diy projects – Our Everydays

Posted on July 19, 2018 by Our Everydays — 1 Comment

DIY Backyard Bouquets [ simple and beautiful kids activity]

It’s been raining a lot the past couple of weeks, and you can tell the plants are happy for it.

Every year around this time, our backyard flowers begin to bloom, and making backyard bouquets is something I have fallen in love with. I am so grateful for the previous owners of our home – a couple who you could tell loved their yard – who laid down such a great foundation for our little backyard oasis.

As a lover of the simple things, making backyard bouquets is something that makes me so happy, and the kids have learnt to love it too.

Materials:

Pruners
Glass Jar – I collect old jam/pickle/tomato jars for this exact reason 🙂
Water
Plants from your backyard, or area near your house like a field/park.
*Make sure you’re allowed to prune plants from public areas before you do*

Wearing their diapers and underwear, the perfect attire for a summer night in the backyard, we spend about 10 minutes creating our little piece of nature art.

I prune the flowers, and cut as many leaves from the stems as possible. If the leaves get stuck to each other when they are trying to put the flowers in the jar, the activity quickly becomes very frustrating for them and it will be over very soon – I’ve done it before haha.

Watching the process is wonderful.

Penelope is very proud of her arrangements, and in a very endearing way, is almost too protective of “her” project, which sometimes leads to her not wanting Oliver to even come close to her flowers. I love her sense of ownership in her craft though.

My Oliver is happy to watch and learn, and slowly learns to be gentle with the flowers as he caresses them while simultaneously saying “niiiiiceeee, niiiicceee”. He follows me and pretends to prune branches that he can reach, and whenever he gets close, tries to steal the pruners from me, ha.

If you don’t have flowers in your backyard, pruning different types of green leaf branches can create a wonderful bouquet. We are lucky to live in Alberta where there are so many different types plants; a quick walk around your neighborhood let’s you see so many different shapes, textures and shades of green. A “green” bouquet can be just as colorful and beautiful.

The most beautiful part of these bouquets is, of course, seeing Penelope and Oliver continue to love and find wonder in doing the simplest of things.

And at the end, a beautiful bouquet to keep brightening our days.

Gabriela

Similar nature inspired DIYS:

Our Christmas Tree Ornaments [Part 3] DIY Mini Stick Tree Ornaments

It’s less than a week ’till Christmas, and the hustle and bustle of the season is in full swing. Whether you have had your shopping done since mid year, or still have a few more things to get, you may still need a few ideas on what you could give a loved one.

If you’re still looking for that idea, I share this DIY that makes for a super cute, special, handmade, and thoughtful gift!

How I did this?

Using some of the sticks the kids collect from outside, I cut a few pieces into different sizes to form the shape of a Christmas tree and secured them onto a stir stick using a hot glue gun. Once it was dry, I painted it with a light coat of white pain, and glued a few small jingle bells we bought at our local dollar store. Add a ribbon to the top, and you have the cutest mini Christmas tree that you can gift to someone special this season.

I hope this gives you any last minute inspiration you were looking for, but if you need more, two other ideas below!

More Nature Inspired Christmas DIYs

Macrame Stars * Picture Ornament * Paper Snowflake * Mini Wreaths

DIY Mini Christmas Tree Rustic Stick Ornaments Our Everydays DIYblog Mom Blogger (5)

DIY Mini Christmas Tree Rustic Stick Ornaments Our Everydays DIYblog Mom Blogger (6)

DIY Mini Christmas Tree Rustic Stick Ornaments Our Everydays DIYblog Mom Blogger (1)

DIY Mini Christmas Tree Rustic Stick Ornaments Our Everydays DIYblog Mom Blogger (3)

DIY Mini Christmas Tree Rustic Stick Ornaments Our Everydays DIYblog Mom Blogger (4)

Posted on November 15, 2017October 25, 2021 by Our Everydays — 6 Comments

DIY Mini Pine Branch Wreaths [Creating Tangible Memories ]

The best kind of memories, I think, are the ones you remember when you hear a song, when you smell a certain smell, or from the sensation on your fingers as you run them through an embroidery a loved one made for you. Tangible memories.

During the holiday season, a time when tangible is a very common theme, especially with gift giving, the idea of creating tangible memories stuck with me. Finding a way to make tangible something that my children associate to an experience or memory, rather than a gift.

With this craft, I hope I am creating moments with my children that they will remember whenever they touch or see a pine branch.

Materials

Pine Branches that we foraged during our walks
Flour and Glitter
Glue
Ribbon

Mini Pine Branch Christmas Wreaths DIY Craft (4)

Mini Pine Branch Christmas Wreaths DIY Craft (5)

Mini Pine Branch Christmas Wreaths DIY Craft (6)

The older Penelope gets, the more impressed I am by how well she is able to do crafts. On her own, she poured some flour and glitter onto a baking pan and mixed it. She was taking her craft very seriously, it was so endearing to watch. In the meantime, I cut a few pine branches and coated them with a thin layer of glue. She then pressed them against the flour mix and the result was quite beautiful. The flour mix creates a beautiful simulation of snow that looked quite magical. Once the glue dried, I grouped the branches into similar size lengths and by overlapping them, created the shape of a wreath. I secured the branches to one another using a hot glue gun, and mixed the greens with, and without the flour mix coat, together.

Once completed, I ran some ribbon through them, and they were ready to hang as decor for the holidays.

Mini Pine Branch Christmas Wreaths DIY Craft (11)

Mini Pine Branch Christmas Wreaths DIY Craft (10)

A fun and easy activity to do with the kids, and they turned out so beautiful!

Posted on July 19, 2017July 19, 2017 by Our Everydays — 2 Comments

The Handmade / DIY Wall Art for Play Area

Whether it’s a hand written letter, a scarf you knitted yourself, or wall art you made with your children; there is something quite special about the handmade.

Materials:

Branch
Color Paint
Large piece of white paper

Directions: Squeeze paint onto various spots on the paper, and using the branch as a brush, let them explore.

The handmade isn’t instant, and in a world where everything moves so fast, and “time consuming” is a bad thing, not- instant is a great quality. Crafting takes time. There are steps, there is a process, and within that process, moments to practice patience and imagination as one stops and makes changes along the way. It offers moments to slow down and to experiment, again and again.

With a 2 year old and a 7 month old, “slowing down” sometimes seems impossible to achieve, ha! When we’re making crafts though, I see it. Using simple materials – branches, a large piece of paper, and paint – the kids are happy and entertained for 15 -20 minutes. Penelope experiments in the ways she moves the branch to mix the colors, and in the process, the most beautiful textures and color made. Oliver still quite young, finds more wonder in the branch itself, examining the leaves, and trying to eat them, ha! Perhaps I’m a little biased (I have a Fine Arts degree), but I hope my children find making things with their hands therapeutic like I do, and if not, that they remember the moments we sat down around our kitchen table, creating moments to enjoy the process of making things, of spending time together, of slowing down, and of creating beautiful things with our hands.

Posted on July 10, 2017November 5, 2017 by Our Everydays — 3 Comments

DIY Plant Hanger (with Repurposed Baby Gates)

Ok, I’m pretty proud of this DIY. It’s not often that baby items can be used again once they’ve been outgrown, or just not needed any more, and baby items aren’t cheap. Soooo… when you accidentally find potential in an old baby item, and make it into something so pretty, it makes me so, damn, happy. Without further ado, a DIY plant hanger/ wall hanging made from old baby gates!

If you’ve been following my blog for a bit, you’ll know that I always look DIYs to be simple, easy and affordable. A little creativity, love put into your craft, and you can make the most beautiful things from items that you already have in your home. In this case, baby gates that we were getting ready to discard , as we had replaced them. My husband had them stacked up against the garage wall until the next garbage day, and I just couldn’t throw them away; there was potential screaming out from them. Baby gates are an item all parents have, and hopefully this DIY gives you an idea of what you could do with them once your kids have outgrown them. The side of an old crib would work just as well! #yourewelcome

What you’ll need:

Old baby gates
Wire and Wire cutters
Small indoor plants you have around the house.
Picture Hanging Set (which you can get at the dollar store)
Hammer

I started by giving the gates a good wipe, as they had their years worth of love from a toddler with sticky fingers, and a dog, ha! I then measured enough wire that could go around the perimeter of one pot, added about 2 inches to that, and cut them with the wire cutter.With the baby gate leaned up against the wall, I twisted the wire around one bar where I knew I wanted a plant to hang. Once one side was secure, I place my plant adjacent the baby gate, looped the wire around the pot, and secured it to the other side. Because the pot is wider at the top than it is at the bottom, the wire loop is enough to keep it secure and from falling down.Once I had wired a loop for all my plants, I screwed two small hooks to the back of the baby gate, and secured the wire it would hang it from, just like you would for a picture frame. What I found worked best, was to hang the gate first, and then add the plants. And voila!I love how it turned out! Such an easy way to create a wall hanging to display your plants, or pictures… the potential is endless really. I hope you enjoyed this, and that it inspires one of you. Thanks for reading! xo