DIY | Growing in Grace

I’m so excited about this one because it just makes cents. Yes, it makes sense, but because this is a gift you don’t wanna forget to make, it makes cents. You’ll see because you probably already have a few of the ingredients at home. Well, if you don’t, borrow them or save them from the Christmas gift from grandma you are guaranteed to get.

Anyways, This summer was my first year canning and while my stock is pretty full for me I’m just thinking every time I pop open one of the lids for my go to spaghetti sauce or sweet peaches….”I don’t wanna through these away!!!” I literally have a fit every time I have to throw away a lid or seal, which ever you prefer. Let’s face it, canning saves me a ton of money but having to buy new lids each time does not. You all know me, the bang for the buck girl, I couldn’t fathom the fact that these lids could not be put to good use. So I saved them all, each and every one and you know what? I’m a friggin genius! (I had to laugh at that one. I’m crafty but genius is way to kind. Haha!)

I searched and searched pinterest and could not find one idea that I could do myself. Even something to hint at what I could do would have helped me but nonetheless I dug into my crafting bag and pulled out my creativity. You know the thing about pinterest? It sometimes makes me too reliant on other people’s creativity, but don’t get me wrong, I’m still a pinterest junkie. However, my belief is that every now and again your own creative sparks need to be plugged in. And if you don’t have any? pinterest is a good place to get started. Eh?

I’m sure I could do a lot more with my lids so I won’t have to use up my good rings but I’m not too thirsty on rings so I had some to spare. If you buy a case of jars, you get lids and rings and there are plenty of things to do with the jars (i.e loose change, makeup storage, candy jar, tooth brushes, q-tips and cotton balls, razors, travel lotions and more) I even keep my brillo pads and sink stoppers in one from time to time.

So here’s what you will need:

Scissors
Glue gun
Cork card stock paper
Stamps of your choice (got mine at Michael’s for $1.00)( Make sure it fits inside of the circle)
Used or new wide mouth mason jar lid and ring
Stamp pad in color of your choice ( I used the one’s from our guest book, hubby hand drew a willow tree 🙂
A pen to trace with ( not pictured)

1. With the lid of the Jar face down trace around it as many times as you’d like to get your desired number of coasters. My sister gave me the left over cork paper from a project she did for my bridal shower. Then cut it out.

2. Next with your glue gun place a thin layer of hot glue in the bottom of the ring ( all the way around) facing upward like in the picture above. Only a thin layer or it will ooze out of the bottom.

3. Press your lid on top of the hot glue seal side up. So when you turn it over it should look like it is sealed together, like the top of a canned mason jar. Metal to metal, plastic inside.

4. Once that dries, squeeze out another thin layer of hot glue on to the seal side. Around the edge is best because you want to look smooth and not bumpy. Press your cork circle down on the hot glue.

5. Next press your stamp down on your pad and then stamp it on the cork as light or dark as you’d like, I did mine super heavy so It took a few days to dry. If you use color box it will take a few days. But they have the most vibrant colors in my opinion.

And then you’re done! Just wait for them to dry and voila!

The good thing about these are? You can make them to keep or give away, they can say what every you want them to and you can make multiple ones to switch out for the seasons. This project cost me $1.00 because I had everything but the stamps, but if you were starting from scratch you can just buy the rings and seal here for less than $5.50. It’s still a cheap project if you ask me.

I so hope you try this! And as always with everything good thing I post, I know you’ll love this and add it to your list!

Happy Crafting,

Linking up with: wedded wednesdays, playdates with God, livingproverbs31, Titus2sday

I must say that I’m a bit surprised by the interest in my pins on my boys’ birthdays on pinterest. It never ceases to amaze me how much pinterest brings traffic to this blog.

Anyway, I promised back in March that I’d put up the tutorial for all you homemade moms out there. I will say, we work very hard at pleasing our children through seasons of their lives. My little big one was extremely excited about this. Though neither one of them helped. Nevertheless I stayed up til 2 am putting party stuff together for him that weekend…And you know what??? I loved it! It kicked butt in my book to put all my time and energy into my child’s birthday. I never realized how much of a homemaker I am until now. Wink wink. Well, you didn’t come here to read my voice did you? I thought so. Here is what you really want. This is a pull string pinata meant to be pulled from the bottom. All the kids had a piece of string to yank on. We didn’t have the option of hanging ours up at the party place so that is why we made it a pull string. You could easily just flip this upside down and hang it. Just make sure you secure the flaps a bit more before you do it.We cheated and made it a bit loose for the kiddos. My inspiration came from this lady.

1. Get started by gathering what you need.

A pack of punch of balloons (.97 at Walmart)
Gather a whole stack of newspaper (I used my whole circular)
Make your paste using 2 cups of water and 2 cups of flour
2 rolls crepe paper (any color you’d like)
Angry bird face printable(you could also use crepe paper to cover a party hat to make a beak and stick some black crepe paper to the butt for a fluffy tail)
Gloves (optional)
Few pieces of cardboard

Once you have your balloon all blown up to the size you would like your pinata, cut your newspaper in strips. I folded mine in fours and cut the edges. Lazy I know.

2. Dip your paper strips into your paste mixture and smooth until the excess paste runs off. Then lay your strip onto the balloon making overlapping patterns.

(Make sure you lay this out on a surface you don’t mind getting messy. I covered my table with plastic bags.)

I was pressed for time after a while and just plain didn’t feel like doing it anymore at 12 am, so I dipped multiple strips in and went to work. Afterwards I smoothed the layers with my hand. I had regular latex gloves on. It felt really weird and icky!

3. Set your balloon out to dry at least 24 hrs.

Funny story. I started on this project the night before my sons party. I knew I needed 24 hrs drying time but me being the “try it until you prove yourself wrong” mom, I did it anyway. What was my secret??? Fans. One ceiling fan and a big wind machine fan that sat on the floor. The sucker wasn’t fully dry that morning. (still a bit damp) So I let it dry a few more hours until I was done the cake. Needless to say, it can be done if you have one night and three fans at all angles.

4. Cut a square in the top after the whole thing is dry. One that is big enough for you to stuff snacks in. and keep closed. Then punch holes down the sides of the squares. (Ignore the one in the middle. Ours was a bit fragile at the top due to lack of thickness. So make sure you make the paper thick on the top and bottom where you will be pulling and stuffing.)

5. Stick some ribbon or string through the holes and tie them in knots on the inside. So you should be able to dangle the pinata by holding the strings in your hand.

6. Tape the knots down. I used gorilla tape to ensure that we’d have no trouble out of them. BOOM!

7. Fill the pinata with whatever you’d like. I love this part because I’m that mom to put out apples and string cheese at a party. I stuffed mine with a few cookies, not much candy and some other good snacks. I was talked out of putting apples in. LOL!