Easy Carved Wood Art - DIY Gift Idea

If you follow me on Pinterest, you know that I can't get enough of Valentine's Day lately. Despite my fervor for all things pink and red, I've been meaning to incorporate some more design conscious items into our holiday decor. How about a rustic and neutral piece of Valentine art? 

This mock wood carving would be an incredible Valentine's Day gift for your special someone but also for the lovey-dovey newlyweds in your life.

Candy-Free Valentine - Cupid's Arrow Pencils

Does your child's school require candy free Valentines for the class exchange? If so, I've got just the DIY for you!

This DIY Arrow Valentine is pretty enough for you to claim the credit but easy enough for the kids to do. Enjoy!

Making A Memory - The Perfect Gift

Earlier this week, I shared our Memory Jar so it should be no surprise that we would want to *create* memories with people we care about. Joe and I have made a decision to give experiences rather than things when possible.

To give the impression of an actual gift, I wrapped a big box with a special note and a correlating gift card with tons of tissue paper.

Some ideas:
A zoo membership
A pottery class
A girl's night out
Painting with a Twist
A wine tour
A cooking class
A pre-planned date night
Sporting event tickets
Go-karting gift certificates

Our two favorite kids 'cashed in' on their presents this weekend. It was probably the best couple days that I've had in awhile. We had themed days for each of them and let me just say, my heart is full.

(Sidenote: During college I nannied full-time for the most delightful family. The two oldest children were in our wedding and I still make time to babysit whenever they ask.)

A Few of My Favorite Things - Christmas 2013

I miss Christmas so much already. I was raised in a Russian Orthodox home so I we got a 'second' Christmas on January 7th -- Little Christmas! Joe isn't totally in on it (so no presents or fancy family meal here), but at the very least, we keep the tree and all of the decorations up until then. Even after the Epiphany, I have some really fabulous reminders of this year's gaiety -- some of the most thoughtful gifts ever. 

Did you get any gifts that warmed you to the core? These are a few of my favorite things from Christmas 2013

This fantastic hedgehog planter from West Elm

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My ultimate beauty crush - the Clarisonic Mia2 in Amethyst from Sephora

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The very cutest owl salt and pepper shakers from West Elm

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Luscious shades of beauty from Essie's 2013 Holiday Gift Set at Target

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I cannot wait to get a full season out of these Nutcracker Ornaments from Land of Nod

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A top quality Krups panini press from Williams Sonoma

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The only stocking stuffers any girl needs: each and every single baby lips electro & dr. rescue medicated lip balm, care of Target

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A truly meaningful Japanese Daruma from KarmaLoop

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The most darling (and inexpensive!) flamingo scarf in the whole wide world, from ModCloth

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the perfect everyday initial bracelet, Alex and Ani of course!

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the prettiest pens you ever did see from your dear friend, Vera Bradley

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and one more present that I plan on using everyday - caramel ombre faux fur throw from PB

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Sometimes, you just gotta brag, right?

So, now I have to ask -- what were YOUR favorite gifts?? I've seen a lot of Silhouette cameos, fuzzy slippers, shiny stand mixers, fancy cameras, handmade goodies, gorgeous sweaters, and a whole lot more. 

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Family Rules Chalkboard Art - Free Print!

Hi ladies! Last month, I shared this Family Rules Print with the folks over at Sumo's Sweet Stuff. Summer is pretty fantastic in her own right, so hopefully you already follow her and saw this chalkboard goodness in September. If not, enjoy!

With the holidays right around the corner (yep, you heard me -- right.around.the.corner), imagine how precious of a gift this would be for the families from church, your favorite neighbors, or even your own extended family.  

Boo-Boo Buddy - Get Well Gift for Kids

Accidents happen. We all get hurt. It's the worse when it's one of the little ones though. Sending a heartfelt card is great, but kiddos (especially those too young to read) might not fully comprehend the gesture. Why not turn their unfortunate situation into one just a tad more tolerable with a little Boo-Boo Buddy to hug and some colorful flowers to brighten their sidetable. 

"All of Your Firsts" Wine Gift Basket (with tags!)

For my BFF's bridal shower, I wanted to give her something practical, unique, and full of personality. I can't claim this gift idea as my own, afterall, just browse Pinterest and you'll be amazed at the amount of results. Wine Basket Wedding Gift. Milestone Wine Basket. Basket of Firsts. Bridal Shower Wine Poem Basket. Whatever you call it, it's just plain awesome. I pulled most of my inspiration for this "All of Your Firsts" basket from My Chic Life and Amazing Bridal Showers. 

Teacher Appreciation Chalkboard Gift Tag Printable

Today is Teacher Appreciation Day! Take a look at these adorable Chalkboard Gift Tags that are perfect for expressing appreciation to your fave teachers. I realize it's a bit last minute but you still have time to surprise the teacher, so don't worry! Even if you miss the 'holiday' today, you'll soon want to come up with a nice thank you for the wonderful men and women who shaped your little ones over the past year.

The best teacher gifts are thoughtful, useful, and inexpensive. With these tags you have some easy gift options! Print out the image, cut 'em out, stop by Target for a cute mug, stuff it full of some goodies, and you're done. 

DIY Dog Silhouette Coasters

We adopted Quinn almost a year ago this week (May 4th) and she is such an important part of our lives. When a rep from her rescue approached me about making something for their online auction, I was only too glad to oblige. I tossed around a few doggy themed ideas (like my no-sew waterproof placemats) and finally settled on crafting up some unique coasters.

I wanted to appeal to a wide variety of dog lovers so rather than picking one breed, I went with a variety. Plus, Quinn is a bit of a mutt (Beagle & German Shepherd mix) so it only felt right to go that route in support of the other pups out there. The silhouettes I chose were: dachshund, Boston terrier, German shepherd, pug, beagle, and boxer.

Paper Source Knock-off: Watercolor Stripes Stationery

I came across these gorgeous watercolor letterpress cards at Paper Source a few weeks ago and kept going back to add them to my mental "must buy" list. I just couldn't justify $24.95 for SIX note cards. Instead I turned to the craft store and got a high quality letterpress cardstock set on clearance for $2.99 (enough for 12!) and made my own.

How to: Paper Bow + Free Template

A couple of weeks ago I shared a tutorial for crepe paper flowers and today you'll see another easy gift topper idea: a paper bow. I know how hard it can be to get a perfect bow with ribbon, but with paper, it's almost error-proof (and there is no fraying, yay!). Using my template, a sheet of your favorite scrapbook paper, a few dabs of glue and a sliver of tape, you will have the prettiest bow on the block.

Paper Flower Gift Topper Tutorial

There are a ton of crepe paper flower tutorials out there, that I know. Unfortunately, all of them seem to be for super amazing realistic flowers. Sure that is generally what you want, but a flower on a stem is not necessarily the best gift topper out there. I wanted something classy and fun to put on top of the bridal shower gift to my sister-in-law and a big floofy flower was just what the doctor ordered.

The materials were less than $3 (and with that, you could make SEVERAL large flowers) and the whole process took less than 15 minutes. Let's get started!

Love is in the Stars Tutorial

Yesterday I shared individual prints for each of the twelve astrological constellations and I hope you enjoyed them. While I'm sure they have a ton of random decor uses on their own, I created a sweet printable as an easy and personalized Valentine's Day gift for the Mr.

Sure, this could be done in my beloved PhotoShop but it can be created quite simply by any of the free programs out there. If you want to create your own but don't have fancy photo editing software, don't you worry. Below is a step-by-step tutorial to put yours together in practically no time at all.

Quick & Easy Appliqued Pencil Case

I've mentioned it before, and I'll mention it again -- I {heart} felt. It's soft, it's durable, and it never frays. In a world of fabric and fiber, it reigns supreme in my book. As a last minute stocking-stuffer for one of my favorite little girls, I added a fun woodland shape to a fabric pouch I got from the Target dollar section. Number nineteen of The 25 Projects of Christmas is quite the multipurpose gift!  

This little bag is perfect as a pencil case, makeup bag, coupon pouch, etc.  Read on for how to make the easiest no-sew applique ever!

Handmade Gift Exchange - What I Gave

You might remember that I was super duper excited to participate in Craftaholics Anonymous' Handmade Gift Exchange - Holiday edition. I still haven't gotten my gift, but mine was sent on it's way last Tuesday. Names had been drawn a couple of weeks ago and and we were tasked with creating a gift for our secret someone. I was assigned Gina B. of Florida. 

 

Well, I don't know Gina B. of Florida. Gina B. of Florida was a very elusive creature in my book. I decided just to wing it. I figured since she was doing this exchange, she must be like me in some way or another so I made gifts that I would have liked to receive: a simple but pretty tote, a necklace, washi tape bookmarks, and a jersey circle scarf.

After finishing the first three presents, I happened to get a response from one of my anonymous questions... Yippee! Well, that excitement was short-lived. Turns out that that her favorite color happened to be green. There's nothing wrong with that except the fact that nothing at this point had been the right color. I put my original fabrics away and went back to the drawing board for the scarf. I opted for a navy and green color combo used 100% cotton jersey since it would be perfect for the Florida weather. 

I would have kept all of those things for me but I can't be a Grinch. I hope Gina likes them though. I'm eagerly awaiting my own gift but I'm sure I'll love whatever it happens to be. 

By the way, check back soon as I'll be sharing a tutorial for how to create your very own color-blocked circle scarf to gift! 

Fabric Candy Corn Treat Bags

Ahhh, October! It's beginning to get cooler and the leaves are starting to change. It's time to deck the halls with cobwebs and skeletons and start singing Monster Mash! This weekend I got around to dressing up some fabric treat bags for our favorite kids. Not only are these adorable, they're also super easy and NO-SEW!  Sweet!

Want to find out how to make a set of your own? Read on!

Elmo Present {Printable}

Today is our nephew's second birthday party! We got him a sweet techy gadget (if you knew the Mr. you would completely understand). While I'm positive he will absolutely love it once he figures out what it is, it won't have the allure of the Fisher-Price packaging. This is why I thought I might go about doing something a bit more creative with the wrapping.

The baby LOVES Elmo, probably about 10x more than he loves me. His parents put together quite the Sesame Street themed celebration.  What better way to dress up our gift than with Elmo's face? Yeah yeah, I could have just gone and bought some Sesame Street wrapping paper, but I wanted something fun and unique. This was just that.

Materials:

• My FREE Elmo Printable
• 8"x11" white cardstock
• Color printer
• Ink
• Scissors
• Red wrapping paper
• Adhesive: glue stick, glue dots, etc

Instructions:

1. Print out the Elmo face shapes onto white cardstock (it absorbs the saturation of ink better than normal copy paper)
2. Carefully cut around each shape
3. Arrange the face as shown above (Left eye slightly overlaps the right, nose sits between both eyes, and then the mouth in a big smile)
4. Wrap your present using the red wrapping paper
5. Adhere the face shapes to the package in the correct layout
6. Presto finito, you are done!

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Anthro Knock-off: Cut Lace Carryall

I have been drooling over the white Cut Lace Carryall from Anthro for weeks now. The price tag isn't insanely excessive, but it's also not something I feel comfortable forking over when I'm *trying* to save. When you're like me and adore just about everything outside of your price range, you have to get creative. As they say, imitation is the best form of flattery.

The $198 original via Anthropologie:

I searched high and low for suede, leather, or vinyl that had the laser cut lace details that the original had but came up empty handed. After a dozen or so Google searches for vinyl lace, I came across a cute little store, Darlybird. Can you repeat after me... Uh-May-Zing. Seriously, amazing. It took all of my self-control not to buy everything I loved (which was practically the entire stock) but since everything was such a steal, I let myself get three things guilt-free: vinyl lace placemats, washi tape, and uber cute labels.

If you were going to make this you could use a rectangular doily or scraps of actual lace (both of which I considered) but I wanted the matte look of the original which I wouldn't have gotten from flimsy fabric. I love the look of the finished bag. It's perfect for summer and will be great next spring as well.  


What you will need:

• One yard of canvas or any other fabric of your choosing (consider using oil cloth or laminated cotton for a completely wipeable bag)
• 2 vinyl placemats from Darlybird
• 1.5 yards of rope for the handles
• Steam-A-Seam iron-on adhesive
• Coordinating thread
• Sewing essentials
• Iron & Ironing Board

Follow the instructions at Dana Made It for the Boxed Out Tote
I followed that tutorial to a T (put in a pocket and all) but this is what I did differently:

1. After cutting out the canvas pieces using the placemat as a guide, completely finish off the top edge as you will not sew through the top of the vinyl. 
2. If you are adding a pocket do so at this point
3. Attach the handles
4. Place the Steam-A-Seam between a layer of vinyl and a layer of canvas and on the hottest setting, bond the two wrong sides together (if your fabric has a wrong side)
5. Now use the tutorial to make a tote out of this bonded fabric
6. It's completely optional to box out the bottom of the bag, but to me it looked like the original had a base so I wanted to do it on mine as well.

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Family Tree Embroidery Pattern

Firstly, I apologize for not updating more frequently. As mentioned in the last post, we just got the dog and I've been focusing every waking moment on making sure her transition has been smooth. It's important for the Mr. and I that Quinn and Aubrey have a loving and happy home. I've barely had a spare minute to even work on projects so here it goes...

For Mother's Day I wanted to make a family tree for my mother-in-law. She is not only the most caring mom ever, but she's also the most sentimental. I had searched far and wide for a unique pattern that I could use to put her boys and their families but I couldn't find any. It seems like those tree murals are all the rage, but I wanted to embroider mine so I needed something dainty and pretty.

Combining elements from my favorite clip art trees into one gave me the result I really wanted. If you would like the pattern, click here! I printed my pattern onto tissue paper pinned it to the fabric and stitched directly through it. Afterwards, simply rip off the paper (or use tweezers to remove teeny pieces) and that was it. I used some high quality natural linen and basic embroidery floss.

For the trunk and main branches I used a chain stitch. The smaller branches are done in the stem stitch; everything else is done in a back stitch. There are 5 leaves on the tree: one for the Mr., one for me, one for his brother, one for his brother's son and another for his fiancee.  Next to the leaves for the Mr. and his brother, I put French knots to signify how many people are in that family unit (2 for us, 3 for them).

Why I love this pattern:

• 100% Customizable
• Easily updated when there are marriages and new arrivals
• Really simple once you learn the basics of embroidery
• Stunning finished project
• Heirloom quality gift 

Ombre Gift Tag

I got a few crafty things done tonight and am utterly exhausted. One such project was a bit basic, but I'm really digging it:

A couple of weeks ago the Mr. thought I was being a tad eccentric when I walked out of Wal-Mart with a handful of paint chips, but I knew I'd use them in one way or another. Seeing as the other gift-giving season is upon us: graduations, weddings, showers, etc., this gift tag is so perfect because it can be completely personalized to whatever the event. 

 Easy enough, right? I will definitely be doing more of these soon in other colors because it's oh so cute. Simple? Check. Purdy? Check. Green? Check check check!