Keep it Clean gift bucket idea from April {guest post}

Today, I'm so glad to have April over on my blog and how cute is this idea?!  Happy Friday :)


 Hi Guys, I am April from illistyle.com and I love making sweet little gift baskets. Since we just bought our first home and we are moving this weekend (squeee!) I have been thinking of ways to be hospitable to people that might move into my new neighborhood, since now I will be all legit and established as a home owner. This gift would also be perfect for someone going off to college, or a friend about to make a move. I think that the official name for this will be my "Keep It Clean" bucket. Here's what you need (I grabbed all this at the Target dollar spot):

 

 Pretty dish gloves, some Meyers All Purpose cleaner, Clorox Wipes, a sponge, and some post-its. These are essential to help those new neighbors feel like someone in their new community cares about them in their time of need... the cleaning supplies for obvious reasons, but the post-its too. If you have ever moved you know that there seems to be this crazy list(s) of what you have to buy next time you go out. From reminders about light bulbs to taking drink and pizza orders for all those friends-who-helped-you-moved, post-its are just a good idea. Throw these babies in a dollar spot bucket and you have yourself a lovely little gift for under $8!

   

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Cupcake tree

Sometimes I just love a good DIY. There is something about making something with your own bare hands and then seeing it come out and not look like a train wreck (disclaimer: I have had some things come out what I thought was HORRIFIC!)  I started getting crafty for my wedding when I came across a fantastic supply website Save On Crafts. If you are looking for supplies for wedding, floral arrangements, really anything, check this site out! So I went online and found a cardboard cupcake tree and decided I could decorate it with storybook pages for my baby shower. Find it here!  

You can find my baby shower here.  I later used it again for Isla's 1st Birthday as well and you can find it here. Birthday Party

This is how it came in,  luckily it comes with instructions to put together and thankfully, it wasn’t that bad!

! 

So since I had to cut up a book and it’s pages I went to the bargain section at Barnes N Noble and I hit the mother load finding a big ole Mother Goose book for only $3.98! The sweet little nursery rhymes and pics were perfect for the tiers of the tree.

Supplies I used for the cupcake tree-
Cupcake Tree
Book pages
Mod Podge (I used the Gloss)
Scissors
Ribbon
Hot Glue Gun


 1. First I found the pages that I liked and ones that had a lot of words on the page and cut those pages out, easy enough I mod podged the pages on to the different layers, smoothing out the bubbles and then cutting around the edges. I left a little bit of an edge to fold over to get it more clean lines. The one thing I did was make all the words line up so it looked like a continuous book page.

2. After covering all the layers, came the tedious part, cutting out all the little slits on the different tiers. The supports that went through the holes covered up any kind of imperfections, I was just careful I didn’t rip any of the pages around the holes on the top of it.

3. I used the mod podge gloss over the top to seal everything and smooth down the pieces from cutting the slits.

4. Next I used hot glue and glued a thin black ribbon to each tier to finish off and create clean edges to give it a more finished look.

5. Put the tree together and follow the instructions, I managed to not get a picture before the cupcakes were put on :(

 6. Put cupcakes on it and take some pics before you eat them!

and the finished product:

DIY Homemade Play Dough Conversation Hearts

A few weeks ago at our Kindermusik class, Isla's teacher announced that we would be having a Valentine's Day party.  I hadn't even thought about having holiday parties already! Someone who is a sucker for crafty stuff, my heart sang at the possibilities of what I could make for the kids.  I know that sounds cheesy, but here I thought, would I make cupcakes, a cookie cake, cheesecakes, a craft, oh what would I do?!

So I started poking around my boards on Pinterest to get ideas and I came across making my own play dough that I had pinned from the Honest Company.  I've been wanting to make Isla play dough for a while and I have such great memories of making salt dough and letting it dry when I was little, but you know how it goes: you get side tracked, your kid is touching something they shouldn't, they are teething and miserable that day, you need to take a shower, and oh look it's bedtime- no play dough made that day.  

Now came the hard part what could I do with the play dough to make it into a Valentine's Day treat? I poked around Pinterest for some ideas and liked the ideas of giving a heart cookie cutter for the play dough and then I saw it, my heart shaped ice cube tray that was collecting dust on a shelf in my wall paneled basement.  What if I made the play dough  into cute small hearts and made them look almost like conversation hearts?!  To work I went!

The post where I found the recipe to make the play dough from the Honest Company blog You can find it here. In this recipe, they suggest using natural food coloring.  I did use natural food coloring for two of the colors, I wanted to use it for all the colors I made, but some of them got a little crazy.  I tried to make green and mixed the yellow and the blue and ended up with a horrible salmon color?!  I need to research that one more! 

So using the following ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 cup water

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

2 teaspoons of cream of tartar 

1/3 cup of Salt

natural food coloring 

1. On low medium heat, I combined all the products in a saucepan except the food coloring.  Once the dough started to thicken, I then added a few drops of the food coloring to the dough and continued to stir in the coloring.

2. I kept stirring, you will know when it's done when it all balls up around the spatula.  Through trial and error, since I made quite a few batches for different colors, a spatula is definitely what you want to use.  I used a wooden spoon the first time around and it didn't stick together as well and it was stuck all over the spoon, where the spatula, the play dough just rolled off.

3. When it is done, I cooled it down a little bit on a plate

 4. While it was still warm, I pressed the dough into the heart shaped ice cube trays and set it sit for a few minutes.  Since I was making a bunch of different colors, to keep it moist, I stored them in containers until I was ready to assemble all of them together. 

5. When I had the colors completed, I put 3 of each color in each treat bag and used an adorable ribbon to use at the top of the bag.

6. I then added the cookie cutter to that bag.  I wanted a separate container of play dough for the kiddos, since each of the hearts doesn't really add up to all that much play dough and to have something completely all one color for them.  I used little sauce glad containers for the tubs of play dough that were all in one color.  Now, I really tried to be supermom and make my own gift tags on Word, I followed tutorials and everything else.  I got pissed and frustrated and went out to seek other ideas.  I found this little shop on Etsy (to answer your question, yes I find everything on etsy!)  An instant download for a gift tag for play dough for $.99.  Yes please! You can find her shop here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

DIY Moss Letters!

Well we already started getting wedding presents in the mail...I'm thinking to myself, isn't it kinda early...but according to the knot its only 39 days away!  Eek there are so many things to do still!  But wow what great friends and family we have...thanks for our toaster oven and my delicious food steamer and rice cooker!  I'm totally making quinoa and veggies in that thing this week WOO!

and we are STILL waiting for a bunch of RSVPs...I feel like I'm stalking out the mailbox around 3pm everyday haha.

I have been procrastinating a little but here is another DIY project I did all on my own for the wedding...

Moss covered letters and planted in a pot :) I bought everything from good ole hobby lobby...LOVE THAT PLACE.

1. I bought cardboard letters and light green reindeer moss...I hot glue gunned all the moss on the letters...Good thing my new last name only have 4 letters...it is pretty time consuming and takes about 2 hours each letter.  But maybe that's just the perfectionist in me.

2. We spray painted the wooden rods brown and let them dry, we also had to cut the rods to our desired height...I let Logan do that one!

3. In the pots we put styrofoam inside, cutting a hole in the center of it to hold and support the wooden rod

4. Cut a hole in the bottom of the letter and glued the rod in and then fixed the moss around the hole

5. Place the letter on the rod and into the styrfoam...fixing it to make it even...

6. I put the natural moss that has wood chips and moss to give it a earthy soil feel on top of the styrofoam to cover it up.

Pretty easy! I can't wait for them to go on my gift table :) Will post finished product.

Happy Tuesday!