Easy-to-Make Vases

Good afternoon!

Spring has sprung and with that comes Mother's Day and Teacher Appreciation Week. Today's vases would be appropriate for both of them! 

As you may have noticed by a few of my previous posts - I am a fan of the Lowe's Creative Ideas website as well as their monthly publication.  This is one of their projects. It appears to be fairly easy to make. These vases are quite unique and would be great in any color to match any decor!

So if you know a deserving teacher or are looking for a new way to give Mom flowers - check out the link to get started!

Easy-to-Make Vases - Lowe's Creative Ideas

Don't they just make you think of spring and summer?

Hope your day is fantastic - see ya soon!

DIY Votive Candle Holder

Happy New Year's Eve to one and all! Party plans abound I'm sure.  Just please be safe and don't drink and drive.    

This is a very special day for me because it is my 18th Wedding Anniversary!!  That's right - we got married on New Year's Eve at 9:00pm 18 years ago.  It seems like yesterday and I love my husband as much today as I did then - even more if that's possible! To my hubby - I Love You, Steve, and Happy Anniversary!

Today my post is a wood project.  I love the colors that were used and the decorations aren't really my style but they look awesome so I may have to give them a try.  You can always make any project your own just by using your creativity and this project is no exception.  Different colors, different decorations - whatever your heart desires.

I think these are quite lovely and would be very nice gifts as well. Thanks to Tatertots and Jello for the how to!  Go here to see more: DIY Candle Holder 

Have a safe and happy new year celebration! See ya soon!

After Irene and Upcycled Wipes Container!!

Good afternoon. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!  


Hurricane Irene passed over North Carolina on Saturday.  We were hoping to be inland far enough to not be affected that much.  Unfortunately that wasn't the case.  Our town experienced quite a bit of damage.  The rain came down in buckets and the wind blew harder than I'd ever seen.  And we were on the outskirts of the storm!  Can't even imagine being closer to the eye.   We watched and waited with bated breathe for the storm to subside....only to lose power at 4:00 Saturday afternoon and for the storm to continue through the evening.


We finally had our power restored last night!  Hurray!!!  The biggest benefit of having power again is air conditioning!  It was super hot the day after the storm and it heated up the house pretty fast.  But all is well again here at our house and other than school being cancelled for a 2nd day we are getting back to normal.  


So on to today's post.

If you have an overabundance of plastic Walmart bags like we do then this should help. Not only does it help keep them organized, but it also makes them handy to transport in your car or boat or wherever you need to have a bag available!

Now I know you could just clean out the container and put the bags in and be done with the whole thing. But why not take it a step further and make it cute, right? Heck you might even want to put this on your kitchen counter after you spice it up!  This might even make a nice teacher gift - it certainly is unique!

Want to know how it's done?  Go here to find out:

Wipes Container Reuse — Infarrantly Creative

Adorable and useful all in one!  What more can you ask for?

Have a fantastic day.  See ya soon!

Custom Paper Beads

Good Afternoon!  Hope all is well with everyone.

The 1st Day of School is drawing closer. We are down to 2 weeks.  I keep saying I can't wait, but in truth it will be strange to be home alone at first. It will take some time to get back into a routine!  I know that Cristian is not looking forward to the earlier bed time.  But having enough sleep is essential even though he doesn't realize it!  At least he will have a long weekend over Labor Day which coincides with his birthday this year!  

I'm loving the earrings from today's post.  Wouldn't they make nice teacher appreciation gifts?  Or a cute stocking stuffer for your favorite gal pal!  It really doesn't matter for what reason - just make 'em!  See how here:

How to Make Custom Paper Beads

Super cute and lightweight to wear anytime.  Why make them as a gift?  Do them for you and the shear pleasure of making something cute for yourself!  Enjoy!

Have a great day and see ya soon!

Single Serving Pie in a Jar!!

Good Saturday to everyone!  I know I've been MIA the last few days but between blogger being unavailable and the addition of not 1 but 2 retriever mix puppies to our family - it's no wonder! 

I came across this site the other day and I just think these are ingenious!  They would make cute gifts for many occasions - teacher appreciation, at Christmas time for your hair stylist, your letter carrier, or your friends.  They would be cute hostess gifts, too.  They are even great little desserts at the end of a special meal!

Wanna know how to make them?  Here's the site: Our Best Bites

This site is terrific and I'm sure you'll find so many other things that strike your fancy!  So go check it out and enjoy the rest of your Saturday.  See ya soon!

Teacher Appreciation Day Gifts

Good Morning. 

Today is Teacher Appreciation Day!  Cristian was excited to give his teachers their gifts today.  I made both of them glass tile pendants.  Since, by now they have received them, I can show you the pics.



Cute Tins, huh?

 

Perfect Fit!

 

Inspire

 

Encourage

Both pendants are 1 inch square glass tiles mounted in a shiny silver tray.  The stamped circles (which are a little hard to see in the pics) have the teachers initials.  The chain is a 24 inch length shiny silver ball chain, which can be adjusted to a different length if they wish.  I was pleased with the end result, and these pictures really don't do them justice.

I want to make more and put them in our Studio at eWillow.  They will probably be embellished with beads instead of personalized stamped discs.  But, if I used the metal stamped discs maybe words of encouragement or inspiration would be good - hmmmm - that's something to think about.  So keep an eye out for them to be added to the studio!

Have a terrific Tuesday and see ya soon! 

Candy Bouquets

Good Morning All!  Did you get a chance to check out the Bald Eagles and their babies?  If not, yesterdays' post has the links you need to see them.  The babies are soooooo cute and fuzzy!!!

Today I want to show you the Candy Bouquets I made for Cristian's tee ball coaches a couple of years ago. 

I used fun size candy bars and carefully hot glued them onto skewers.  Then I took red cellophane and cut it into squares and made a very small cut in the center.  The skewer was inserted there and the cellophane got twisted to resemble the flower petals.  At the bottom of the cellophane, I then wrapped floral tape to keep it in place and to give it the resemblance of a stem.  The 'vases' are empty and clean coffee cans with a laminated cover that I designed in PSE.  Inside the can is a piece of floral styrofoam that was hot glued to the bottom of the can.  The skewers were inserted into the foam at different levels (short in the front gradually getting taller in the back) to give the candy flowers dimension just like a floral arrangement. The tag, as you can see, is a laminated baseball tied at the base of one of the candy 'flowers'.  And the finishing touch was a wide ribbon around the vase and tied in a bow - I believe I hot glued it to the can so it would stay in place.

It was the first time I had ever made these and I was pretty happy with how they turned out and his coaches seemed to like them as well!!  I think these could also be cute teacher appreciation gifts, especially if they like chocolate (who doesn't like chocolate, right? LOL).

Well, that's it for today.  I've been making more washer pendants and a few other things.  As soon as I get a chance to take a few pictures I'll post them.  I made a set as a birthday gift and as soon as I know the recipient got it I will show you that, too. (Don't want to ruin the surprise!)

Have a fantastic day! 

Teacher Appreciation Gift

Hi! 

I know it's only March but the end of the school year is right around the corner.  And Teacher Appreciation Week is at the beginnning of May.  So regardless of which one you prepare a gift for your child's teacher - it will be here before you know it!  

When Cristian was in 1st grade I made his teacher an end of the year gift that looked like this:   

I tried to incorporate some things that I knew she liked - the color purple,  chocolate,  and diet soda.  I did a photo coffee travel mug and a couple other little things.  The drink carrier came from Subway, but I suppose you could use one from Sonic, too.  I liked that there was a handle (more places to decorate - LOL) because it made it easier to carry.  

It took only a few simple steps to put the whole thing together.  First, I resized four digital brag book pages with pictures from the school year to attach to the sides.  Then made a tag and laminated it with a badge holder so it could be tied on.  Next, I printed and covered the candy bar and soda with wrappers.  I used paper easter basket grass from the Dollar Tree in the bottom and then filled it with all the goodies.  Here's a couple of pics showing more views:

Maybe this gave you an idea for this year.  Glass tile pendants are on my list of things to do for his teachers now - I'll let you see when they are done.  Have a good one! See ya!