DIY

Felt Heart Garland.

Last week at my West Elm DIY event, I taught a group of crafty ladies to make a festive felt heart garland to celebrate Valentine’s Day. I thought I’d share the instructions here so you can make one at home too! First, using two pieces of felt layered on top of each other, trace and cut out two hearts. Next, using about an arms length of embroidery floss, tie off the end and begin sewing the two layers together (starting at the tip of the heart). When you get to about 3/4 of the way around the heart shape, you want to stop sewing and stuff your heart. We used pillow batting for the garlands and pins, and loose dried lavender to make sachets. Once the heart is stuffed, pinch the layers together with your hands and sew the remaining 1/4 of the open heart closed, tying off the end with a knot. Once you have your stuffed heart, you can sew on a pin to the back, add hook to make it a hanging sachet for your closet, or string multiple hearts together to make a sweet garland for your bar cart or mantle!
1WestElm63 2WestElm83 3WestElm87 4WestElm92 5WestElm89 6WestElm23All photos via the fabulous Bring To Light Photography!

 

Life

West Elm Valentine’s Day DIY Event.

I’m so excited to share a few pictures from my event at West Elm Fenway a few weeks ago! It was such a fun day — I mean, really, is there anything better than hanging out with your girls and making cute things? I’ll post a tutorial this week with step by step instructions so you can make your own felt heart garlands (or pins! or sachets!). Thanks to my bestie Taz from Bring to Light Photography for taking these fabulous pictures, the lovely folks at West Elm Fenway for hosting, Sweet Cupcakes for making sure we had tasty bites to snack on, and for all of the lovely friends, blogging buddies, and new faces that came out to craft with me! Let’s do it again, OK?

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Entertaining

Holiday Crafts and Cocktails.

As promised, I’m sharing a few of my favorite shots from our Holiday Crafts and Cocktails party that’s over on Style Me Pretty Living today. The holidays can be a crazy busy time of year, so we decided to throw a little party for our best girlfriends that would allow us to celebrate together while being productive and tackling some Christmas projects. We decorated cards, wrapped presents, and ate our fair share of cheese and crackers and cookies.  It was great to take a break from the holiday madness and enjoy time with friends, all while marking items off our Christmas to-do-list! Head over to Style Me Pretty to see the full party.

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All images by Bring To Light Photography, floral design by Little Flower Cottage

DIY

DIY Holidays: Painted Cork Coasters.

I hate to play favorites, but I think I saved the best handmade holiday gift idea for last this week — painted cork coasters. Using plain cork coasters, I painted stripes and color blocks in pink, teal, and gold, and then finished off the top of them with a matte sealer to keep them waterproof. You could play around with color combinations that match your gift recipients’ home and style to make a customized gift, and pair them with their favorite wine or spirit. Are you trying any homemade gifts this year?

Cork Coaster 1 Cork Coaster 2 Cork Coaster 3

Looking for more DIY present ideas? Check them out here.

DIY

DIY Holidays: Cran-Apple Simple Syrup.

This is a DIY gift that I can nearly guarantee anyone would love to receive, homemade simple syrups. Sometimes I wonder, do they call it simple syrup because it’s so simple to make? I think they might!  I used this recipe, and added  apples for my own twist. Then I packaged it up in mini-mason jars and labeled the tops with brown craft paper, bakers twine, and recipe tags. Experiment with flavors and come up with your own mixture (I’ve used this recipe before too) — it’ll make your gift even more unique when you give it your own spin!

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Looking for more DIY present ideas? Check them out here.

DIY

DIY Holidays: Kitchen Spoon Set.

Today’s handmade holiday idea is all about creating a simple hostess gift. I purchased a few different sizes of  wooden spoons, and taped off stripes at various intervals with painter’s tape, and then painted in the lines with black paint. After the paint thoroughly dried, I peeled back the tape to reveal the pretty stripes. Make sure you add a matte coat of clear finish over the top so that they’re safe to hand-wash.  And of course, presentation is everything — I wrapped the set up in a  shiny silk ribbon to make them gift-giving-ready!

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Looking for more DIY present ideas? Check them out here.

DIY

DIY Holidays: Rhinestone Ornaments.

Ready for another simple handmade holiday gift? This is another under-5-minutes DIY — glittery rhinestone filled ornaments. To make these, I purchased clear ornaments from my local craft store, and filled them up with rhinestones in various colors, shapes and sizes. Then I added a bright pink silk ribbon to the top for hanging. While I sort of want to keep these shiny little decorations for myself, I think they’d make a great gift for your girlfriends, customized in colors to match their style. Or tie a few onto a wrapped present as a special decoration that the recipient can add to their tree!

Rhinestone Ornament 1 Rhinestone Ornament 2 Processed with VSCOcam

Looking for more DIY present ideas? Check them out here.

DIY

DIY Holidays: Mulling Spice Kit.

I am slowly recovering from my long weekend of feasting and am ready to kick-off some holiday-talk this week! Last year I had so much fun sharing DIY gift ideas, so I thought I would share a few new ideas this season too. This mulling spice kit is a super simple idea that would be great for hostess or teachers gifts — and it’ll take you only about 5-minutes to put together.  I purchased some stacking organizers from the Container Store and in each layer added in a different spice — cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, anise, allspice, are all common mulling spices you could use here — pick the ones you like best! After all of the containers were filled, I stacked them back up and tied some whole cinnamon sticks to the container with a festive red ribbon. Consider pairing these with a bottle of red wine, some spice-bags, and a little handwritten note with your favorite mulled-wine recipe!

Mulling Spice Kit 1 Mulling Spice Kit 2 Mulling Spice Kit 3 Mulling Spice Kit 4

Looking for more DIY present ideas? Check them out here.

 
 
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