FaveCrafts

1000s of free craft projects, home decor ideas and DIY tips

Guest Post: Making Your Own Souvenir Gifts to Bring Home From Vacation

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This guest blog post was written by Trisha Manning.
Everyone wants to take a little piece of paradise home when they return from vacation. That is why souvenirs are so popular. But truly special souvenirs are sometimes hard to find and are usually expensive. One way to take home a one-of-a-kind souvenir and save some money is to create your own souvenir gifts. You don’t have to be a craft wizard to do this since there are many options for creating unique, simple and inexpensive vacation souvenirs. The key is to choose the items that will most remind you of the special moments spent at a special place so that every time you look at them, you can revisit that time.



A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words
This old adage is so true, especially for vacation photos. The best part is that these photos are your own, so they will truly be specific to your experience. Choose a photo or photos stored in your digital camera to print to t-shirts, mugs, calendars, and many other items. Photo collages you can frame also make nice souvenirs, especially if you decorate the frame with reminders of your trip such as ticket stubs. You can even create postcards with these photos and depending where and how long you are on vacation, have them printed and mailed right from the place. Using photos to create a special souvenir is also a great idea for an amusement park vacation. You can purchase some scrap booking supplies and use your printed photos to create a funny retelling of your experience.

Take The Beach Home With You
A beach vacation offers many ways to create your own souvenir. First, you can collect shells and other beach treasures on one of your walks. Don’t forget the sand. With these materials you can create your own beach in jar and bring the ocean back to you each time you look at it. Shells can also become simple earrings, necklaces or bracelets if you either use shells with little holes in them or make tiny holes in them to string together. You can purchase the rest of the things you need to make jewelry at a craft or bead store. How about using the shells to create a wind chime or another hanging ornament? Wire and string are all you will need besides your shells. Or you can decorate a frame with the shells and show off vacation pictures.

Go For That Nature Walk Again and Again
Collect dried flowers, twigs, leaves and rocks. These can be used to make collages you can hang. With some heavy cardboard, glue and your collected treasures you can easily make a collage or representation of your favorite panorama to take home with you. You can also use them to decorate the cover of a travel journal and then keep all your memories and even some photos in it. All these goodies can also be used to create a lasting centerpiece for your home, which will invite questions and give you opportunities to retell about your wonderful vacation.

Put That Art Class to Work
If you enjoy drawing or painting, a wonderful souvenir is to create your own watercolor pieces of the different places you visit. Simply take a small watercolor pad, some brushes and watercolors with you wherever you go and you’ll be set. Sit down somewhere peaceful and comfortable and spend your time not only admiring the view, but creating a special piece to take home with you. Once home, you can frame it and exhibit it, bringing back memories each time you look at it.

Trisha Manning is a traveling and craft enthusiast as well as a contributing writer for Aphrodite Hills, where there are many cyprus properties for sale.

Homemade Wedding Favors: Photo Booth Bookmarks

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I was working on an article about homemade wedding favors and ran across this great bookmark project that uses those photo strips from the photo booth.

I found myself thinking that the idea of a photo strip bookmark would make a great wedding favor! Here’s what you’d need to do:

  1. Scan your photo strip or, if you’re prone to popping into these booths on a regular basis, scan in several for variety.
  2. Set up a page in a photo editing program with several arranged on a sheet and print as many as you’d need.
  3. The back of the bookmark would be a great place to either write a short, standardized note thanking your guests for attending the wedding or to include a poem or quote that has special meaning to you. Figure out what’s going to go on the back, set them up as you did the photos, and print as many as you need.
  4. Cut out the pictures, the backs, and the foundation paper. To coordinate it with your wedding, buy foundation paper and ribbon that coordinates with your wedding’s color theme.
  5. Laminate the layers together using contact paper or laminating plastic.

If you don’t have any photo booth photo strips and have no idea where you’d find a photo booth, check out this tutorial on how to create a lookalike photo booth photo strip.

And remember to check out the other 20 homemade wedding favors.

Home Decor Tuesday: Frames

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I love pictures. Pictures are my life, pictures are my memory. I have a tough time remembering things, so when I look back at pictures I can remember all the good times I had. Picture frames around the house are a perfect decorating idea for all. There are so many out there that you can make for yourself.

My favorite is the dot frame trio. You can put fabulous photos inside and hang it on any wall. The polka dots really do add a little something.

dot-frame-trio

A great frame that would look amazing hanging on your door is the family frame door hanger. The best word of all time is family. They are the most important people in your life, so share them with the word.

family-frame-wall-art

If you’re more into art and embossing metal then the metal frames are calling your name. I like these as you can put any photo in it. You can take scenic photos and put those in or photos of your friends.

embossedmetalfoamframes

Frames make for great home decorating ideas, whether they are sitting on a table or hanging from a door. Click here for some really neat industrial frames.

Save money on your Mother’s Day gift

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As Mother’s Day approaches this upcoming weekend, I still can’t seem to decide what to get my mom. With the state of the current ecoonomy, she keeps saying not to spend a lot of money on her present this year. She obviously also doesn’t need anything, so what am I going to do? When I saw this homemade photo cube I knew it was the perfect solution to my problem. It is sophisticated, but it’s easy to make and won’t set you back too much money. If you’re busy and don’t have that much time to craft a Mother’s Day gift, you can put whatever amount of time you want into this present. Use old pictures you have already printed to save money or even print new photos off your computer. This is a perfect keepsake for Mom to put next to her bed at home, display in the family room or bring to her desk at work. Create this photo cube for an affordable and memorable Mother’s Day gift!

Things to Avoid When Crafting (with kids)

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I have nieces and nephews who are just the cutest. I love hanging out with them and doing different crafts with them. It gives them a chance to use their imagination and be creative. Sometimes it’s hard though to keep my patience with them, in a general setting and while doing crafts. I know a lot of parents who like to craft with their kids, but get frustrated easily. The key is to NOT. I found this great article that gives 10 great tips on how to avoid certain things while starting a craft. Some of the tips include beginning a project that’s too difficult, trying to control everything and worrying too much about neatness. I for one am a neat freak so when the kids don’t do something perfect it irritates me. When you’re doing crafts though, these are some of the things you need to avoid. This smiley face beaded bracelet has a lot of materials and steps. If this is something you’re going to work with your kids on make sure you follow the tips listed in the article. Some other fun, but semi difficult crafts for kids to do might be a photo holder or fuzzy critter crafts.

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Jewelry

Knitting

Paper

Sewing

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