Happy Birthday...And Many S'More!!!

I know many crafters that have a hard time coming up with crafty gifts for guys. That being said, I'm always on the look out for great ideas for crafty gifts for guys. Quite often, the best gifts I've found are simply treats. 

For my friend Ray's birthday, I found this rather genius gift idea.

I took all the ingredients for s'mores...

and repackaged them into clear treat bags and tied them off with some manly twine (because ribbon is too girly). 

 
And made a tag that says "Happy Birthday & many smore!!!" using my stamps. 

Now, I've seen this idea done a few different ways. I've seen the ingredients put into a mason jar as a gift but I'm hoarding my mason jars for my wedding next month, so that option was out. I've seen it put into a little basket, but I didn't have a little basket so that option was out. I'd also seen it put into a cardboard carrying container, but I didn't have that option either. 

So what did I have?

A brown paper gift bag. 

(Please tell me I'm not the only one that buys these in bulk.) 

 But anyone that has a few stamps and an ink pad knows that you can dress up these bags quickly and easily. 

Not too bad!

All that was left as to fill my bag with the s'more goodies and add my little gift tag with some more manly twine. 

Now all I have to do is deliver it to the birthday boy!

I'm sure he's going to love it. 

Be My Guest!

Many of you that follow my blog regularly know that I'm finally getting married (!) to ABF in the beginning of September! 

What you don't know is that after the wedding, we're leaving on a two week long honeymoon to Yosemite National Park! 

source via Pinterest

TWO WEEKS!!! 

(Yeah, I'm a bit excited.)

The down side is that I won't have a computer/internet access for those two weeks (not that I'm complaining) but I know all my lovely readers will miss me so much! 

So I'm putting the word out that I'm looking for guest bloggers to fill the void while I'm away! 

 I'm looking for craft projects, recipes, tips, anything really, it doesn't have to be new, just new to my lovely readers. I would just need guest posts submitted to me by September 3rd so I can organize a schedule for while I'm gone.

If you're interested in guest posting, send an email to westcoast_pisces_girl@hotmail.com. Make sure to include something about guest posting in the subject line so it doesn't end up in my spam folder. 

 Thanks in advance! I'm excited about having guests!

 

Who Needs Flowers Anyway?

Being the cheap budgetly creative bride that I'm turning out to be, I decided that I wanted to go a different route in making corsages for the VIPs for our wedding. 

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE flowers, but since we're ordering bulk flowers and doing all the arrangements and bouquets ourselves (budgetly creative, remember!), I decided that it would be smarter to make plan something different for our corsages that could be made ahead of time. 

So I made some paper sunflowers using the sunflower shape from the Silhouette store... 

...Then I took some ribbon...

 ...Added a few strips of tulle...

...glued the paper sunflower in the middle...

 ...then hot glued a pin to the back...

 ...and the end result...

Some pretty cute and (budgetly) creative corsages for the VIP ladies for our ceremony! 

I love how they turned out! And it's one more project to cross off my still pretty long list. 




31 days and counting!!!

I Made Pretty Cute Cupcakes!

Oh wait, you thought I baked? Excuse me while I giggle a minute... 

Okay, I'm back...

I recently saw these adorable burp cloth cupcakes on UCreate. When I was invited to a baby shower for one of my (many) cousins, I knew they would be the perfect little baby shower gift. 

Didn't they turn out adorable?

I was pretty happy about how this batch turned out, although next time I think I'll try using receiving blankets to make them a little bigger, but overall I think it was a great tutorial to follow. 

I'm really proud of my cupcake toppers! 

I used several different shapes that I had in my Silhouette software and cut them out. 

I glued them together. 

Then I glued those pieces together with a skewer stick in between. 

 Then I stuck them in the center of the "cupcake".

 When I had my "cupcakes" all put together, I put them in a little basket that I trimmed with ribbon. 

I think it's a pretty creative and cute little baby shower gift. I'll definitely be making more "cupcakes" in the future. 

What's your favorite baby shower gift idea? 


I'm sharing this project at the following link parties: 

~ Make It Great Monday @ Etcetorize ~ The Cure For The Common Monday @ Lines Across ~ What's In The Gunny Sack @ The Gunny Sack ~ Craft & Tell @ Cherished Bliss ~ Tutorials & Tips Link Party @ Homestories From A to Z ~ Take-A-Look Tuesday @ Sugar Bee Crafts ~ Tell Me Tuesday @ Me and My Boys ~ Talent Tuesday @ Vintage Wanna Bee ~ Tiptoe Thru Tuesday @ Crayonfreckles and Tiaras & Bowties ~ Too Cute Tuesday @ Funky Polkadot Giraffe ~ Show Me What Ya Got @ Not Just A Housewife ~ 

Proof That I Really Must Love Him...

Awhile back Amazing Boyfriend Fiance came to me and asked me to help him with an idea that he had. He wanted to make a travel size dog blanket for Luna that was waterproof on one side. He knew exactly how he wanted it, but since he doesn't know how to use a sewing machine, that's where he needed my help. 

So he cut a piece of Luna's dog blanket and a bigger piece of nylon tarp. I even had him pin it together for me. All I had to do was sew it. 

Sounds easy, right? 

WRONG! 

The Viking was not liking this sewing project! Sewing though all the material was thick and I had just about every problem you could possibly have. I kept breaking thread, then a needle. I got heavyweight thread and more needles. I had to dig out the manual for the sewing machine, that may or may not have been buried underneath a pile of unfinished projects sitting on top of my trunk, to figure out tips for adjusting the tension on such thick material. After my third attempt to sit down and figure it all out, I finally had success!

Sort of...

 Notice I'm not showing you a close up. 

That's because this is seriously one of the ugliest sewing jobs I've ever done. The nylon tarp material was really slick and slid on me more than once. But I got it finished and ABF is happy because I finished it before his backpacking trip this weekend.

 Luna even approves, ugly stitches and all! 

I'm sharing this project at the following link parties: 

~ Make It Great Monday @ Etcetorize ~ The Cure For The Common Monday @ Lines Across ~ What's In The Gunny Sack @ The Gunny Sack ~ Craft & Tell @ Cherished Bliss ~ Tutorials & Tips Link Party @ Homestories From A to Z ~ Take-A-Look Tuesday @ Sugar Bee Crafts ~ Tell Me Tuesday @ Me and My Boys ~ Talent Tuesday @ Vintage Wanna Bee ~ Tiptoe Thru Tuesday @ Crayonfreckles and Tiaras & Bowties ~ Too Cute Tuesday @ Funky Polkadot Giraffe ~ Show Me What Ya Got @ Not Just A Housewife ~