Mothers Day Ideas: DIY Cupcake Bouquet

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Cupcake Bouquet Ideas Supplies:

12-24 cupcakes – Visit our cupcake ideas recipes here

Two cans of firm frosting (enough to cover all the cupcakes)

Food coloring

Large open star tip – cake decorating tip set and pastry bag

Foam ball (5-6 inches in diameter) white or green

Flower pot (5-6 inches – same size as foam ball) – We like these pretty colored flower pots

Scraps of Styrofoam or floral foam

Small wooden skewers (or cut larger ones into half) or toothpicks

Adhesive tape or hot glue gun

Tissue paper in one or assorted colors

Ribbon

Watch a Mother’s Day Cupcake Tutorial Video:

ribbon

Perfect Fall Wedding Favor Ideas

Fruitful Favors

Send them home with a taste of local flavor with a jar of seasonal fruit jam or honey from a nearby farm. You can also opt for a small box of fall fruits such as apples, pears, or figs. Buy in bulk directly from a local farm or visit the farmer’s market and make your own.

Wedding Guest Gift Ideas: Fall Beverages

One great fall wedding favor idea is to give your guests little take home versions of seasonal beverage favorites. Have autumn tea for brewing, roasted coffee beans, or small pouches of apple cider. Don’t forget to personalize the pouches with stickers showing your wedding date and names.

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Wedding Gift Ideas: Scented Candles

Another great option for a thank you gift is a fall scented candle. With a variety of warm scented options available-think cinnamon, pumpkin, apple and more. This way, your loved ones will leave with a gift that they can use throughout the season. Better yet, give them personalized matches to team up with each candle.

S’mores Kits and Cookie Kits  

No matter what, you can never go wrong with s’mores and cookie making kits as a wedding favor. Not only do they look adorable, they are delicious and make great DIY gifts. And of course, they are perfect for budget-savvy brides.

Fall Wedding Favor Ideas: Season Inspired Soaps

Just like candles, soap favors make great wedding favors as they are wide open for personalization from the shapes and scents you use to add-ons like flowers or dried herbs. Not to forget the packaging you wrap them in.

Wedding favors are always tricky to get right. You don’t want to spend a lot of money on top of all other expenses but you also don’t want to send your guests home with something they will end up not using. Thankfully, these fall wedding favors are what your guests will actually want.

For more wedding ideas on Stagetecture, look through our wedding archives!

Holiday Guests: Creative Thanksgiving Favor Ideas

Season inspired cookies

Trust us, you can never go wrong with leaf, pumpkin or turkey shaped cookies. Use a cookie cutter and then frost them with colored icing. If preparing for the Thanksgiving dinner is already too much for you, go ahead and purchase cookies from a local bakery and pack them in little pouches. Guests will be so happy to receive this pretty gift that they won’t care who made it.

Image via: Barbie Cookies

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Chocolate gold coins

Well, a bag of chocolate gold coins might sound very boring and usual. But, it gets very different and special when you attach a card saying, “If you want to feel rich, count all the blessings money can’t buy!”

DIY Thanksgiving favors

Spray paint mini pinecones in a metallic gold or silver color and fill a small glass jar with them. Place them at every setting for your guests to take home as a holiday decoration. Alternatively, fill small mason jars with a tea light candle and glue ribbon around the rim. Double them as a decor for the Thanksgiving table and have your guests take them home post dinner.

Image via: Brit + Co.

Mini cookbook

As the holiday season is almost upon us, why not create a mini cookbook with your favorite recipes? You can browse Stagetecture for tons of ideas and print them for your guests. Although there are a lot of cookbooks available that you can buy, we think there will not be any that will be filled with more love and comfort than the one that you will make by yourself.

Image via: Savvy Sugar

Thanksgiving favor is a way of showing your loved ones how much they mean to you. Use these ideas to create lovely presents that can double as party decor and thank you gifts at the same time.

For Thanksgiving host and hostess gifts on Stagetecture, click here.

Summer Weddings: Thoughtful Wedding Favors

Image Via: Wedding Styles

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Spell Love With Sunglasses

Summers are shining bright and so is the summer sun. Your guests will love favors that can save them from the summer sun and let them enjoy the wedding. Sunglasses make up for a perfect choice if you are planning on an outdoor day wedding. You can tag the sunglasses with your name labels and a short catchy note too!

Image Via: Pinterest

Little Potted Friends

Plants and flowers bring life into the dehydrating outsides. Giving your guests, little potted favors, is a wonderful way of saying thank you. Not only will the potted blooms bring color into the life of the receiver but also decorate a corner of their home with the sweet memories of your wedding.

Image Via: Intimate Weddings

Culinary Delights

This one is the best option for food lovers. You can fill little glass jars with jams, spreads, honey, sauces ,etc. It would even be better if these culinary delights are homemade or special to the particular region that you belong too!

Image Via: Jenny Wren Weddings And Events

Beauty Hampers

The ladies at your wedding will love this one. You can have sunscreens, lotions, balms and gels ready for your guests. Easy DIY tips and tricks can help you personalize these beauty accessories. If your budget does permit then instead of giving single items you can go in for full basket beauty hampers for your guests.

Image Via: Anns Bridal Bargains

Fan Favors

This one is another summer favorite. Whilst you will be busy taking your wedding vows and won’t worry about the heat too much, it is certainly going to affect the wedding guests. Thoughtful wedding favors like hand-held fans, hats ,etc. can catch your guests happily surprised.

Image Via: Fab Mood

Flip-Flops Really?

Yes, of course and why not? This is probably the best wedding favor one can think of. Think of it, everyone will come to your wedding in their best attire and shoes. It’s not necessary that the shoes they wear to your wedding are comfy enough to dance. So if you want to see a crowd on the dance floor present them with flip-flops!

Image Via: Brides

Wedding is the most important and happy time in the life of a bride and a groom. The idea is to make the wedding as memorable in the eyes of the guests too. And why not, happiness shared is happiness multiplied. So get some awesome wedding favors for your guests and make your wedding a truly memorable affair! Do share your ideas on wedding favors.

Click here for more Summer Wedding Ideas on Stagetecture!

Mother’s Day Gifts Non-Traditional Style

Image via:  Sweet Parish Place

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A Simple Act of Kindness

How about just doing a simple act of kindness?  Such as doing chores, fixing something around the house or even for the entire week just getting things done that perhaps your mother may ask you quadruple times to do.  When doing the chores to clean the house split up the jobs; like two do the kitchen, each to his own room, tag team the bathrooms etc.  Or you can fix the fence or mow the lawn, straighten up the garage.  Or you can even cook the meals during the week.   Little acts of kindness really do help and show that you care.

She-Time Day

How about giving your mother a she-time day?  Give your mother the gift of time she off.  Let her have the day to herself.  Tell her that she cannot do any type of work, any chore if fact in some cases you might have to kick her out of the house.  Tell her she can take a nap, catch up on her favorite tv series, garden, or just do anything that will be calming and relaxing to her.  Just gently remind her that she has a designated time that she has no responsibilities and needs to take advantage of that.

Image via: Bright and Beautiful at Rich Charm

Shopping Spree

Speaking of she-time for one of Mother’s Day gifts, what goes better with this time than a shopping spree?  Now, if your mother is like mine she usually will go on a shopping spree and end up buying things for the kids and grand kids. So you have a few options where you can buy gift cards to areas that are only specified to her or again gently remind her that the shopping spree is for her and her only.  But just to be on the safe side the first option might be a safer bet.

Image via: Martha Stewart

Mothers are so wonderful to us, and it’s always great to be appreciated for what you have done. Gifts are great, but how about putting a twist on those gifts and making them not so traditional.  Fortunately, little acts of kindness, leaving her alone for the day or week, or even sending her on a shopping spree via the family can all show appreciation for a mother on mother’s day.

Stagetecture readers do you know of any non traditional Mother’s day gifts to give to your Mother this year?

Wellness: An Aromatic Foot Massage For Your Mom

Image Via: Zliving

First things first…

Here Is What You Will Need

2 tsp massage oil- Castor/Jojoba/Olive

3 to 4 drops essential oil- Lavender/Jasmine/Rose

2 to 3 drops tender coconut oil

2 to 3 drops pure almond oil

Image Via: The Hotel Royale

Image Via: Lera Blog

How To Go About It

1. First, you need to mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Use the mixture in one sitting itself.
2. Next, find a comfortable chair for your mother, preferably with an arm and foot rest. A recliner would be another great thing to use.
3. Now seat yourself comfortably on a low height seating. Place a towel on your lap and ask your mom to extend one foot on to your lap.
4. Now pour a couple of drops of the prepared mix onto your hands and rub them throughly. The idea is to let the oils and aroma sink into your hands and warm your hands by the way.
5. Now with one foot already on your lap, pour a couple of drops of the oil and start stroking the top of the foot. Use your thumbs to give long,slow and firm strokes. Work all the way from the root of the toes up till the ankle. Repeat about five times. Repeat the strokes on the bottom of the foot. This time go from the heel towards the toes.
6. Ask your mom to loosen her feet. Hold the heel of the foot in your hand so that the ankle is throughly supported. Now rotate the foot around the ankle left to right about three to five times.
7. With your hand still holding the heel, pull the toes softly yet firmly towards yourself. Actually your fingers should slide through her toes towards you. Do this toe by toe.
8. Interlock your fingers with her toes and slide your fingers towards you. Repeat a couple of times.
9. Remember to rub in oil into your hands if they run dry.
10. Now with the heel still in your hand press the foot forward gently. The trajectory would be an arch. Do this very gently and ask your mom if she is comfortable with the pressure you are using.
11. Repeat step 5.
12. Repeat steps 5 to 11 on the other foot.

Image Via: Nattacha Canberra

This simple foot massage routine will help improve the blood circulation in your mothers feet and aid in relieving  stress. She will feel relaxed and de-stressed. This simple foot massage will also aid in softened the feet that have always been running around for you, without a break. It would be great if your mom could wear light socks after this massage. It will help the oils seep in better and help the oils (especially coconut oil) work out their moisturizing magic. I hope you enjoyed this post and are all set to pamper your mom with a foot massage this Mother’s Day. Do share how you plan to pamper your mom:)

Click here for more Mother’s Day Ideas on Stagetecture.

Home Decor Gift Ideas for Mother’s Day

Image via: Little Things

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Centerpiece Bowl

A decorative centerpiece bowl can be used as accents for your mother’s kitchen or dining room table. Consider a piece created from glass, earthenware, stoneware, or metal. Your mom will love to fill the bowls with fresh fruits, flowers, or candle arrangements.

Image via: Blog Lovin

Vase with Fresh Flowers

This year, go a step beyond your mom’s favorite bouquet of blooms by accompanying the flowers with a pretty glass vase. We recommend going in for a stylish yet simple vase that will look great atop the fire mantle or will brighten up her coffee table.

Wine Decanter

Image via: Wine Enthusiast

Who says a decanter is meant to collect dust until guests come over? Trust us; they are gorgeous enough to be shown off. Pick a bottle of your mom’s favorite wine and team it up with an elegant glass decanter. She will love the way it smoothly pours her preferred grape beverage and yes, it’s stunning visual appeal too!

Jewelry Stand

Give your favorite lady a reason to show off all her gorgeous jewel pieces with a decorative jewelry stand. As Mother’s Day falls during springtime, consider a season inspired stand like tree and blossom design. She will certainly appreciate your thoughtful gift choice. Try this creative DIY jewelry stand that is easy to make.

Image via: Apartment Therapy

Decorative Tray

For the mom who has it all, consider giving her a decorative tray. A carefully picked up piece can have endless decorative possibilities. It can be used to entertain, style a coffee table, or even dress up a vanity.

Image via: My Cosmo

Pick up or have your kids make one of these stylish yet practical Mother’s Day gift idea and be sure to please and remind her how special she is for you. What do you plan to gift your mom this year?

For more Mother’s Day gift ideas on Stagetecture, click here.

Valentines Day Gift: Homemade Gift Ideas for Your Beloved

Image via: Lily Shop

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Flowers with Lovely Vases

Flowers are the evergreen Valentines Day gift with which you cannot go wrong. However, why to keep those flowers in a store-bought vase when you can make one by yourself? Place the flowers in gorgeous vases made with Mason jars and pretty pink paint coats. Use different shades of pink to paint the exterior of the jars. Now, cover the jars’ top side with painter’s tape and smear glitter spray paint at the bottom. These small touches will add glam to the jars and make them perfect for an occasion like the Valentine’s Day.

Super Easy Treat Bags

What about paper treat bags? Making these bags is super easy but the end result is rewarding and very romantic. Take white pages or simply cut the pages from a notebook. Fold them into the shape of treat bags and glue where needed. Fill the bags with treats or simple, short love letters. Finally, give them a special touch by sealing with heart-shaped stickers of different colors.

Image via: Martha Stewart

Cute Printables for Takeout Boxes

Whether you give candies, chocolates, candles, wristwatch, a cute pendant, or anything else, you need to give tem in a cute, adorable box. Plain takeout boxes are available and you just need to apply a bit DIY skill to make them perfect for the romantic occasion. Many free printables are available online. Choose one, take printout, and simply glue it on the takeout box. Apart from featuring cute prints and patterns, these printables also feature romantic quotes or words like ‘Be Mine’, ‘I Heart You’, or something like that, which will please your beloved more.

Image via: Vishava

Love Rocks to Save the Day!

Don’t have any special skill to impress your special one? Don’t worry! This super easy DIY project of making love rocks will be your savior. Collect rocks of different shapes and sizes, wash and dry them properly, and paint a heart in the center of each of them. Use different colors to paint the hearts and use black paint to highlight their contours. Scatter them on the railings and floor of your balcony garden and use mod podge to seal them. They will be a great gift if your dear one loves gardening.

Image via: Love of White

Just a few minutes and lots of love can make the Valentines Day gifts truly special! These homemade gifts will express your affection for him/her and show your loved one how much you care!

Do you have any Valentines Day gift idea to share with us?

Valentine’s Day Gifts: 3 Ways to Use Mason Jars

Image via: Inspired Snaps

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1. Mason Jar Valentine’s Day Vases

Supplies

• Mason jars without writings on it
• Mat spray paint
• Glue gun

Directions

Clean the mason jar thoroughly by washing it, letting it dry and wipe it down with rubbing alcohol. Heat up the glue gun and write a meaningful word, symbols or patterns on the outside of the jar. Let it dry completely. Spray paint the jar and let it dry completely. Add some nice fresh flowers to complete this sweet DIY Valentine’s Day gift.

Image via: Lights Blog

2. Valentine’s Day Mason Jar with a Heart

Supplies

• Mason jars
• Spray paint
• Painter’s tape
• Pen
• Knife

Directions

Clean the mason jar thoroughly by washing it, letting it dry and wipe it down with rubbing alcohol. Wrap the jar’s body with painter’s tape and draw on a heart. Use the sharp knife to cut around the heart using your drawing as a guide. Remove all the excess painter’s tape, leaving on only the heart itself. Spray paint the jar completely. Let it dry completely. Carefully remove the painter’s tape to reveal a heart shaped window. You can use this romantic jar to fill it with candy or anything else you would like to gift. Another great idea is to fill it with some led lights.

Image via: Country Living

3. Decorative Valentine’s Day Mason Jars

Supplies

• Mason jars
• Paper doilies
• Cutout hearts
• Twine or yarn
• Glue gun or glue (optional)

Directions

Clean the mason jar thoroughly by washing it, letting it dry and wipe it down with rubbing alcohol. Secure the paper doily on the outside of the jar and add the heart on top of it. Wrap the decorative twine or yarn around the jar and you have a nice gift that can be used for romantic decorations.

You don’t need that much time to make one of these Valentine’s Day gifts for a loved one. With a little imagination and lots of love, you can make the most wonderful things by using only a few items.

For more Valentine’s Day crafts on Stagetecture, click here.

Christmas Craft: 3 DIY Wood Slice Ornaments

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Christmas Craft: Painted Wood Slice Ornaments

Etsy shop – Gretas Handmade Gifts – Christmas Craft

Fine ink markers

Wood slices

Pencil (optional)

Paint style pens in holiday colors, like gold or silver etc.

Chalkboard paint (optional)

Spray sealer (optional)

Matte mod podge (optional)

Stencils / stamps (optional)

Fabric, beads, decorations (optional)

Twine or ribbon

Visit Etsy shop – Gretas Handmade Gifts for creative ideas! – Wood Slice Ornaments

If you want, paint a layer of matte mod podge before starting to paint on the wood slice, in order to prevent ink bleeding; just be sure to let it dry completely. You can now apply two layers of chalkboard paint or using a marker or a pencil, draw the design you want on one side of a wood slice. You can write a phrase or draw a holiday figure, like a snowman, stars or a reindeer. You can also use a cute stencil or even stamps to make a design. Use markers and paint style pens to complete your design. Glue on fabric to make scarfs or hats and other decorations to bring your creation to life. Pull ribbon or twine through the hole and tie the ends together. Lastly, you can use a sealer to protect the ornaments and let them dry. Once dried, they are ready to beautify your Christmas tree.

Decoupage wood slice ornaments

You can easily apply the decoupage technique on wood slices. Black and white photos are great for this, but you could also use some Christmassy images that you can print and cut out. Here is what you will need:

A photo or other printed image (use a laser printer for printing or make a copy on a photocopy machine)

Acrylic gel medium

Mod podge

Small paintbrush

Pencil and scissors

Ribbon or twine

To make it, cut out your photo or image so it fits on the wooden slice. You can trace it with a pencil for help. Note: If you want to transfer words or phrases, be sure to use a mirror image of the word or phrase, in order for it to be readable after the process. Now coat the photo or image with the gel and put it on the slice, face-down. Use a credit card to smooth it out and remove any air bubbles. Turn it over and let it dry paper side down for a few hours, even overnight. Once dry, use a wet piece of fabric and lightly damp the photo and rub the paper away with your fingers very carefully. Use a circular movement to do that and add some water if needed. The paper will slowly come off revealing the transferred image. Now, coat it with a layer of mod podge and let it dry. When totally dry, you can use a ribbon or twine for hanging.

Etched wood slice ornaments

To make these you will only need:

Etching tool

Pencil

Ribbon or twine

Use the pencil to draw on the wood slices some simple items, like snowflakes, outline of a snowman or a tree or make even more complicated images if you can. Meaningful words are also wonderful. Now, having the drawing as your guide, use the etching tool to burn in the design. After that, all you have to do is to add a ribbon or twine to hang them.

Choose any one of these beautiful Christmas Craft: 3 DIY Wood Slice Ornaments to decorate your Christmas tree, door knobs, and chandeliers or use them as wonderful, unique gift tags. They will add a rustic look and your personal touch in whatever way you’ll choose to use them.