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My kids are 100% committed to caring for our Earth and the animals and people on it. We recently learned about bees and our family decided to create a wildflower garden that bees would love. That inspired us to create these recycled paper DIY wildflower seed bombs – to beautify our community and help save the bees. Get this fun, kid-friendly DIY just in time for Earth Day and Spring gardening! Before creating our DIY wildflower seed bombs, we headed to our local nursery to get some tips on flowers that bees and other pollinators would like. We found out that bees are particularly drawn to blue flowers and that yellow flowers appear blue to them! It’s a good idea to find wildflowers that are local to your area. The bees will enjoy them and they will be sure to grow well in your local soil and weather. Our local nursery had several different wildflower seeds and blends to choose from. In the end, we chose the Arizona Summer Bloom Wildflower mix for our seed bombs since we live in the hot and dry desert climate of Arizona. DIY Wildflower Seed Bombs Supplies: Construction paper Food processor wildflower seeds silicone mold Directions: 1. Start by tearing your construction paper into small pieces. We chose 2 pieces of purple, 2 pieces of pink, and 2 pieces of green construction paper and kept them separated by color. Tip: 2 pieces of construction paper made about 4 seed bombs for us. 2. Soak the pieces in a bowl covered in water for 20 mins. Drain off most of water and blend paper in the food processor. 3. Once your paper is blended, squeeze out any excess moisture. Press some paper into the bottom of your silicone mold, just enough to cover the bottom. 4. Add a pinch of wildflower seeds to each mold. TIP: try to keep the seeds in the middle and away from the edges. We had some trouble with the ones my son did, being too full of seeds, and the top and bottom not drying together because there wasn’t enough wet paper to create a good seal. 5. Add more of the paper on top of your seeds and press down to seal and cover the seeds. Let your seed bombs dry overnight. 6. Once they are dry, gently pop out your wildflower seed bombs from the molds. We created a free printable that you can download and use! Wildflower Seed Bomb Printable PDF Click here for printable PDF We put our wildflower seed bombs in a clear bag, folded over the top, and punch holes in it. We tied off our printable and baggie with a pretty ribbon and surprised some friends with them. The instructions are easy. Just toss them out in your yard, water them and they will grow wildflowers in a few weeks! Check out these other posts you may like: Flower Garden Parfaits DIY Floral Bunny Headband

I love indoor plants but after collecting quite a few, I needed a pretty way to display them. I created this DIY Hanging Plant Decor to display my indoor plants. I've even gifted them to friends for their birthdays. Supplies: Large branch (Mine is dried cholla cactus but a branch works just as well) Macrame plant hangers Small pots twine large hooks potting dirt plants (this holds 5 plants) hot glue sandpaper (optional) Shop project supplies: Directions: Clean your branch and sand down any rough edges as needed. Decide how far apart you want to space your plants and in which order you want to hang them. (My order from left to right was the one with the weaved pattern, double hanging basket, beaded hanging basket, and lastly the twisted style hanging basket. Using your twine, wrap it around the wood where you want the plants to hang, putting it through your hanging basket loop or ring several times, and tying the hanging basket to it. The plants get heavy with dirt, water, and the plant themselves so make sure you wrap it several times to give it good support. Secure your knot several times. I used hot glue on my knots after I tied them several times and trimmed down the excess. Repeat the previous process for the following hanging baskets. To create a way to hang it, near the ends of the last hanging baskets, tie more twine, making a loop at the top for your hooks to slide in. You may have to measure this one to make sure the hooks can be looped under. Using a drill, attach your hooks to the ceiling. Hang your hanging planter on it. I planted each plant in their respective pots and then gently placed them in the macrame planter. Be sure to keep the saucer under the pot to catch any excess water later. And then sit back and enjoy your masterpiece! This hanging plant decor really brightens up the bay window in my breakfast nook. Do you have a favorite indoor plant? Mine is the Tradescantia with its stunning, shimmery purple and green leaves. You can find a Tradescantia plant care guide for them on Bloomscape.

We are in our Valentine era and we're loving it! We have shared watercolor lover cookies, DIY bracelet glasses , and friendship bracelet skewers and fondue ! Today, we're sharing some super cute free printable Valentine's Day cards for Swifties! These would be perfect for your little Swiftie to give out to their class or friends this Valentine's Day! These cards are the perfect mix of classic conversation heart candies and Taylor Swift lyrics. We created 4 different but similar designs. Download our free Swiftie Valentine's here. These would be so cute attached to a pack of conversation hearts or add a friendship bracelet to each one! Save this to your Pinterest board for Valentine's Day so you can find it later! For more Valentine's Day content, head over to our Valentine's Day page to read them all. Looking for another holiday or want to browse by season, we have that too.

You may have made tie-dye shirts before, but have you ever made tie-dyed shoes? I had this idea in my head for cute summer shoes. I wasn’t sure how these would turn out, or if the shoes would even take the dye but they turned out awesome and we loved making them! This Summer, we hope to be engaging the kids in crafts and activities so they aren't glued to their screens all day long. I feel like I try to do a pretty good job of giving them free time to play, as well as some structured activities we can do together, or with friends. These DIY tie-dye shoes were a fun and colorful summer craft we all enjoyed! Tie-Dye Shoes Supplies: Tie Dye Kit White Canvas shoes ( kid shoes and adult shoes ) Paint palette Paint brushes (we used chunky brushes ) Directions: 1. Prepare your tie-dye bottles by adding water and shaking them up until the powder dye is fully dissolved. My little one loved helping with this part. We used this Tulip one-step tie-dye kit and it was so easy! 2. Squirt your rainbow colors into the paint palette and using a big paint brush, dip it into the dye and add it to the shoe. Squirting straight from the bottle didn’t work for us. It was more of a dabbing the dye technique. But test it out and see what works best for you and your kiddos. 3. We started at the toe and worked our way back following the rainbow pattern. (Note: We didn’t use all 12 colors from the set) 4. Set your shoes in a plastic bag overnight (or about 12 hours). Then rinse, air dry, and wear! While my daughter was making bright rainbow shoes, my son was making colorful color-block shoes. We took our laces out when we tie-dyed our shoes so they would stay white but you could dye them rainbow colors or a solid color if you wanted to. Shop Tie Dye Shoes Project: The final product turned out so cute! She will be wearing the heck out of them all summer long! Also, you will have lots of dye left over to create tie-dye shirts too! For more summer fun for kids, check out these posts: No-Churn Triple Chocolate Ice Cream and Flower Jars Craft !

Cyanotype is the fun process of using light to do photographic printing. It creates this beautiful rich blue color. Today, I'm going to teach you a little bit about how cool cyanotype is and show you how we made our DIY cyanotype shirt for the 4th of July! It's a great summer project. History of Cyanotype Cyanotype was developed around 1842 by a man named Sir John Herschel, a Greek chemist and experimental photographer (to name a few titles). Cyanotype creates a monotype print with a deep blue hue that looks like a blueprint. It was first publicly used to create the first ever photographic book called Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions by Anna Atkins. Cyanotype is one of the oldest photographic printing processes and is still used today. How Does Cyanotype Work? First, the cyanotype solution is created by mixing ferric ammonium citrate potassium ferricyanide to make an iron-rich sensitizer solution. The solution is brushed over a porous surface such as paper or clothing, you can add an object, and then expose it to light. When the chemicals are exposed to UV light such as sunlight, they react and create ferric ferrocyanide, also known as Prussian Blue around the object. The last step in the process is to use water to rinse away the chemicals. Over time the dark blue develops to reveal the final product. DIY Cyanotype Shirt We created a fun Cyanotype shirt for the 4th of July using this cyanotype dye kit , star stickers, and a plain white cotton shirt . She wanted to create a blue shirt with a stars and fireworks pattern on it. We used foam star stickers to make the star shapes . The fireworks were created with these fluffy pom poms we found in our craft box from years ago. While don't need a dark room, we did our painting in a dim room before taking the shirt outside to expose it to light. For our shirt, we painted the whole area blue and then laid the stars on it in a pattern we liked. Then we took it outside to let it sit in the sun the sun for a while. We left it outside for a few minutes to develop the color. Shop Cyanotype Supplies: After letting our shirt sit out in the sun, we brought it in and removed the stars. She immediately washed the shirt in a sink with cool water. We used gloves to protect our hands from the chemicals. We let it air dry before putting it on. This is the final result. We used a pretty saturated layer of the cyanotype so the blue is pretty dark but the stars and fireworks are fun for the Fourth of July! To help protect the shirt, I've only ever washed it by hand alone and let air dry, so I don't have good tips for laundering it in the future. It's a fun summer project for older kids or teens! We are planning to experiment more with nature designs next time. More Cyanotype Fun:

I wanted to create a simple DIY Halloween bunting banner that could be used for different Halloween décor not only for this year but for years to come as well. I kept it simple with a classic black-and-white color combination. I found black pre-cut burlap bunting at my local craft store and I used white craft paint to freehand paint my letters on the bunting. I added simple ghosts for a little spooky touch. It looks great with my DIY cheesecloth ghosts . Easy DIY Halloween Bunting SUPPLIES Black burlap (or sturdy black fabric cut to shape, felt might work too) White craft paint and paintbrush Twine Large needle White scrap fabric Cotton balls Black marker White thread DIRECTIONS: Step 1: Cut your fabric to the shape and size you want. Mine are about 5 x 7 inches, and then I cut it angled in at the bottom to make the bunting shape I wanted. Step 2: Using white craft paint, paint “Happy Halloween”, one letter at a time, on each of the bunting pieces. This took a long time but was worth it in the end. You may have to do 2 or 3 coats to get the white just right. Step 2: To make the ghosts I just used 4 jumbo cotton balls wrapped in a piece of white fabric and tied with white thread. I drew on black eyes with the marker. Step 3: Using a large needle and some black and white twine I threaded on each letter to make my banner. I made 2 separate buntings, one for the word “Happy” and another for “Halloween”. Step 4: String the ghosts through the head on each end of the word “happy” to complete your banner. Hang and enjoy for many Halloweens to come! I made mini versions of these buntings when I made my DIY cheesecloth ghosts . Head over to that post to make this craft . Looking for more Halloween? Check out these posts: 13 Spellbinding Witchy Books to Read this Fall Pumpkin Cream Cold Foam Starbucks Copycat Recipe

These DIY friendship bracelet glasses are fun to make and cute to wear! Perfect for your Eras tour outfit, Taylor Swift party , or Valentine's Day goodie for your friends or besties! DIY Friendship Bracelet Glasses Supplies: Heart-shaped glasses Beads - I used these alphabet beads and these glass beads super glue tweezers - I used some old Revlon ones I have but use whatever you have or like I liked that pack of heart-shaped glasses from Amazon because they came in 14 gorgeous colors! You could probably make a pair of glasses inspired by each of her albums. But, we only did a few for my daughter's friends and kept the Valentine-themed phrases as well. Let's get started. Instructions: Once you've gathered all your supplies, decide on what color glasses you will create and what phrase you want on there. I picked out most of my beads ahead of time. The letters and the colors I wanted to go with it to make my friendship bracelet design. Choose 3 or 4 colors to create your design. 3. You're going to decide where to start your phrase or word. I started with my "be mine" beads about here (see above) and added a small line of glue near the edge of the top of the glasses. 4. I added a few beads at a time making sure to line them up correctly. 5. Once you've placed those beads, add another small line of glue and continue building your word. 6. Once you've got your word built, it's time to create the friendship bracelet effect by gluing your smaller beads in a line across the top of the glasses. I liked to pick three or four colors to create a pattern with my beads. 7. This part was a bit more tedious and required me to use the tweezers to get the beads placed how I wanted. 8. Imagine the glue is the string and place your beads oriented as if they are on string to get the most authentic look. One tip that helped me was to only do a few beads at a time and then let them dry a little bit before trying to add more. That way if a bead was crooked as I was placing it and I tried to fix it then it didn't mess up the whole line. TIP: You do want to be careful using super glue. It dries quickly and sticks to your fingers making it hard to work if you touch it. Work in sections and be patient. You can play around with colors, patterns, words, or phrases that you like. I did my Lover-inspired glasses by winding my friendship bracelet down to the other side but then I didn't like it as much. It's still pretty but I think I would stick to making my bracelet design only go across the top. But, maybe you want to make them look like bracelets going around each heart! That could be fun. One of my favorite designs to make was this King of My Heart-themed red glasses.

We love a pretty flower bouquet but today we are upping our game and making a DIY book bouquet that is perfect for surprising a friend or loved one! These make great birthday gifts for bookworms in your life. DIY Book Bouquet Supplies: Books cellophane tape scissors duct tape or another sturdy tape wooden dowels brown paper (or paper of your color) string or twine tissue paper (optional) ribbon fresh or faux flowers - I used 2 different types of fresh flowers Directions: Pick your books. I found the book bouquet easiest to make with three books otherwise the bouquet gets too big and heavy to hold. Wrap each book in the clear cellophane and tape them up. Like little presents. This keeps the books protected but you can still see what the books are when you make your bouquet. Using duct tape, attach a dowel to the back of each book. Then you can arrange your books in a shape with 2 books in the back and 1 book in the front. 4. Now that we have the basic shape, cut out your brown paper to be slightly wider and longer than your books on sticks. Do this twice, you'll save the second piece of paper for later. ( Note, if you want more color you can add tissue paper between your books and the brown paper). I like the simplicity of the brown paper and flowers but feel free to personalize it to suit your needs or the person you are giving it to. 5. Next, we're going to place flowers around to form the bouquet. I used 2 different flowers to add contrast but keep it simple and not visually overwhelming with too many colors. 6. Now you're going to fold over the paper at the base, leaving the top open. Tie with twine to secure it. 7. This is the time you are going to use that second sheet of brown paper. Cut it in half so that you have two almost equally sized pieces. Fold one piece at a diaganol as seen below and lay it on the front of your bouquet bunching it together at the same spot where you did your first layer of brown paper. 8. Repeat this step a second time on the other side of your bouquet. Tie wtih twine or tape to secure it down. 9. Lastly, you can decorate your bouquet with a ribbon and you have a beautiful DIY book bouquet to give as a gift! Check out our Gift Guide for Book Lovers for more gift ideas! Want books to fill your book bouquet? Click on these images to head over to these other posts out for book inspiration.

Welcome to our female rage era! We can't believe it has barely been over 1 month since The Tortured Poets Department has dropped and we're fully obsessed with listening to it. We decided it would be fun to try to recreate Taylor's watch necklace that she wore at the Grammys when she announced TTPD. It was easier than we expected and we had a lot of fun creating it. Here's how we made this DIY TTPD clock necklace! Supplies: Watch faces 5/8 velvet ribbon jewelry making kit wire clamps super glue tape measure scissors Directions: Measure your neck or whoever you are making this necklace for. Then you will cut your ribbon 1 inch shorter than you measured. Our model measured 13 inches so we cut our ribbon to 12 inches long. 2. Grab one of the crimp clamps out of your jewelry-making kit and line it up on one edge of your ribbon. Use your wire clamps to close it gently, squeezing along the edge of the clamp. 3. Choose what watch you want to be the watch for your necklace. Slide it on the other side of your ribbon, making sure the ribbon lays behind it. Once you get the watch centered on your ribbon, add some super glue to the back of the ribbon to help secure it in place. Let dry completely, this only takes a few minutes. 4. Now you can add the same type of crimp clamp to the other side of your ribbon, using the same technique you used with the first side. 5. Add one jump ring and 1 claw clamp to one side. Use your wire clamps to open and close the jump ring. You'll want to do this on whatever side your dominant hand is on so you can put the necklace on easily. Also, decide how you want your watch to orient on your neck. Taylor's watch had the 12 facing her left ear so we did the same. 6. On the other side you can add the string of jump rings using your wire clamps. You're done! It's a pretty easy craft. You can play around with different types of ribbons or other necklace accessories you like with it. We tried a lacy ribbon but, ultimately it wasn't sturdy enough to hold up the watch. Be sure to check out our Taylor Era page with lots of fun ideas or if you're looking for TTPD specific posts, head over to our candle painting TTPD listening party , TTPD inspired gift guide , and black and white snack board .

My kids and I are huge Harry Potter Fans. I read the series with my daughter and now my son and I are halfway through the final book. Whenever we finish a book, we watch the movie and have a Harry Potter Movie night with things like Mad Eye Moody Meatballs or Butterbeer Milkshakes . The kids love it and it's so much fun! We also collect some of the wands. We made this DIY Harry Potter Wand holder out of wood to display their wands on in their rooms. DIY Harry Potter Wand Holder My kids love displaying their wands from Wizarding World at Universal Studios as well as Mystery Wands and Dark Arts Mystery Wands . Supplies: 18 inch wooden plaque 18 inch x 2.5 inch wooden boards, one for each wand sandpaper L shaped screw hooks , about 1.5 inches in size ceiling hooks , about 1 inch Small screw eyes , about 3/4 inch craft paint wood stain sawtooth picture hanging brackets Directions: Make sure all your wooden pieces are smooth. Sand any rough spots down with your sandpaper. Then, we added a pretty wood stain on all our pieces. Once that was dry we painted the word "wands" on the large wooden plaque. You can also personalize it with the person's name. 3. Use the L hooks and create "ledges" for your wands to sit on. These are nice because wands are different sizes so some need to be further out from the wood if the handles are thicker. I used 2 L hooks to hold up each wand and adjusted it to fit each wand handle. 4. Using the ceiling hooks and small screw eyes, you can link together the wand-holding pieces to hang down below each other. 5. Add sawtooth picture hanging brackets to the back of your wand holder and you're ready to display your wands.

Throw a Taylor Swift themed The Life of a Showgirl Party Orange Feather Decor // Gold Star balloons // Plastic Champagne Flutes // Letter Balloons // Number Balloons // Flaming Heart Dessert Plates // Orange star balloons // Custom Showgirl Banner // Feather Boas // Marquee Stars // Orange confetti poppers // Orange Poptarts // Green nail polish // Orange nail polish // Showgirl headpieces // Olipop // Stagedoor Sign // Feather fans // Orange tinsel backdrop // Red Carpet // Orange scalloped plates // Green glitter table runners We love a good, themed party ! Today, we're sharing our The Life of a Showgirl themed party because Taylor Swift 's 12th album is coming out October 3rd and we are beyond excited! With the signature orange and mint green colors, lots of glitz and glitter, feathers and fun! For food, we would make up a batch or two of these orange poptarts and serve some champagne , orange flavored Olipop, or sparkling grape juice in plastic champagne flutes. We noticed during the Eras Tour, that Taylor liked to coordinate her nails to the album color. So, we picked glittery orange and mint green colored nail polish to have a nail painting station for our showgirls! What else would you include? Are you excited for Taylor's new album? For more Taylor themed fun you might like these other posts: Gifts for Swifties DIY friendship bracelet glasses Throw a Taylor Swift Themed Party Taylor Swift Era Themed Books

Taylor Swift's latest album, The Life of a Showgirl aka TS12 came out on 10-3-25. If you've seen my other posts, you know I'm a Swiftie . I listened to it at least 4 times on the first day. Some people love it, some people hate it. For me, it took a few listens and some time away, before I really enjoyed it. I have to admit; they are some bops! I can't help but sing along with them! I decided to turn The Life of a Showgirl into a treadmill workout based on the fact that they are very pop and would be good to strut to. Of course, everyone's fitness level, stride, and comfort speed are different, so this is just a guide to get you started. You may have to adjust the speed to suit your specific fitness level. Let's get into it! The Life of a Showgirl Treadmill Workout How to calculate a song beats per minute (BPM) Set a timer on your phone for 15 seconds. Play a song and tap along to the beat. Start the timer, count how many times you tap in the 15 seconds. Multiply that number by 4. Example: in the song Opalite, I count 31 taps in 15 seconds, multiplied by 4 = 124 bpm How to use BPM to determine treadmill speed Beats per minute can also translate to steps per minute, taking one step per foot on each beat. Opalite is perfect example of a 1 beat per step song. You can set the treadmill to 3.5 -4.0 mph for the 124 bpm speed for walking or bump it up to 4.5-5.5 mph for a jog like we did in our treadmill workout. Once you get the hang of it you can see this trend emerge: Slow ballads = 60–80 BPM  = 2.5–3.5 mph (walk) Pop/hip-hop = 90–110 BPM  = 3.5 - 4.0 mph (brisk walk) Upbeat Pop, EDM, dance = 120–130 BPM  =3.5 - 4.0 mph (brisk walk, 1 step each beat) or 4.5- 5.5 mph (jog) Fast rock, punk, high energy pop = 140–160 BPM  = 5.0–6.0 mph (jog) or 6.5–8.0 mph (run, step every other beat) I mixed up the track list so that we had some variation between walking and jogging/running, while also allowing for warmup and recovery songs. Give it a try! Also, I would love to hear from you, what is your favorite song on the new The Life of a Showgirl album?