For our wedding in December, we wanted our guests to leave with something yummy to warm up the next morning. 

We added a note saying, “Our Warmest Thanks” and put them on a beautiful red vintage platter.

So easy and inexpensive to make… could be cute for a kid’s winter birthday party, too. 

Here’s how we did it:

Bought clear party bags from Oriental Trading Company.  I purchased about 3/4ths the number of guests we invited to the wedding, and still had many of these bags leftover after the reception.  Some people will take more than one, but many will leave without taking any. 

I bought the marshmallows, cocoa, and chocolate chips in bulk at Costco.  My friends and I (thanks girlies!!) made an assembly line, layering first the cocoa, then the chocolate chips, then the marshmallows.

I tied the bags with Martha Stewart yarn (love her stuff!) and a clear “Thank You” tag. 

Guests loved making their hot cocoa the next morning, and I loved all the leftovers!  Very easy to DIY!

This was a fun and very inexpensive DIY project!  I placed these at each table setting for our guests to take with them as party favors for the night.  They were a big hit!

Here’s how I made them:

First, I purchased clear, glass Christmas ornaments from the craft store.  The plastic ones will also work, and are even less expensive than the glass ones.  For kids, the plastic ones are probably a safer approach, but since this was an adults-only party, I opted for the real thing.

I also purchased two metallic paints from the store… one in silver and one in gold.  Any color will work, and they don’t have to be metallic. 

To start, I simply put a drop of each color into the ornament’s opening at the top, and rolled the ornament around in my hands to make swirls.  The lines are supposed to be random, so the good news is that these are hard to mess up!  The paint was thick and moved pretty slowly, so I would recommend doing four at a time, letting them rest in different positions to allow the paint to move, while working on another ornament at the same time.

  You can continue with the paint, until all the glass is covered, or you can leave some of the glass exposed (as I chose to do.)  I thought the lights on a Christmas tree would look pretty with the exposed clear glass.

Once they dried, I added some glitter to the inside of the ornament, which showed through the exposed glass on slightly.  Lastly, I tied a ribbon around the top of the ornament.

These were so easy to make, and could be a great DIY project for kids.  Here’s what they looked like finished, set out on the table

For a romantic, evening, formal party, try these wine bottle candle holders.  These centerpieces were original, beautiful, and less than $1 a piece to make!  So easy to DIY, with very few materials and very little time involved!

Here’s how I did it:

I drank a lot of wine (with the help of friends and family) and saved the empty bottles.  To get the labels off, I soaked the bottles in the kitchen sink in very hot water and soap (no need for anything fancy—just good old fashioned soap and water will do the trick.)

After they soaked for about 30 minutes, I worked on removing the labels.  MOST of the labels peeled off with no problems at all.  If the label didn’t come off smoothly, I simply discarded that bottle and started on a new one, confident that enough of them would turn out.  Don’t waste your time scraping off a label on a stubborn bottle.  Not worth the wasted time, energy, or damage it does to your nails!!

I bought the candles at the Dollar Store (2 candles for $1.)  The trick to getting the candles to be the right size for each wine bottle is to first put the candle in the top of the bottle up-side down (wick side in the bottle) until it fits comfortably.  At that point, I made a mark on the candle where it hit the top of the bottle opening.  I cut the candle wax at that point, turned it right side up, and they all fit snug into the wine bottle openings. 

Each brand of wine had different size openings at the top, so buying standardized candles and then cutting them to make them fit seemed the easiest way.

Guests thought the centerpieces were unique, romantic, and fun.  Easy DIY project for a party!!

Oh, I love these DIY table numbers!!! I just made these for our upcoming December nuptials.

They were oh so easy, and so inexpensive as well!

They are uniform in color and size, yet the changing backgrounds makes them not so matchy-matchy for my taste, and a little on the eclectic side.

I’m so happy with how they turned out!!

Here’s how I did it:

I purchased wooden frames from Michael’s crafts, assembled them (with wood glue) and let the dry overnight.

I spray painted the wooden frames and the wooden numbers the same shade of Golden Glitter, also purchased from the craft store.

I took out the cardboard inside the frame, and glued decorative paper onto the inside by using Rubber Cement. 

Lastly, I used wood glue to attach the numbers to each frame.  The numbers are very light, so I am confident they will stay adhered to the paper.

That’s as easy as it gets!!! So excited to use these great DIY wedding table numbers in less than 3 weeks!!