happy new home(owners!) gift

My sister and brother-in-law just bought a house and it tore my heart out that we weren’t there to share in the excitement and help them move. I wanted to send something small to them that would arrive on move in day.

I grabbed a container at Michael’s, that was a few bucks with a coupon. It looks like a paint can and I purposely bought this one because it can be re-used as great storage.

I then grabbed a few things at Home Goods: a dish towel, candle, hand soap and then picked up some Gobstoppers (her addiction) and a few vodka nips so they could make a few drinks upon their move in! The scrubby thing wouldn’t fit in the bucket so I just kept it for us.

I stuffed the bucket with some of that shredded paper and filled it with the goods. Now, if I was local and not needing to ship this I would have added other things and probably made it a lot bigger. But I didn’t want to make it so heavy that it cost me 50 bucks to ship, so just a few things. And really, the bigger joy is getting mail at your new house. Right?!

diy custom name art with photographs

Name art are all the rage right now and really I don’t mind it. I think they’re cute, artistic, abstract and can be really cool depending on the chosen art. You know what I’m talking about, right? The artwork you can buy that spells out a name in photographs of found letters in everyday life.

Well my sister and her husband wanted to use exactly that as their guest book at their wedding. I know, I’m still talking about their wedding nearly eight months later. But I love them and I loved their wedding and I loved being able to help plan it. They put me on the job and I’d have to say that I think their name came out pretty good.

I want to share with you guys how easy it is to create this on your own instead of paying top dollar to buy it. For months and months before hand I was sure to bring my camera with me on outings just in case I ran into “letters.” You find them in strange places! Once I had all the photos I created a word document. Yes, no special software or program, a simple word document. I edited each photograph first using iPhoto on my Mac, but another option is the free photo editing site PicMonkey. Once I cropped and edited the colors to make sure all the blacks, whites and grays were alike I think simply opened my word doc, set the page to the size we wanted the final print to be and dragged in each letter.

I put each letter into the doc and then sized each one to be the exact same and lined them up in order. Using the options in Word I created a border around all the letters. Then using a text box I added their names and wedding date.  If you place the text box over the border lines it’ll cover the line and make it disappear. Adjust the text box to whatever size you want.

Done! It was complete, very simple. We had it printed at Staples on one of their fancy printers in the size of our choice. I think it cost us around $15. So between that and the frame it was a whole lot cheaper than custom ordering the same thing.

We framed it up and they used it as their guest book at the wedding and had everyone sign it and write notes around it. This is totally where my mom would be all like “Wait, Lindsey you spelled it wrong.” And I would flip a lid and she’d be all, “Just kidding!” Yeah, she still does that and it still gets me every time.

I’m bummed that I don’t have a photo of the final result, with all the notes around it, but it looked really cool and it was a great alternative to a guest book. Something you can actually hang and read every time you walk by it hanging in your house.

Did you guys do anything other than a traditional guest book at your own wedding?

P.S. I didn’t do a great job of showing how I made this because I did it so long ago and didn’t take screenshots. However, if it’s something you’re interested in please feel free to reach out to me and I’m happy to work with you to help create a similar project!

diy embellished kitchen towels

I have to say I’m super proud of this project. Though they didn’t come out perfect – very few things do, but I’m totally cool with that (!) – it was the first time that I completed a sewing project without the following happening:

1. my sewing machine jamming

2. me screaming and stomping like a child after said sewing machine jams

3.  giving up completely on the entire project or resorting to using heat bond tape

So, I’d say it was a success in my book. I wanted to add a small touch to some ordinary dish towels. I grabbed some plain white ones at Target, I believe they were $3.99 for a four pack and then a two pack at Wal-Mart for $3.00. I picked up a small strip of fabric for just a couple bucks – I bought 1/8 of a yard and I had some left over after making 4 dish towels. Not bad!

First, I washed both the dish towels and the fabric. I didn’t want either or them to shrink and get all funky (technical term there) or the colors to run the first time they were washed. I also ironed them both after washing.

There was no science to this project at all. I cut up the fabric and placed it where I liked it best. On some I added the strip of fabric in the middle, some I added it to the bottom. I turned the fabric wrong side up, right side down, however you look at it, and ironed about 1/2 inch of each side so that there were 4 straight sides and no frays flying about.

I pinned it to the dish towel and sewed it up. I will admit that some of my lines are not straight and there are some hems that may be double the size of others, BUT HEY, I did it, I was proud and I avoided 1 through 3 above. I think the recipients are going to like them too! At least I hope so, don’t tell me otherwise because you’re probably both reading this right now…

Are you guys making anything good? Any fun DIY holiday gifts??

diy scrapbook page templates

This was a really fun gift to make and it was actually quite simple. And, with coupons it was very reasonably priced at just under $12. I made a scrapbook full of page templates so that the photos can be easily added afterwards.

I bought a small scrapbook, stickers, die cuts and construction paper.

I pulled out the color paper I wanted to use and cut them to fit the pages of the book.

Then, I simply had fun arranging and re-arranging each page until deciding on the final design.

At the end of the book was a slot for a photo CD. In there I stuck all the extra stickers and die cuts in case more are wanted to be added later. They all fit perfectly.

I wanted to keep each page simple, not too busy, so that after the fact the main focus is the photos.

We added a note in the front, but that will eventually be replaced with a photo.

I love it and this was really fun. A great gift for all ages!

simple diy monogrammed bag

I wanted to give my team mates at work a little something for the holidays. Nothing huge, just a small “hey thanks I appreciate all you’ve done for me” gift.

I decided to grab these adorable bags at TJ Maxx for them. But, I wanted to added something personalized to them.

I cut out twine into their first initials and hot glued it to the bag. I did slide a piece of cardboard into the bag just in case the hot glue ran through. It didn’t, but better safe than sorry.

After it dried I used cream-colored yarn and the largest sewing needle I had. I knotted the end of the yarn and simply hand sewed over the piece of twine. It was so simple.

I really loved the way they had turned out and wished I had made more of these for others!

It was an inexpensive, but meaningful and personalized gift. I’m happy to report that they both loved them!

diy covered notebook

I wanted to make a few of these notebooks for gifts this year. However, though incredibly cute, it was so time-consuming to make, so if I was going to make seven of them I would have need to started weeks ago. So instead, I just finished up this one for myself. And, to be honest, if I was only making one or two I wouldn’t have minded the time commitment, but seven was too many.

I started with a five-star brand, small notebook. The one I used had the plastic material for the front and back. I do think this would have worked better with a notebook that had a cardboard front and back. Hey, DIY is all about trial and error, right?

So, I gathered my supplies: 1 notebook, mod podge, scrapbooking paper, paint brushes, scissors.

I first cut a strip of paper to fit the front side. I decided not to cover the black binding because I liked the look of it. I cut the strip of paper a tad longer than the actual cover. I painted a thin layer of mod podge on both the notebook cover and the back of the paper. I then “wrapped” the cover, folding over the extra. I didn’t glue the inside of the front cover, I let the glue that was already on the paper do its thing.

I pressed really hard on the paper to get all the air bubbles out, then I set it to dry for a few hours. After it was completely dry I glued a piece of card stock on the inside of the front cover to cover up the edges of the paper. Does that make sense? I hope so because I forgot to take a photo of that part.

Once it was completely dry (don’t rush the drying stage, be patient) I added a cute Martha Stewart label (found at Staples, they’re my favorite, she knows nothing about me I just like her products) and drew the letter “L” to personalize my notebook.

I was happy with the way it turned out and since I always have a notebook in my bag with me this will be great once the one I’m using is through. Like I said, a bit time-consuming, but a cute way to personalize an inexpensive notebook. The notebook itself was $1.98 and I had all the other supplies. If you needed to buy all the supplies it would be a bit more. Not bad though!

budget friendly gift giving: pampering in a jar

This year we’re all about budget friendly giving and homemade gifts. We’ve been hit with some pretty hefty medical bills lately so other spending has taken a back seat. Isn’t it amazing how all the bills come in right before the holidays? UGH!

Anyway, I’ve been thinking more creatively this year about gifts that could make someone smile but don’t break the bank and are easy to ship! I also love mason jars. Enter: gifts in jars.

The first one I made, and I made a few of them, was pampering in a jar. It was super easy, total cost was about $6-7 each – I shopped sales and used coupons and also had some items in my stock pile already – and they’re small and easy to ship. Here’s what I included in the jar:

I had hand cream (2 kinds), lip balm, nail file and buffer, nail polish, polish remover and fuzzy socks.

I shoved it all in the jar, literally shoved. It was a tight squeeze. I used a muffin tin liner to cover the top and tied it with a ribbon. Lastly, I put a small label on the top. That’s all and it’s ready to ship!

I’m not saying who’s getting one of these, but I hope it brightens their day when they get it. Just something small to say I’m thinking of you at the holidays.

The other jar I made was Energy in a Jar and it included beef jerky, protein bars, 5 hour energy, nuts and seeds. Not saying who that’s for either!

What are you guys making or gifting this year for small gifts?

wedding shower kitchen themed “cake”

 I apologize in advance for the horrific quality of these cell phone pictures. I forgot my camera when I went to Kaitlin’s for craft night…

You know those diaper cakes that are really popular? Well you can really take anything and make it into a “cake” as long as you have a decent base. My friend Kaitlin and I created a kitchen themed cake for a recent wedding shower we attended. We used all items from the wedding registry and then picked up a cake stand to carry it on.

We used dish towels, a table runner, measuring cups, measuring spoons, serving spoons and spatulas. Kaitlin had this piece of styrofoam that had a circle cut out of the middle. We used that and just rounded the corners of it to make the entire thing a circle (it was a square).

We then wrapped it with one of the dish towels and pinned it with sewing pins in the back to hold it in place. We rolled up the long table runner, put a rubber band around it and wedged it into the styrofoam hole.

We then just made it up as we went along. We rolled the rest of the dish towels and rested them on the styrofoam to make the second “layer” in the cake. At this point we had three layers, the bottom covered in a dish towel, the middle with rolled dish towels and the top which was the table runner.

After we had the layers together we sporadically placed the other items. We added a few ribbons, some seashells and starfish and a giant diamond ring at the top.

It was adorable. And I will say we were totally proud of ourselves because we had no clue how this thing was going to end up.

Definitely adds a fun twist to a gift!

how to wrap a gift card

I received the most adorable invitation for my friend Heather’s bridal shower.

I loved the back of it so much that I just couldn’t toss it. So instead I recycled it into a gift card holder for my other friend, Alison’s, wedding gift.

It was quite simple, yet at the same time I have no clue how to explain what I did. I just started folding and cutting and gluing.

I used the piece that I cut off to make a little pocket so the gift card could sit right in it. I glued the cut piece onto the larger piece, only gluing the bottom edge and slid the card right in.

I tied it with some twine to give it an added rustic look and popped it in the wedding card. So much cuter than just sticking the gift card in their wedding card. And even with the thick twine it fit just fine. Have you guys been working on anything these days? I unexpectedly had most of the week off last week so I took advantage of it and disconnected for a while. Hope your summer is off to a great start!

a benjamin holiday

I read this amazing book over the holidays that I wanted to share with you guys. It’s called “Hundred Dollar Holiday” by Bill McKibben, and it definitely changed how I look at Christmas.

It’s provides a lot of great detail on the history of Christmas and how St. Nick turned into the jolly guy who brings presents. It focuses on the concept of a hundred-dollar holiday. Literally. Only spend $100 on all the holiday gifts you have to get. Whether you buy 3 gifts or 30. It’s about creativity, thought, DIY projects, etc. It changed my life and the way I think about the holidays.

We, as a society, spend soooo much money during the holiday season and there are so many other ways to show appreciation for others than dollar signs. I totally encourage you all to read it. Even today, well after the holidays are over. It’s still a fabulous book. And even if you enjoy spending lots on gifts for people, or have lots to spend, you should still read it because it’s just a great book overall!