DIY: Little Apple Yarn Favors

Need a quick and easy project for the little ones during Thanksgiving down times?  This project from Make and Take's blog is just for you!  (We are totally making these for us and we don't have kids, so that's fine, too!)

Supplies for Yarn Apples:

• craft yarn – red, green, or yellow (the cheap yarn will do, $2 a skein)
• pipe cleaners (or chenille stems) – brown and green
• piece of cardboard – 2 in x 5 in

First find a piece of cardboard to help you with the winding. I tore off a piece from a box we had lying around. If you want a smaller apple, use a piece of cardboard that is 2 inches thick. Or if you want it a little larger, go 3 inches. I also bend my piece of cardboard in half a bit, just so it’s easier to take the yarn off when it’s done being wrapped.

Take your yarn color of choice and start wrapping it around your cardboard. We did ours almost 100 times around, so keep on winding!! Although I did wrap one apple only 80 times, and it looked just as good. The more you wrap, the thicker and tighter the apple looks. When you’re done winding, then just cut your string off, letting it hang in place. It will get tucked away later.

Cut your brown piece of pipe cleaner in half and slip one through your winded up yarn. This is where the bent in half card board piece comes in handy. If your cardboard is bent, it’s easier to slip the pipe cleaner through. Then twist up the end together, forming a stem for the top of the apple.

You now put the other cut half brown pipe cleaner through again and twist it up on the opposite end of the yarn, creating the round apple and looking like the little bottom end of an apple. Twist it up a ways, then cut off the pipe cleaner with scissors fairly close to the yarn and bend that end of wire in.

You can be done here or add a little leaf to the apple. With a 2 inch piece of green pipe cleaner, slip it under the top brown stem. Then bend in each half to look like 2 little leaves.

DIY: Plastic Animal Topped Glass Jars

These would make the cutest party favors or decoration for a room!  So easy to make there are only a few lines of instructions from Sweet Paul's blog.  Be sure to check their site out for more DIY!


I saw this idea a while back somewhere online and though it was so cool.
I wanted to give it a try.
All you need is some jars with lids, small plastic animals, superglue and spray paint.
Glue the animals to the lid with superglue and spray the whole lid with paint.
Let it dry and you have the cutest jars ever.
Have a great weekend all.

DIY: Colorful Lunch Bag Cutouts

We are taking a brief hiatus from ornament DIYs today to show you a great project from Studio DIY's blog!  Be sure to check them out.  These lunch bags would be great for a pick me up during a long school day!

Supply List:

Brown Paper Lunch Bags
Letter or Shape Templates (Print out large letters from your computer, or free hand it!)
Pencil
Scissors (x-acto knife helps too!)
Colored Card stock
Tape and/or Glue

To Make:

Trace your shape onto your lunch bag. Make sure to leave enough room at the top so you can fold the bag over (I’d do mine even lower next time).

Cut out your shape, I did this with an x-acto and put a small cutting board inside the bag to prevent cutting through both sides. You could easily do this with scissors too. Then cut a rectangle of colored paper, just big enough to cover your entire cut out.

Tape and/or glue your paper inside the bag behind your cut out. I taped mine first, then added glue (you can do this with a tooth pick or small glue stick) to seal down the loose edges.

DIY: Neon Animal Garland

This garland would be ideal for a kids party, or even for a fun 80s theme party!  They are so easy to make you may just want to do it and decorate your house for fun and you'll have Design Happen's blog to thank for it!  Head on over to their blog for more.

"Zoo Animal Play Set" (Google Affiliate Ad)

Neon animals and garlands are two of today’s hottest trends in the craft/party decor world, so why not combine the two to create a bright and vibrant neon animal garland? Here’s how!:

MATERIALS: I spotted these plastic dinosaurs at the dollar store (my favorite spot for budget crafting!) and then headed to the hardware store for neon spray paint, twine and eyelets (screw eyes).

INSTRUCTIONS: After spray-painting the dinos to my heart’s content we pre-drilled a 1/16 inch hole in the center of their back and inserted screw eyes from the hardware store.

Stringing the garland is a piece of cake, as well – simply route the twine through each hanger and tie to secure (just to keep your dinos from sliding to the center after the garland is hung). I chose to use a natural twine to balance all of that crazy color so the look isn’t far too shocking to match the rest of my office. Luckily, the garland fits right in!

DIY: Memory Game

We always have left over scrap paper and we love the idea of being able to upcycle it into a fun game for the niece and nephew!  Props to Craftiness is Not Optional for this wonderful idea. 

what you'll need:

16 wooden squares (i found mine at michael's for 30 cents a pop, and they are 2.5 inches square)
scrapbook paper
mod podge
foam brush

cut paper into squares (2 3/8 inches fit the best) 2 each, of course. it's great to use those scraps up!

spread a thin layer of mod podge on the wood and place the paper onto the glue. press firmly into place.

repeat for the other side, using paper that matches.


you can of course put another layer of mod podge on top of the paper, but i opted not to, cause that stuff is messy. then sand the wood for nice smooth edge

DIY: Bakers Twine Tea Cakes / Cupcakes

Okay, so I realize that this tutorial from Sweet C's Designs is meant for kids, but I want one for me!  These are so beautiful and simple who wouldn't love them??  They look like they take just a few minutes to whip up and we love things that are cute and time friendly.

First, you’ll need Styrofoam balls, bakers twine, mod podge, appliques, and cupcake liners/cups.

To start your cupcake’s swirl pattern, it is easiest to hold it in your hands, pinching the swirl to stay put as you build it up.

Once it is bigger than a quarter, you can glue your circle of twine to the top of your Styrofoam ball with some mod podge, and continue to wrap the twine in a circular fashion around the ball.

When you’ve wrapped the ball almost all the way down, mod podge the end of the twine to the ball, and add a healthy dollop of mod podge to the bottom of the ball.

Place in cupcake wrapper/cup and let dry.