pin to present: DIY gift ideas

I've shared three of my four 2018 gift grids, full of ideas for what people in your life might want, need, wear (and read, coming tomorrow!), but sometimes it's nice to channel the gift giving spirit more toward making things with love, rather than just buying stuff. So: a recap of some of my favorite Pinterest-inspired DIY gift ideas. All easy and fairly inexpensive, but sure to be enjoyed and appreciated.

for neighbors, kids' teachers, etc.

Christmas "crack" - it's soooo yummy and easy!

homemade hot cocoa mix - also so easy, and simple to make cute and giftable in a mason jar with bow

for the hostess or the foodie

etched wooden spoons - who doesn't need more of these in their kitchen? Especially some polka dotted ones 

colorblock cutting boards - fun to customize to any one's favorite colors

for your lady friends

leather hair ties - I love a pretty version of a super useful thing, and I bet your girlfriends will too

jewelry dish - a great use for your favorite pretty Instagram photos!

for the kiddos

car ramp - so inexpensive to make, and worth HOURS of entertainment

dishcloth apron - perfect for the kiddo who likes to bake, or maybe who is getting a play kitchen for Christmas!

Are you DIYing any gifts this year? I haven't decided if I'm going to take on a project yet... or just keep buying paint by sticker books for everyone. It's not a DIY, but it lets your giftee have some of that kind of fun themselves!

pin to present: leather hair ties

I always think it's fun to have a little DIY to make for the ladies in my life at Christmas, and when I spotted these leather embellished hair ties on Pinterest, I knew immediately they would have to be this year's selection. I mean, how cute?! And extremely useful too.

Of course, I couldn't share them here until after Christmas, but they'd also be a great little Galentine's Day giftie too!

Since none of the fabric stores in my area carry leather, I wasn't able to track down a bag of leather scraps as suggested in the tutorial - but that did give me the chance to pick some really pretty colors that I found on Amazon. The little strips I ordered made 8-10 hair ties each, and so it took me under an hour to make up wayyyyy more of these than I needed for gifts and/or myself... So I would love to share some with you! Leave a comment with an email address, and I'll pick a winner in a few days to receive a little happy New Year package.

pin to present: candy ornaments

The day after Thanksgiving, Hendrik was ready immediately to get out the mini tree that I let him have and decorate (and re-decorate) to his heart's content last year. So I thought for this year it would be fun to try out an easy, kid-friendly, super inexpensive DIY I spotted on Pinterest: melted peppermint ornaments.

He loves my stash of cookie cutters almost as much as this little tree, so it was the perfect project. He got to dig through and pick out all of the Christmas cookie cutters, and then we just followed the instructions closely (important, because they can be finicky and brittle if you don't), and they turned out great! Totally worth the $1.50 for the mints - all of the other supplies I already had on hand.

Besides being a fun Thanksgiving weekend activity to do together, the bonus was that it was a great fine motor skills and spatial/puzzle activity for a preschooler: he was in charge of taking all of the individually-wrapped mints out, and then he also could work on fitting mints into the cookie cutter shapes, figuring out where he could place them to fill in gaps after I cut some of them into smaller pieces for him.

Other bonus: we had some leftovers, which I used for a tasty Pinterest-inspired treat - stay tuned for that next week!

pin to present: Thanksgiving table

It's right about this time every November that my mom and I start perusing Pinterest (okay, frantically searching) for Thanksgiving tablescape ideas. Which reminded me that I had a few snapshots of last year's Pinterest-inspired settings I hadn't yet shared!

We love a good kraft paper table topper, and - importantly - my mom still has remnants of a huge roll of it from my sister's wedding, so this one was pretty quick and easy, once I had cut out little cardboard templates for the utensils and could then trace them all on. And table settings with a nice candle glow are always a good touch - we opted for the safer LED versions, but lovely all the same.

How are you prepping Thanksgiving this year? I'm still thinking my herringbone pumpkins might be a good centerpiece option over here...

pin to present: DIY dino gloves

Hendrik was set for months on being a t-rex for Halloween, and while I turned to the more talented sewers of Etsy for his costume (that doubles as an adorable down vest!), Pinterest helped me fulfill his dreams of having some dino claws.

He was thrilled with these DIY dino claw gloves, and I loved how they were super easy and inexpensive - we picked out some of those $2 stretchy gloves at Target, and then I just tucked in the ends of each fingertip and took my glue gun to some felt triangles.

Though Halloween is now come and gone, I'm sure we'll get tons more use out of these being added to the dress-up drawer. If you have any kids in your life who are into pretend play, make a pair and make their day too! Just be prepared for having to explain that "dinosaurs have indoor voices too"...

pin to present: marbled phone case

I always love the sight of all my nail polishes lined up - the colors look so pretty together - so I've long wanted to do some kind of DIY with them so I could use a whole palette, rather than just one at a time. When I saw this marbled phone case from Lovely Indeed and I happened to have a clear phone case laying around? Pinned it and did it!

Now I have to admit that this is nearly a Pinterest fail (note the not so perfect lower right corner of the case...), but I wanted to share it anyway because I love the idea so much, and it was so super quick to make. We're talking probably under 5 minutes. And speed is actually key - the directions do say to work fast so that your polish doesn't dry before you have a chance to marbelize it, and I think I was not quite fast enough. Also, don't over-swirl to make the marble design - I had 3 lovely distinct colors going and then gave it just one extra swirl. Whoops, now it's just pink.

But where the marble effect worked, I love it! Enough that I will probably give it another go with another inexpensive case. Or maybe just find any other clear acrylic/plastic things I can think of to do this too - wouldn't it be cool on the bottom of an acrylic tray?

pin to present: prettified playscape

Our house came with a backyard playscape that Hendrik loves, but I can't say I loved its appearance so much - unfinished wood, mismatched swings, overgrown sandbox. So when I saw an idea on Pinterest to prettify a playscape with a fabric canopy, I started to get a little DIY itch and hunted down my staple gun...

And it looks pretty nice, doesn't it? (Even better when you compare with the "before" photo below!) I ordered some outdoor fabric while Joann's had a really good sale going, and I picked this fun yellow and white print to make that garish yellow color of the slide seem intentional. Switching out the swings for yellow ones helped bring it all together too.

The canopy is cool, but painting the whole structure is obviously the biggest and best transformation. It was a big undertaking, but totally worth it now that it's over.

Super pleased with how it turned out - though it is in the backyard, this makeover still ups our curb appeal, since the playscape is visible from the sidewalk. And Hendrik loves his new "pirate ship" and "monkey swing" too!

pin to present: Christmas [card] tree

Christmas cards are starting to arrive in my mailbox! I love reading the updates and seeing the smiling faces of my friends and family, but I have to admit that I like almost as much just having some "real" mail mixed in with the almost exclusively junk mailer normal days.

image: Better Homes and Gardens

And with the cards arriving, I thought I'd share a fun way to display them that I put together for Tiny Prints last year, inspired by Pinterest of course.

This is super easy and inexpensive to do - just need a big jar or pitcher, some pine branches (can get at a garden center, or go for a walk in the woods!), and a hole punch/string to turn your family and friend's lovely cards into ornaments. These ornament-shaped Christmas cards I got from Tiny Prints last year made it even easier - they come with their own string!

Want to check out part of this year's card design? See last week's Pinterest-inspired post. And how do you display the cards you receive? I want ideas for something else to try this year!

pin to present: colorblock cutting boards

Our recent Ikea visit to buy the play kitchen that I made over for Hendrik gave me the opportunity to pick up a little something that I've been wanting to makeover for my own kitchen: these inexpensive cute little cutting boards.

image: Lovely Indeed

Just went into my painting supply stash for some painter's tape, and my craft closet for some acrylic paint in fun colors, and voila! I don't think the paint is too dangerous to be near a surface that food will be on, especially since I kept it to the handle portion rather than the part that's actually getting cut on.

So cheap and easy for such a fun look. Wouldn't these make a great housewarming or hostess gift? Especially if you combine with some cheese to serve on it!

pin to present: Ikea play kitchen makeover

I love having a boy, but I admit there are a couple things that I was sad would be sort of out of the realm of this one: adorable shoes, coral accents in the nursery, and play kitchens - one of my favorite childhood kinds of toys. But Hendrik has been really into pretending to cook or grocery shop lately, using random things like felt shapes as "pasta" and more, enough that we thought a play kitchen would be the perfect birthday surprise.

image

And he loves it! Which is great, because not only did this satisfy my love of mini kitchens but it also made my Pinterest dreams come true - getting to make over an Ikea play kitchen after I've admired many adorable hacks.

Since I was planning to set it up in our dining room, I decided to make it coordinate with that room and our kitchen (see what the original looked like in the "shop the post" widget below!). The counter got covered in a black wood grain contact paper (mimicking our floors), the birch-colored portions spray painted white, the microwave and oven doors coated with chalkboard paint, and a cork backsplash added - great for tacking up some fun art. With a few fun accessories - wire basket, gingham towel - I think it turned into a rather cute little playspace for my mini chef.

We already had and loved  the Ikea pots + pans set, and then Hendrik also got some great wooden play food for his birthday to go with the kitchen - so he's been busy cooking. I'm getting breakfasts of "rabioli with salsa picante" and lunches of pots full of fruit. Fun for all!

pin to present: DIY car ramp

After showing off the finished playroom earlier this week, I now have to show off the latest addition: the car ramp. These days "cars and trucks" is Hendrik's first response whenever anyone asks what he wants to play, so I knew I just had to try out this DIY when I spotted it!

image: The Small Things Blog

Isn't this a fun idea? Prop it up to make a speedy ramp for the cars, or just lay it on the ground to drive cars off the end into a "parking lot" (Hendrik's favorite way to play). To make it, I found a piece of pine at Lowes that didn't even need to be cut. Then I got a piece of trim that I just had to cut in half, attach to the sides with wood glue, and spray paint black. The finishing touch is the awesome road tape.