DIY

DIY Seashell Letter:

I was inspired by Pinterest to do this beach themed DIY. This fall I am going to a university by the beach so I was thrilled to start this project

I first bought a "K" from Michael's around $3 (with coupon). But if you don't want to spend money, you can always cut your letter out of cardboard or a shoebox. The letter was a brown cardboard color to begin with so I decided to paint the letter white to make my "K" look fuller.

I painted all around my letter and only did one coat because I would have seashells covering the majority of it. **Make sure you paint the insides of your letter**

**Note: Paper towels are not a good idea to paint behind

Next I laid out all the seashells I have collected over the years and let me tell you, I had so many to choose from. I mean buckets of seashells. I'm glad they finally came to good use! Then I started planning what seashells I wanted where. I also added (fake) pearls from an old necklace, little diamond embellishments I had laying around the house, and an old K from a necklace I never wore/will ever wear again (I thought it added a little personality to my already personalized letter). When I liked how everything looked, I hot glued everything down. **Try to pick seashells that are sort of flat so it is easier to hot glue**

I started on one side and hot glued everything, then moved to the other so I wouldn't have a million little seashells moving every time I tried to pick one up and glue it back down. This also gave me an excuse to take a break and have family time.

This little decoration adds a personal touch to a room and is super cute because it gives you a chance to use those seashells sitting in a bucket at home and who doesn't love the beach? I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and I hope you enjoyed making this cute and simple DIY! If you have any questions, feel free to ask below.

xoxo, Kaitlyn Marie

DIY Floral Crown:

Model: My beautiful sister

For a photo shoot today, I was inspired by Pinterest (as always) and made a floral crown. I was in a rush to make this so I don't have as many photos as I would like.

What you need:

- Flowers (I used about 20-25 flowers on my crown)

- Floral wire

- Floral tape

- wire cutters

To start out I made a trip to the dollar store and bought 5 bouquets of flowers and floral wire. Sadly they did not have any floral tape so I had to improvise with tape I had at home-- frog tape (which is for painting...oops).

When I got home, I measured the size of my head and wrapped the floral wire around twice so the base of my crown was sturdy. I then cut each individual flower off leaving about a 1 inch stem.**If you have smaller flowers, take a few and wrap them with the floral tape before taping them to the crown.

I then took each flower and taped it to the crown and continued until the entire crown was filled with beautiful flowers.

The photo shoot was a success and the crown was beautiful! The plus was that it took about 30 minutes! It was an easy DIY at a very low price!

Model: Alana Hughes. So artsy!

  

The reason behind the floral crown was to play around with the double exposure technique in Photoshop. I took beautiful sunsets and city lights and mixed it in with the original photo. It's amazing what Photoshop can do! If you want to learn how to create this effect in Photoshop, click this link: http://xoxokaitlynmarie.blogspot.com/2015/06/double-exposure-using-adobe-photoshop.html

I hope you have no trouble while making your floral crown!

xoxo, Kaitlyn Marie

DIY Candy Jar:

What you will need:

 - Glass Jar with top

- Pot (I used a plastic flower pot, but if you want something more sturdy get a terracotta pot)

- Glass Marble or wooden ball

- Black spray paint

- Chalkboard spray paint (optional)

I wanted to make my mom something special for her birthday, something she would use all the time, something that was not materialistic, and something that she would absolutely love! Her all time favorite candy is Hershey's kisses. So I made a trip to the dollar store and bought a jar with a screw on top and a flower pot. Yes, I spent $2 on this cute gift- granted I had the marble and spray paint at home. (I sadly don't have any before pictures to show because I was in a rush to make this item) 

I spray painted the top of the jar black and I used chalkboard spray paint for the flower pot. This will give her a chance to write anything on the base for any occasion.

When everything was dry, I hot glued the glass marble onto the top of the jar and hot glued the jar to the flower pot. **Make sure you let the hot glue dry**

I then added in the Hershey's kisses and wrote on the base with chalk! 

Voila! Here is an adorable gift for only $2! I hope you enjoyed this diy and if you have any questions, please ask below! 

xoxo, Kaitlyn Marie