diy — pleasure in simple things

Tag: diy

pink, white & gold baby shower

May

I promised to give a few decorating ideas for a pink, white, and gold baby shower. You know I love a theme – so, I took pink, white, and gold; added a few polka dots and created some fun ways to decorate!

Finding a pink beverage is certainly not a problem. There are plenty of options including pink lemonade, rose, sangria, or punch. Some easy favors? No problem!

The votives shown here are really easy to create – adding a candle is a nice touch.

A small plant (these are English daisies) wrapped in a coordinating tissue paper, square of fabric, or burlap is also a nice option, or…

A theme colored candy in a cute container. :)

For my shower, I made state shaped sugar cookies (and gift tag), because I was recognizing the hometowns of the families of the soon-to-be parents. Change it up to suit your own shower. Take your cues from the way the nursery is decorated or from the registry. For instance, if the nursery is decorated with a jungle theme, make animal shaped cookies. If the registry shows a crib sheet in a heart motif, make heart shaped cookies, etc.

Of course, the gift has to also be right on theme! I chose a baby outfit and wrapping to coordinate with the theme and also made a gift. I painted a personalized canvas for the baby’s room. You can get the DIY by clicking here.

If you don’t know the baby’s name in advance, leave the heart blank to add later, or paint in the word ‘love.’

I hope I have jumpstarted ideas for your own pink, white, and gold shower!

Thanks for stopping by! Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Sharing with Crafts a la Mode, House of Hipsters, Nancherrow, The Shabby Nest, and Craftberry Bush.

2 comments » | diy, food & festivities, inspiration

flip flop messages in the sand

May

For today’s Friday field trip, I am taking you to the beach.

Why? Not that I really need a reason to go to the beach – but, today we are going to test out my message flip flops.

It is a very simple concept. I attach letters to the bottom of some flip flops, so a message will be imprinted in the sand as I walk across the beach.

At least I thought it was a simple concept! I quickly found a major flaw in my execution! I forgot I would need to flip the letters when I attached them to the flip flop! That is the reason ‘love’ is backwards!

Other than that, it worked like a charm! If you want to replicate this, just glue some letters to the bottom of an old or inexpensive pair of flip flops. You will want to create a depth of ¼’ with the letters to make a nice imprint. I used a foam letter, but really any material will work. You may be able to find wooden letters at the craft store. If the letters are thin, just keep adding layers until they reach a ¼” thickness. They can even be crafted out of cardboard if you prefer not to purchase pre-cut letters or symbols.

There are many applications for this ….I think it would work really great for a prom proposal…a walk at sunset on the beach when ‘prom?’ magically appears written in the sand…cool, right?

I know. We are not all going to prom – no matter how much we wish we were! Maybe instead, come up with some ‘mom’ messages to use on your beach walk this weekend? Just remember to flip the letters before you glue them!

Have fun with it! Thanks for stopping by!

Have a wonderful weekend and remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Sharing at Sand & Sisal, Coastal Charm, and The Shabby Nest.

Comments Off on flip flop messages in the sand | diy, inspiration, sand & sea

diy decorative file folders

April

Something about my sense of aesthetics makes it really hard for me to use manila file folders in the office. And, keeping them in plain view is irritating!

It would really make my work life more pleasant if I could keep a dozen or so file folders handy on my desk for current projects. So, I set out to find some pretty file folders to replace my manila eyesores!

After shopping around in stores and online, I was shocked to find out that any cute looking folders would cost me $15 for a package of 6! How could they be $15? A box of 100 plain manila folders cost $7.95!

The solution, of course, was to make some myself. I would simply cover some of the inexpensive plain ones I already owned. And, with Earth Day on my mind, (it is tomorrow – April 22nd) reusing something to decorate the folders seemed an appropriate and earth-friendly solution!

I would transform the inexpensive, manila folders at no cost by reusing something I found visually appealing. Right away I thought of my favorite item to recycle – Terrain shopping bags! Perfect!

There are plenty of attractive options for reusing that can substitute for Terrain shopping bags if you don’t have a Terrain store near you – here are a few ideas:

• Sheet music
• Old maps/nautical maps
• Newspaper from a significant date or a foreign newspaper (if you use newspapers, you will need to cover them with a clear laminate paper to prevent the newsprint from making a mess!)
• Pages from unwanted books or magazines (library book sales are great for this!)
• Wrapping paper (when you get a gift with great paper, don’t you always save it?)

If all else fails, and you have no paper you can recycle, pick up some decorative paper at a paper or craft store. I love Paper Source for finding great decorative papers. (The feather motif paper shown here came from Paper Source.)

Attaching a decorative paper to the manila folders is pretty easy. Be sure to have one straight edge. Then, apply spray adhesive to the front of the folder – masking off all surrounding areas from overspray. Use that straight edge to line up your paper on the folded edge of the front of the folder – good side of the decorative paper facing out – smoothing the paper flat. Trim excess paper with a craft knife or scissors.

I adhered the decorative covering to the front of the folder – the part I see – but, I also wanted the visible part of the tab covered. I decided to use chalkboard Contact paper for the covering on the tab. This way, I could easily update the information on the tabs. Since I will be using these folders on my desktop for current projects, the chalkboard tabs will make for easy updating!

I cut 12” x 2” strips of chalkboard Contact paper for this purpose and adhered them to the inside tab section of the folder, smoothing the paper to eliminate air bubbles. Then, I trimmed the excess with a craft knife.

Cute file folders? Check! Sigh…so much better! :)

Happy Earth Day! Other fun Earth Day projects:
Items to make from Terrain bags, click here.
Instructions to make decorative pencils from tissue paper, click here.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Sharing with Sand & Sisal and Elizabeth & Co.

Comments Off on diy decorative file folders | diy, inspiration, style

personalized baby canvas diy

April

I have a baby shower coming up and I really wanted my gift to be a personalized one. Because the baby’s name was already chosen and is a unique one, I knew it would not be possible to find anything premade with a personalization of her name.

So, I found out the colors of the baby’s room and came up with my own gift that includes a personalization. I painted a canvas to coordinate with the baby’s pink, white, and gold room and it includes her name!

Isn’t this a sweet gift?

If you want to try your hand at making one, here are the steps I took to create the canvas:

-Paint the entire canvas (18” square) with an off white acrylic paint.
-Divide the canvas into an odd number of evenly spaced horizontal stripes.
-Cut a heart shape (mine was approximately 12”) from paper and use a couple pieces of rolled tape to hold it in place – this will mask out the heart shape that you will later paint pink.

-Use painter’s tape to mask off the areas for painting the gold stripes.
-Paint alternate stripes in metallic gold – starting and ending with gold -paint right over the paper heart, but be sure to keep it flat and not to let paint seep under it.
-After the gold paint dries, use a pencil to very lightly trace the outline of the paper heart onto the canvas.

(Note: If you don’t feel comfortable hand painting the baby’s name in the heart, you can use stick-on letters at this point by positioning them in the heart shape and removing them carefully with a craft knife after the pink paint dries. Or, you can stencil white letters on top of the pink paint after it dries.)

-Remove the paper heart and use a brush to fill in the heart shape with light pink acrylic paint.

-After the pink paint dries, use a pencil to lightly write the baby’s name inside the heart.
-Using the pencil marks as a guide, paint the baby’s name with white paint.

After everything was dry, I went back and did a final touch-up on anything that may have needed it.

Then, I added my own lasting sentiment for the soon-to-be-born baby! :)

I am really excited about the gift! I will share more pink, white, and gold baby shower ideas in an upcoming post! And, maybe even a photo of the canvas in Leverette’s nursery! ;)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Sharing at Craftberry Bush, Sand & Sisal, Elizabeth & Co., and Coastal Charm.

2 comments » | diy, gift ideas, inspiration

state gift tags

March

Today I am sharing an idea for a gift tag – one that is in the shape of a state. Come spend Friday field trip in my craft room!

I wanted to come up with a state gift tag design so that I could create two states and use them together on a gift for a baby shower. An upcoming shower is being held in Connecticut by the baby’s future aunt for a soon-to-be mom that lives in Florida. I thought state gift tags would be a great way to acknowledge both states on the gift I am bringing to the shower.

The tags were really easy to create. First, I found a website that had outlines of every state. I saved the photos of the two states I wanted– Connecticut and Florida – to my computer. After printing them out, I cut the shape of each state to use as a template for my tags.

The color theme for my gift is white, gold, and pink and I decided kraft paper would go great with the look. So, I glued brown kraft paper onto some cardboard, traced the shape of the two states, and carefully cut each one out. To go with the theme, I painted the back of each tag pink using acrylic craft paint.To add some gold to the mix (carefully following the instructions), I added some gold leaf to the areas of each state that marked the hometowns of the two families, protecting my table with wax paper. Of course, if you make these, you may rather add a dot, star, or heart to mark a specific city/town within each state. Or, you may want to use a different color – one that coordinates with your own gift wrap color theme. This idea is also easily adapted to a wedding gift.

Lastly, I used a paper hole punch to put a hole in each tag and I tied the two tags together with a gold cord. After the gold leaf adhesive was completely dry – I was done!

I can’t wait to show you the gift I made! But, I can’t share that until after the shower!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Sharing at Coastal Charm, House of Hipsters, Nancherrow, Thoughts from Alice, and Craftberry Bush.

5 comments » | diy, gift ideas, inspiration

easter fortune eggs

March

Today I am sharing a really quick and fun Easter takeaway idea.

For this project, I used plastic, fillable Easter eggs. It is so very uncharacteristic of me to use these brightly colored eggs! And, I have to admit, it was very hard for me to resist transforming the plastic eggs by painting them in neutral hues and adding speckles!

With that said, I decided to use the eggs I had on hand to create some ‘fortune eggs.’

I filled each egg with a mini version of my favorite Easter treat – the Cadbury crème egg (they are so cute!) – in addition to a favorite quote. These small eggs don’t fit much more. I was able to squeeze in two additional little candies inside each egg.

You may wish to use a bible quote or fortune in place of the quote. If you are creating this for a family party, you may want to write up some favorite family memories to include in the eggs.

These ‘fortune eggs’ are great when you are beyond the Easter egg hunt stage. It is the perfect opportunity to provide your friends and/or family with a little treat to celebrate Easter! So fun!

I hope I have inspired you to come up with your own version of ‘fortune eggs!’

Thanks for stopping by! Remember to find pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Sharing with Craftberry Bush, Sand & Sisal, Coastal Charm, and Crafts a la Mode.

Comments Off on easter fortune eggs | diy, holiday, inspiration

egg tea infuser diy

March

I am a sucker for a cute tea infuser. I have seen so many great ones…sometimes they are just too hard to resist buying! Have you seen the one that looks like the Titanic? The problem is – these store bought tea diffusers, though cute, never hold enough tea for my taste. So, today for Friday field trip, I am taking you into my kitchen to show you a quick and easy homemade tea infuser.

Not only is it cute and seasonal, but it holds plenty of tea! First, purchase some small plastic eggs – the kind that are used to fill with treats. There are plenty of them around at this time of year! I found a bag of 12 assorted colors at Target for less than $2. I figure if they are food safe to put candy inside, they must be safe enough for tea! (And, since I don’t even bring my tea water to a boil, I don’t think the plastic will be in danger of melting lol!)

Now just (carefully) use a power drill to make some holes in the egg. That’s it! Determine which size drill bit to use based on the tea you normally use. You obviously don’t want the holes so big that all the tea slips through.

Now you have a reusable infuser!

And, they also make for a great gift paired with a pretty mug for your favorite tea drinker!

We are expecting four inches of snow today…I may need an extra cup of tea or two! ;)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful weekend welcoming the new season! xo Jackie

Sharing at House of Hipsters, Nancherrow, and Love of Home.

3 comments » | diy, food & festivities, gift ideas

anthro inspired leather tassel necklace

March

Tassels are definitely cool. I have made them from paper or yarn, never really thinking about substituting these materials for leather – until now. I happened to notice a leather tassel necklace on display at Anthropologie and that sparked my desire to make my own leather tassel and create a necklace.

I have a whole box of scrap leather in my basement that came from the dumpster of a factory that manufactures some very famous (and expensive) handbags. After seeing the leather tassel necklace, I knew I needed to use some of that scrap leather to make my own tassel!

My inspiration to create a leather tassel necklace. On the left is a photo from the Anthropologie website. On the right is an Anthropologie in-store display.

A leather tassel is so easy to make and only requires a small piece of leather and some scissors or knife! I was surprised at how easy it is to get really great results. Basically, I just cut a rectangle piece of leather, cut fringe, added a loop for hanging, and glued (I used Gorilla glue) and rolled the piece of leather. Measuring is not even required. I made mine pretty much by eye, although I did measure the width of the pieces of fringe (1/4”) since I wanted to be sure they were consistent.

To turn my tassel into a necklace, the only supply I would need? A chain. I decided I would purchase the chain and just hoped to find a reasonably priced one. Guess what? I found the perfect chain (40” long – more than I needed) on clearance for $1.97 at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft store! At this price, I decided I would make two necklaces and I picked out and purchased two chains. I could make each leather tassel necklace for under $2.00! The one I saw at Anthropologie was $78! Plus, I would like mine better because I could eliminate the shiny gold metal piece I didn’t really care for on the Anthro necklace.

I used a rectangle of green textured leather for my first tassel and I cut a separate small piece of leather to fashion a loop for hanging. I used black leather for the second tassel I made and created the loop by folding up and gluing the end piece of fringe. The black leather was much heavier than the green, and I found this method for creating a loop worked better with the heavier leather.

I got a little adventurous creating the black tassel – I glued pink felt on one side before I cut the fringe so that hints of pink would show on the completed tassel. Love it!

Didn’t they come out great?

If you want to make some tassels and don’t have a scrap box of leather, think about using leather from handbags you were planning on discarding or from handbags from the thrift store. Give it a try! I am making more tassels – and, I have plans that go beyond necklaces! ;)

Thanks for stopping by! Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Sharing with Craftberry Bush, Thoughts from Alice, House of Hipsters, Sand & Sisal, and Elizabeth & Co.

7 comments » | diy, inspiration, style

driftwood trinket dish diy

February

I will let you in on a little secret. Well, I don’t know if it is actually a secret since I am sure many others have discovered this wonderful little tidbit. Are you ready?

IKEA sells a 6” x 6” candle tray for $3.99. It is a beautifully simple, white ceramic square tray and has four protective rubber feet on the bottom. Why is this a wonderful tidbit?

This candle tray makes the best trinket dish ever! At only $3.99, it is perfect to create a beautiful – yet quick, easy and inexpensive – trinket dish!

As a decorative addition to my dish, I chose an interesting piece of driftwood, approximately 4” long, from my collection of driftwood pieces. Because of the porous nature of the driftwood, I chose to use caulk as an adhesive to mount the driftwood to the tray. If you use a decorative addition made of a different material, be sure to consider the item you are adding when choosing a glue. For the most part, E6000 glue or Gorilla glue is probably the best choice of adhesive. (Be sure to follow directions carefully.)

Why driftwood? I have something of a collection of trinket dishes with a nautical theme and a piece of driftwood coordinates great with my bedroom décor. I love the simple white dish with an interesting (aren’t they all?) piece of driftwood from my favorite beach!

The driftwood can easily be substituted for something that coordinates with your décor or the décor of the recipient – if the dish is a gift. You can pretty much add any embellishment that hits your fancy…just glue it down with good, strong glue and you are good to go!

I have made so many different variations of this trinket dish! Ideas include spray painted animals or figures, cars (think Father’s Day), or natural elements. If you are stumped, shoot me an email and I will help with ideas! Have fun with it!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Sharing at Sand & Sisal, Shabby Nest, House of Hipsters, Nancherrow, and Thoughts from Alice.

1 comment » | diy, gift ideas, sand & sea

love letter heart tags diy

February

For Friday field trip today, I am sharing one last Valentine’s Day idea before the weekend. These are really sweet, easy to make love letter tags made with hearts of dried lavender. I have been on a lavender kick lately – adding lavender to my shortbread cookies, making lavender heart shaped linen sachets, and now…using lavender on gift tags!

Just follow the easy steps pictured and you can have some romantic tags put together in no time flat! There are plenty of options for the ‘love letter’ part… you can use printed paper from the craft store, paper from an old book – an old poetry book is perfect – or, print something from your computer printer.

(1.) Cut a piece of cardstock to size and (2.) glue ‘love letter’ paper to the front of it. (3.) Draw a heart shaped bead of glue onto the front of the card. (4.) Sprinkle dried lavender over the glue and press lightly. ( 5.) Let dry before shaking off excess lavender. (6.) Trim the top corners of the cardstock and use a paper punch to add a hole. Add some twine or cord.