semi-personalized semi-DIY mug gift.

I saw a DIY on a blog ages ago that included a soda and mini bottle of alcohol, and the soda can was sitting in a mason jar. It was the cutest thing, and I thought that it would be such an adorable gift idea for a housewarming, or even just because.I finally had a bunch of mini bottles lying around (stocking stuffers from my roommate), and some soda (my roommate's boyfriends' cans), so I decided to give putting them all together a whirl. However, even though we have 4,920 mason jars in this house — we drink out of small ones, we make salads in big ones — I couldn't fit a can in the opening of any of them (I'm not sure what type was used in the post I saw all those months back. I could swear it was a mason jar, but I can't find the freakin' post). So to improvise, I used initial mugs from Anthro, which actually worked perfectly because they're one of the most common gifts I give people (even though I make custom ones, these are too classic to overlook). Once you have the mug/mason jar/drinking receptacle ready to go, you can use twine like I did, or ribbon, to attach the mini bottles to the top. If I were actually giving these two as a gift, I would have slipped a tag into the knot with a little note, and probably would've wrapped them up in a clear gift bag with some confetti. It's a small gift, but it's a sweet idea for little occasions or just to have something so as not to show up empty-handed to a party. Friends, you may see one of these puppies in your near future (spoiler alert).

one little word 2016 | diy canvas.

The first year I did one little word, I made two canvases (this one and this one) to represent my word and keep it in the forefront of my mind by putting them somewhere I'd see them every day. I continued that tradition last year and made a canvas using my word's definition, so this year making another one was a no-brainer. Like the previous two years, I kept it simple, though this time I combined both methods used in the others — a little bit of black and white (and pink) paint and a gold paint marker (because, again, when am I not breaking that thing out? Exhibit A and B). I sloppily applied the paint, let it dry, then outlined my word, "contentment," in skinny gold capitals.I like making these simple canvases for this purpose because they keep the spotlight on the word itself without being in my face. The 2014 and 2015 canvases are a part of a gallery wall in my room (which I keep meaning to take photos of), but I put this one over my desk so it kind of has it's own little spot for the year. I'm hoping that seeing it every day will really help me work on myself this to truly be a more content person in twenty sixteen.
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One Little Word is a workshop run by Ali Edwards in which participants choose one word to focus on for an entire year. Read about Ali's OLW here, and see all of my related posts for OLW 2014 here, 2015 here, and 2016 here.

etsy/blog business cards.

It's been on my list of things to do — and my 26 things list — to reopen my etsy shop. Well, I think it's finally going to happen, people. My friend Alyssa asked me to make mugs (like the ones I used to sell) for her coworkers, and it's the second year in a row she asked me if I'd mind, since I don't sell them anymore. As soon as she asked, I knew I wanted to do it, because it had been so long. Because of this eagerness, I decided that the ideas I have for my Etsy shop seriously need to be executed asap, so I jumped onto overnight prints to make some business cards.I know that seems backwards, but that's kind of the way I operate. In my head I thought, if I have super cool, official looking business cards, I'll be inspired to want to get my ass into gear with the Etsy shop and start creating again. So, that's what I did.I designed a business card using a bunch of photos of my custom mugs and a few of the stamps out of the ones I've made for myself that I think will be good sellers online. With the pictures on one side, I took to the other side to add some of my info (because, duh) and used a red color as a base because it matched the flowers in one of the photos on the backside. I typed in the details that I wanted on the card — it was important for me to include my blog address as well as my shop link — and added my name to the top in my own handwriting.

And that's that. Overnight prints took about three weeks to deliver my cards, but seeing as I was in no rush (I didn't want to reopen my shop before Christmas because I didn't have the time to work on mugs or ordering stamps during the month of December) it all worked out fine. I'm looking forward to slipping these into orders when I officially reopen my shop in the new year.

the easiest diy ornaments.

Since this is the first Christmas in mine and my roommates' house, we didn't have all that many ornaments for our Christmas tree. I wanted to make something personalized for all of us, so I bought some simple white ornaments from Michael's, and broke out my gold paint marker (because let's be honest, when am I not breaking that thing out?).I made an ornament for each of the five of us with our names on them, one for the house with our house nickname, "East MAK Inn," and one with a 2015 on it. This was literally the easiest diy project I've ever done, but they're probably my favorite ornaments on our tree this year, so win.

easy DIY pumpkin with gold lettering.

This literally isn't even worth a post, but for anyone looking for the ultimate last-minute DIY pumpkin decorating idea, this is it.I used a craftsmart gold paint marker to hand-letter "happy halloween" onto a small pumpkin. It took about five minutes, if that. And boom goes the dynamite.

703 days of max and sky.

On my 26 Things list I had "Make something that contains all of the photos of my time with Max and Skylar over the last two years." I turned to Blurb to make a photo book with (almost) all of the photos I'd taken of Max and Sky while I was their nanny.I decided to go in chronological order because that made the most sense after I named the project "703 Days of Max and Sky." Obviously that means Sky doesn't pop up until the end, but I think my favorite part is watching Max grow with each flipping page from a one-year-old to an almost four-year-old.Though Max and Sky will always be in my life, I'll never be their nanny again, and I wanted to make sure that I had one solid thing to remind me of how special that time was. Photos aren't meant to be on your computer, which is why photo memory keeping is my favorite kind.This book is something I'll always have, and I'm positive I'll be flashing it around at Max's wedding. ;) I didn't photograph the 200+ page book, but these photos are of some of my favorite pages.

patriotic mason jar floral centerpiece.

I saw this mason jar centerpiece all over the place when I was looking for Fourth of July things on pinterest, and fell in love. It was a super easy DIY — all you need is three mason jars, red, white, and blue paint, and some beautiful flowers.

I painted one jar blue and the other two white, then when they were all dry I painted white stars onto the blue one (not well, I might add), and red stripes to the white ones (also, not well). If you care about it looking neat and polished, I'd recommend taping off the white for the stripes and using a stencil for the stars, but I kind of just went at it with all the wrong size brushes, and I'm into the imperfect way they turned out. I bought white daisies to put in the jars — one of my favorites — and called it a day.

animal bookends.

I saw these bookends on pinterest from the pottery barn teen website (no longer available), and I remember that they were at least $40. So I pinned them to my DIY board because I knew that I could make them, and they wouldn't have to be blue, and they wouldn't have to be be dogs. And then with the whole, "I'm going to spray paint everything gold and buy all of the plastic elephants the world has made" phase of my life (which may still be ongoing, stay tuned), I remembered this pin from long ago and decided to get cracking (because Lord knows I have more books than I know what to do with).This was a super easy project that involved only spray painting both the wooden blocks (from Michaels) and elephants (from Amazon), then gluing the elephants down to the wood once everything was dry.I had to spray paint the wood twice, only because I didn't like the coverage the first time around, but the ellies were good with one coat. I left everything outside for about 45 minutes because it would have smelled absolutely awful if they came inside before then.I'm really happy with them though, and they'll come with me when I move to make my shelves and books look a little more put together. They are also definitely something I'd consider making as a housewarming gift for someone else, or just for a book lover like me.

plastic animal photo holders.

I have had this idea forever, pretty much since I cleaned my room back in 2012 when I moved back home after college (I have cleaned it since then, promise), and threw out a bunch of weird photo stands that I got from sweet sixteens and bat mitzvahs over the years. I wanted ones that actually looked cute, and then when I started the spray painting frenzy of '13, and bought a million little plastic elephants (exhibit a), I knew I had to combine the two ideas.This project was actually super easy. All I used was spray paint, 20-gauge wire, plastic elephants (you can obviously use whatever animal you want), alligator clips, super glue, and a drill with 1/16 bit.Spray paint the plastic animal, and when dry, drill a hole into its back. Cut the wire (I did it by eye, it's somewhere between 2-3") and super glue one end of the wire to an alligator clip (I colored my alligator clip in with a gold paint pen so that it matched the gold of everything else). When that was fully dry, I glued the other end of the wire into the elephant's back, and held it for a minute until it was sturdy enough to dry standing up on its own.Between everything drying and setting and whatever else, this took me about an hour. I made two, then broke out my polaroid camera and shot a photo of Lucas and a selfie, just to put something in them for now. I love the way they turned out, and feel like it's an easy gift idea as it can be customized with any animal or figure depending on who it is. Voilà.

adapt definition canvas.

I spoke a bit about my One Little Word for 2015, ADAPT, here, and once I chose a word I knew that I wanted to make a piece of art to represent it, in the same way that I did last year for my word, GROW.In my post that explained why I chose this word for the year, I used the definition as a starting point for my goals, keeping the most raw form of the word in the back of my head so that I don't overthink it in the upcoming months of the year. That kind of stuck with me, so in the same style as the quote canvas I made as a Christmas gift for a friend, I made myself a piece of art to remind myself of why I chose the word adapt this year, why it means something based on its rawest definition.All I used for this project was a 12x12 canvas, a gold paint pen, and google definitions. Boom. Whether you've chosen a one little word for this year, or just want to display a word that means something to you, I think this is a really simple way to do it.
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One Little Word is a workshop run by Ali Edwards in which participants choose one word to focus on for an entire year. Read about Ali's OLW here, and see all of my related posts for OLW 2014 here, and 2015 here.

cut-out city canvas.

As a Christmas gift this year, I decided to make my friend Alyssa a piece of art to represent Boston, where she went to college. I've seen these types of canvases on Pinterest before, and decided to kind of go for it and just make something I thought she would like.First, I lined masking tape to make stripes on the canvas that were about the same width, but I didn't measure or anything, just kind of went by my eye. (I think it came out fine, but you can measure if you feel the need).Then I painted black over the tape, waited for it to completely dry (overnight for good measure), and then peeled the tape off the next morning.While I was waiting for the paint to dry, I cut the shape of Boston out of glitter paper by printing it out backwards and then taping the printout to the back of the paper. Rather than tracing, I just cut it out directly. I cut out a little pink heart from a post-it to put over Boston University, where she went and spent most of her time, and glued both the city shape and the heart down with tacky glue.I used a gold marker when everything was all finished and glued, and wrote Boston along the side of the canvas as a final touch. And that's it. Without waiting for the paint and glue to dry, the painting and cutting and writing probably only took about thirty minutes. It's a perfect gift idea for long distance friends, as a graduation gift, or just for the avid traveler.

the easiest quote canvas DIY project in the world. yes, the whole world.

A couple of years ago I made this quote canvas as a gift, and I decided I want to do another one (partly because I'll never see that one again, oh well) as a gift for my best friend. She's constantly putting quotes up on her instagram and is really motivated by having quotes around her room, so I thought I'd choose one that she had previously put on the 'gram and test out my new paint markers (which I am now obsessed with, by the way #allgoldeverything).It feels silly to even write a post about this because it was so easy, but the other quote canvas is one of my most popular posts because apparently everyone and their mother searches "quote canvas" on google.All I did was use the smaller paint pen to outline the text, and then I decided once that was dry to go back over them a second time and add fake calligraphy lines by thickening all of the down strokes (wherever the pen naturally moves downward while you're writing). Obviously the quote can be whatever you want, but I chose a shorter one so that the text could be larger. And that's it - super simple, really quick, and a great gift idea or just something to fill a spot on an empty wall.

elephant trinket box.

Every time I walk past the kid's project section in Michael's I always think how fun projects with those toy animals were, and then, why can't I have assignments anymore that involve using them? Well, I decided I can.To make a toy animal trinket box you need:
// tacky glue
// gold spraypaint (use any color you want, I'm just obsessed with gold)
// toy elephant (use any animal you want, I'm just obsessed with elephants)
// clear box
I was inititally considering spray painting both the elephant and the lid of the box, but then decided that it would be cooler to keep the box completely transparent and just the elephant gold. Spraypaint whatever you want to, depending on the type of box you get and type of plastic animal, but I love the way this turne out.I used tacky glue (helpful that I didn't spraypaint the top because I could apply pressure with the glue and see through the bottom how much of the feet of the ellie were connecting) directly on the elephant's feet, then held with pressure for about a minute, then left it to dry overnight. I'm sure it was dry way before that, but who knows? Then I filled the box with some lippies that I have in rotation right now, and boom goes the dynamite. I think these are going to be one of my go-to gifts for friends because it's simple but adorable, and cheap but chic for storing little trinkets.