Obsessed With Greeting Cards (What's New?)

Greetings!

The other day, I went on a little excursion to Michaels.

And I found the magical land of greeting cards.

There were also mustache stickers. *swoon*

I spent an abnormal amount of time card-making.
In other news, I also discovered scrapbooking glue is not recommended for impatient people.

Love always, Mary ♡

Oh - before I leave - (I do this a lot, don't I?) what do you guys think of me "blogging my day?" It's like vlogging, but with less virtual confrontation. 

Fun With Burlap? Nah.

 Hello everyone!

A few days ago, I discovered how sophisticated burlap looks through my eyes.

So obviously, I bought a ton of it and tried to fill up an afternoon.

In short, it didn't go as planned.

But before I get into that, let me explain...

I set off wanting to make a bow from burlap, and to glue it onto a jar.

To do this, you'll need:

- burlap -

- a ruler - 

- hot glue gun -

- scissors - 

- a mason jar -

First off, cut a piece of burlap to be 12x5 inches.

Then, cut another piece to be 6x1.5 inches.

Of course, I didn't do exact measurements because I was too lazy to adjust the length of my burlap.

If you want this project to succeed, however, you might want to follow the measurements.

Take your larger piece of burlap and fold both ends in half. Make sure they overlap a bit, and hot glue  them in place.

With your smaller piece, fold that in half horizontally and glue it down. Then, you'll need to fold and glue it a few more times.

Contrary to popular belief, hot gluing burlap is not fun. At all.

Grab your larger slice of burlap and start accordion folding. Adjust the fanned-out sides to your standards, and hot glue all the folds on both sides.

Remember this guy? Use it to wrap around the center of your bow.

Hot glue everything together, and...

Violà! Your finished product.

Of course, immediately after this picture was taken, the bow started to fall apart and I had to trash it.

It's okay though, because I wasn't too attached to it.

So, instead, I took a scrap piece of burlap and glued it around my Mason jar.

I slapped my initial on it and called it mine. I also turned it into a makeup brush holder. Pictures of that coming soon.

If there were a moral to this story, it'd be not to play with burlap.

Love always, Mary ♡

A Valentine's Day Tea Party

Good hello, everyone!

Today, I hosted one of my absolute favorite things in life - a tea party.

We taught little girls tea party etiquette, ate tiny heart-shaped sandwiches, and devoured chocolate covered strawberries.

Here are some pictures of the event...

The final product.

I attempted to take an arty fartsy shot...

The punch. (also - my friend in the background. She was taking pics for her blog as well).

A poster to teach the girls table etiquette.
(made by me)                               

Remember those puff balls?

There's that friend...

At the end the girls decided a dance party was to be had. We all throughly enjoyed it.

I hope you all enjoyed this post!

Oh - I also discovered the secret to happiness - throw a tea party for small children.

Visit that friend's {blog}! Show her some love!
By the way, her name is Anna.

Love always, Mary ♡

Random Acts of Kindness

Hey there, blog friends!

I really didn't know what exactly I was going to blog about today, but I just felt like typing down my thoughts and exploiting them on the Internet. Because that's what everyone's doing these days, right?

Lately, on Pinterest, I've been seeing plenty of Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) pins and whatnot.

If you're not familiar with these, Random Acts of Kindness are "...selfless acts performed by a person or people wishing to either assist or cheer up an individual person or people..."

Sounds pretty cool, right?

Then I got to thinking. Wouldn't it be AWESOME if someone did one of these every day for a year?

It always doesn't have to be something huge, like paying for someone's groceries or handing out clothes to the homeless. It could be something small but impactful, like putting back stranded shopping carts so the clerk doesn't have to wrangle them all, or doing the dishes for your mom when she's feeling sick. Even something as small as smiling at a stranger could make someone's day!

I encourage you (that's right - YOU) to commit a Random Act of Kindness every day.

If you feel like it, you could even write all your RAKs in a journal, so you can look back at them.

I found this RAK printable online - use it to spread the word! 

So, I really hope you consider doing this with me! 

Love always, Mary ♡

Oh - before I go, here are some RAK videos:

{this amazing video was done in Pakistan}

{this girl completed 24 RAKs on her 24th birthday}

Enjoy!

Valentine's Day Heart Banner DIY (aka - something useful)

Hello there!

Today, I decided to post a DIY on here, because I thought I might as well put something useful on this blog.

Because, contrary to popular thought, I actually do try sometimes.

First of all, you'll need some things (but remember what we learned last time... you also WANT this).

 - pink + red felt (2 pieces each) -

- twine -

- scissors -

- a black sharpie or marker -

- glue gun - 

Using your felt, draw a heart. This one will be your stencil, so you need to make it the size you want.

Cut out your stencil.

{This is when I suggest plugging in your glue gun. I chose to be a dingus and plug it in right when I needed it}

After this, you'll need to start tracing more hearts and cutting them out. I did 13 of each, but your number count doesn't matter. I mean, I doesn't matter to me. Not that you're not important or anything, but... oh well..

After you're done tracing and cutting, it should look a bit like this. If it doesn't, you may have done something wrong. Or you may just be drunk.

This one is easy - cut your desired amount of twine. 

If you followed my instructions, your glue gun should be nice and hot by now.

This part is on the difficult side to explain, so do these pictures count?

Continue doing this until your preferred amount of twine is covered in hearts.

The final product:

I hope this was pretty simple for you. But not if you're drunk. I do not suggest using hot craft tools while drunk.

Until next time!

*tips invisible hat*

Love always, Mary ♡

The Puffiest Puff Balls You'll Ever See

Hello friends!

Today I bring to you a craft project I've been wanting to do for a while now, but you know... procrastination.

    WHAT YOU'LL NEED (let's face it - you WANT it)

❄︎ tissue paper (10-12 pieces) ❄︎

❄︎ floral wire (or pipe cleaners) ❄︎

❄︎ clear string (I used fishing line) ❄︎

WHAT TO DO + HOW TO DO IT

First of all, grab all your pieces of tissue paper and stack them on top of each, with the corners nice and even.

Start to execute the accordion fold (you make call it a fan fold - but that doesn't sound as cool) .

Basically fold all your pieces of tissue paper together to make a fold. Then, flip the whole thing over and fold the other way. Repeat until it's all folded up.

Then, you'll want to cut the two shorter edges to a triangular point. This just makes the finished product look nice and fluffy.

You might have to cut in layers, since you have so much paper.

You want it to at least a bit like this. This is also the time when I decided it may be a good time to start taking pictures.

Retrieve your floral wire or pipe cleaner. I was an idiot and ignored the fact that this project required such things as floral wire, so I had to scrape together my pipe cleaners.

Put the pipe cleaner in the center of your folded-ness.

Then you'll want to twist it...

And for good measure, why don't we loop it? If there is any excess pipe cleaner, wrap it around the bottom of the loop.

When this is completed, cut your desired amount of clear string and put it through your loop. Tie a knot, and shabang, a hanging device!

Now is the time where your accordion skills come into play. Fan out the two sides of your tissue paper.

Commence the separating and fluffing!

Disclaimer: if your tissue paper somehow rips in this process, I WARNED YOU.

In the end, I hope your puff ball turns out something like this. I really do.

Cuddos to this blog for teaching me how to do this awesome project!

Love Always, Mary ♡