This year I had 0 dollars and 0 cents so I had to really cut back on my Christmas expenses. One of those expenses was gift wrapping. I like putting a personal spin on presents I give to people because it's that extra thought that counts, right? So this year, I made my own Christmas tag to put on presents. It was super easy and I had a lot of time so why not.

A little while back, I got into watercolor painting. Watercolors are my absolute favorite kind of painting so I went to Michael's and picked up some paint and paper. So, I already had the supplies on hand to make these tags.

I got the three different green paints and just started painting. I painted the brush strokes from side to side and did a lot of layers of them. When I was finished, I let it dry over night. Then, I cut out a cutout of a Christmas tree. You can get as elaborate as you would like but I made my somewhat simple. I then traced the trees on the painted paper and cut them out and voila! I put a hole in the tag so I could string them through the rope. You can also tape them onto the presents or put them in a bag! You can make them as little or as big as you would like! Have fun with it! Let me know what you think!

So Valentine's Day has come and gone (and hopefully everyone had a great one :-) and you received a beautiful bouquet of flowers. You did you flower duty: cut the stems, put them into fresh water, and added the flower food. Now, they're sitting on your desk or in the middle of your dining table and time is ticking away at them. What do you do? It's simple, you press them! Pressing flowers is something that I started to do last year. It helps to preserve those beautiful flowers so you can cherish them or even do something crafty with them in the future. I have about 6 books that are dedicated to pressing flowers. Some of those flowers include: hydrangeas, sun flowers, roses, baby's breath, etc.

You need two things: your flowers of choice and then a thick, hard-cover chapter book.

Steps:

1. Take the petals- just enough to cover one page (i recommend putting them on the right page)
2.  Make sure the petals are upside down so they press flat
3. Close the book (make sure the page covers all of the petals) 
4. Put some heavy objects on top of the book- I just put more books
5. Give it time- a couple of weeks to a couple of months. 

Hope this helps you to figure out what to do with those precious flowers! More DIYs to come..