Tuesday, December 27, 2016

DIY Rustic Key Racks

 
Every year for Christmas, instead of spending a ton of money on individual gifts for everyone, we do small gifts or lotto tickets. I love to craft, so of course every year I try my best to make something new for everyone. 
 
This year, I made all of the men a DIY Rustic Key Rack. 
 
I have had a box of old keys sitting in my craft closet for quite some time now, so I figured I needed to use them for something fun. I spent about 3 hours using two pairs of pliers to bend one key at a time. Some of them broke, but luckily I had more than enough spares.
 
I purchased a bundle of the wood from Hobby Lobby for around $4 a bundle. I bought two bundles, and I love them because each piece is completely different, and I love the rustic look of the unfinished wood.
 
I also purchased some decorative nail heads from Hobby Lobby. (They were in the wood isle.) 
 
I used a hammer to tightly seal each key to the wood.
 
This project is so easy, cheap and fun to make!
Everyone loved them! (I even made one for out house!)
 
Here are the supplies you need:
- keys
- wood pieces
-decorative nails
- hangers for the back
 
NOTE: I did not include hangers for the backs for each of these gifts, simply because I know some people in my family would want to hang it differently than others, so I figured I would leave the hanging decisions up to each individual.
 
There are so many possibilities with a DIY project like this one. This would even be a wonderful house warming gift as well!
 
If you recreate this DIY, I would love to see it, leave it in the comments below, or tag them using #CreatingVirginiaAnne
 
Happy crafting everyone! <3

Saturday, October 1, 2016

DIY Scarecrow bottle - Fall Decor - Upcycle + Recycle

 
I love to bring my grandmother homemade gifts whenever we go to visit her. I also love to be at her house and to be able to look around and see all of these DIY memories I have made and get to share with her. <3 
 
This DIY is so simple. I took an empty wine bottle, painted it a light brown/tan color. While I was waiting for the paint to dry, I cut a piece of foam board to look like a donut that would fit around the top of the bottle, to make the hat. I hot glued some fake straw that I purchased at the local dollar store, around the neck of the bottle as the scarecrows hair. Following that step, I took twine and used my hot glue gun to glue it to the foam donut. When I was finished doing that, I slid the foam donut over the top of the bottle and pushed it down as far as I possibly could. I then took more twine and glued it to the top of the bottle to finish off the look of the hat. I had a roll of rhinestone ribbon that I used as the top of the hat. However, you could easily finish it off with twine, or any other kind of ribbon. I then took some more fake straw and glued it to the base of the bottle, with the loose ends pointing up, before I glued some twine around the bottom of the bottle, and used some more of the rhinestone ribbon around the base; symbolizing his shirt. I added a fun twine bow, just to be cute. My last step was the scarecrows face. I used Halloween googly eyes from the Dollar Tree, and painted on the rest of his face, using pink, orange and black paint. The fun part about his face is that you can be so creative and make any kind of face you want to. I did a simple happy face because after all this is a gift for my 90 year old grandmother.
 
This was such a fun and easy upcycle and recycle project to do. Please share a picture in the comments below if you recreate this project! I would love to see them!
 
Until next time... xoxoxo

Monday, April 27, 2015

Baby Shower Title Buttons - DIY

With our baby shower coming soon, I wanted to throw together some fun buttons for the parents to be and grandparents to be to wear. I did not want to spend a lot of money on them though, because they are only going to be worn during the shower. So of course, I hopped into my car and went to the Dollar Tree and Walmart!

I purchased:
tan colored label stickers (Dollar Tree)
gold glitter alphabet stickers (Walmart)
ribbon (7 different colors and styles) (Walmart)
pin backings (Walmart)

I also used my hot glue gun and glue sticks that I already had around the house. I also used some leftover gold glitter and pink camo scrapbook paper that I purchased from Hobby Lobby to use for the  Pedicure Spa Jar that I made for baby shower game prizes!

here is a closer look at the ribbon styles and colors I used
 
I took white paper and used the gold alphabet stickers to write out:

Mommy
Daddy
Grandma (2 times)
Great Grandma (3 times)
 

I then cut those out and glued them onto the tan colored label stickers from the dollar store.
 

I peeled off those stickers and stuck them to the pink camo scrapbook paper.  I took scissors and cut those out, trying to match the shape of the sticker the best that I could, with leaving a fun pink camo border around the sticker.


I did the same exact thing all over again, but I glued the cut outs to the gold glitter scrapbook paper this time. I took my scissors and cut them out, again, trying to match the original shape as best as I could.


I then took my ribbons and cut them into various different sizes (2 pieces the same size of each ribbon style and color) I took my hot glue gun and started gluing the ribbons together at the top.

When the ribbons were all glued together, I used a dot of hot glue to attache the name tags I made to each set of ribbons. I also glued on a pin backing just above the glued on ribbons.

I let the glue dry for a few minutes, and then I flipped over the button to look at the pretty front of it, and I took my scissors to trim and shape each ribbon to make them look good together.

Here is the final product:

 

I am so excited to give them out on the day of the shower, and then be able to scrapbook ours afterwards!

If you make a version of these yourself, please share a picture of them in the comments below, or tag them on Instagram using #CreatingVirginiaAnne
 
I would love to see your creations!

Saturday, April 25, 2015

Flower Pens - DIY

With the baby shower coming up soon, I am just finishing up some last final touches to make it a fun and girly shower. 

Here are the supplies you will need:

Pens (I used 5 I had around the house - 2 black and 3 purple)
hot glue gun + glue sticks
fake flowers (I got 1 bunch [5 flowers] from the Dollar Tree)
floral tape (also from Dollar Tree)
ribbon ( I pictured green here, but I ended up using pink [from Dollar Tree])
scissors


I started off by pulling off the flowers from their stems. I also pulled off the leaves, I was planning on using them but ended up just throwing them away. 
 

I threw away the steps and leaves. I then flipped the flowers over and used my scissors to cut of what was left of the stem.

 

I took the pens and floral tape and wrapped two layers around the pen. The floral tape is sticky, but not very sticky so I did seal the ends with a small dot of hot glue.
 
When the pens were all wrapped up in the floral tape, I flipped the flowers over, put a small amount of hot glue on the end of the pen and held it in place on the bottom of the flower until the glue was dry.

 

I added a pink bow (I just tied a piece of pink ribbon around the base of the flower and cut off the extra ribbon scrap to make the bow the size I wanted.)

Here are the final products. I think they are adorable!
They were cheap and did not take long to make at all.

 
These would be perfect for a shower - teacher gift - party - or just a cute addition to your desk at work. They look gorgeous in a small vase on the table, and I am excited to display them and use them at the baby shower.

If you make a version of these yourself, please share a picture of them in the comments below, or tag them on Instagram using #CreatingVirginiaAnne

I would love to see your creations!

Friday, April 24, 2015

Baby Shower Thank Yous - DIY

UPDATE: Our Baby Shower was just perfect. It was so full of love and amazing people who love us and who we love. It was a beautiful shower, and I couldn't wait to write out the homemade thank yous and send them out!
 

Our shower is on a Saturday, so Sunday I am dedicating most of my day to making the Thank yous and writing them out, so I could mail them out on Monday. (EDIT: These thank-yous took me about 5 hours to make and write out, but they were so worth it and I loved how they turned out.)

The items I used were:
1 box of plain white invitations (100 count)
 fabric (I bought quarters from Joanne Fabrics - I used 10 different patterns)
buttons - (Joanne's and I used 5 different colors)
Our computer printer
hot glue gun and sticks
black sharpie
black thin sharpie
gluestick
scissors

I started off by using our computer and printer to print out THANK YOU on the upper right hand corner of each invitation. I used an invitation layout in Microsoft Word, and just made sure that my paper size matched the sizes on the computer printer setup page. I also used colored font to match what color fabric and buttons I was planning to use on certain thank-yous.

I ended up printing 10 yellows, 20 salmons, 20 pinks, 20 blues and 30 purples. (totaling 100 Thank-yous)

I then took my fabric scissors and cut out a temp-let shape of a baby buggy. You can even Google baby buggy to print out the ideal shape if you wanted to!

I cut out 10 buggy's of each fabric pattern that I purchased.
 

Once your buggy's are all cut out, now it is time to make the thank yous!
 

Step 1: use a glue stick to glue on the fabric buggy into the spot on the paper that you want it. I did all of mine close to the bottom left hand corner (as you can see)

Step 2: Use your regular black sharpie to draw a small handle on the buggy

Step 3: Use the same sharpie to draw two black lines coming out of the bottom of the fabric buggy

Step 4: Use a small dot of hot glue to attach the buttons to the bottom of the sharpie lines to look like wheels

Now keep repeating these steps until all of the cards are done!

That was so easy wasn't it!?

Here is a mash-up of one of each pattern and wheel color that I made.
I made a total of 100 thank yous in this style, I will then my thin black sharpie to write out my messages to all of our loving and wonderful family and friends.

 

This project would work for Thank-yous or even invitations! 

You could even use it for baby announcements once the sweet little one is born and you could add a newborn picture to it as well! 

There are so many fun ways to use this project, and the colors can be changed and played with as well!

If you make a version of these yourself, please share a picture of them in the comments below, or tag them on Instagram using #CreatingVirginiaAnne
I would love to see your creations!

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Tea Lights - Baby Shower Favor

 
"Light this candle, on the night
Once the stork has made his flight.
With a flicker of the flame,
Please say a prayer in Sweetpea's name."
For part of the baby shower gifts we will be giving each person a little baggy with a few items in it. One of those items will be a small tea light candle, with a tag attached that says the short poem that I started this post with.

I wanted to make the tea lights a little more fun, girly and cute.
So I took different pink washi tapes that I had, and cut them to size.
I wrapped each tea light (whew I wrapped 100!) and I really think it made them a little more fun for the favor bags. 

 


This quick, easy and cheap DIY was just that. It was very quick, it took me less than 1 minute per tea light. It was easy, all I had to do was measure, cut and wrap. It was also cheap, the candles were from Walmart but you can buy them from the Dollar Tree as well. The washi tape was off brand and from the Dollar Tree, and that is all you need my friends!

If you make your own version of these fun tea lights, please share a picture of them in the comments below, or tag them on Instagram using #CreatingVirginiaAnne   

I would love to see your creations!