Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts
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DIY Spring Decor Ideas: Easy & Budget-Friendly Projects for Your Home

Saturday, March 14, 2026


Hello and happy Saturday friends! There’s something about the shift into spring that always makes me want to freshen up my home. After months of cozy winter decor, I’m usually ready for lighter colors, fresh flowers, and anything that makes my space feel a little brighter.

The good news is you don’t have to spend a ton of money to make your home feel ready for spring. A few simple DIY projects can completely change the vibe of a room, and most of them can be made with items you might already have at home.

Today I’m sharing a few easy, budget-friendly DIY spring decor ideas that you can try this season.

This post may contain affiliate links. This means I may earn a small commission if you purchase through these links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!

1. Painted Mason Jar Flower Vases

One of the easiest ways to bring spring into your home is with flowers, and I love using mason jars as simple vases.

For this project, all you need are:

Start by painting the outside of the jars in soft spring colors like pastel pink, sage green, light blue, or cream. Once the paint dries, you can add twine or ribbon around the rim for a little extra detail.

Fill them with:

These look so cute on a kitchen table, coffee table, or windowsill.

2. DIY Spring Wreath

A wreath instantly makes your home feel more seasonal, and making one yourself can be surprisingly simple.

You can start with:

Arrange the flowers around one side of the wreath for a more modern, asymmetrical look. I personally love using things like greenery, daisies and pastels for a spring feel.

Hang it on:

  • Your front door
  • A wall hook inside your home
  • Above a mantel or shelf
I made this one for Christmas a few years back and really loved it: Wreath Idea

3. Decorative Spring Tray

If you have a coffee table, kitchen island, or entry table, a styled tray is such an easy way to add seasonal decor.

Start with a tray you already own and add a few spring-themed items like:

  • A small candle
  • Mini potted plant or flowers
  • A decorative bunny or seasonal figure
  • A small stack of books
  • A cute mug or teacup

The key is layering different textures and heights so it feels cozy but not cluttered. How cute is this mug?? Definitely adding it to my wish list. 

4. Pressed Flower Wall Art

This DIY is simple but looks beautiful and delicate for spring.

You’ll need:

  • Fresh flowers or greenery
  • Heavy books for pressing
  • A simple picture frame

Place the flowers between pieces of parchment paper inside a book and let them press for about a week. Once dried, arrange them inside a frame for a piece of natural art.

This works especially well with:

  • Daisies
  • Baby’s breath
  • Ferns
  • Wildflowers

5. Spring Candle Jars

If you already have empty candle jars lying around, don’t throw them away!

Clean them out and repurpose them as:

  • Mini planters
  • Tea light holders
  • Small containers for flowers or greenery

You can decorate them with paint, ribbon, or even simple labels to match your spring decor style.

Final Thoughts

Decorating for spring doesn’t have to mean buying a whole new set of decorations. Sometimes the most charming pieces are the ones you make yourself.

These DIY projects are simple, budget-friendly, and easy to customize depending on your style. Plus, they’re a fun way to spend an afternoon getting your home ready for the new season.

If you try any of these ideas, I’d love to know which one is your favorite!

✨ Before you go:
What’s your favorite way to decorate for spring? Let me know in the comments!


Have a wonderful day,
Jackie
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Disclosure: Some of the links in the post above may be affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. Read my full disclosure policy here.

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National Crochet Month + some inspiration {03.03.25}

Monday, March 3, 2025


Hello and happy Monday friends! I hope your week is off to a great start and you are looking forward to the week ahead.  Thankfully our week is relatively quiet with the exception of a book club on Friday.  

Did you know that March is National Crochet Month? I had no idea until recently and was so excited when I discovered that.  I started crocheting in 2024 and it has quickly become my favorite hobby. So for today's post, I thought it would be fun to talk a little bit about the history of Crochet, National Crochet Month and share a few fun beginner videos and patterns that anyone can pick up with a little practice. 

HISTORY OF NATIONAL CROCHET MONTH
Historians believe that the craft of crochet originated in Arabia and made it's way east to Tibet and China.  Once trade became more common, the art of crochet made its way from Asia to Europe and ultimately landed in the United States in the early 1900's. It is of note that it was not called crochet specifically and each country had their own name for this craft. 

While there is evidence of knitting/crochet dating back to 11 AD, the the first known publication referencing crochet was in the Dutch magazine "Penelope" in 1823. This publication provided an exhibit of purses that were crocheted using silk thread. 

Almost 80 years after it's arrival in the United States, The Crochet Guild of America (C.G.O.A.) was formed in 1995.  Ten years later in 2005, March became recognized as National Crochet Month, with crocheted works being exhibited in magazines and at events and talent shows (source).

CROCHET VERSUS KNITTING
While both knitting and crochet are both fiber arts, they are not exactly the same. The fundamental difference is that knitting uses two knitting needles and crochet uses a single crochet hook (source).  The other key difference between knitting and crochet is the type of stitch that each creates.  Knitting creates a "v" shape which allows the item to stretch more where as crochet creates more "knots".  Both styles can create beautiful items. 


LEARNING HOW TO CROCHET
I talked a bit about how I learned to crochet last year over in this post: I Learned How to Crochet. I honestly was most inspired by Elise Myers and wanted to create a sweater like the one she made, but to be honest I never finished that project.  I made several squares before moving onto something completely different.  

If you're anything like me, then videos are a good way to learn how to crochet.  This video is one of the best videos I found that gives a step-by-step guide for absolute beginners.


FUN PATTERNS FOR BEGINNERS
Once you get the hang of starting a project and few of the most commonly used stitches, be sure to check out the below patterns that work up quickly and are so fun to make. I've made all of them myself and plan to make them again in the future (if I haven't already).

Crochet Book Sleever
I made the below book sleeve as gifts for some of my book club friends. It works up super quick and is not super complicated to make. 


If you haven't already discovered TL Yarncrafts yet, I 100% recommend checking out her stuff.  She has so many wonderful patterns and provides step-by-step guides for a lot of her products. I made a blue version of the blanket and gifted it to a friend for her baby boy and she loved it.  I'm actually already making a second one for another friend's baby girl due in May. 

Another blanket I made for my husband's cousin was the gingham baby blanket. This one was a little more challenging for me since for this pattern you carry the colors over, but at the end it turned out so very cute. 


Well I think that is all for today! I hope you learned something new and got some inspiration to try crochet if you haven't tried it before.  If you have crocheted before, what is your favorite project you've ever made? 

Have a wonderful day,
Jackie
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Disclosure: Some of the links in the post above may be affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. Read my full disclosure policy here.

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DIY Christmas Ornament {11.18.2021}

Thursday, November 18, 2021

 

Hello and happy Thursday friends! I hope your week is going well so far and you're getting ready for a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday (for my U.S. friends).  Also, did you make your way to Starbucks for their red cup day? I made my way over there this morning.  I just love their holiday drinks. 

Today I thought I would share a tutorial on these super cute ornaments I made! I came across this idea on TikTok, except instead of them making ornaments, they made place cards for their wedding - so fun right? I thought I would try and make some for us and if I really like them I might make a few for friends/family for Christmas. 

Before we get started I wanted to let you know that I will be sharing some affiliate links, that means if you click on a link and make a purchase, I'll get a very small commission.  As always, I only recommend items that I think you'll find valuable or are worth the money.  

Here's the tutorial! 



WHAT YOU NEED

GETTING STARTED

Before I started painting anything, I used a program to design my background images.  A lot of different tutorials showed people doing their design by free hand, but I was not confident I would be able to do that, so I used PicMonkey to design the words on my ornament.  First I put a hexagon shape on the page, then added the words I wanted inside the hexagon.  Once I had all the designs created, I took the images and put them into a word document so I could print them out.  I tried to make sure the hexagons were 3" wide to match the ornaments that way everything would fit inside the ornament.  I was able to put about six ornaments per page when printing which was very helpful.


Once I had all my pages printed, I placed my ornaments on top of the image so I would be able to trace my design.  One thing I did not take into consideration with the Sharpie Pens I got is that I would need a more fine point pen to be able to get the calligraphy look.  Unfortunately, because my pens were a bit thicker I lost a little bit of the design, but I think they still turned out cute.  

The image below gives you a better idea of how thick the writing will be with these pens.  There are some more fine point pens out there, so if you want a more calligraphy look, I'd maybe look to getting one of those versus the ones I suggested.  But I think the ink worked well and is not a bad option.


Once the ink was dry on the front of the ornament, it's time to add the pretty background color.  If you are not too keen on adding a background color and like the cleaner look, then all you need to do is let the ornament dry and add your ribbon and you're done.  If you're more into the background color look, then add some color to the back.  I chose gold because I love gold for the Christmas season, but you could easily do another color like red or green and still feel just as festive.


After the paint dried, I tried to seal the ornaments by using a clear, shiny Mod Podge and it unfortunately stripped some of my paint off the design.  I was sad that that happened because I had to start over on a few of them.  I also tried a matte sealer to protect the paint.  This one did work well with the paint pens, but it took away from some of the shininess of the ornament.  If I had to do it again, I'd get a clear sealing spray and just spray paint both sides to protect the ornament.

Once the ornament was completely dry, I tied the ribbon to the top.  I used a 1/8" ribbon in red and green and thought they turned out super cute.  You can use a thicker ribbon if you want to - I just really liked the look of the thin ribbon.  

I created a few boomerangs for you to see what the different versions looked like! I hope you enjoy



So what do you think? I think they turned out super cute and I'm excited to give some to friends and family for Christmas {for those that are reading, no your ornaments don't look like this - it's a surprise}.  

Thank you for taking the time to read my post today - if you decide to make some ornaments of your own, let me know in the comments below! I'd love to see how you create your own creative ornaments.


Disclosure: Some of the links in the post above are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. Read my full disclosure policy here.  














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Fall 2015 Craft Roundup

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Happy Wednesday Friends! The week is half over! I hope your week has been going well and you have smooth sailing from now until the weekend.

With Summer coming to a close and Fall right around the corner, I thought it could be fun to do a quick Fall Craft Roundup {since I have not done one of those in quite some time}.  All of these crafts {and more} can be found on my Seasons: Fall Board on Pinterest if you are interested in getting some more.


Fall is my favorite season of the year, so of course I am looking forward to filling my apartment with fun and creative decorations to add some excitement and variety into our decorations.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Fall Leaves Garland from A Beautiful Mess



2. Patchwork Pumpkin Quilted Table Runner Pattern from Love - to - Sew

3. Balloon Dipped Candy Corn Jars from Brit + Co 



4. Easy Fall Pillows from My Pinterventures



5. Fall Printable from On Sutton Place 



6. Festive Fall Wine Cork Pumpkin from My Gourmet Connection



7. DIY Pumpkin Mason Jars from The 36th Avenue 



8. How to Paint Acorns from Home Stories A to Z



9. Leaf Wreath Pillow from Homemade in the Heartland 



10. Gorgeous Fall Wreath from HomeTalk 



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aren't these tutorials super cute? I am looking forward to giving some of them a try to use for the Fall! And boy am I ever looking forward to cooler weather and scarves!


Question of the Day: What is your favorite part about fall? 


I'd love to hear from you!

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Fall 2016 Craft Roundup

Happy Wednesday Friends! The week is half over! I hope your week has been going well and you have smooth sailing from now until the weekend.

With Summer coming to a close and Fall right around the corner, I thought it could be fun to do a quick Fall Craft Roundup {since I have not done one of those in quite some time}.  All of these crafts {and more} can be found on my Seasons: Fall Board on Pinterest if you are interested in getting some more.


Fall is my favorite season of the year, so of course I am looking forward to decorating our house for fall for the first time ever! First I need to find all of our decorations that are in a box somewhere in the house, then I can get started!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Fall Mason Jar Vases from Home Talk



2. Owl Mason Jar from The Keeper of Cheerios





3. Window Chalkboard from House by Hoff
This is a tutorial on how to make the frame - the mantel decor post can be found here.



4. Fall Leaf Printable from A Night Owl Blog



5. Pumpkin Door Hanger from The Savvy Adult



6. DIY Wood Crate Pumpkins from Crafty Morning



7. Salt Dough Leaves from The Life of Jennifer Dawn



8. Herringbone Pumpkins from Lovely Indeed



9. Painted Wood Slice Pumpkins from A Night Owl Blog



10. Fabric Pumpkin Wreath by Design Dining and Diapers

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aren't these tutorials super cute? I am looking forward to giving some of them a try to use for the Fall! And boy am I ever looking forward to cooler weather and scarves!

If you want to see other fun ideas for Fall Decorations, check out my Pinterest board for more inspiration!



Want more inspiration? Check out these fun blog posts with some creative ideas!

DIY Halloween Jars from Metro Detroit Mommy
Candy Corn Decorative Bottles from Mom Among Chaos
DIY Monster Pudding Cups from Dash of Evans
Lift the Flap Haunted House from Macaroni Kid Ferndale - Royal Oak
Easy Fall Crafts for Preschoolers from Mrs. Weber's Neighborhood


Question of the Day: What is your favorite part about fall? 

I'd love to hear from you!



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Clay Photo Ornament Tutorial

Tuesday, December 15, 2015


Clay Vacation Map Photo Ornament 

Happy Tuesday friends! I hope your week started off great and you are having a wonderful Tuesday so far! Can you believe we are just over two weeks away from Christmas?  Thankfully we are almost done shopping for everyone and the gifts are wrapped for the most part.  

Today I wanted to share with you a tutorial on a cute ornament idea that you can make for yourself or others.  If you remember a few weeks ago I participated in an ornament exchange where I exchanged ornaments with a fellow blogger.  Well the ornament that she made me, inspired me so much that I HAD to make some of my own for my travel buddies.

Supplies


Making the Clay Ornament 

I have always wondered how people transfer pictures onto other items and thankfully Christine did the research about what you need to do.  The first step is to pick your picture you want to transfer onto the ornament.  Once you have you picture picked out, invert the picture in your system (so that it is backwards) the picture needs to be printed with a laser printer.  It is important that you use a laser printer because an ink jet printer puts the ink onto the paper differently and will not come off properly.  Justin and I only have an ink jet printer at home, so I took the pictures to work with me and printed them off there.  

Once you have your supplies gathered, roll your clay out to be 1/4" thick.  You can make your clay thicker or thinner - I just preferred it this thickness as mine is that thick as well.


Once your clay is rolled and ready to go, place your picture face down onto the clay and begin wetting the paper.  Once your paper is good and wet, you will be able to see your image through the paper - this is when you start gently rubbing the paper off of the picture.  It is important to not press too hard as the picture can rub off of the clay.  Thankfully I only had it rub off along the edges, so it gave it more of a vintage look.  

I also found the rubbing in small circles helped to not allow the picture to rip off the clay.  Once you have as much paper as possible off of the picture, you will bake the clay at 250 degrees for 15 minutes.  The instructions said to bake for 15 minutes for every 1/4 thickness.  


After baking, I was a bit surprised at how soft the clay "felt" but once it cooked down the clay hardened right up and was easy for me to handle.

After baking, I added the location and year to the back of the ornaments plus the Uruguayan flag.  I made my ornaments a little larger than I had anticipated to, so there was a lot of blank space.  The flag made the most sense to me because you rarely see ornaments with the countries flag on them.


I don't have vinyl at home right now so I purchased some alphabet stickers at the store to put the lettering on the back of the ornament.  Once I finally figured out how I wanted them to be placed, I used my mod podge to seal the letters and the flag down to the back of the ornament.  The stickers seemed like they would have stayed on with no issue, but the flag was not a sticker. 

Once the back of the ornament dried, I also put a coat of mod podge on the front of the ornament to help seal down the picture a little better and give it a more finished look. 





Once the mod podge dries, take a ribbon or twine and make a little knot to hang the ornament onto the tree ~ and you have a clay ornament!

I am thinking about making more of these ornaments with other shapes as gifts for newly weds and new parents - they are relatively easy and cheap to make!


Question of the Day: What is your favorite ornament?
 



I'd love to hear from you!







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DIY Glitter Ornaments

Wednesday, November 11, 2015



Happy Wednesday Friends! Today I wanted to share a fun post with you on how to make your own glittered ornaments! I have not done a tutorial post in a while and with Christmas quickly approaching, it seemed appropriate to do this post now! 

The 2015 Holiday Ornament Exchange


The inspiration for this post comes from the My Pinterventures 2015 Ornament Exchange.  I was super excited when I came across this opportunity because I love doing ornament exchanges and I love connecting with other bloggers.  The idea is to make {or buy} and ornament for your partner that you are assigned, then do a post about how you made {or purchased} the ornament.  

There were over 80 bloggers that signed up for this exchange so it will be really awesome to see all of the different ideas for making ornaments.

My Exchange Partner
I was paired up with Christine from Where the Smile Have Been.  She is super sweet and has some adorable ideas over at her blog.  Please take some time to check out all of her awesome stuff! In our conversations, she mentioned that she definitely does not do traditional decorations, so I knew right away I wanted to do some fun and bright colors for her ornaments.  Plus, I knew they had to have a little glitter on them - because, you know, who doesn't love glitter!

And the ornament that she made me is INCREDIBLE! I am absolutely in love with it and cannot wait to put it on my Christmas tree next month.

What you will Need:


How To:
  • Remove the top of the ornament 
  • Pour a small amount of paint into the ornament
{I always end up putting more in the ornament than I think I need - I would recommend using the paint sparingly and only adding more as needed}
  • Once you have a little paint in the ornament, start moving the paint around to get coverage all over the ornament.  This takes a bit of time because you have to do a little shaking and tapping to get the paint everywhere you needed.
  • Once the entire ornament is covered with paint, place upside down in a disposable cup or surface.  The excess paint will begin to drop out of the ornament as the paint dries.  This is why it is important to not use too much as it severely slows down the drying process.
  • For the next part, it helped me to have the cups so the ornaments had a place to rest.
  • Draw a line on your ornament where you would like the glitter to sit - I free handed this part and found that it worked pretty well.
  • Use a foam paint brush {or any paint brush you have} to paint the mod podge onto the ornament in the area that you would like to see glitter.
  • Once the entire area is covered in mod podge, pour glitter onto the glue.  This part was a little messy, so I put a plate down to catch the excess glitter.  This allowed me to keep any glitter that did not make it on the ornament while not making too large of a mess.
  • Once the mod podge has had some time to dry, take your Krylon paint and the ornament outside {or in a well vented area} to spray the glitter.  This part is important because the glitter will continue to fall off the ornament if it is not sealed.
  • Once the paint has dried and the glue dried, you are all set to enjoy your ornament!

So what do you think? Fun and glittery, right? I am excited for Christine to get them in the mail soon!


Make sure to check out the other bloggers' tutorials posted today!






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