21 DIY Hanging Planters YOU Can Make

1. Wooden Box Hanging Planter: Talk about a wow-statement! These hanging planters are simple to make and look amazing on a wall. (via A Beautiful Mess)

2. DIY Macrame Hanging Planter: this projects keeps on giving with 2 projects in 1! (via Make and Takes)

3. Wood Slice and Rope Hanging Planter: Keep your plants up and out of the way with this super easy wood slice hanger. (via The Summery Umbrella)

4. DIY Floating Shelf: You can make this floating shelf with just a few supplies. You’ll stay in your budget too. (via Hometalk)

5. DIY Plywood Hanging Planter: How gorgeous are these diamond shaped hanging planters? They’re easier to make then they look. (via Deuce Cities Henhouse)

6. Make a Driftwood Hanging Planter: This driftwood hanging planter is way easier to make than it looks. We actually used a lot of things that we already had and the project only cost us $15 in plants to bring it all together. (via Make and Takes)

7. DIY Mason Jar Hanging Herb Planter: Plant your own herbs in your home with these darling mason jar platers. (via Ramshackle Glam)

8. Modern DIY Hanging Planter: Can you believe that this hanging planter is made from recycled plastic bottles? You have to make this! (via eHow)

More DIY Hanging Planters to make:

9. DIY Modern Hanging Planter: This gorgeous planter is made from an embroidery hoop! How easy it that? (via Northstory)

10. Plant Hanger From Fabric Strips: Use leftover fabric strips to make this plant hanger. Hang it in your home or outside on your porch. (via Gleeful Things)

11. Wood Planter: This hanging wood planter is simple, yet elegant, and would look great in anyone’s house. (via Shanty 2 Chic)

12. Disco Ball Hanging Planter: I need this disco ball planter in my life. It’s so much fun!! (via A Beautiful Mess)

13. Triangle Planter: You can make this beautiful copper geometric planter to decorate your home. (via Another Big Bite)

More DIY Hanging Planters

14. Leather Sling Hanging Planter: Keep the floor clear with this lovely leather planter. It’s modern, easy to make, and brightens up any space. (via A Designer At Home)

15. Easy Hanging Planter DIY: Use metal bowls to make these cool hanging planters. (via A Beautiful Mess)

16. Hanging Planter Hack: This $5 hanging planter hack is easy on your budget and time. (via Paper and Stitch)

17. DIY Planter With A Pair & A Spare: I love this leather DIY planter. Place your potted plant in the center of the leather and hang it in your home. (via BLDG 25)

18. DIY Crescent Moon Hanging Planter: Wouldn’t this moon planter look cute in a baby nursery? I love the crescent moon shape of the pot. (via diys.com)

19. Hanging Planter Shelf: This horizontal planter shelf is perfect for a minimalist. It’s simple and beautiful. (via Curbly)

20. Crochet Boho Plant Hanger: Learn the basics of crocheting to make this cozy plant hanger – Boho Style (via Curbly)

21. Recycled Water Bottles Hanger: This is a great recycled craft for a rainy afternoon. (via Momtastic)

Keep those floors clear and hang your plants from the ceiling. I love all of the beautiful DIYs. Which one will you choose to make?

Follow us on Pinterest for more inspiration!

Originally posted 6/23/17

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There are so many ways you can make these. My girls were having a blast shaping their coffee filters into all sorts of flowers.

How to Shape Coffee Filter Flowers

Once your coffee filters are all dyed and dried, it’s time to start shaping them into flowers. This is where the fun really begins — there’s no one right way to do it, and that’s exactly the point. Let the kids experiment and see what they come up with!

Simple Folded Flower

Fold the coffee filter in half, then in half again. Gather the pointed end together and twist it to form a stem base. Fluff out the top to open up the petals. Easy and so pretty!

Crinkled Flower

Lay the coffee filter flat, then scrunch it up from the center. Pinch and twist the bottom together tightly. Give the top a little shake to loosen the petals and you’ve got a full, fluffy bloom.

Ruffled Rose

Fold your coffee filter in half and then fold it in half again. Starting at the outer edge, cut a gentle curved spiral all the way in toward the center, leaving a small circle uncut in the middle. Gently roll the spiral from the outside in, using that center circle as the base. It curls right into a beautiful rose!

How to Assemble Your Coffee Filter Flowers

Once your flowers are shaped, it’s time to add the stems and put your bouquet together.

1. Pinch the bottom of your flower tightly and push it onto the end of a straw.
2. Wrap washi tape around the base of the flower and down the straw to secure it in place. This is a great chance to add even more color!
3. Keep wrapping all the way down if you’d like, a fully taped straw looks so cheerful in a bouquet.
4. Repeat with all your flowers and gather them together for a beautiful springtime display.

Set them out in a vase or a glass and you’ve got an indoor flower arrangement that lasts forever. My girls spent a whole afternoon making one flower after another, each one a little different. The best kind of craft, easy to start, hard to stop!

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Boysenberry barbecue sauce

This delicious boysenberry barbecue sauce will become your family’s favorite barbecue sauce recipe for meatballs, wings, pork, and so much more.

When we lived in California, my daughter absolutely loved the boysenberry barbecue sauce from Knott’s Berry Farm. She was so sad when they discontinued it because we ordered it online when we moved to Kentucky. We decided to make our own, and she loves this one just as much, if not more than the original.

Ingredients

This recipe only requires pantry ingredients, a lot of which you probably already have on hand, but is a great way to use those that are coming up to their expiration dates.

• Dark brown sugar
• Dijon mustard
• Seeded mustard
• Ketchup
• Hot honey
• Soy sauce
• Hoisin sauce
• Marmalade
• Boysenberry paste
• Onion powder

Recipe

This recipe is so simple that you literally combine all of the ingredients in a saucepan and cook, stirring, over low heat until the sugar is dissolved and the sauce is heated through.

Homemade barbecue sauce can be stored in a glass canning jar for 1-2 weeks in the refrigerator; make sure the sauce cools to room temperature before storing it.

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Print

Boysenberry Barbecue Sauce

A delicious homemade boysenberry barbecue sauce to add to pulled pork, chicken wings, meatballs, and so much more.

Keyword gluten-free

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 2 cups

Author Tonya Staab

Equipment

• 1 Saucepan

Ingredients

• 2 cups Dark Brown Sugar
• 2 tbsp Stone Ground Mustard
• 1 tbsp Dijon Mustard
• 1/2 cup Hoisin Sauce
• 1 tbsp Soy Sauce
• 1/2 tbsp Boysenberry Paste
• 2 tbsp Marmalade
• 1 pinch Onion powder

Instructions

• Beginning with liquids, add ingredients to the saucepan and stir over low heat until combined and sugar is dissolved.

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This is the Valentine’s Day box I’ll be putting on my desk for the Valentines I receive from my preschool class this year (and probably every year after).

Pete the Cat Valentine’s Day box

All you need to make your own Pete the Cat box is a cereal box, paint, and a small paper plate. This is a project you could do with your child, or your older child will be able to make on their own.

What you need

• Cereal box
• Paint
• Paint brushes
• Small paper plate (or cardstock)
• Scissors
• Mounting pad
• Pencil
• Fine marker

Instructions

The first step is to paint your cereal box. I wanted to keep with the color scheme of the book, so I applied three coats of light blue paint.

The second step is to sketch Pete the Cat on the painted box.

The third step is to paint Pete the Cat. While the box is drying, sketch a heart on the paper plate, cut it out, and then paint it.

Using a darker teal paint with a brush, use circular motions to apply a darker shade around the outside of the box. Write with white paint, and then outline everything with a fine black Sharpie. The final step is to attach the heart to the box using a double-sided felted mounting pad.

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Related: A basket full of activities for snow days

Penguin sensory bin

I created this winter penguin sensory bin for the tubes and tunnels unit in my preschool classroom. The kids absolutely love using the different materials in a variety of ways, which I’ll show you below.

What you need

• Miniature penguin figures
• Blue sand
• Magnetic blocks
• Plumbing tubes

Instructions

The instructions are simple: let them play.

Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Winter math activity

This winter math activity also uses fine motor skills. Have the children stack magnetic blocks and see how many penguins can fit on top. The most we got was four, making it the perfect preschool activity for younger students learning to count and quantify.

Penguin footprint

Make animal tracks in the sand. Use a magnetic block to smooth the sand and then make penguin footprints. Can they count how many? Can they make them come in and out of habitats?

Penguin habitats

Use a variety of magnetic blocks to make different habitats for your penguins.

Penguin slide

As I mentioned above, this activity was for our tubes and tunnels unit, so what could be more fun than penguins shooting down a tube slide? Add as many tubes as you like, but beware that the heavier it is, the more likely it is to fall out of the sensory bin.

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It’s perfectly paired with some toasted crusty bread. Dip your bread into the broth for extra goodness! This soup is ready for lunch or dinner. Or I actually just ate some leftovers for breakfast this morning too, ha :)

Print

Simple Italian Soup Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

• 1-2 lbs pre-cooked ground meat (turkey, beef, sausage)
• 3 medium potatoes peeled and diced into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 cup greens chopped in 1 inch pieces
• 32 oz broth
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 T olive oil
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• Cook the meat and drain it. Set it aside and let it cool. If using whole pieces of meat, dice them into 1/4 inch chunks or slices.
• In the same pan as cooked meat (with all those brown meat juices), add in the oil. Add in garlic and onions. Let these cook and steam for 3-4 minutes. Add in the other spices: oregano, basil, salt and pepper Stir.
• Add in the diced potatoes and let them brown up a bit on all sides for 1-2 minutes.
• Add in the broth and bring it to a boil. Once at a boil, turn down the heat to low and let the potatoes soften for 8-10 minutes.
• Add in the cooked meat to warm back up, also the milk. Add the greens now as well. Stir and let it simmer for another 2-3 minutes.
• It’s perfectly paired with some toasted crusty bread!

Notes

For this recipe shown, use any meat you have on hand. I used 1 lb ground turkey and 12 oz. breakfast sausage links. I used brown russet potatoes, but you could use red or sweet potatoes. I used arugula, but you could use spinach or kale. Any broth will work, and I used coconut milk, but whole milk would cook up just as good. 

Want more soup recipes?

1. Easy Taco Soup

2. Slow Cooker Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

3. Root Vegetable Soup

4. Sweet Potato Kale Soup

*originally posted 3/4/16

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Christmas potluck dessert tray

We went to a pajama and gift exchange holiday party recently with friends, but blew everything off until the last minute, because it’s the holidays and life is busy. We bought pajamas and gifts to exchange, but a couple of hours before leaving the house, I realized we hadn’t thought about a dish to take.  Off to the grocery store we went; I had my partner drop me at Marshalls so I could grab gifts for co-workers while he went to find a pre-made tray of something to take with us. There were no trays.

So, while at Marshalls, I popped into the food aisle and grabbed everything I could that looked decadent and festive. Just 10 minutes at home, and I had a beautiful tray ready to go that was so much more elegant and beautiful than anything we could have found at the grocery store.

What I included on our dessert tray

• Shortbread
• Gingerbread cookies
• Meringue
• Chocolates – salted caramel and pistachio
• Jumbo white peppermint pretzels
• Wafers
• Macarons

Here are a few more ideas:

• Chocolate-covered anything
• Cake balls
• Truffles
• Homemade bark
• Peanut brittle
• Peppermint sticks
• Miniature desserts

How to assemble a dessert tray

The best way I’ve found to assemble a dessert tray is start along the outside, and gradually move toward the center.

Take not of the size of the items you are going to include and how many are in each package. For example, I only had four large peppermint pretzels, so I made sure to space those out around the tray for little pops of color.

Fill in gaps at the end with smaller foods such as meringue and chocolate-covered fruit and nuts.

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The Mitten is the perfect book to pair with activities. Use our free mitten knitting pattern paired with printable animals to make an engaging storytime that children will love.

The Mitten children’s book activity

I created this activity for my preschool classroom. The children have loved it so much that I wanted to share it. Not only does it make a wonderful holiday or birthday gift, but it’s something that you and your child can do together.

What you need

• Jan Brett, The Mitten book
• Handmade mitten (free pattern below)
• Animals in The Mitten book (details below)

Before we delve into the knitting pattern below, let’s make the animals from the story.

I used Canva to download and print each of the animals on cardstock. I then cut them out and laminated them so they wouldn’t tear. Some of the animals I did pay for, but I wanted them to be as realistic and as close to those in the book as possible; I plan on using this activity in my classroom for a long time, so I want it to last.

The mitten knitting pattern below makes an oversized mitten. If you look at the end of the book, there’s a regular-sized mitten and an oversized one that stretched because all of the animals squeezed inside.

Mitten knitting pattern

• Yarn – I used three different yarns (bits and pieces left over from previous projects); one was Bernat Blanket Twist, and the other two were around the same weight, just less fluffy.
• Knitting needles –  size 6
• Yarn sewing needle
• Scissors

Cast on 39 stitches.

Knit 1, Purl 1 … repeat to end. Continue with this pattern for 3 inches.

Knit to the center stitch, decrease one stitch, knit to end.

Stockinette stitch for 5 rows, ending on a purl row.

Knit 19 stitches, knit into the front and back (KF/B) of the next stitch twice, knit to end.

Purl.

Knit 19 stitches, KF/B, knit 2 stitches, KF/B, knit to end.

Purl.

Knit 19 stitches, KF/B, knit 4 stitches, KF/B, knit to end.

Purl.

Knit 19 stitches, KF/B, knit 6 stitches, KF/B, knit to end.

Purl.

Knit 19 stitches, KF/B, knit 8 stitches, KF/B, knit to end.

Purl.

Knit 19 stitches, KF/B, knit 10 stitches, KF/B, knit to end.

Purl.

Knit 33 stitches, turn, cast on two stitches.

Purl next row. Turn (don’t continue with remaining stitches; you are working the thumb only right now).

Continue stockinette stitch (ending on a purl row) on just those 16 stitches until thumb measures 3 inches.

Knit 2 stitches together, repeat until end of row and 8 stitches remain.

Cut a long strand of yarn and run it through those last 8 stitches, pulling it tight, and then sewing down the thumb seam.

Rejoin the yarn to the stitches still on the needle. Knit to the end of the row.

Continue working in stockinette stitch (ending on a purl row) until glove measures 11 inches from the very first row.

Knit 1, knit 2 together (continue knitting 2 together until 1 stitch remains). Knit 1.

Purl next row.

Repeat the previous 2 rows until you have 14 stitches remaining.

Knit 2 together all the way across last row. Cut yarn with a long tail, thread through remaining stitches and pull tight. Use the tail to sew the seam of your mitten.

More activities for children’s books

Here are more activities for children’s books, some include free printables too.

• Create a planet art project
• Honest Pretzels cooking gift idea
• The World’s Longest Sock coloring page
• Harold and the Purple Crayon printable
• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom craft
• Flotsam salt dough creations

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Sewing kit gift

A couple of years ago, I showed you how to make a pin cushion jar for your sewing area. With a daughter away at college, I realized this was the best gift I could send her. I filled it with simple things that she can use to mend cushions, clothing, or anything else that could tear or need repairing.

The best part is that you can customize it to your child’s skill level. If they don’t know how to sew very well, you can add mending patches, fray check, and fabric glue. If they can handle slightly more complicated tasks, such as adding elastic or mending hems, you can also include items they will need.

Sewing kit list

Here are some ideas for your sewing kit:

• Sewing needles
• Thread – customized to colors they generally wear
• Fabric adhesive
• Fray check
• Iron in hemming
• Scissors
• Safety pins
• Denim patches
• Tape measure
• Buttons – see my tip below for this
• Seam ripper
• Grommet kit

Sewing kit ideas

In order to send this jar to my daughter, I needed to replace the smaller jar with a larger one to fit everything I wanted to put into it.

Here’s a tip that will really help your kid. Add a small jar that they can put all of the spare buttons that are often attached to clothing. This way, they won’t lose those buttons and have everything on hand to replace those that fall off.

Your college kid won’t need to send things home to be mended or replace broken items with this easy-to-use sewing kit.

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Don’t you just love a hot apple pie? I could go for a slice right now and it’s not even a holiday. But to help you get prepped for Thanksgiving, it’s time to start thinking pie. Just like pumpkin pie, no Thanksgiving meal is complete without an apple pie? Do you prefer yours with a crust topping, or streusel? We think either is great!

Apple Pies for Thanksgiving Dessert

See the following links for Apple Pie Recipes and to help you get the dessert table ready!

• Easy Apple Pie via Your Home Based Mom from Make and Takes (pictured above)
• Swedish Apple Pie from This Week for Dinner
• Apple Pie Love from Joy the Baker
• Extra Thick Apple Pie from Simply Recipes

More Desserts for Your Holiday Meal:

Want to go beyond apple pie? Serving a crowd? Here are even more pies and desserts that will make your holiday meal something for your guests to write home about!

Muffin Tin Mini Pumpkin Pies

These teeny pumpkin pies are perfect for grab and go eating! Can you believe they’re made in a muffin tin? YUM!

Cheesecake Stuffed Baked Apples

Baked apples are always a fall dessert favorite, and this cheesecake stuffing takes them to the next level!

Caramel Pumpkin Pie with Streusel Topping

This isn’t your ordinary pumpkin pie! The addition of caramel and streusel topping makes this pumpkin pie an instant favorite.

Banoffee Pie

If you haven’t ever tried Banoffee pie, this needs to be your year to make it! It’s sure to be a recipe you come back to over and over.

Creamy Peppermint Bark Tart

If you or your guests are looking forward to minty Christmas desserts, this creamy peppermint bark tart will hit the spot!

Apple- Shaped Cupcakes

Sometimes the kids (and adults!) just want a classic cupcake for dessert, even on the holidays! These easy apple-shaped cupcakes are perfect for fall!

Key Lime Pie

Sometimes you want something a little different than the normal fall desserts on your table. This sweet and sour key lime pie fits the bill!

Chocolate Hazelnut Bark

If you ask me, there’s no better combo than chocolate and hazelnut. This chocolate hazelnut bark is perfect for snacking on all day long!

Chocolate Pudding Pie

No holiday feast is complete without a chocolate dessert. This pudding pie is so easy to make, it’s no hassle at all to add it to your menu!

*originally posted 11/5/12

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