Neat DIY gift for that special someone....

Hello friends! I'm so sorry I have been MIA, but the holidays plus a few of my best friends getting engaged has kept me busy, busy, busy. Anyway, a couple weeks ago was Shawn's birthday and although I got him a traditional gift, I also wanted to do something a little more special and from the heart. I got this idea to take some ordinary things, put a cute not on them and then hide them around so that all day he was finding a little present here and a little present there. It actually was really fun just thinking of cute little phrases to go with things you see at the store. So here are your supplies.....

1. small little gifts (I used bandaids, almond joy, soda,reeses pieces, goldfish, smarties, gummy bears, rice krispie treats, nuts, and animal crackers)

2. notecards

3. markers

4. scissors

5. tape

I'm going to do this post a little bit different than the and just show you all of the gifts/phrases one at a time. What I did with each one is write the phrase on the notecard and then cut around the edges of the notecard with different shaped scissors. Then I taped the card onto the gift and hid them in different places I knew he was likely to get into throughout the day....

1. The first one was band aids and the phrase said "I'm 'stuck' on you!"

2. Almond Joy- "It's a 'joy' being with you"

3. Soda- "I 'soda' think you are amazing"

4. Reeses Pieces- "You stole a 'piece' of my heart"

5. Goldfish- "You o'fish'ally have my heart"

6. Smarties- "I know I'm a 'smartie' because I'm dating you"

7. Gummy bears- "Life would be....un'bear'able without you"

8. Rice Krispie Treat- "You put the 'snap, crackle, and pop' in my life"

9. Nuts- "Just wanted you to know I'm 'nuts' for you!"

10. Animal Crackers- "I know our lives might be a 'circus' at times, but I'm glad we share it together"

My final thoughts: This was a great way to show Shawn how much he means to me in a personal way and it was fun and not difficult. The only things that really cost money (other than the $1 for the notecards) were the little gifts, and you can decide what to get and how many to make it cost more or less depending on your budget. Also, Shawn really enjoyed the treasure hunt factor of it

Overall DIY Grade: A

Good luck and please feel free to post your finished project and ask any questions or comments! Happy Do It Yourselfing

DIY Fall Wall Decor

Welcome back DIYers! I bet you thought I forgot this past week, but I didn't! I will be doing two this week to make up for it. Last week was just crazy town. Anyway, last week's DIY project is a fun one and easy one that you can even get the kids to participate in. It is a flower that is made of paper lunch bags. Lets first start out with what materials we will need....

1. Paper Lunch Bags-I got mine for $1.99 at Walgreens. At first I thought I would just use either large grocery bags or paper wrapping paper, but you really need the lunch bags, you'll see later on why.

2. Scissors

3. Pen/Pencil

4. Glue

Note that the glue is not shown in the picture because I had to run to the store and get it in the middle. I just used a glue stick. After you have your mate

rials the first thing you need to do is take four of the bags and cut off the bottom flap just a little but above the crease.

After you have this done on four bags it is time to start making your pedals. What I did was cut the first one and then use that as a template for the other three bags. You can make them as wide and as tall as you want. HINT: Make sure that one end of the pedal is flat and the other one is pointed and make the flat end the end of the bag that has the half circle indention on one side.

One bag will make two pedals, but there will also be two pieces that come out of it. KEEP THOSE PIECES, you will need them later.

Do this for all four bags. You will end up with 8 pedals and 8 pieces. Now it's time to start taking your 8 pedals and layer them like a flower and glueing the flat ends together. HINT: Before you glue them make a crease in the fold line in order for it to have the 3-D affect. Then do not glue the ends make them flat, but make sure there is still a crease.

I used all 8 pedals to make the big flower. After you have made the flower with the pedals it is time to get your 8 pieces together and do the exact same thing with them. Make a separate flower and glue them together in a flower formation, making sure to leave a crease for the 3-D affect. You should have one larger flower and one smaller one by the end.

Now that you have both, glue the small one on top of the larger one and you have your finished product!!

The good news is that this is really hard to mess up. It doesn't even matter whether the folds are facing up or down, I did 5 different flowers and mixed it up. Some of them had the bottom flower pointed down with the smaller flower pointed up and some had both folded down, etc. No matter which way I did it, they turned out great!

My final thoughts: This was such an easy and low cost project. The final cost was only $1.99 and I have A LOT of bags left over for lots more flowers. I also thought it would be fun if you let the kids color the bags first and then cut the pedals out of their creations and make the flowers from that. It would give it more color and would be an easy at home craft to do as a family! I really enjoyed this project and it only took me about 15 minutes are less per flower.

Overall DIY Grade: A-

Good luck and please feel free to post your finished project and ask any questions or comments! Happy Do It Yourselfing