Painted Easter Bunny Jars

If you're a regular reader of my blog, then you probably already know that I'm a huge fan of baby food jars.  What's not to love about them?  They're cute and petite, durable, and free if you have a baby, or a friend with a baby!  I thought I'd put the rest of my baby food jars to good use to create a cute Easter craft- painted Easter bunny jars!

These jars can be used as decor items, to fill with treats and give away to friends and family, or even as little favors or treats for everyone on the Easter table.  However you decide to use them, these cute little bunnies are very easy to make, and look great!

I put my big box of paint to use again that Krylon sent me (see yesterday's $2 candy dish post for another great use for their spray paint), but this time I used their Dual Paint + Primer in Modern White Gloss, which was perfect for the job because it is a paint and primer in one can that gives a great thick coverage, which means less coats for you to paint!

Supplies:

• Baby food jars (I used varying sizes of jars)
• White spray paint
• Pink and black multi-surface paint
• Small paintbrush
• Small piece of white felt
• Scissors (fabric scissors work best to cut the felt)
• Glue gun

Spray the outside each of the jars that you're using with white spray paint.  Make sure to spray multiple layers of thin, even coats for the best coverage and to avoid drips.  I sprayed these right side up on some newspaper with the lids left on, since I didn't want any paint going inside the jars (paint + food = big no no).  Let dry between coats, and then let the jars dry thoroughly before the next step.

Using a small paintbrush and some black multi-surface black craft paint, paint two tiny eyes, a little triangle nose, and a small line going straight down for the nose.  To add a little more color and character, once the black paint was dry I painted on two small pink circles for rosy cheeks.

While the cheeks are drying, cut out two ears for each bunny jar from the white felt.  I had planned on cutting two pink pieces to go inside the white ears, but realized two late that all of my pink felt had been used.  Use a glue gun to carefully glue a thick line of glue on the top center of the jar, and stick the ears right down in the glue and let cool.  This worked perfectly to create those cute little bunny ears!

And there you have it, adorable little bunny jars to decorate with or give away, that you made out of something that probably would have been thrown away!  Give yourself a pat on the back ;)

For more baby food jar fun, check out these popular projects that I've also made with baby food jars!

Rainbow Cakes in a Jar, perfect for St. Patrick's Day, or any time of the year.  You can even make these in custom colors for a birthday party or holiday!

Monsters University Mini Cakes, baked inside baby food jars.

Baby Food Jar Planter- You can make this great decor piece from a scrap piece of wood and baby food jars and use it as planters, vases, or candleholders!

Baby Food Jar Party Favors, customizable for any party.

xo, Laura

How to Make DIY Treasure Stones

I remember watching PBS as a child, and being so excited when the husband and wife "Kid Concoctions" team were on sharing their recipes during PBS pledge weeks.  They made fun DIY crafts and projects like these fun treasure stones that I made for my son's jungle safari birthday party.  I am so excited to share these with you!

I think their recipe is just brilliant!  I'll show you how to make the regular version first, and then show you my unique twist on it that I made for the party.  I've gotten some emails asking for the recipe, so here you go!

This recipe is similar to making play dough, but you can bake different toys or coins inside of the dough balls, and when they come out of the oven they are hard and look like stones.  They can easily broken by kids, though, who love to find a surprise inside waiting for them!  

This craft is perfect for a dinosaur party (as the stones can be dinosaur eggs), a pirate party (as cannonballs), or can be adapted to fit any kind of party, really!  You can let the kids go on a hunt in the yard or house for the treasure stones (like I did for the jungle safari party), or just give them out at the end of the party as a party favor.  Either way, kids (and adults) of all ages will love breaking open their toys and seeing what's inside!  The recipe can easily be doubled or tripled to make more for a party or for friends.

Treasure Stones Recipe:  (Makes 3-4 stones)

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup used coffee grounds (I get them for free from Starbucks since I'm not a coffee drinker)
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1/4 cup sand (I've used sand from the beach, the playground, and cornmeal when I didn't have any sand- they all worked great!)
• 3/4 cup water
• Small toys and prizes- marbles, plastic animals, fake or real coins, and play jewelry are great choices!

1.  Preheat the oven to 175 degrees.  Combine all of the dry ingredients, and then slowly add in the water and stir until the mixture becomes a dough.  I mixed up the dough in my Kitchen Aid, but you could also use a mixing bowl and a spoon.  Every time that I have made this recipe, the dough is a little bit too wet, so I just add extra flour or sand (or cornmeal) to get it to the right consistency.  You want the dough to be nice and firm, not too wet.

2.  Roll a piece of dough into a ball, add the toy to the middle, and then roll back out the dough with your hands so that it forms a nice smooth ball.  Place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes.  Be sure to let them cool before letting kids break them open.

Now would you like to see the unique twist I gave these for the jungle safari party?  I had my little guests all wearing jungle explorer tags, so I let them go on a hunt around the "jungle" looking for elephant dung "specimen" to do scientific experiments on, haha.  A few of the kids really thought they'd be handling poop and were very concerned, but after I promised them that is was just dough with a toy inside, they were game!  

I made the dough a bit more wet for this party so that it flattened out when it baked and looked more realistic.  I hid the "elephant dung" all over the yard- in the grass, under the plants, on the sidewalk, and the kids had to go on an expedition to find it.  

The adults all thought it was hilarious, thankfully, and the kids loved breaking it open and finding out what was inside!  

You can check out more of the jungle safari party here, where I share the decorations and food...

and here, where I share the activities, cake, and FREE printable safari passes download.

I hope you have as much fun with this recipe as I have!  I have more ideas on how to use this dough that I can't wait to try out and share with you!

Enjoy!

If you liked this project, please follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Bloglovin', and Instagram.

xo, Laura

Creative Christmas Ornament Storage

I love buying Christmas ornaments every year, and think I have enough ornaments to cover at least five trees!  As I was throwing out a plastic container from Costco that our apples came in, I realized that it would make the perfect storage container for some of my Christmas ornaments!

I was so excited to try it out...

and sure enough, when I placed the round ornament balls into the plastic apple container, they fit perfectly!

These containers were FREE and were a great way to recycle what would have otherwise have gone in the trash.

Plus, the apple packaging took up a lot less space than the three boxes did that the 12 ornaments came in (four ornaments per box).  It's a win-win!

So while I was putting the apples in the fridge, I saw an egg carton, which got me thinking again...  I pulled out my smaller ball ornaments, and they were the perfect fit too!

Each little round ornament was nestled safely inside each hole in the egg carton, and the egg containers stack so nicely on top of each other.  You could also wrap each ornament inside of the carton for an extra layer of safety.

Hopefully this helps you with putting away all those Christmas decorations.  It's an easy way to save money, save the earth, and save your ornaments from getting broken!

If you're trying to get organized this new year, here are a few of my favorite orgainizing solutions that have ehlped me organize my life that you might be interested in...

I love to rip out the best recipes and tips from my favorite magazines, and this system is how I like to organize and store them so that I can find them again in only a few seconds.

Are you are drowning in piles of your kids' artwork and school work and can't figure out how to store it all but feel guilty throwing it away?  Yeah, so was I!  Here is my favorite method of saving and organizing my kids' artwork that is so easy!

Those silica gel packets that you get inside your shoes, purses, vitamins, etc. are great to save!  In this post I tell you why, and TONS of readers have commented with some great ideas on how they use them, too.

Happy organizing!  DO you have a great tip that you use to keep organized?  I'd love to hear it!

If you liked this project, please follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Bloglovin', and Instagram.

xo, Laura

DIY Anthropologie-Inspired Snow Globes

Last year I posted a Christmas project tutorial that was very popular.  It was inspired by an Anthropologie version of a snow globe that was pretty, but was soooo overpriced.

I don't mind paying for some items at that amazing store, but when it's something that I know I can DIY at home for so much cheaper, then you can bet I'm going to do it!

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen that my version was just featured in Mother Earth Living Magazine, a wonderful magazine that is sold in Barnes & Nobel, Walmart, and many other places.  It's my first time having my work featured in print, and I can't describe how cool it is to flip through the pages of the magazine and see my project!

In honor of it being published, I thought I'd bring back this tutorial and share it with you today... enjoy!

Don't get me wrong, I love Anthropologie as much as the next person, but seriously, $28 for a small and $40 for a large mason jar snow globe?  These snow globes are adorable, but I knew that I could make them for a LOT cheaper using some mason jars from my collection and some bottle brush trees.

I've been wanting to make these for weeks, but those darn trees have been so elusive!  The only place I could find them in stock (finally) was at Home Depot, of all places, for around $7.50 for a whole bag of 21 trees. Great deal!

So here's my Anthropologie Inspired Snow Globes, with a much more reasonable price tag. And they can be made in under 5 minutes each!

And just for fun, let's compare versions and prices:

I think Anthropologie has some serious competition with my DIY version, don't you agree? Especially when mine costs 1/20th and 1/14th of their price!!  Here's how to make your own beautiful snow globes...

Supplies:

• Mason Jars (any shape and size you would like to use)
• Bottle Brush Trees (from Home Depot, Michaels, Joannes, etc...)
• Fake Snow or Epsom Salt (I used fake snow because I wanted it fluffier than Anthro's version)
• Glue Gun
• Clear Glitter (optional)
• Small Rocks or Clear Pebbles (optional)

Step #1-  Glue a tree onto the inside of a mason jar lid.  If you want your tree to sit higher, so that you can add more snow, then glue your tree to a small rock or pebble like I did.

Step #2-  Add as much snow and glitter as you would like to the jar, with the opening up top. Screw on the lid, turn the jar upside down, and be amazed at how easy and beautiful your new snow globe is!

These snow globes are so pretty to decorate with, and would make a great gift with a cute tag and ribbon wrapped around the base!  I hope you enjoy making these as much as I did.  Cheap, fast, and easy, the best kind of DIY project, right?!

P.S.  If you were thinking about adding water and glycerin to this version, DON'T, unless you want to have a "blue Christmas" ;)  Not that I would ever try such a silly thing.

If you liked this project, please follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Bloglovin', and Instagram.

XO, Laura

DIY Gold & Bronze Painted Acorns

Today I wanted to share with you one of my very first posts from when I started my blog a year ago.  Most of you have probably not seen my DIY gold and bronze painted acorns yet, since my blog was just a newborn when I made them!

I LOVE gold, especially during fall and Thanksgiving time, and painting a light thin layer of gold and bronze takes a handful of plain, ordinary acornsand turns them into into exquisite and chic decor.  You can use them display them in a bowl, as a vase filler, or even turn them into tiny ornaments and hang from a Thanksgiving thankful tree or even your Christmas tree!  Without further ado, here's my original post... enjoy!

I was taking a walk through the park recently with my kids, when they started picking up and collecting acorns that they found on the ground.  Acorns are like little magnets that draw you in and make you want to pick them up.  They're so cute, and each of them has its' own unique shape, size, and color.

Soon I was down on the ground with my kids collecting acorns!  We brought them home, and I thought they would make a great decoration, but they needed just a little something.  I got out my Martha Stewart metallic paints, got to work, and ended up with these little jewels.  Aren't they beautiful?

The metallic bronze and gold paint gave them just the sparkle they needed, while still maintaining the beautiful browns of the acorn itself.  Want to make some to?  Your home will thank you.

You will need some Martha Stewart metallic paint in bronze and gold, a paintbrush, acorns, and a glue gun.  That's it!  I bought my paint at Michael's, used two coupons, and paid under $3.50 with tax.  

The first and most important step is to bake your acorns!  They could have little critters in them, and baking them for an hour at 200 degrees will kill them, so better safe than sorry.  After they have baked and cooled, all you need to do is to paint the acorns with the bronze paint, and the little acorn tops with the gold paint.  Let them dry, then glue the tops onto the acorns.  That's it! 

 I love the way they look in my Pottery Barn leaf bowl.

Or on my rustic wood stands.  (See how else I used these stands at the Very Hungry Caterpillar baby shower I created for my friend)

They also make a great vase filler.

There are so many fun ways that you can decorate with these golden acorns.  Get creative, try making these, and then have fun finding the perfect way to display them in your home! Let me know what you think of these little cuties by leaving a comment below.

You might also like my Easy DIY Fall Thanksgiving Wreath, this cute Boy's Thanksgiving Pilgrim Hat, and this Easy DIY Fall Headband (for boys or girls).

If you liked this project, please follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Bloglovin', and Instagram.

Happy crafting!

XO, Laura