DIY Doily Rainbow Art Pretties

You know you want to make some, too.

Days-of-the-Week Superhero Button Ring Sets

Button rings make really fun party favors & giftlets... and when grouped in sevens, they make for an especially adorable days-of-the-week ring set. They're great as everyday accessories, or for pretend play & superheroing (... and grownups loveum, too!) I have some snazzy little sets up for sale right now in my Etsy shop, but they're so supersimple to make.

PLEASE REMEMBER: Tiny little fingers and tiny little mouths can sometimes add up to curious trouble. Smallish things (like these rings) can be tricksy business with kidlets who are still in that oral fixationy phase; so always trust your mommy instincts and use care, common sense, & supervision with younger children under threeish. That having been said...

Here's the how-tos:
1. Get yourself some adjustable ring blanks. Lots of arts and craftsy places will sell them, and there are shops on Etsy, too.

2. Gather together an assortment of buttons (most artsy craftsy stores sell bags of mixed buttons, but vintage buttons make for extralovely, superunique designs.) Sort through the colors & shapes and pick out the ones that catch your eye (if you're making a days-of-the-week set, you might want to try creating an overall theme like "garden buddies," etc.)


3. Clip off the backs of the buttons so they lie flat. Then make pretty little stacklets of two or three buttons. Layer the smallish buttons on the larger ones, and glue them together with an adhesive (I use planet-friendly, kid-friendly, nontoxic Crafter's Pick The Ultimate Super Glue.)

4. Let your pretties dry overnight. Then glue them to the ring blanks.

5. Dry overnight.

6. Wear.

6. Accept random compliments.

40 Handmade Party Favors & Giftlets

Visit The Crafty Crow for tons of links to clever, handmade goodybag/ giftlet ideas. This particular post is resource reference Heaven... be sure to bookmark & save!

*** DIY Make Your Own Choose Your Own ***

My husband and I agreed to make each other our Valentine gifts this year, so, after filtering through the zillion crafty ideas in my head (99.9% of which were girly), I decided to make him his own, personalized, non-girly Choose Your Own Adventure Book (please note the very non-girly karate pose, ninja eyes, spooky mask and weaponry...)

CYOA books were really a big huge deal when we were growing up in the 80s. For those of you who are too young to remember them (grr...) here's how they work: at the end of the first page of the story, the reader is given choices (ex: "if you open the door, turn to pg. 14" ... "if you choose to ignore the door, turn to pg. 52.") The story continues on different adventures based on the choices you make. You can reread the book multiple times and by making different choices, wind up with different endings. Sometimes you end up a millionaire, discover pirate treasure, or get run over by a rhino.

For my husband's book, I scanned an old CYOA book and switched out a couple of things (adding his name, and a photo of his head.) Please note how goofy it looks. Go for the goofy...that's part of the charm! Then I printed out and glued the altered cover onto a little cheap notebook with blank pages. Next came the time consuming part: actually writing the book. I used real-life main characters (his childhood friends, family, pets, ME, etc.) and of course included the requisite boy fantasy stuff (superheroes, cowboys, aliens, martial arts, and so on.) With CYOA books, cheesy is good, and since I'm naturally corny, coming up with the storylines was really pretty easy.

Besides Valentine's day, you could whip up a custom CYOA for a birthday, Christmas, or Father's Day... (you could even get your kids involved with the storylines...children are the best resource for imaginative ideas...)

Although this is a fun, silly gift for grownup 80s babies, I can also see this being a really sweet gift for children...

It could also be a creative school project for older kids. Teachers can easily tie-in whatever topics they need (4th grade example: write a CYOA about CA mission life.) In the process, kids will not only be learning about the given topic, but also writing, reading, using their imaginations, organizational abilities, & focusing on the importance of making wise choices :)

Tips:

1. Start the project way in advance. If you procrastinate, your head & hands will hurt. Ahem.
2. Add illustrations. The old books used simple line drawings. The goofier, the better.
3. Remember to be ridiculous (think yetis, Russian spies, time travel...)
4. Store your in-progress work in a big Ziploc bag (to avoid possible spill catastrophes.)
5. Have fun! This project is a great excuse be silly... embrace your inner kidlet :)