DIY School Envelope System

It has taken most of my adult life for me to figure out that the key to stress-free living is organization! I now realize that everything should have a place to live - car keys, cell phone chargers, whatever. When there is a place for things to return to every time, then my life becomes way easier to manage.

Case in point, every time I had to send money into school with my sons it was always a major production because none of the things I needed (envelopes, pen, paper clips, etc) were ever right where they should be. Here's one example of a super simple system I now use when sending notes/money to school with my guys.

I'm sure you are all well aware of my hoarding issue by now. However, unlike the hoarders on TV, I actually use my hoarded items. I have an old calendar holder that I kept long after the calendar had expired. Here's how I converted the leftover board into a school envelope system.


In addition to the calendar holder, I also reused an old folder to hold the envelopes.


I simply cut out the shape of the flaps...


And then hot glued them onto the board.


I also cut an additional piece of the folder and attached it to the board to hold paper clips and binder clips.


Here's the finished product...


And here's the envelope that I made for school...


My guys have been in school for three weeks now and the envelope system is working like a charm...no stress!





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No Vase? No Problem!

My husband has the green thumb that I've always dreamed of having. However very rarely does he bring anything from his garden inside to adorn the house. So I was completely shocked a couple of days ago when he not only cut a small bouquet of flowers for me, he also arranged them perfectly in a martini glass no less! Here's a pic of his handiwork...


The use of the martini glass was so creative, I figured he must have been inspired by Southern Living or one of my other decorating magazines. So I had to ask. In reality he didn't know where I kept the vases and the martini glasses were sitting right in front of him on top of the bar. At least he's honest!

My husband's lovely gesture gave me the creative urge to see what other types of drinkware I could use to jazz up simple floral arrangements in the absence of vases. Here's a couple of attempts that I made with what we had laying around the house:

Grandma's Teacup - I just placed a few sprigs of flowers in the base of the cup and this was the result...



Husband's Pilsner Glass - I cut one long Zinnia stem, removed the leaves and covered the flower with water for this simple look...



I'm off to tell my husband that he's been featured on my little blog - no doubt this will be the highlight of his day!

A Pirate's Life For Me

A while back I was asked whether or not I had posted about the pirate party that I threw for my guys a few years ago. Unfortunately at the time of that party I had a really old camera that took pictures that were incredibly sub par. It turns out that the person inquiring about the party (her name is Traci) was throwing a pirate bash of her own for her little one. I had intended to recreate and post some of the things I used at my party prior to Traci's event, but I missed out...the party was last weekend. Please check out pics from her amazing party here on her new blog.

So here are some of the things we had at our pirate party...

I typically make my own invitations, but an acquaintance of mine graciously offered to do them and I could not resist because they were so darn cute!


Since my guys are still playing with Christmas gifts by the time their birthday rolls around, I have always asked people to not bring presents. Here is the adorable insert (complete with glitter) that went inside the invitation.


I really wanted to have a pirate flag hanging outside, but I was too cheap to buy the nice ones I found. So instead I made one out of foam paper. This was super easy to make - just find a picture online, print it, cut out the shapes and trace it onto the foam.


I also made "pirate ship" platters for all of the food we served. The base of the boat is actually a plastic football container I found at the dollar store. I then attached two wooden dowels and foam paper sails to complete the look.


Now looking back on this party I guess I made a lot of the items...what was I thinking? Here are pieces that I cut out of cardboard to make pirate swords...


To assemble the sword, spray paint the two parts of the handle black and then hot glue the toilet paper roll onto the disk. Either spray paint the blade silver or attach silver paper onto the cardboard (that's what I did). Finally cut a slit on top of the disk and slide the blade into it.


I decorated the chairs by tying a sash around them and gluing a pirate-themed image over the knot. So easy!


I combined two of my sons' favorite foods to make "floating pirate ships": Jell-O and pecan swirls...


I was shopping at Target last week and stumbled upon these adorable sandwich bags in the $1 section. I'm not sure why I continue to buy themed-items for a party that has already occurred, but wouldn't these just be perfect for a pirate party?


Here is a centerpiece that was inspired by the pirate party. I'm in the process of creating an updated version of this item that will be available in my Etsy store soon!



Big thanks to Traci for inspiring me to post about my pirate party - better late than never!

Christmas in July Bows

I'm taking a decidedly different approach towards Christmas this year by starting my crafting early. A few months ago I stumbled across a great tutorial on gift bow making and I knew it would come in handy for the holidays. My first big task is to make a ton of handmade bows for this year's Christmas presents.

I've used the bow tutorial before with regular paper, but I found some decorative duct tape that I thought would make really cool bows as well...


and here's the result...


Once I saw that I could make bows using duct tape, I wanted to try making more using other unexpected material. So I gathered up a few things from around my house and started making bows.


Out of denim...


a gift bag...


burlap...


grosgrain ribbon...


and decorative tissue paper...


In order to use denim and burlap for the bows, I first dabbed fabric stiffener on the material and let it dry. This was one of the easiest crafts I've done thanks to the tutorial - you should try it!

Super Mario and Friends

Last weekend I had the pleasure of creating birthday party centerpieces for a little Super Mario fan who was turning 5. This is an embarrassing admission given the fact that I have two young sons, but I knew absolutely nothing about Super Mario. However, after consulting with my guys and researching the Internet, I was able to come up with a few designs for the centerpieces.

Of course I had to make Mario...

Along with his twin brother Luigi...



And just for fun I threw in their archenemy, Donkey Kong...



I am currently in the process of designing a line of centerpieces that I'll be selling on Etsy. I'm beyond excited and more than a little scared to start this new venture, but I've decided to adopt a "seize the day" attitude about it. Stay tuned for more information regarding my Etsy shop (I like the sound of that) coming soon!

DIY Favor: Personalized Stationery Box

The other day I stumbled across a great font that automatically creates monograms. It only takes a minute to make a really nice design and it's free to download. Here's a link to the font and the monogram I made...


I decided to make a super easy favor using the monogram - personalized stationery.
I found some adorable little boxes at my go-to-store Target in the dollar section. There were three different styles (each priced at $1) - I went with the preppy green and pink design.


I dug up some leftover ribbon from this project and wrapped it around the box...


Then I simply attached the monogrammed oval onto the box (I printed the monogram on adhesive-backed paper). Too easy!


Finally, I created a design using the monogram in a Word document and printed out/cut several sheets for the box...


This favor cost a little over $1 and took about 10 minutes to complete.
Easy + Cost Effective = Happiness.

Craft Mashup [Silly Band Gift Wrapping]

The first time I ever heard about the concept of a mashup was with the release of The Grey Album. A music mashup is a song that is created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs seamlessly. The Grey Album blended songs from Jay-Z's Black Album and the Beatles' White Album - genius!

I thought it would be fun to apply the same concept to crafting since I don't make music. Like many of you, I am constantly coming across amazing crafts that inspire me. So I'm going to take some of those amazing ideas and try to blend them seamlessly to make a craft mashup. First up I'm taking crafts from two of my favorite bloggers and making the following mashup: silly band gift wrapping.

A couple of months ago Kristy (aka The Purple Pug) threw a crazy cool Super Mario-themed party for her little guy. One thing that stuck out to me was her creative use of unwanted silly bands...



Photo Source


One of my other faves, Kendra over at My Insanity, created adorable gift wrapping using (of all things) balloons!

Photo Source

So, I took Kristy's idea of repurposing silly bands and combined it with Kendra's creative gift wrapping idea to get this...



This is really easy to make - all you need is a bunch of silly bands. We have a ton of formerly-couldn't-live-without silly bands laying around our house doing absolutely nothing...



Just loop one end of a silly band through another one to form a "chain link". Once you have a long chain, wrap it around the gift (I used one color for each chain). To make the bow, simply tie the silly bands together into a ball shape and then tie it onto the gift.



Thanks (again) to Kristy and Kendra for being constant sources of inspiration! Look out for more craft mashups coming soon!!