Simple boho-inspired clipboard to display positive and inspirational quotes in your home or workspace.

There are a few places in the house where I love to have inspirational quotes posted. Maybe you do too... at your desk, coffee station, or family command centre. I’ve blogged about using clipboards to display printables such as a quote or calendar before. Using a clipboard makes it easy to change things up depending on the seasons or your mood. Today I’m sharing a big set of printable quotes I’ve created, plus a simple way to make a boho chic clipboard so you can easily keep inspiration posted in your home or office space.

Boho Yarn and Wood Bead Tassel

Make your own boho chic tassel with a little bit of yarn and a wood bead.  

It's my personal opinion that almost anything with a zipper or handle can benefit from the addition of a tassel. Almost.  Use up some left over yarn and add a few wooden beads and a charm ring, that’s all you need! A fun little craft while you’re indoors on these freezing cold days. Easy enough to make even while you’re distracted with watching Netflix. Keep your hands busy and out of the chips bowl.

Chalkboard Style Slate Coasters

How to create chalkboard look lettering on slate coasters with a white paint marker.  These make a lovely and personalized gift for your host/hostess, teacher or as a housewarming gift.

Hey everyone! Welcome back to Personally Andrea! We are finally slowing down into a summer vibe. The weather has heated up and we’re enjoying the longer daylight hours, especially in the evenings.   How about you?

So today, I have a really straightforward DIY that you can make for your own backyard enjoyment or entertaining. Also, if you’re looking for something personal to give as a gift for any of your occasions this summer, these are a great idea!  I think they'd be great as a hostess or housewarming gift alongside a bottle of your favourite wine.

DIY Rustic Three Tier Wood Slice Stand

How to make a rustic three tier stand with reclaimed wood slices and glass candlesticks.

Hello, and welcome to the second instalment of There For the Making | Zero Dollar DIY Challenge. If you weren’t here for the first post in the series, don’t forget to check back to see how I made a framed monogram chalkboard from supplies around the house. All the bloggers on this challenge came up with amazing projects, and I can’t wait to see more. Thanks again to Sarah at Flourish & Knot for organizing and hosting us!

How to Make a Chalkboard and a Chalk Monogram

How to make your own framed chalkboard with a hand-drawn chalk monogram. This is for everyone who thinks they’re not crafty or artistic!

Welcome to the first post in an occasional series called There For The Making, Zero Dollar DIY Challenge.  It will run for the rest of this year, and a huge shout out to Sarah at Flourish & Knot for both creating and hosting this challenge for us!

DIY Eucalyptus and Mint Foot Soak

Bath salts and essential oils make a pretty, scented and therapeutic soak for your feet at the end of a long day.  Wind down and clear your head with this eucalyptus and mint foot soak you can make yourself.

DIY Photo Covered Notebooks

Detailed DIY instructions for using your photographs to decorate and personalize the covers of plain notebooks.

Hey everyone! Can we talk about how easy it is to take a ton of gorgeous photos all the time? Now that we’re all carrying amazing cameras, disguised as phones, right in our back pockets or purses? And let’s also talk about how hard it is to do anything with all. those. photos. Some will get posted to social media, maybe we’ll print a few, and maybe even frame them and hang them on the wall. Or give them as gifts…

Birch Slice Garden Markers

Recently I needed a quick and inexpensive way to create customized garden markers for a photo shoot, and came up with these birch slice garden markers from supplies in my craft cupboard. They’re pretty cute. I think you’ll like them too!

DIY Tray with Monogram Using a Cabinet Door

So as a continuation of last week’s post on Breakfast in Bed, today I’m going to show you how I DIY’d the pretty monogrammed tray in the photos.  Prepare to be wowed.  You’ll never look through the IKEA as-is section in the same way again.

Pretty Photo Covered Planner {DIY}

February is the new January.  That’s what I’ve decided this year.  I don’t know about you but it’s taken most of the month to wrap my head around the fact that it’s a new year, and I’ve been delaying making goals and plans for 2016.  It took me more than New Year’s Eve to say goodbye to 2015 and start 2016.

* pin me *

How to Make Birdseed Ornaments

How to make birdseed ornaments for your own backyard birds, or as a pretty and practical handmade gift.  Fun craft to make with kids!

So a sad thing has happened in our neighbourhood over the past couple of years.  An invasive species called Emerald Ash Borer has either killed or made sick all of the ash trees.  All.  Which is a lot of trees, considering our neighbourhood bears the name Ashgrove. 

Homemade Candied Citrus Peel

A pretty package of homemade candied citrus peel makes a stress-free and thoughtful gift from your kitchen.  The recipe is forgiving and the end result looks festive.  What could be better for Christmas gift-giving?

* homemade candied citrus peel gift *

Homemade Orange Cream Milk Bath

Homemade Orange Cream Milk Bath adds luxurious benefits to your bath, with sweet smelling orange essential oil, skin-soothing milk, cornstarch and baking soda.  Packaged in a pretty jar with a handmade label and bakery twine, it also makes a lovely homemade gift.

Rustic and Cozy Winter Plaid Wreath Trio

This has been one of the most beautiful fall seasons around here in recent memory.  The colours continue to hang on to the trees or make beautiful carpets on the lawns and walkways.  The temperatures are getting colder and colder though, and with Halloween now celebrated and behind us, I think it’s okay to start transitioning our mindsets toward winter. 

* rustic & cozy winter plaid wreath trio *

Hand-Stamped Notebook Label Plus Tips for Handmade Labelling

I love to create my own labels for pretty much everything… for personalizing my spaces, organizing, and especially for gift-giving.  I created a personalized hand-stamped label for a new notebook, and shared a few of my tips for handmade labelling so that you can be passionate about it too.

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* hand-stamped notebook label *

3 Lessons for Making Your First Fall Wreath

Well here’s something new on the bloggy…a wreath!  I’ve known for a while that it was inevitable.  It’s kind of almost required to make wreaths when you blog.  I don’t know.  Apparently you guys love them a lot.  Look around Pinterest and you’ll find wreaths for every season, holiday, occasion and day of the week.  #exaggerating #notreally

* pin me *

Using a Free Printable to Make Coffee Station Art

Hey there bloggy friends, it’s been a bit of a long break around here!  It wasn’t totally intentional, but once August came around, summer hit me fast and hard and I suddenly found a lot of other things to do besides blogging.  I missed you, but I hope you found a few other things on the internet to entertain you…

* do you have a coffee station yet? *

Pottery Barn Inspired Rope Hurricane

There’s always a place for some coastal or beach-y decor during the summer, don’t you think?  Either at home or cottage or cabin, or for your summer special events.  These are inspired by a Pottery Barn hurricane, but you can make them for a fraction of the cost.  Come and see how.

* pin me *

Dollar Store Easter Craft Goes Shabby Chic

Hey there friends.  Long time no see!  Maybe some of you have been hit by spring fever like I have? And now suddenly the end of the month is in sight and Easter is quickly approaching.  How about a little Easter craft?

* pin me *

I don’t know how you feel about Easter crafts.  A lot of traditional Easter stuff like flowers (too early where we live), pastel colours (not a fan), rabbits (they eat my favourite grape hyacinths to the ground as soon as they finally bloom) doesn't really work for me.  But for whatever reason eggs and nests and such do work for me, and I love to decorate eggs in lots of different ways.

How to Make Watercolour Gift Tags

* pin me *

When I was a kid I used to love using watercolour.  I loved the brand new set of paints, the used up palettes, mixing in water to different consistencies, mixing colours together to make new ones.  I loved the weight and texture of the paper, I loved the ombré and marbled effect of the paint.  I think maybe I missed my calling as a watercolour artist.  Probably not.

new paints and brushes

But recently when Michael’s had a coupon for a discount on an entire purchase, I decided to get me some inexpensive water colouring stuff.  Just for fun…for a rainy afternoon.  My philosophy is just because I’m not an expert, doesn’t mean I can’t give something a try and create something beautiful.  I hope you feel the same!  Don’t be nervous to try something new…enjoy the process and don’t worry so much about the result.  Creativity is good for the soul.

pastel palette for spring

So while that rainy afternoon is probably a long way off (it is mid-winter after all) I took out my new paints, paper and brushes anyway when I saw this idea for making watercolour gift tags.  It’s from this book which I got for Christmas.  The book teaches creative hand lettering of all styles, which I can’t really teach, but one of the projects is for calligraphy on watercolour tags.  So we’ll cheat on the calligraphy part …shhh… but still end up with some pretty tags…

looks just like calligraphy, right?

So I cheated on the lettering part by feeding the watercolour paper straight through the printer.  I laid out the words (or names) I wanted to use in three columns in a Word document, leaving enough space for the tag shaped punch I was using between each word.  I used this font which is one of my new faves, and mimics the look of calligraphy a bit.

line it up perfectly

If you’re using a punch to cut out your tag shape, hold it upside down so you can see where to line up your words inside the tag borders.

start painting

And then I just started painting.  If you’re a REAL watercolour artist please don’t cringe… I’m just making a craft…  My only tip is if you wet the paper really well before you start painting then the paints will flow and marble together to make these pretty abstract designs.

love making a mess

Depending on how wet the paper is, it will curl up at the edges even when it’s dry.  Which is fine with me but you can press them under a heavy book if you prefer to have them flat.

pretty pastels

When they were dry I punched a hole in the top and tied in some twine.  I think these would be pretty for Valentine’s Day or any Spring occasion.  I had a suggestion on Instagram to use them as price tags if you sell boutique merchandise.  I would totally shop at a store that had price tags this pretty!  Wouldn’t you?

pretty gift

Once you’re all set up, it’s easy to make a whole lot at once.  Make some with generic greetings on them like I did, or print them out with your family’s or friends’ names for a lovely personalized touch.

watercolour gift tags

What would you use these for?  Let me know in the comments… I’ve got a whole stack of them now to use up!  Hope you enjoyed my easy and pretty craft.  And hoping you have a chance to be creative too.

See you next time!

xo andrea

linking to thoughts from alice, monday funday, diy dreamer, joy in our home,