What with looking for a new job, looking after our new kitten Ibuki (too cute!) and my parents anniversary!
But with all that's been going on I found time to create some super new diy projects that I want to share with you today.
My parents are always telling me how much they love diy and home-made items and are somewhat jealous of the items that I have created for our home. So I decided that for their anniversary I was going to create a basket ( or in this case a tray) full of loveliness for them.
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| The tray of goodies for my parents! |
Now as you can see some of the items are store-bought, for the simple reason that I cannot create something as wonderful as chocolate eclairs, Toblerone or beer!
I was sure to photograph some of the items I made this week but not all of them. Nearly all of the items made I got from different sites. So if you need a better tutorial you can always look on those sites!
1. The peg candle-holder
For this candle holder all you need are pegs, paint & paintbrush (if you want to paint the pegs that is), glue, a glass jar (I used a washed food jar but you can use anything as long as the pegs cover the glass) and a candle.
My mum loves the colour green so I decided to paint the pegs green. I did this part first because the paint took a while to dry and it gave me a head start on some of the other projects. Once the paint was dry I simply started glueing the pegs onto the jar with super glue. Once they were all glued on I decided to paint the jar on the inside to finish it of. Place a candle in it, and a candle holder is born! I only made one but if you have a few of these they looks nice on a warm day in the garden or a cold winter day. It makes the house somewhat cosier!
2. Personal tea and coffee mugs
I got this idea for personal mugs from the blog A Beautiful Mess (check it out!). It is the simplest gift ever and you can make the mugs as personal as you want as the text on it can be whatever you feel like writing!
All you need are two mugs ( I chose white) and a permanent marker. Make sure to wash the mugs beforehand to remove any dirt or dust. This could prevent the marker from taking to the porcelain.
After you have written the text of choice on the mug, let it dry. To make sure it has stuck properly, I washed the mugs afterwards. The marker stayed on! When you give these gifts make sure to tell the person not to put them in the dishwasher as the marker will come off!
3. Tea bags!
I.Love.Tea. And thankfully so do my parents! I bought the loveliest tea when we were on holiday in Spain and my Mum loves it. I wanted to give her some of it, but in a nice way. Not just stuffed in a tin! When browsing the internet for ideas I found this link which was perfect! These babies were quite a bit of work to make as I don't have a sewing machine and had to do all the stitching by hand. It can be done but a sewing machine is way easier!
You will need: coffee filters, loose tea leaves, scissors, a sewing machine OR needle and embroidery thread, a stapler and paper for tags. You can make the tags out of any paper you have lying around. I used a red envelope I had lying around ( Inever throw stuff out! It can always come in handy!)
What you do first is cut the the coffee filters into squares. After you have the amount of squares you need to create the amount of tea bags you want, you stitch three sides of the tea bag together leaving one of the sides open.
Fill the tea bags with the tea of choice. I used two tea spoons of tea leaves which pretty much filled up the entire bag.
Next you stitch up the top of the bag. You should have all four sides stitched up now.
Get a piece of embroidery thread and staple it to the bag.
Cut the tag you want on the bag and staple or glue it to the thread.
Et Voila! You have your home made tea bags!
After you have written the text of choice on the mug, let it dry. To make sure it has stuck properly, I washed the mugs afterwards. The marker stayed on! When you give these gifts make sure to tell the person not to put them in the dishwasher as the marker will come off!
3. Tea bags!
I.Love.Tea. And thankfully so do my parents! I bought the loveliest tea when we were on holiday in Spain and my Mum loves it. I wanted to give her some of it, but in a nice way. Not just stuffed in a tin! When browsing the internet for ideas I found this link which was perfect! These babies were quite a bit of work to make as I don't have a sewing machine and had to do all the stitching by hand. It can be done but a sewing machine is way easier!
You will need: coffee filters, loose tea leaves, scissors, a sewing machine OR needle and embroidery thread, a stapler and paper for tags. You can make the tags out of any paper you have lying around. I used a red envelope I had lying around ( Inever throw stuff out! It can always come in handy!)
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| Tea bag end result |
Fill the tea bags with the tea of choice. I used two tea spoons of tea leaves which pretty much filled up the entire bag.
Next you stitch up the top of the bag. You should have all four sides stitched up now.
Get a piece of embroidery thread and staple it to the bag.
Cut the tag you want on the bag and staple or glue it to the thread.
Et Voila! You have your home made tea bags!
4. DIY playing cards!
Me and my family used to have game nights like all the time! We loved spending evenings inside playing any time of game you can imagine, especially card games. So when I found this diy I knew I just had to make these cards! I used old and new pictures I had on my laptop to create these playing cards.
All you need is: pack of playing cards, pictures you want to print, glue, printer, photo printing paper and some scissors.
First I resized the pictures I wanted to print to fit the playing cards. I printed them onto photo paper to make the colours really come out.
I simply cut the pictures out and glued them onto the playing cards. Let them dry before stacking them as you don't want them to stick together.
And there you go! You have your very own personal playing cards!
Me and my family used to have game nights like all the time! We loved spending evenings inside playing any time of game you can imagine, especially card games. So when I found this diy I knew I just had to make these cards! I used old and new pictures I had on my laptop to create these playing cards.
All you need is: pack of playing cards, pictures you want to print, glue, printer, photo printing paper and some scissors.
First I resized the pictures I wanted to print to fit the playing cards. I printed them onto photo paper to make the colours really come out.
I simply cut the pictures out and glued them onto the playing cards. Let them dry before stacking them as you don't want them to stick together.
And there you go! You have your very own personal playing cards!
They make great gifts for everyone and every occassion. Even for someone who doesn't play cards that much, it will make a great gift as it's another way to display pictures in the house!
5.Pompom garland
My parents have a beautiful garden and love flowers. So I wanted to make flowers that they could display in their home and in their garden when the weather alows it.
I found this easy and cute way of making a flower garland.
What you need for this diy: Crepe paper ( I used three different colours but you can use as many as you like), scissors, twine, stapler.
My parents have a beautiful garden and love flowers. So I wanted to make flowers that they could display in their home and in their garden when the weather alows it.
I found this easy and cute way of making a flower garland.What you need for this diy: Crepe paper ( I used three different colours but you can use as many as you like), scissors, twine, stapler.
First you cut the crepe paper into squares of aprox. 15x15 cm.
Stack five sheets of crepe paper onto each other and fold into an accordeon.
Stack five sheets of crepe paper onto each other and fold into an accordeon.
Tie a piece of twine around the middle of the bundle and use scissors to trim the ends into a point. You can trim the ends into half a circle to give the flowers a softer edge.
Fan out the folds and gently pull each sheet forward. Do the same on the other side and fluff out the flower when finished.
Continue to add flowers to the twine until you feel you have a long enough garland.
You can hang the garland anywhere you want. Hang them in the garden during a party to add to the feeling of happines or you could hang them in the kitchen, like my mum!
Fan out the folds and gently pull each sheet forward. Do the same on the other side and fluff out the flower when finished.
Continue to add flowers to the twine until you feel you have a long enough garland.
You can hang the garland anywhere you want. Hang them in the garden during a party to add to the feeling of happines or you could hang them in the kitchen, like my mum!
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| What with the colours and the cactus it looks like a mexican kitchen! |
My parents loved the tray of goodies I made them due to the fact that most of it was homemade. It just shows that little bit more effort and thought you put into the presents.
I hope you have been inspired to create more homemade gifts for your loved ones!
Thanks for letting me share and have a good week!
xox Elena
Listening to: Jake Bugg
