three j. sisters

11/16

DIY Woodland Winter Cake Topper

We are experiencing a love affair with bottle brush trees and wood slices this winter. And, as usual, crushing on white and gold, too. Our kids think Christmas is tomorrow with all the holiday blog projects lying around the house – it’s a tease for them, and almost an overwhelming reminder of the upcoming holidays for us. At least they get to enjoy some of the benefits of shooting a DIY winter cake topper – shoot the cake, and eat it too.

If you’re celebrating a winter birthday, or want to impress guests this holiday season with an adorable DIY winter cake or pie topper, just go out and chop a tree {you can buy them already cut from Michael’s if a lumberjack isn’t in your repertoire}, bust out the gold leaf paint, and glue.

Materials You’ll Need:
Wood slices
Cake pop sticks
Mini woodland animal figures – deer, rabbit, bear, squirrel
Thin popsicle sticks
Mini banner flags
Gold leaf paint
Hot glue gun

Directions:

Dab the ends of the bottle brush tree with gold leaf paint. You can’t mess this up – just dab here, and there and everywhere.

Write a word, name or phrase on the paper banner.

Use a hot glue gun to glue the tree, animal and popsicle stick with paper banner on the wood slice. I cut the popsicle stick in half to make it shorter.

Glue ‘legs’ on the bottom-side of the wood slice with the cake pop sticks that will stick into the cupcake, cake or pie.

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Filed Under: diy, diy, holiday, lifestyle, party Tagged: birthday, cake, cake topper, dessert, diy, party, rabbit, toddler, white, winter, woodland

11/09

A Little Star Baby Shower

When one of my besties is in town for the inaugural Reintoberfest, and she is preggers, a baby shower is certainly in order. My girlfriends and I hosted a small, fabulous group of women for a Little Star baby shower. It was a surprise…and I think we pulled if off, even with a few slips.

The shower was designed after one of my most favorite art prints by The First Snow. Beautiful, isn’t it?

We re-created the art print with an antique ladder, ribbons and fresh flowers by Vail Vintage Magnolia and DIY hanging stars that were spray painted gold and white. It worked our perfectly because it’s a gender-neutral theme, and the nursery is also star themed.

Our menu consisted of homemade French Toast casserole, egg casserole, yogurt bar with fruit and granola, fresh spinach salad and for dessert we devoured mini bundt cakes. The backdrop for our Champagne and Bundt bar was a DIY Kimi’s Little Star sign. We sipped on mimosas with DIY star gummy drink stirrer and oh my goodness they were good!

I made DIY star napkin rings that also served as ornament favors guests could take home. DIY tutorial to come.

Meredith made DIY star headbands we all adorned on our heads to represent the “bouquet of stars to place around your sleeping heads” like the art print said.

In our family, we say Aunt, pronounced ‘ant.’ In MN, Kimi says Auntie, pronounced ‘on-tee,’ with a bit of a flair, of course. For the shower, we wanted to emphasize her auntie ‘thing’ with custom buttons for each guest. When baby G is born, we will all be proud aunties with gifts of our own to offer him/her. It was a good laugh for everyone. I gave myself the title of auntie of crafts. Jenna was crowned the auntie of shoes. And, Jodi proudly accepted her role of auntie of reality tv. We will take our roles seriously, Kimi!

We played a fun, non-cheesy game that I highly recommend for a smaller sized baby shower – Who’s That Baby? I asked guests to send me a baby photo under 6 months old prior to the shower, and I had the photos printed for a photo display. Everyone had to guess each sweet baby face, and the winner was awarded a prize.

Another ‘activity’ and decoration was the DIY Due Date Chalkboard. Everyone had a chance to guess baby G’s due date, and whether it was a boy or girl. If you really want to make it a game, bet $ to get a pool going. To learn how to make the DIY chalkboard, read this.

We sent the beautiful mama home with Dear Baby, often called Wishes for Baby cards. We all wrote down our hopes and dreams for baby G, which was a great baby shower activity and keepsake for Kimi. You can purchase the Little Star cards and here and the Little Star invitation here.

Finally, what’s a shower without a posed shot, and a tassel banner?!

Thanks to all the Vendors We Love from this Shower
Photographer: Meredith Moran Photography
Flowers: Vail Vintage Magnolia
Invitation and Dear Baby Cards: Fleur de Lis, a paperie
Mini Bundt Cakes: The Bundt Shoppe
Art Print: The First Snow
Auntie Buttons: Share Denver

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Filed Under: adult, diy, diy, lifestyle, party Tagged: baby, baby shower, baby shower game, bundt cake, buttons, chalkboard due date, dessert, diy, diy chalkboard, diy star, due date calendar, favors, fleur de lis, flowers, garden roses, ladder, little star, star

11/04

YOLO DIY Cosmetic Bag

My sister-in-law and I went shopping, and I tried on a pair of designer jeans on sale for $100 from $200ish. I liked them, but didn’t really NEED them. You know, that age-old teaching we teach our children and tell ourselves – need vs. want. Do I really need this? Or, do I want this? My sister-in-law said, “Just get them. My new motto in life is YOLO.” I did a semi-smile and nod reaction, then asked, “What the heck does YOLO mean?” You may be thinking that I live under a rock, and perhaps I do, but I honestly had no idea what YOLO meant. She shared her hashtag wisdom upon me that day and told me that YOLO stands for…You Only Live Once. #YOLO

What powerful words that we often forget. You Only Live Once. We have one shot at this ONE beautiful, amazing, hard and miraculous life. Why waste it? Make the most of everyday, and live your best life…and life will give it’s best to you. YOLO!

Long story short, I bought the jeans. And, I learned what YOLO stands for.

Shortly thereafter my sister-in-law embarked on a new journey in a new city with a new job. She was nervous, but brave. I sent her off with a reminder of what she taught me that day, and some tips to go with it.

DIY YOLO Cosmetic Bag

You’ll Need:

Cosmetic bag {mine was $3 from Target}
Acrylic paint
Golden GAC 900 Medium, to make regular paint into fabric paint
Freezer paper
X-acto knife
Paintbrush
Gifts to go inside. I found most of my gifts {see below} from my favorite small town bookstore, The Bookworm
Watercolor paper
Watercolor paint
Gold sharpie or gold leaf pen

Directions:

First, I used Microsoft Word to design my YOLO to place in the middle of the bag. Print YOLO on regular computer paper, then trace it onto freezer paper.

Use an X-acto knife to cut out the words and a border. Then, iron in onto the costmetic bag.

Paint YOLO with black ink.

Design a pattern around YOLO. I chose to do triangles, so I randomly made a geometric triangle shape print with Frog’s Tape. Then, paint inside the triangles.

Shop for all your small gifts that go inside the YOLO bag.

Once your YOLO bag design is complete, start to make the tags to go along with each gift. Cut watercolor paper into triangles. Freehand the words of wisdom for your friend in gold sharpie or gold leaf pen. Then, use soft watercolor over it.

My tags read:

Attach the labels to each item.

Place all the fun items inside the DIY YOLO cosmetic bag and gift.

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Filed Under: diy, gifts, lifestyle Tagged: candle, cosmetic bag, diy, geometric shapes, Gift, gift tags, gold, matchbox, pink, red lipstick, watercolor, yolo

10/21

DIY Witch and Mummy Halloween Nail Polish

We typically opt for a cute and fun Halloween, instead of a scary and creepy one. We’ve never loved haunted houses or frightening people. We like costumes and carving pumpkins, apple cider and trick or treating with our large Italian family.

Since we were babies our mom and aunt made our ‘themed’ Halloween costumes, and every year we celebrate together. Following the annual chaos of hello hugs, oooh’s and ahhhs over costumes and hundreds of flashing camera lights, the men grab a cigar and take the kids trick or treating. The women stay inside where its warm to chat, eat chili and hot dogs and drink our wine. It’s a special tradition, and we are grateful to share it with our own kiddos.

Being into the cute part of Halloween, this DIY is so us!

These DIY witch and mummy Halloween nail polish bottles would make for a great, non-candy Halloween party favor or a unique Halloween gift.

Witch color are you going to pick for this year’s Halloween nails? We’re going with Essie Bahama Mama.

If your rainbow-loving self is admiring the DIY spider web in the background, you can see how we did it here.

You’ll Need:

Nail Polish
Paper, Astrobrights
White rafia paper ribbon
Googly eyes
Hot Glue
Nail File
Rafia
Twine

How To:

For the mummy, glue two eyes on the nail polish bottle. Dab a small amount of hot glue on the top of the bottle, then add white rafia ribbon, and start to wrap. You can do one continuous wrap, or cut, add a dab of glue and continue to wrap. When the entire bottle is covered, dab another small amount of hot glue, so the mummy’s wrap stays in place.

mummy-nail-polish-diy-halloween-favor-gift-ribbon-white-googly-eyes

For the witch, make a small witches hat with a free mini-hat template online {or free-hand} and glue it to a black, doughnut-cut circle. Slide it over the nail polish handle. For the witches broom, place a handful of rafia around one end of the nail file, and tie twine around it to keep it in place. Use a tiny dab of hot glue to keep the twine in place.

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Filed Under: diy, gifts, holiday, holiday, lifestyle, party Tagged: Astrobrights Papers, diy, favors, Gift, halloween, halloween nail polish, mummy, nail polish, paper, party, rainbow, spider web, witch, witches broom

10/16

DIY Floral Antlers

Let’s talk about potential for just a brief minute. We all have potential for greatness. You may have realized your true potential {good for you}, or maybe you are still trying to figure it out {welcome to the club}.

I hope in this one, precious gift we call life, I can dig deep inside and let my best self shine. How the heck am I going to do it? I’ll start by being a bright light for others, surrounding myself with friends and family who are only going to lift me up, stay really close with the good Man upstairs, and have the courage to live my best life. It’s not going to be easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is. And, this is most definitely worthwhile.

How do you realize your fullest potential?

I know, I know – somewhat deep for a Friday, but as I worked on this trash to treasure project, I thought about the word ‘potential’ and the importance of it in my own life. Before I give up on someone, something, and me, I need to just be in a place of love, and remember the potential that lies within all of us.

These antlers are the trash to treasure project I’m referring to. Originally part of a broken candle centerpiece, and in the trash pile, I knew they had potential. With a little paint and TLC, these antlers are now pretty in pink…and gold.

Here’s how I did it.

You’ll Need:

Faux antlers
Spray paint
Gold leaf paint
Flowers and greenery {I found mine at Pier1}
Hot glue gun

Step 1: Remove old wax, dirt from the antlers.

Step 2: Spray paint the antlers heirloom white {paint from Home Depot}.

Step 3: Paint the tips gold.

Step 4: Hot glue flowers and greenery in place.

Right now, the DIY floral antlers are sitting pretty on Gabriella’s new desk, but they will be put to good use as a DIY floral antlers necklace display, or decor on the wall.

Cheers to re-purposing…and, of course living your best life.

Beautiful words of advice by Cinderella so thoughtfully designed by HelloTosha.

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Filed Under: decor, diy, gifts, lifestyle Tagged: diy, diy gift, floral antlers, Gift, gold, have courage and be kind, home decor, jewelry, ladder, necklace display, pink, potential, upcycle

DIY Woodland Winter Cake Topper

A Little Star Baby Shower

YOLO DIY Cosmetic Bag

DIY Witch and Mummy Halloween Nail Polish

DIY Floral Antlers

HELLO & WORK WITH US

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