Paper bouquet

I love flowers, and I love having them around my house, but it's hard to justify buying them because they just die in a few days. And that makes me sad. So I decided to make myself a bouquet that would never die. Check it out!

Paper rose bouquets

Check out the original here.

I decided to make my good friends some beautiful flower bouquets that wouldn't fade away. Here's what I ended up with.
Super easy, super fun, and super cheap. I got the pots and the sticks at the dollar store (though if you had pretty nature around you, you could for sure get your sticks there) and I used paper I already had to make the flowers. Just cut a big circle in spiral and spin it in on itself (see the tutorial I linked to above). Voila!

Distressed Tee Knock Offs

Time Needed: 10 minutes
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: t shirts, printer, printer transfer paper, scissors, iron

Directions: Choose the photo of your choice. If you need to, use a program like Photoshop to get the look you're going for. Print it out on the transfer paper and cut to desired size. Then, follow the transfer paper directions to iron on the pictures to the shirts. Then you get these cute, sassy shirts that everyone wears and they're super easy and super cheap!So... 10 points to the person who can tell me what these shirts are saying. Tee hee!

50th Birthday Book

Time Needed: 90 minutes
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: blank scrapbook, scrapbooking paper, glue stick, stickers, photos, 50 memories, printer, printer paper, shaped edge scissors
Directions: Because this is for a 50th birthday, there are 50 memories. If you are going to do this for another birthday, just adjust your memories accordingly. Have everyone involved in giving this gift split up the 50 memories. Have them typed, put them in cute font, and print them onto the printer paper. Cut the memories with the shaped edge scissors. Set your memories and photos on top of the scrapbook pages to get an idea of how you'd like the layout to be. Then, remove these and back each page as desired with the scrapbooking paper. Glue on the memories and photos and accent with the stickers.
My siblings and I have done this for both of my parents' 50th birthdays, and these books now display prominently in their home. They are some of my parents' most prized possessions. I've included several pictures with this one so you can see more of what the finished product looks like.

Recipe Book

Time Needed: 2 hours
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: 3 manila file folders, scissors, scrapbooking cardstock, button or bead, hole punch, glue stick, Sharpie pen, twine

Directions:
Separate each folder at the seam and cut into four rectangles.

Then, take some cardstock that you'll use for the cover and cut to the size of the cards you've just made.
Out of some plain colored cardstock, cut three circles of various sizes (uneven edges make it look all cool and handmade) and two leaves.
Glue the circles and leaves together and onto the front cover and glue your bead or button to the center of the flower.

Then, use your mad calligraphy skills to write/draw your title onto the cover. Decorate as desired.

Punch a hole in the corner of each card.

Write your recipes on each of the cards, like so.

Then, take the twine and string all the cards onto the string.
Then, tie a loose bow in the twine to secure the cards, and voila! You're done! Beautiful! (This is the other one I did - exactly the same, just a different cardstock color for the cover.)
PS - Do you like this picture tutorial? I'm thinking it might be more helpful to see what I mean when I blog about these projects.

Cute Coasters

I cannot take credit for this idea. It originally comes from a fun homemaking site called You Really Made That?
Time needed: 1 hour
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: 4 4-inch bathroom tiles, scrapbook paper, glue stick, Mod Podge, paintbrush, scissors, pencil, felt circles
Trace the outline of the tiles on the paper with the pencil. Cut out the squares. Use the glue stick to completely coat the top of the tile, paying close attention to the edges of the tile. Place the paper on the tile, and allow the glue to dry. (I weighed down the tiles by stacking them on each other and resting the Mod Podge bottle on them till they dried - just extra drying in place security). Once dry, coat the tiles and the edges with Mod Podge. I used 6 layers, and you have to wait 10-20 minutes between each coat of Mod Podge. The Mod Podge keeps them waterproof and glossy. Once dried, stick the adhesive felt circles on the bottoms of the tiles, and there you go!

Wanna hear the best part? I did 8 tiles and already had the Mod Podge and the paper. So, for 8 tiles and the felt circles, my cost was less than 5 bucks. Woo!

Dry Erase Calendar

Time needed: 30 minutes (the fancier you make it, the longer it takes)
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: picture frame (I used an 11x18, but pick a size that works for you), cute scrapbook paper, permanent marker, dry erase markers, tape, cork board (which, by the way, they sell at Office Depot in tiles of many sizes - I used a 6x6 that I cut down to fit), push pins

Directions: Choose the paper you'd like to be the background of your calendar and cut it to fit your frame. You can write the calendar or any of the events on the paper, but then you have to switch it out at the end of the month. You choose - it's your calendar! If you're doing a section for notes (see the left bottom of mine), choose a background paper to go there. Tape these together, and stick them in the back of the frame. Then, if you haven't written anything on the paper, graph yourself a 7x5 chart on the glass for your calendar. Do this in permanent marker so that the chart is always there - you can write the days in as the months come. Leave a space for the month at the top. Then, take your dry erase markers and fill in your chart! If you are looking for something more permanent than a dry erase marker but not something as permanent as a permanent marker, I'd recommend vis-a-vis markers (the kind teachers use on overhead transparencies). They stay on till you take them off with water. To stick the cork board on the calendar (and, by the way, that's optional - if you don't like it, don't do it), all you do is use the 3M stickies the cork boards come with. To cut the cork board, I just used scissors. And obviously the push pins are for things you want on your cork board. And, voila! A cute fun calendar! If you'd like to see a different version (this one's magnetic - I couldn't find a piece of metal small enough, hence the cork board), check out my cute cousin Krystal's fun blog!