At the moment, Justin and I reside in a one bedroom apartment. It is definitely large enough for the two of us, but there is a lot to be desired in the storage department. Like many women, I have a lot of…stuff. One of the collections of “stuff” I have involves my perfume collection. My various bottles were spread out on top of one of the dressers in our bedroom. It worked, but looked relatively sad. And somewhat cluttered.

However, I found a simple solution to my cluttered dresser problem: a cake stand! Yep. A cake stand; who would have thought?

I snagged this small cake stand at Home Goods…for $5.99! I love the frosted green hue. All I needed to do was place my collection of perfume bottles on top, and voila! De-cluttered dresser.

The stand makes it so much easier to quickly clean off the top of my dresser: no more picking up each bottle individually! Whew. I love when you can find a simple solution like this for your decor!

Have you ever used an item for a purpose other than it was originally intended? What did you do?

So…I like crafts/DIY. A lot. I wish I had more time to devote to them, because my “Make it Myself” board on Pinterest is getting pretty full with projects that I would love to take on but have yet to conquer.

However, I did find one recently that seemed simple and only required a few items to create! These DIY Snowdrift Candle Holders from Living with Lindsay were right up my alley!

You only need a few simple components:

• Epsom salt
• Glitter (optional, but pretty)
• Mod Podge
• Paintbrush
• Candle holders, vases, etc
• Tea light candles

Instructions:

1. Pour a large amount of epsom salt in a large bowl or baking dish (I used a Pyrex pie plate). Sprinkle glitter throughout; mix together with your hands or a utensil.

2. Dip your paintbrush in a generous amount of ModPodge. Spread it around the base of your candle holder. I used a “swooping” technique to make mine look like a snow drift, but you are able to have fun with whichever method makes you happy!

3. Place your candle holder in the epsom salt dish and roll it around inside, making sure to coat all areas covered with ModPodge. Sprinkle extra salt on top of any untouched spots.

4. Allow candle holders to dry; mine took about an hour or two.

5. Place a tea light candle in the base of the holder…light it to create a beautiful glow!

These candle holders could not have been easier to complete. I love it when you can make something simply…with a big result! I spent barely any money on these; you can find a plethora of different glass containers to use at the dollar store. I placed three of these snowdrift candle holders on our coffee table to create a lovely holiday glow in the evening. My mom got creative and made some with champagne glasses to decorate the mantle. I have also considered making a large vase into “snowdrift style” as well…as long as I have some flowers to put inside!

One other note: I gently tapped/shook my candle holders over the garbage can at first to remove excess epsom salt. However, they have shed a little bit more over time as I’ve picked them up/put them down on the table. It’s nothing you can’t clean up with a quick swipe of a cleaning cloth…but just be aware that you’ll have some residue appear!

Do you like to create DIY crafts for the holidays? What have you  made so far this year?

Over the weekend, I had a little bit of time to wrap up some Christmas presents. However, when it came to one of my gift bags, I realized that there was no “To/From” tag attached! How was our niece going to know who her present was from?!?!

Thankfully, my box of crafting odds and ends held a solution!

All you need are a few simple items:

• Plain white gift tag (I purchased mine in a package of 20 from Michaels)
• Markers
• Google eyes (2)
• Small red pom pom
• Brown pipe cleaners (2)
• Hot glue gun (or other strong glue; tacky glue would work well!)

To make the tag:

1. Using a brown marker, outline (and fill in) an oval shape for the reindeer head on the top 2/3 of the tag (I added a small point to the bottom of mine). Add ear shapes on the top. Using another marker, write your gift message. Set tag aside to allow marker to dry.

2. Each antler is composed of one pipe cleaner. Starting about halfway down the pipe cleaner, bend and twist to create points. Wrap any excess around the base of the antler. Repeat for the 2nd antler.

3. Using a glue gun (or other strong glue), attach the antlers to the top of the reindeer head, followed by the google eyes and the pom pom nose. Allow glue to dry before attaching to your package.

4. Tie your gift tag to your package using a ribbon: enjoy!

Cute, right? I know I’m biased because I made the tag myself, but I’m oh so very enamored with the results of my crafting skills. If you are receiving a present from me this holiday season, don’t be surprised if you see one of these wrapped up with it!

Do you like to DIY your own gift wrap/tags? What do you like to use to create them?

Hi everyone, I’m Allie! I blog over at Everyday Adventures about life as a newlywed, including attempted home projects, cooking experiments and my general misadventures. (I’m also Mrs. Hyena on Weddingbee!)

When I moved in with my husband, our house was pretty much a blank slate. Matt had lived there for almost a year with a roommate, and it felt like a dude house, so I had to girlify it as quickly as possible. I hung curtains and art with gusto.

I never quite finished our office/guest room, though. The room has a lot of functions, and we tend to just dump stuff in there if we don’t know where else to put it. I had been looking for art for the guest room since I moved in. I wanted a large piece to put above the bed, but hadn’t been able to find anything that was juuuust right, at juuust the right price.

The room doesn’t have much color in it, except for some vintage hat boxes, throw pillows and a fake tree in the corner. Everything else is either beige or various shades of brown. I wanted to bring out some of the subtle colors in the room’s details, like the coral, dusty pink, rose gold, and sienna.

Luckily, I’m totally addicted to Pinterest, and one day this lovely popped up in my feed:

(image source)

I figured I could make something like this, and bring my own colors into it. So I did.

Supplies:

• 24”x36” canvas

• round hole punch (mine was 1.5”)

• Scrapbook papers — matte, glitter and metallic

• hot glue gun (the original tutorial called for spray adhesive; either works fine)

I punched out about 15 circles from each color of scrapbook paper.

I’m not very good at spacing things to make them look “random,” so instead of trying to space the circles, I just started throwing them at the canvas. It worked! When they landed in spots I didn’t like, I just picked them up and threw them again until I liked the way they looked.

Then, I hot-glued all the circles down. The ones on the edges of the canvas, I bent and hot-glued both the top and the side.

I love the way it turned out! I like the multi-colored look, and think it adds a happy bit of color to the room. Now to put it on the wall …

Have you ever re-created a piece of art?

I am so excited to share this project with you! If you’re anything like me, a go-to gift for a party, birthday, or other celebration, is typically a bottle of wine. And hey – I like receiving bottles of wine myself…just in case you were wondering…

Anyway, I was getting bored with the typical wine bag as a wrapper. Yawn. I scoured the Internet for some inspiration, and (surprise) Martha gave me some good ideas to get me started. I took my own twist, and I am SO happy with how it turned out!

Materials needed:

• Bottle of wine/champagne
• Dish towel
• Straight pins
• Twine
• Wax paper

The instructions are pretty simple. First, lay the bottle lengthwise on the dish towel, leaving about 2 inches of slack at the bottom.

Roll the bottle up in the dish towel and secure with straight pins (I used 3).

Next, fold the bottom of the dish towel inward, like you would a present. Secure with straight pins.

Now we need to deal with the top of the bottle. Gently fold the excess towel down around the neck of the bottle, making sure not to expose the top.

Secure the bottle top with twine. Make sure to leave enough twine at the ends to secure the wax paper flower to the bottle.

I suppose you could be finished at this point, but I wanted to take it a step further. Tear off two pieces of wax paper from the roll, in roughly 12×12 inch squares. Cut the paper in half, and then in half again, leaving you with 8 6×6 inch squares.

Stack the 6×6 inch squares on top of each other, then accordion fold them in roughly 1/2 inch pleats.

Using scissors, round the corners of each end of the accordion folded paper.

Tie a piece of twine around the middle of your accordion, then unfold the ends. It should look like a bow tie! Make sure to cut a long enough piece of twine to allow you to tie the finished flower to your bottle.

While holding the twine for stability, gently pull each wax paper layer up to the center of the “bow tie.”

It’s starting to look like a fluffy peony now! Repeat the same procedure on the other half of the flower, then fluff the petals to create the desired appearance.

Tie the wax paper flower to the top of the wine bottle with the twine tails from the flower and the bottle. When secure, clip the excess twine.

Ta-da! You now have a beautifully wrapped bottle of wine! I am quite sure this is going to be my go-to wrapping method from now on: it is pretty, and (aside from the wax paper flower) a very green way to gift wrap. I mean, who doesn’t need an extra dish towel in their kitchen? I love thinking that my friend will be able to enjoy ALL of the gift that I present them with!