I was looking for a small table centerpiece recently and after searching around and either not finding anything I liked or not wanting to pay a ton of money, I decided to make my own! With just a few simple supplies from Plaid and Walmart, I was able to create a beautiful mason jar centerpiece that I just love!

Plaid sent me a box of supplies that Walmart is now carrying in a Plaid Crafts section of the store and I was excited to try the new items out on my centerpiece. I also bought a container of pint jars for my project.

So, here's how easy it is to make your own mason jar centerpiece. You can customize it however you want, and I think it would be so pretty to make several of them and line a long table in coordinating colors and patterns!

You need:
--acrylic paint or spray paint (depending on how you want to paint your jar)
--patterned paper
--pint jar
--mod podge
--twine or ribbon or other embellishments you choose
--flowers or other greenery you want in the jar
--optional: stencil, if you want that variation


1st, paint your jar. You can paint it by hand, you can spray paint it, whatever you do, just paint the jar. Pick a pretty color while you're at it. It might take several coats for the jar to have full coverage. These Plaid attachments that fit perfectly onto their paint bottles came in handy for me. Love it!

After I painted my mason jar (and it had dried!), I cut a strip of patterned paper and brushed mod podge onto the back of it.

Then I attached the paper around the mason jar and glued it together where it matched up.

After the paper was on the jar, I brushed over the paper with more mod podge so it would really flatten out and adhere to the jar.


After that had dried, I wanted to embellish my jar with a little twine ribbon wrapped around it.

Finally, I snipped some flowers out of my yard and added them to the jar. You could actually add soil and a plant to the jar if you wanted to keep it around for a while.


There it is. You have an easy, simple centerpiece. Now go make some more to give as a lovely house-warming gift, or for a dinner party or just to line a long table with.

I also made another version that had a monogram stencil on it. I received some stencils from Plaid, so I just used that along with the acrylic paint and the brush attachment. I painted the stencil right onto my patterned paper.

This would be such a great idea to give as a gift or if you wanted to personalize centerpieces for a wedding or other event.

For more fabulous craft ideas and for information on Plaid, visit Plaid on Facebook and Twitter.
I wrote this post as part of a paid campaign with Plaid Crafts and Blueprint Social. The opinions in this post are my own. 

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Dads are hard to craft for, so I've pretty much given up when it comes to the Father's Day gift from me. But Dads always love a handmade gift from the kids, and my kids are always up for making a crafty gift, especially when it involves Floam! Nickelodeon sent me some awesome samples of Floam to make something fun for our dad, and after lots of playing with this cool stuff, we came up with a pencil cup and covered pen that's easy for kids to make for Father's Day. Plus they've had hours of fun playing with the leftover Floam since (and that's a gift for me!).

Father's Day Pencil Cup Tutorial


  Supplies:
*Floam in colors of your choice
*Plastic mat or foil to protect your surface
*Plastic water or soda bottle (1.5 liters works best, but we used a smaller one, too)
*Scissors
*Tape
*Imagination!

1. Cover your work area. Floam is made to stick to stuff, so you don't want to use it on your countertop. The color can also rub off. So cover it with a plastic mat (which they sell) or some aluminum foil that has been taped in place.

2. When you open your Floam, it will need to be prepped before first use. You can do this easily by kneaded it for a few minutes until the consistency is even throughout (i.e. no sticky patches). If it still feels wet, press it out into a thin rectangle and let it sit for about 15 minutes. (It can be hard to work with if it's too wet.)
3. Cut your plastic bottle with a pair of scissors (parents need to help with this step!) so the bottom half is about 4-5" tall.

 You can find out more about Floam and where to get it here. Thanks to Nickelodeon for the fun samples!

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You may have seen this new line in your favorite craft stores already, but if you haven't...you need to! It's a customizable, do it yourself jewelry line. Who wouldn't love that? I have absolutely no experience making my own jewelry, but for this line that doesn't matter! With Styled by Tori Spelling you can make custom jewelry and design pieces according to your own style, but you don't need any tools or experience! Let me show you how easy it is.


I received pieces of Styled by Tori Spelling to try out. I had a friend come over and we had a fun girls night of styling the pieces and creating different looks!


The line includes all the parts you need to create a total look. The parts are: a necklace top, connectors, and the necklace bottom. There are also pendants that you can attach anywhere you want to add more style or creativity, as well as fastenings to make earrings or bracelets.

Look at how I attached this necklace top to the necklace bottom. I simply chose a necklace top I liked and a necklace bottom that I wanted to use with it. I hooked the s-hooks on to the necklace top and then hooked the bottom of necklace onto that. Easy peasy!



I love this simple, elegant look, but I also wanted to try adding a little more, so I found a pendant I thought looked great with the necklace and added that onto the already existing s-hook on the necklace.

I love it! Ok, now I need to get some earrings and a bracelet going! The earrings are super simple as well. Find a fastener...attach it to danglers, and instant earrings!



They look fab with my necklace! Now onto the bracelet. Guess what? That was simple to make too! I picked three bracelet strands that I liked together and then attached them to this fastener. Instant bracelet!


You can find the Styled by Tori Spelling jewelry at Michaels and Jo-Ann. Pieces may vary by store. You will have so much fun with this line. Have a girls night and have fun creating your own personal look!

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I've got a lot on my plate, (you can probably tell by my lack of crafty posts lately), but somehow I managed to find a few days to hit Chicago this month with some of the most amazing women I know.
The seven of us have been friends since high school (some of us even longer!), and I love that when we see each other it's as if no time has passed. We live all over the country, and we've tried to have a girls trip every 2-3 years, but this is the first time all seven us (plus one cute baby boy) could actually make it. And I so needed it. We shopped, we ate, we saw the sights, but mostly we talked. And talked. And talked. It was a weekend of much-needed therapy on so many levels.

I've been loving washi tape for a while (remember how I hunted it down in Japan before it showed up everywhere here?), but most of my collection is in storage back in Seattle. My friend Kalli gave me this assortment of paper tape from Target recently, and I've been using it a lot lately for quick and easy gift tags (they literally take under a minute to make), and I knew my friends would love it.

So I put together these washi tape gift tag kits as my favorite thing gift, including assorted sizes of gift tags, 2 rolls of washi tape, a pack of alphabet stickers, and a length of coordinating ribbon, and made a sample tag with each girl's initial to tie on the bag.

Washi Tape Gift Tags Tutorial
*Assorted, coordinating washi tapes
*Blank shipping tags or card stock cut into tags (I found packs at Hobby Lobby)
*Alphabet letter stickers (I used Thickers, but I found $1 letter sticker packs at Walmart for the favorite things gifts)
*Ribbon (I wrapped lengths of ribbon around clothes pins to keep it tidy in the bags)

1. Place strips of washi tape on bottom 1/2 of a gift tag, wrapping the ends around the back.

2. Place monogram letter sticker on tag, slightly overlapping the tape.

3. Tie to gift with a piece of coordinating ribbon.



Lots of scrapbooking companies are now making washi tape (you can even find it at Target in the desk organization aisle), or you can try my favorite brand, mt, that I got in Japan and here at Ginko Papers. It really is one of my favorite things!

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