Present Idea - DIY Date jar

 Every year I buy James gifts, but because I love crafting so much, I also try to make him a few things as well. Here is one gift I have made him this year... A DATE JAR! 

Even though we always find adventures and we ALWAYS have fun together, I think that sometimes it will be fun and spontaneous to just pick a date out of a jar and do it! Sounds like a great time, right?!

I had a clear vase with a lid in my candy buffet box from the wedding, so I washed it out and cleaned it up, then I just used black scrap-booking stickers to label it "DaTe JaR" So easy! (and cute!)

I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a pack of Popsicle sticks (the wider ones) and I just used a black sharpie to write a date idea on each one. I believe there are about 150-200 sticks and dates in this jar.

It only took me about a half hour to think up and write out each date idea and then just drop the stick into the jar. 

 

Some of the Date Ideas I used are:

- Coffee Date -Sushi Date - She picks a movie -He picks a movie -Hold hands and walk around a mall - Netflix night -Camp out in the backyard -Day long road trip - Rollerblading -  Fishing - Cuddle Date! - Chinese Food - Chili's - Leon's - Movies - and many many more! If you need some more ideas, feel free to ask and I will share more! 

I have this wrapped up and under our Christmas tree waiting for him!

This is also a great Valentines Day present, or anniversary gift that is easy and it doesn't cost a lot of money!

Rustic Glasses Holders

 

James and I both wear glasses. I only wear mine occasionally, but James needs his, so after he takes his contacts out at night he needs to be able to easily find his glasses. 

Over this past summer I fell in love with sticks and crafting with nature. 

I saved some nice sticks to craft with, so I thought this would be perfect for two reasons. ONE: we had an empty wall by our bed and I really wanted to put something pretty there, and TWO: now we will have a place to keep our glasses when they aren't on our faces. 

We can easily reach up and hang them on the hooks. There is no more searching around the bed and the floor and all over the house for our glasses. (as long as we ALWAYS remember to hang them on the hooks!) 

To make these I took one large stick, and two small sticks. I painted them white with spray paint, and then I used a glitter spray paint over that. When they were dry and ready to bring inside, I tied twine onto them to hang them from, and I used screw in hooks (I got at Kmart) So I just used my hands to screw in the hooks and TAH-DAH! 

I did not screw in any hooks on the large stick. You easily could. But I did not. I had a few strands of pearl like beads left over from our wedding (they were accents on one of our cakes) that I was looking to do something with. I thought why not make the top stick just a decor piece?! PERFECT! I loosely strung the strands of beads over and around the stick and let them droop just however they wanted to. 

I loved how it turned out!

One thing I really loved about this craft was that it was practically free... and  also that there are so many ways you can use these. (other than for just glasses!) You could screw in multiple hooks and use it to display jewelry or sunglasses or even male ties or your spring scarfs! The possibilities are endless really.... hang bibs on it in a baby's room. Heck hang whatever you want from it! ☺

Here are some more pictures below of close ups and different angles and what not ☺

DIY: American Flag out of Twigs!

With the 4th of July just around the corner, this is the perfect craft to do this weekend! Then you can display it to all your BBQ guests on the 4th! This is so easy and looks great!

The How To:
Start off by walking around your back yard, (or anywhere) and collecting sticks and twigs that are about the same width (roundness), it doesn't matter if they aren't the same length, cause you can cut them later. Also, try to collect all straight twigs. I used a few curved ones, and it made it hard to work with.

Next, lay all your sticks out. (I used 13 sticks for each flag.)
and trim the ones that need to be trimmed. You want all the sticks to be close to the same length, but they don't have to be exact.

Now, get your paint ready!
and paint away!!!! (only solid colors, NO STARS YET!)

(4) half red / half blue
(3) half white / half blue
(3) full white
(3) full red

Let the sticks dry completely. Once they are dried, I used a rough twine from Home Depot, but you can use any string you'd like. and wrap the "string" around the end of each painted twig 2 or 3 times.
Make sure your sticks are in the right order so your final product looks like the American Flag! :)

Once the sticks are tied together securely, I then painted some little white stars on the blue parts of the sticks. So that all of the stars can be seen!

Let the stars dry completely, and  Voilà!!

Below are a few pictures that may help you out if you want to try this easy and fun American project!

 

TA-DA!

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below!

-OR-

If you try out this project be sure to take a picture and leave it in a comment below, so I can see how wonderful your American Stick Flags turned out!