Key/Change Holder Dish

In keeping with the key ring theme, we are making key/change “dishes” as a gift that you can give dad for Father’s Day. They come in quite handy. You can also use these dishes to hold jewelry or little knick knacks.

You can make these dishes from lots of different things. We are going with ceramic dishes and we are using a very cool technique to decorate them. 

You don’t need very many things to create this cool little gift. All you need is some nail polish (your choice what colours you’d like to use; we went with blues), a big plastic tub filled with warm water so you can dunk your dish, and a ceramic dish of some sort (we found a couple at the dollar store).

First of all prepare your work area and put some newspapers down. You might want to have some paper towels and some nail polish remover with cotton pads on stand by. You may also want to wear some latex gloves to protect your hands.

Fill a tub, big enough to dunk the dishes that you have selected, with warmer water.

First we drizzled the nail polish on the surface of the water, swirling it around to make a cool pattern.

Then we dipped the ceramic plate (we also made a little bowl) in slowly and the nail polish will stick to the plate. Don't wait too long after drizzling the nail polish to dip. It may start drying.

Once you have the plate etc. looking as you want it, find a good place to let it dry for a couple of days.

You don’t have to do this last step, but we used a protectant spray to keep our polish sealed on the plate.

Painted Wooden Spoons

Only a few more days until Mother’s Day and this week we’re showing you how to make a simple and easy gift...painted wooden spoons.

You can make this for any occasion; a house warming would be a great idea too.

You will need some wooden spoons. You can go to a dollar store to pick up some inexpensive ones or you can go to a kitchen store and buy good quality spoons; you can even make your own wooden spoons if you have the time and skills. If you get the shiny type spoons, you may have to sand them down a bit before painting.

Before we get started we should mention that you would probably want some sort of protectant or curing done if you want to actually use the spoons and not just have them as a decorative item in your kitchen - or else be really careful not to let the painted part touch the food. You can use a food safe protectant or you can cure the spoons (like in this blog here).

We’re going to paint the spoons in an ombre sort of way and we’ve chosen to do them in shades of blue. You can certainly do them this way or you can make the handles a solid colour or a variety of colours. They don’t all have to match and they can be in whatever colours you choose.

We just kind of went for it. We used sponge brushes to apply our paint and we just eyeballed the stripes. You can use painter’s tape if you want it to be more exact and straight.

We put the painted spoons in a mug to dry so that they weren't laying flat on the newspaper getting stuck to things. 

After doing one coat of each colour, we let the spoons dry or a few hours and then applied another coat.

We let them completely dry for a few days.

Since we are just using the spoons as decorations, we’re going to leave them as is (that is without a protectant or cure).

To finish off your spoon decoration gift, you can tie them all up with a thick ribbon and give them to mom on Mother’s Day.

Mother's Day Gift Certificate

Now that Easter is done, the next holiday on the way is Mother’s Day. To get prepared for that we have a few posts of some neat crafts and a yummy meal that you can make.

This week is a fun little craft that you can make for mom especially if you want to give her an “experience” as opposed to an actual physical gift.

We are going to show you a couple of versions of a gift certificate that you can make for your mom. Certificates are a little different from the coupon book of things that mom can ask you to do when she chooses to redeem them. We’ve made a couponbook for Father’s Day in the past and that is a cool idea if you want have a bunch of things that you want to give your mom. If you have a special idea of something that you want to do for your mom or with your mom, then this is a great idea.

You don’t need many supplies to make these certificates. All you need is some cardstock, punches and stamps if you choose to use those, glue, ribbon (again if you choose to use some), scissors, and a cutting machine if you have one.

We have a couple of versions for you that you can make.

The first one utilizes a cutting machine that will cut out things or write/draw things onto your certificate. It’s fairly simple to do. You just need to choose cardstock and lay it out in the software.  Just cut a certificate to fit inside of a card and then have your machine write the words you want and have it draw a couple of pictures to match your gift which you can clour afterwards.

The second one is more kid friendly but it’s also done without a cutting machine because not everyone has one to use. Pick some colours for your certificate first. Choose what gift you want to give your mom and then on a piece of cardstock (you can layer a lighter more neutral piece on top of a coloured piece), print the words you’d like on the certificate and then cut down to the size that will fit inside your card or envelope. Then you can decorate with punches and stamps and cut outs or even print pictures on the same layer as the words and colour them. We've done two for you to see...

Fun Gift Wrapping

With just a few days left before Christmas, many of us are probably scrambling to wrap the gifts we bought for others. I know that’s the way I usually am! If you want to spruce up your gifts a bit this year then we can help. I know it’s the thought that counts for the gift, but when it comes to the “wrapper” it’s kind of nice to have something a little bit more exciting and different. Some times when I get a fancy wrapped gift I get truly excited just for the gift wrap and I don’t want to open it; it could almost be a decoration. I think it’s so much fun wrapping gifts especially if you do it in an interesting way. I often will find different shaped boxes to wrap my gifts in, maybe add some rocks inside etc. to make it seem like something totally opposite from what’s actually in there. You can also wrap the gift in your own homemade wrapping which we shared with you a couple of Christmas’ ago - see it here.

You can also turn your gift into a decoration to make it look like something else, like these ones...

After looking at your gift, decide on a “thing” to turn it into. Some shaped gifts are easier to turn into things than others.

Be creative. Start off by wrapping your presents in a plain brown wrap or newsprint and then go from there.

If you wrapped coloured paper around the gift then you can draw things onto it to give it depth like seen in the fireplace gifts. You can also paint it or colour it with felt if you prefer, like the doghouse and car. The giant sled has some cardstock attachments and some colouring on it.

To alter your gift shape a bit, you can use cardstock to add on shapes as most of these gifts have.

You can attach tissue, sticks, cardstock cut outs, or even felt/fabric like how the stockings are on one of the fireplace mantles.

You can also attach things on the outside to elevate your gift.

Wrap your presents first in the wrapping paper of your choice.

For the angels paint a face on cardstock. The body and the wings are made of wide gold ribbon with the wire edge so you can position them as you like. A skinny ribbon gets attached on for the arms. Then used gold braid as accent but you can also use it for the hair. Just pull it apart gently and attached as desired. Glue it all on with a glue gun directly onto the wrapped gift.

The candle gift was also wrapped first and then the candles were attached afterwards. To make the candles, little cylinder tubes were wrapped in red tissue paper (you can make some from cardboard or cardstock if you have nothing like that hanging around your house). The holly used to cover the ends of the candles was real but you can use fake as well. Then attach flames made from shiny gold wrapping paper and adorn with little festive bits like bells, ribbon, bows etc.

However you wrap your presents will be much appreciated I’m sure, but if you want to try something a little different now you have some ideas to run with!

Stocking Stuffers

Now that we have your advent calendar ready for the lead up to Christmas, it is time to think about stocking stuffer gifts to get for your loved ones. I find that it’s always best to shop as far in advance as possible because the closer to Christmas we get, the more busy and stressful the shops get which is so overwhelming to me.

We’re gonna break this into two categories, humans and pets.

Everyone in the house deserves to have their own stocking with their name on it or decorated to represent them, even your pets! We have come up with some fun ideas for gifts to give to your pet friends this Christmas. You can also make them some toys and treats which we’ll be talking more about in the next blog.

Now time for you human loved ones. Here are some of our favourite things to fill up stocking with.