DIY Kingdom Hearts Resin Coasters

I made these Kingdom Hearts coasters for my friend for Christmas out of resin:

DIY Cakebox (take 2)

I made this cakebox out of colored hot glue using a low-temp hot glue gun for another one of my boyfriend's relatives. 😄🍰🎂 I have silicone molds to make different "whipped" shapes so I used the glue gun to melt the glue into the molds and once they hardened, I glued it to the box.

I started with a wooden box and painted the inside and added scrapbook paper and washi tape to decorate it.  Once the inside was decorated, I coated it with a soft-touch varnish to seal and protect it.

Candy Instruments Assembled

We presented the instruments with sheets covering it and had the recipients unravel it since these were too big for me to wrap up 😅

DIY Candy Guitar

I made this life-sized guitar out of candy as a Christmas gift for another one of my boyfriend's cousins.  🍬🍭🍫 This one is mostly made out of chocolate.

Like the drum set, the base is made of Styrofoam board and all the pieces of candy were attached on with a low temp hot glue gun.

DIY Candy Drum Set

I don't think this has ever been done before but this is a life-sized drum set made out of (mostly) candy.  🍬🍭🍫 The base is made with Styrofoam board and the pieces that look like candy canes are made up of painted wooden dowels with red and green washi tape wrapped around it to make it look like candy canes. 

This was made as a Christmas gift for my boyfriend's cousin so we put his band logo on the bass drum.  We used 400 mini hot glue gun sticks to complete this!

DIY Christmas Ornaments (take 4)

These I made for my friend/boss who loves her Starbucks and is a big fan of the Yankees.

DIY Christmas Ornaments (take 3)

More Christmas ornaments that I made for my boyfriend's relatives. 

I tried to make the ornament based off of their favorite color and I used whatever pictures I had to make the ornaments.

DIY Christmas Ornaments (take 2)

I made these for my boyfriend's parents for Christmas.  I used clear, iridescent glass ornaments and filled the inside with acrylic paint and did a gravity drain while keeping the ornament upside down after all the inner surface of the ornament was covered with paint. 

 I took their family photos and printed them on resin resistant photo paper, cut out the pictures as circles and domed the pictures with a doming resin.

After the resin cured, I lined the domed photos with a trimming ribbon and added other embellishments to complete the design.  I also painted the ornament cap gold because it was originally silver and that just didn't look right with the gold design.

DIY Christmas Ornaments (take 1)

Buffalo Bills ornaments that I made for my boyfriend for Christmas.  I mixed photos of Bills logos and players for the ornaments.

DIY Memory Box

I made this for my boyfriend for his birthday.  It is a memory box that contains a bunch of memorable items and photos/photo stickers.  The box was originally just a wooden box but I added legs to it and painted it black.  The golden rims and embellishments are made out of glue using a low temp hot glue gun.  The glue I used was gold but I coated with it a gold paint to give it a more elegant look.

DIY Bottle Cap Magnets

I made this for my boyfriend and his brother for his brother's birthday. (They're both huge Bills fans 😅🏈 Go Bills!)

I printed pictures as 1 inch circles and cut them out manually, glued them in with mod podge, decorated the pictures with glitter, floating charms, rhinestones etc, sealed with a layer of resin, and added a small magnet on the back.

Looking back, I should have sealed the pictures before I put the resin in to prevent the pictures from getting darker or having a "wet look" due to the resin.  Lesson learned.  The banner that I attached the bottle cap magnets to were wooden banners that I painted and decorated with scrapbook paper and stickers.  I glued small magnets to the banner so that the bottle cap magnets stayed in place but they are easily detachable so you can attach it to whatever magnetic surface you have.

DIY Bathbombs

 I made 16 different bathbombs for my boyfriend for White Day! (in Japan, Valentine's Day is a day when the girl gives chocolate to the guys and White Day is the day when guys returns a gift to the girl - although I didn't exactly follow that 😅)

I got some essential oils, citric acid, baking soda, food coloring and made up my own combinations as I went.  My boyfriend loved it! 

I also decorated the wooden tray that I put all the bathbombs in.  Simple paint job with some stickers, scrapbook paper on the inside, and finished it with some varnish.

 I hid pretty stones and imitation gems in each of the bathbombs so when he uses them, he gets a little surprise in his bath. 💕

DIY Notes to Brighten Your Day

Glass light bulb with small, rolled up notes that I wrote out for my boyfriend for his birthday.  I added charms on the bottle to add a nice little touch.

I wrote down various compliments in each note and decorated each one differently.  The notes are rolled up and held in place by a jump ring so they stay rolled up while in the light bulb.

I even wrote one of the notes in code so good luck to him when he tries to figure it out!  I don't really remember what the message written in code was so hopefully he can figure it out...

DIY Liquor-filled Chocolate Bottles

I made this for my boyfriend for his Birthday 😍💕. You can add spices, dried fruit bits, etc. (get creative!) to the chocolate to create a chocolate bottle to match your choice of liquor.  

I made 3 different kinds:

1) Coconut bittersweet chocolate filled with coconut rum

2) Mango dark chocolate filled with mango rum

3) Spiced maple white chocolate filled with vanilla rum

The steps on how I made them is below:

What you'll need:

• Disposable plastic sauce bottles (available at Asian markets)
• Water
• Toothpicks
• Disposable transfer pipettes
• Styrofoam plate (optional)
• Chocolate - your choice
• Liquor - your choice (I used different kinds of rum)
• Candy wrapper foil

Steps:

1. Remove caps from the sauce bottles, fill with water, place a toothpick in it and place in the freezer.
2. Once frozen, cut the plastic sauce bottles off the ice.  The Styrofoam plate is useful to stand the frozen bottle-shaped ice (keep in freezer after cutting each bottle to ensure that it doesn't melt)
3. Keep the frozen bottle-shaped ice in the freezer while melting your choice of chocolate.  You can add spices, dried fruit bits, etc. at this point to the chocolate if you would like.
4. Cool the chocolate until it is at room temperature.  It should still have a flowing consistency.
5. Dip the bottle-shaped ice into the chocolate and cover all surfaces and let stand upside down in the refrigerator (you can just stab the Styrofoam plate with the toothpick end).  The ice will melt, leaving a solid hollow chocolate bottle
6. Remove the toothpick from the chocolate bottle and fill the chocolate bottles with your liquor of choice using a disposable transfer pipette
7. Cover the bottle opening with melted chocolate and let it cool in the fridge.
8. Wrap the foil around the liquor-filled chocolate bottle

Enjoy!

DIY 5-Leaf Clover Wallet Inserts

I find 4-leaf clovers often without actually ever looking for them but finding a 5-leaf clover is a rare occasion for me and I found two of them within 5 days of each other!  Naturally I pressed them and turned them into wallet inserts so now my boyfriend and I both have one! 😉🍀

I pressed the clovers for a few hours and used a combination of different types of scrapbook paper and stickers to decorate the insert.  The "lamination" was actually done with clear, heavy-duty packing tape on both sides of the insert. (cheap and it works!)