
• Hot glue gun

Let's Get Started:

1.  Take your silk flowers and cut them from the base using your wire cutters. 

2. Lay all the flowers out the same direction so that you can see what you have.

3. This is the point where you would want to either make a bow out of your ribbon, or attach a pre-made bow using floral wire. I am lucky because my mom made my bow!

4. Lay wreath flat on the table and start laying your foliage out so you can get a good idea of what you want, but do not glue yet.

5. Remove all the pieces, CAREFULLY laying them approximately where they would go around the outside of the wreath.

6. Now is the artistic part. You can use your wire cutters to cut off the pieces that you want to use and just go to town. Wherever you put a piece in, make sure to use enough hot glue so that it won't fall off, especially if it is going to be outside. 

7. Keep filling in until you reach your desire level of fullness. Tip: add gourds, berries, etc. in groups of 3.

8. Optional: I added a C for my last name using hot glue and twine to secure it to the wreath.

9. Hang on your front door and enjoy!

My mom's is on the left and mine is on the right.
VOILA!

Fall Vase

It's almost fall and I AM SO READY. Please excuse the Jaguars mug, it is ALSO football season. So, I saw a picture on Pinterest, and I wanted it. But, it didn't have any directions except use hot glue and twine. Well, the hot glue didn't work out so well for me. So, here's what I did, and it turned out pretty well.

The Finished Product:

What You Will Need:

• Dollar store vase
• Jute twine (dollar store find!)
• Glue Gun
• Elmers Glue
• Foam paint brush
• Silk flowers (also, dollar store, hurray!)

Let's Get Started:
 Caviat: We started with using hot glue and it didn't work so well. So, my mom came up with an idea!

1. Paint vase with a foam brush dipped in Elmer's Glue!

2. Slowly, and extremely patiently, wrap twine around jar. We worked from the bottom of our vases up to the top, and that worked really well.

3. When you get to the part of the vase where it starts to get narrow again, use hot glue to secure it. This part is time consuming, but it's definitely worth it so you don't have to go back and fill in the holes.
4. Arrange silk flowers in your vase. I DO NOT have the patience to arrange flowers, so my mom handled this part. Looks good, don't you think?

5. OPTIONAL: Tie ribbon around vase to make it more fall-ish.

VOILA!
I LOVE how fall-ish this looks. It totally satisfied my obsessive need for fall decorations. YAY

Fleur de Lis Picture Frames

So, I was looking for something to hang on two small walls that frame an opening into my kitchen. We bought a table and decorated it, but the walls made the project look unfinished. I tried SEVERAL things (that all failed) with four dollar store mirrors. Finally, with help from my mom, I settled on something that worked - and looks ADORABLE on my wall!

The Finished Product:

What You Will Need:

• As many dollar store frames as you want (they're only a dollar)
• Mod Podge
• Either a Xacto Knife, Cricut Machine, or something like it (We used the PAZZLE. It's fabulous)
• Scrapbook paper
• Spray Paint 
• Hot glue gun

Let's Get Started:

1. Separate frames from the cardboard backs.
2.  Lay frames face up on a piece of cardboard or whatever you don't mind paint getting on.
3. Spray frames with spray paint. Note: I didn't particularly care if the coverage was perfect, so I didn't prime it. But, if you care, prime first, then paint.

4. While the frames are drying, mod podge scrapbook paper to the cardboard insert of the frame.








5. Use the Pazzle or whatever tool you are using to cut out a pretty shape.

6. Mod Podge the shape to the center of the cardboard insert.

7. Hot glue the insert back into the frame.
8. Hang on wall.

VOILA! Super easy. Props to my mom for not letting my throw the mirrors away when my etching project went bad! These are even cuter than my original idea.

Hanging Bow Organizer

Remember the bows on alligator clips we made last week? Well, the ones my mom and I made are going to make their way into a 14 year old's posession. She obviously needs something to organize them on. So, we decided to give her that, too!

The Finished Product:

Here's What You Will Need:

• 1 Canvas of any size (we bought 5 for $20 at Michael's and we used a 25% off coupon. Cha Ching!)
• Approximately 1 yard of fabric in any color
• Approximately 1 yard of batting 
• A couple of yards of ribbon in any color or width that you are interested in
• Staple gun

Let's Get Going:

Disclaimer: we just kind of winged it on this one. There are no real measurements.

1. Lay fabric face down on a large flat surface.
2. Lay batting down on top of the fabric.
3. Lay canvas face down in the center of both the batting and the fabric.
4. Cut the batting and the fabric at the same time around the outside of the canvas, we left about 3.5 inches on all sides.

5. Pull the fabric and batting together tightly around the back of the canvas.
6. Use staple gun to secure fabric to the back of the frame. Note: on the corners we folded the fabric and batting together like a present to keep it from bulging on the front.

7. Optional: Trim fabric on the back if you are a perfectionist like my mom (no one sees the back, fyi.)
8. Where you put the ribbons is up to you, we chose to put them long ways and make the canvas portrait style. You can do it however you want. Either way, secure ribbon to the back of frame with staple gun.

9. Add your hair clips! VOILA!


This project took us about ten minutes from start to finish. We had fabric, batting, the ribbon, and the staple gun at home. If you don't have a staple gun at home, you could use small finishing nails and a hammer. Since we purchased 5 canvases for about $15 (after the discount), each canvas cost approximately $3.

PS. Thanks to my mom for modeling for all of my pictures!

Double Bow

My mom has always done my hair (everyone knows I love braids!) and made my hair accessories. For my first post, this is a great tutorial for something that is super quick and easy, and cheap (you don't really need to buy 8 colors of ribbon like we did).

THE FINISHED PRODUCT:

What you will need:

• 1 yard plus 2.5 inches of 1.5" grosgrain ribbon in whatever color suits you
• hair elastics (for ponytail ribbon)
• alligator clips (for clip in ribbon)
• fabric scissors (we use Fiskars)
• crafting wire
• fabric glue
• wire cutters
• glue gun

NOW THAT YOU HAVE EVERYTHING, LETS GET TO IT:

1. Cut 6" of wire and set aside.
2. Cut 2.5" of ribbon and set aside.
3. Take your yard of ribbon and fold it in half

4. While folded, slide wire through the fold and twist wire tightly around ribbon (still folded)

5. Open ribbon and lay flat with wire facing up.
6. Fold one side of the ribbon in so that the loop is approximately 2.5"

7. Fold it back towards the center with the same size loop remaining. You should have two loops now.

8. Repeat this process with other half of the ribbon. You should have four loops now and leftover ends. DON'T CUT THEM. We will make them pretty later!

9. The wire should be behind the ribbon. Wrap wire around the WHOLE thing tightly. Twist wire to make secure. Add a drop of hot glue to secure end of wire. Set the bow aside for now.

10. Pick up your small ribbon. 
11. Fold ribbon into thirds the long way, putting a line of hot glue inside each fold to secure.

12. Place a drop of hot glue on back of bow and secure one end of small ribbon perpendicular to the bow.
13. Cut approximately 3" of wire.
14. Wrap small ribbon tightly around the bow. Place wire on bow and hot glue the end of the small ribbon onto the wire. Hold firmly until glue dries.

15. Feed wire through the alligator clip and twist to secure. We add a drop of hot glue to keep the bow from wiggling on the clip!
16. To finish the bow, fold the end of the excess ribbon in half and cut on an angle

.
17. For nice neat ribbon that doesn't fray, my mom uses a lighter to very quickly singe the ends. It is important that it is done quickly and carefully so that we don't have any fires or burn marks!!

18. VOILA! Pretty ribbon on a clip.

note: for a bow on a ribbon, go back to step 12 and instead of adding wire before you glue the small ribbon down, add a hair tie. EASY.

We made two ribbons in 20 minutes, and we were making it up as we went. This is an EASY project. Happy bow-heading!

Sneaky Peaky

THESE ARE THE INGREDIENTS FOR MY FIRST DIY PROJECT!

You can view the actual results tomorrow!