DIY: Sugar skull candy bowl

Yep, it's that time of year again!

I had so much fun making my Halloween apothecary last year that I've decided to get creative again this year.

Halloween is one of my favorite time of year to do crafts and decorate. There's just so much creative freedom. You can get as wild as you want and no one will blink twice.

I actually started this project last year but never got around to finishing it. You know how it goes right? You start a million projects on an inspiration wave, then you loose it and half of those projects get forgotten in a distant corner of the house for a few months...and sometimes more.

Does anyone else do that?

I've also been known to go into a craft store for a very specific thing and come back out 3 hours later with half the store in my bags. Oh, did I mention my very awesome and patient husband was waiting in the car the whole time?

Yea, he doesn't come anymore. 

Back to my project. So I saw this skull at the dollar store and I immediately thought it would be fun to turn it into a sugar skull to decorate my living room.

When I shared my idea with my husband, he mentioned it would be cool if it was a candy bowl. I swear, he's totally a creative inside. So off he went to drill. Awesome right?

So anyway, this super skull is chilling on my table right now, but I took out all of the candy because otherwise, my toddlers will at them all in a single sitting.

Have you created anything for Halloween? Are you making your own costume? What will you dress up as?

My boys and husband have asked to be the 3 musketeers so that's what my next project is going to be. If you're looking for me in the next 2 weeks, I'll either be raiding the dollar store or at my sewing machine.

See you all next week! :)

Materials

Plastic skull
Acrylic paints
Paint brush
Palette
Artificial flowers
Glue gun
Candy (!!)

Steps

1. Paint the entire skull white. I used spray paint but you can just as easily use a paint brush and acrylics. 
2. Cut a hole at the top to insert your candy. I asked my husband to do it with his hand drill, it took him about 2 minutes. 
3. Paint the eye sockets, nose hole and teeth outline in black. You can use any color you want at this point, have fun and be creative! 
4. Decorate with pretty patterns around the eyes, the forehead and chin. You can embellish with faux jewels or even glitter! 
5. Cut some artificial flowers and hot glue them around the head to form a flower crown. I glued them around the hole. 
6. Fill with candy and enjoy!

DIY: Basic shea coconut lip balm

Ever since I made my homemade + natural moisturizing lotion recipe, I've been on a quest to eliminate as many chemicals from my home as possible. Some of it involves making my own products like these homemade baby wipes. I've also been trying out a few cleaning and body care products from different brands.

It's been quite an intense journey to be honest, mainly because my life has been on overload recently, but also because I never realized just how many chemicals are around us on a daily basis, it's actually kind of scary! Anything from our skin care routine, to bathing, to cleaning our home, in our food, even our mattress and our car contains harmful chemicals, can you imagine?



With that being said, I have no intention of turning into a full on Green Holistic Naturalist (or whatever you call people that are 100% natural living) but I do hope to find some kind of balance and be more intentional in my everyday life without compromising my happiness and that of my family. Life is just to short to not enjoy everything you love.

Today I want to share with you a super easy basic shea coconut lip balm recipe. I'm using raw, pure and fair trade Shea butter from Kariderm. It's my absolute favorite product from their company. The texture is super light, it absorbs quickly and has intense moisturizing action. I use it in practically all of my homemade body care products.

MATERIALS

1 tsp Shea butter
1 tsp Coconut oil
2 tsp Beeswax (grated)

TOOLS

Glass bowl
Pot
Pipette
Lip balm tube

DIRECTIONS

Heat all ingredients in a glass bowl over a hot pot of water, on low heat. If you have a double boiler, you can use that too. When I'm in a hurry, I do it in small increments in the microwave, but I really don't like using the microwave too much so the stove top is my favorite way. Once everything is melted, mix it a bit, then transfer the mixture to the lip balm tube using the pipette (the recipe is enough for 2 tubes). Wait until it cools and enjoy!



This is super quick and easy to make and it's surprisingly moisturizing. It's been my go-to natural lip balm for quite some time now and although I keep trying different brands once in a while, I always return to my homemade one. It's also a super fun, thoughtful and intentional gift to make for your friends and family.

What kind of skin care products have you tried making at home?

Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by Kariderm. The Shea butter was sent to me at no cost. All thoughts expressed in this post are my own.

DIY: Faux starfish garland

Not so long ago, I shared how to make faux starfish. I originally made them to decorate my son's birthday party, little accents to put on the table and on the shelves, but I ended up liking them so much that I started making other things with them. Like this new faux starfish garland!

Last year, I decided to change my living decor with each season. I've been working on different color combos and experimenting in the past year, and it will definitely evolve over time (what doesn't right?) but for this summer, as you noticed from my brushstroke wall art, I decided to go with a beach/ocean theme with peach/orange and mint/green as my accent colors. 



I really enjoy decorating and creating new pieces for my home. The process is slow because of everything else I need to do in the little time I have, but every time I sit in my living room, ideas just keep coming.

What color combo have you chosen for your living room decor? Do you go for bright colors or more neutral ones? Do you like changing things up once in a while? 

MATERIALS

Faux starfish
Rope
Tule ribbon
Thread

When you're making the starfish for this project, make sure that you poke a hole through one of the legs of the star so you can hang them. You can do this with a toothpick.

STEPS

Put the rope and the tule side by side and attach the starfish (through the hole!) at set intervals. You can measure about where you'd like the stars to be using a ruler. Then you hang it! I have little nails on my fireplace where I usually hang our Christmas stockings so I use those to attach the garland at every star, if you don't have those, you can simple add little push pins that you can remove later, or just hang it from each end (it'll give a slightly different look, but still fun!).





There you have it. I seriously love the end result.

DIY: Easy brush stroke abstract wall art

Perfection. Is there even such a thing?

This weekend, I finally mustered up the courage to paint some abstract art for my living room decor. Courage you ask? Sounds silly doesn't it. The truth is, I often put projects aside because I worry it won't be "perfect" and I don't want to throw away my money making something I may not keep or love. Writing it down makes it seem pretty futile.

Ok, not wanting to waste money is pretty admirable in this day and age, but how can you learn anything, if you never try it? 



Do you guys remember this wall art I made for my son's room? Oh, and this mobile? It's been a while since I tried making some fun art to decorate my home and I missed it. It's so much fun and so easy.

MATERIALS

Acrylic paints (your choice of colors)
Brushes (different types)
Foam board
Empty palette

I  chose to use a foam board because it's cheaper than buying a huge canvas. This one is 20x30 inches. Before I commit to something, I like to try it out first and this seemed like the perfect way. I got the acrylics at the dollar store a long time ago and craft wise, it was probably the best investment I made. Sure, they aren't the best, but all the projects I've made with them have lasted a long time and the colors have not faded. Plus, the sizes are relatively big, so I get to use them on a lot of projects.

STEPS

1. Select your colors and brushes.
2. Starting with the biggest brush and your main color, paint simple strokes randomly.
3. Lighten your colors and add some more strokes with the same brush. Make sure you clean your brush between each color.
4. Using a different brush, add a simple pattern in a neutral color (I chose black dots).





And voilà! Pretty easy and it took me a whole 10 minutes to make. Not bad right?

Personally, I like to contrast colors. Blue and yellow, orange and green... you get the idea. I find it adds a fun twist to any kind of art. I chose orange and turquoise for this piece because those are the accent colors I'm hoping to use for my summer decor. I'm a bit late starting I know, with all that's been happening around here I haven't exactly been inspired to do anything, but it's ok, because there's always next year.

I'm really excited to try decorating with different color palettes for each season. That way I don't have to commit to anything and we won't get tired of seeing any particular decor. I'm keeping all my main items neutral in color, white, black, dark brown and gold, so that it's easy to dress up.

Do you have any decor tips?

DIY: How to make faux starfish

Hi guys!

As some of you may know, last year at around this time, I gave birth to a second beautiful baby boy. It's been a true blessing to be surrounded by so much pure joy and love. Alas my return to work was inevitable, and so a new life has begun.

Other than my return to full time employment, a lot has happened since I last posted. We planted our garden and worked on our yard a lot. We visited the zoo and spent some quality alone time together as a family. I also had to slowly integrate my 1yo to daycare (my heart just shattered right there), we took turns being sick (ugh!) and dealt with loss. It's just been a rough few months and we're not out of the woods yet.

On a happier note, both of my boys celebrated their birthday this month, so I spent a lot of time in decor & food projects. As I'm sure a lot of you can relate, not all of my projects worked out quite as planned.

First, there was the beach look-alike cake I tried to make. I made a white cake and crumbled it so it would look like sand. I put the pieces in a cake mold to cover half the space, then I added a cookie sheet to put blue jello on the other side (you know... water). The cake ended up super dense because I pressed it too much, and the jello ended up soaking the edges of the cake. Anyway, it was a complete failure, but we ate it anyway!

Then there was the fire mantle which I thought would look awesome painted gold. It does not. I mean, it doesn't look bad, per se, but it sure as hell don't look like I thought it would. It just looks too gold. You know? Anyway, it's going to stay like that for a while because with my full time job, amongst everything else, I just don't have time for the details.

I also made a kind of starfish/flower birthday crown for my baby. It looks OK, but it's not fabulous. To be honest, I probably tried to be too fancy with my ideas. Sometimes simple is best.

I made a ton of other things with random materials and props, like fabric, cardboard, flowers, paint, shells, faux starfish, glitter, glue... and I will be sharing those which I had time to photograph.

For the projects that didn't plan out, I'll be posting some of them anyway since they technically still are good ideas. I might give them an update in the future, see if I can make it work better. Who knows, it might inspire someone!

Without further ado, here is how I made faux starfish with polymer clay for my littlest's beach themed party.

Materials

Polymer clay (I used Sculpey, but I prefer Fimo)
Acrylic paint

Tools

Exacto knife
Toothpicks
Cookie sheet
Paint brush
Paint palette

Steps

1. Warm up you clay by working it with your hands.
2. Make a ball then flatten it.
3. With an exacto, make 5 triangle incisions & remove the extra clay.
4. Round off the edges with your warm hands.
5. Using a toothpick poke little holes over the surface of your faux starfish.
6. If you plan on hanging them, push a hold through one of the arms. (Optional)
7. Bake according to the manufacturer's instructions.
8. Paint as you see fit; I mixed white and orange together to make my starfish a pale orange-y color.



There you have it! Beautiful starfish using clay.

I used these in a number of projects so stay tuned, in coming posts, I'll be showing you a few things you can make with your beautiful faux starfish!

A quick + easy Easter center piece

Add a punch of color to your Easter festivities with this easy center piece.
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Today I want to share a super quick and easy Easter center piece idea with you guys. I love adding small touches of color around my house for special holidays and seasons. I always find it refreshing to mix things up and modify parts of my home without changing everything around.

I was shopping at the dollar store for some plastic eggs to use in my Easter egg hunt game and I stumbled across this super colorful and shiny Easter grass. I ended up buying it on an impulse not really knowing what to do with it. Then I remembered I had this big empty vase and figured I could stuff it with the grass and turn it into a center piece for my dinner table. Who doesn't like inexpensive and quick decorations?

MATERIALS:
Easter grass
Glass vase



Like I said before this is a super easy way to decorate you table. All you need to do is layer the Easter grass in your vase and bam! you've got yourself a pretty rad punch of color.



If you have any plastic eggs left over from the Easter egg hunt, you can randomly place them on the table when you set it for your Easter dinner. I also put some in the wine glasses. If you're hosting a more adult-friendly dinner, you can always hide some mini chocolate eggs in the plastic eggs you put in the glasses instead of playing the egg hunt game. I'm sure everyone will love a sweet treat.



How do you decorate your home for Easter?

In case you're wondering what the center piece looks like on my table when it's not set for dinner... ;) Who said plastic flowers from the dollar store couldn't be fancy?

DIY: Acorn mobile

After I made my fall garland I had some acorns left over and I had some empty space above my fire place so I made a cute little decorative mobile. It's super easy to make.

MATERIALS:
Acorns
Branch
Thin gold wire
String

TOOLS:
Scissors
Pliers



1. The first thing I did is wrap the gold wire around the branch. This is to add a little bit of color and at the same time, it allows to hang the mobile. See how I made one of the hoops a bit bigger?


2. After preparing the branch, I tied all the acorns together. Don't forget to glue the tops so the acorn doesn't fall off it's top!


3. Lastly, I tied the acorn string to the branch and added a few of the extra attached one (from the fall garland) to each side.


Isn't it just cute? You could even paint them if you want, to add a punch of color, or maybe even add some beads between the acorns. I might end up making different variations of this over the next few years; something fun to do with my kids in the fall. :)

DIY: Nature hunt + fall garland

Fall always makes me want to go on nature hunts. I remember collecting lots of fallen leaves as a child and carefully putting them away in books to dry. I never ended up doing anything with them though. Such a shame since so many beautiful things can be made with them.

This year, my son has been rediscovering the seasons. At 2 years old I find he's a lot more alert and curious. I've been playing a lot of discovery games with him, one of which involves exploring and gathering; a nature hunt! It involves picking random things outdoors and building collections or finding things I ask for, sort of like hide and seek. I'm not sure who enjoyed this activity more, my son, or myself but it's definitely something I plan on doing more often, especially during summer and fall.

We picked so many wonderful things that I thought it would be fun to get creative and make some decorations for our home. Today I'll be sharing my fall garland and next week my acorn mobile so don't forget to check back next Monday. :)

MATERIALS:
Random outdoor pickings (I have leaves, branches and acorns)
String
Thin wire

TOOLS:
Scissors
Glue gun
Pliers



1. The first thing I did is dry the leaves. I just used an old book and carefully placed them between pages overnight.


2. While the leaves were drying, I made sure the tops of the acorns were stuck on properly. When they fall from the trees they come loose so I strongly suggest gluing them. I then attached them in bunches of 2 to hang on the garland.


3. Next, I tied some of the branches to the string by twisting a thin gold wire around both.


4. Once the leaves were dry I glued them together in bunches of 3 and the glued them to the string between each branch.


5. Last, I hung the garland and added the little acorns. I switched them around the garland a bit until I settled for next to the leaves. That's really where it looks best.


There you have it, a super cute fall pickings garland with leaves, acorns and branches. Excuse the spiders and skulls, that was part of my Halloween decor. ;)

Have you made decorations with things you collected outside before?

DIY: Make your own wall stencil

Ever since we bought our first home 2 years ago, I've been wanting to decorate. DECORATE! Every time I run ideas by my husband though, more often than not, I'm faced with rejection. At first I wanted to try a false brick wall. He said no because he was worried that if we didn't like it, we wouldn't be able to remove it. Ok, I agree. On to the next idea; wallpaper. That got the same response. A white trim at 1/3 of the wall got a maybe.

Then I saw this super cute wall on Mer Mag and the stencil idea got a yes because it could easily be painted over. Oh my god a YES! After that, I just knew I had to try to make my own. I wanted to paint clouds on my son's wall so bad that I was dreaming about it every night. Ok, maybe not that much, but I just couldn't shake the idea. I'm glad I ended up doing it because it makes the room look so much brighter.

I haven't finished decorating yet but the new accent wall is one step closer to making the room complete. I've been trying to make it a bit of a Montessori style and I'm really glad I did. My son just loves having everything at his level. He does belly flaps on his bed and takes pride in aligning his book neatly on the little shelves. He's just too adorable this one.

MATERIALS
Paint
Sponge roller
Paint dispenser (or whatever that black thing you pour the paint into is called, lol)
Painter's tape
Pencil
Paper
Clear paper
X-Acto Knife



1. To start, I drew the shape I wanted on a piece of paper. It took me a few tries to get exactly what I wanted but it turned out super cute. At this point you can draw pretty much anything you want. You could even do geometric shapes.



2. Using an X-Acto (and a piece of cardboard to protect my surface), I cut out the shape.



3. I stuck a grid on the wall using painter's tape. Each square is the same size as the piece of clear paper I cut my stencil out of.



4. I taped the stencil in one of the squares and painted the shape with the roller. At first, I thought if I used a tiny bit of paint, that it wouldn't go under the stencil and ruin the shape, but it did because I had to go over it so many times. I then tried by rolling an ample amount of paint on right away and it was much better. I also tried to roll the paint from the outside in as much as possible. Every time I moved my stencil to another square, I made sure to wipe any excess paint off from the under side. Oh, and please don't laugh at my funky hairdo. It was one of those days. ;)



5. I painted a cloud in every other square on the grid and did opposing squares in the next row.



Overall, this project took about 2 hours but I went back over the shapes the next day just to make sure they were well painted so it took me just over 3 hours total.

When my 2 year old son saw me painting clouds on his wall his initial reaction was: "Waaaoooow"... and he just kept repeating it every time he entered his room. I'm pretty sure that means I won. God I love that little mister.