DIY Archives - 2 Sisters 2 Cities

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on January 7, 2013

DIY Hair Ties from 2 Sisters 2 Cities

I’ve recently started using hair ties made out of fold over elastic and I wanted to start expanding my color and style selection. These hair bands are available for sale at a ton of Etsy shops and even some of the larger retailers, such as Anthropologie and Birchbox. I realized that this would be a relatively simple DIY project to make myself since the fold over elastic used to make the hair ties is also available for sale on-line and costs as little as 50 cents a yard. I ended up putting in an order at Sunshine Shoppe Supply for a variety of colors and styles of fold over elastic. I brought the elastics to my parent’s house while we were visiting for Christmas so my sisters and I could all make some DIY hair ties.

old over elastic for DIY hair ties

We grabbed as many pairs of scissors that we could find and started to make a plethora of hair ties. I found it helpful to have a template elastic for each of the different types of elastics we had- 5/8th” regular fold over elastic, 3/8″ glitter elastic, 5/8th” glitter elastic, and 5/8″ velvet elastic. The glitter and velvet elastics needed to be slightly longer to comfortably fit around my wrist since they have a little less stretch to them. Once we got the sizing correct, we were off to the races!

diy hair bands on wrist

To make the DIY hair ties, we just used the template elastic we had measured out to cut a piece of elastic. Then, we simply knotted the two ends together and pulled the knot tight. We then finished off the ends by cutting it at a diagonal or with two points (see the photo below for details.)

DIY Hair Ties: straight angle cut vs two points

These hair bands would make such cute gifts wrapped up in little plastic bags or around a piece of thick card stock.

How to wrap up DIY hair ties for gifts

The four of us had a great time making these hair ties and we now each have a huge supply of them to last us each a long time. We’ve teamed up with Sunshine Shoppe Supply so our 2S2C readers can make their own DIY hair ties as well! Enter below to win a $20 gift card to Sunshine Shoppe Supply (that will buy you enough elastic to make hair ties for yourself, all your friends, and then some!) However, even if you don’t win this giveaway, everyone is a winner with this special 2 Sisters 2 Cities promotion code: just use code sisterblog10 by 1/31/13 to get 10% off your order at Sunshine Shoppe Supply!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Rules: No entries will be accepted after January 15th, 2013 at 12:00 am, EST. Entries that do not follow the entry requirements will not be considered. One winner will be chosen at random and will be announced on January 16th, 2013. The chosen winners will then have 30 days to respond by e-mail to claim their prize. Please note that Sunshine Shoppe Supply is sponsoring this giveaway. Void where prohibited.

sister m signature

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on December 7, 2012

In addition to my blue and silver holiday wreath that I posted about yesterday, I also decided to incorporate this color palette to decorate my mantel for Christmas. I have a few DIY projects that I made for the mantel being featured today on Wayfair’s blog, My Way Home.

The first thing I made for my Christmas mantel were these felt scalloped trees inspired by ones I saw in the Land of Nod catalog. They were really fun to make and are easily customizable with any color scheme you want to do with your holiday decor. This could also be a great project to make with kids!

The second project was the holiday banner mantel that read “All is Bright.” I wanted to use a message that would remind myself to enjoy all the special moments of the holiday season.

I also made the wooden letters that spelled J-O-Y, the wreath, and the felt stockings. The letters and the wreath all got hit with a couple applications of silver spray-paint. I used the leftover felt from the scalloped trees to just cut out mini stockings to match the rest of the Christmas mantel.

To access my tutorials and more details on all these projects, check out my guest post at My Way Home. I also got to pick five items from the Wayfair website to complement my post- I had so much fun picking them out. I would love it if you could stop by and leave a comment with your thoughts on my post at My Way Home!

K and I will be back very shortly with our nice remaining Christmas cookies for our 12 days of Christmas Cookies series. We have been busy baking away! For our first three cookie recipes, see the links below:

Day 12: Twelve Oreo Truffles
Day 11: Eleven Mini Pecan Pie Bites
Day 10: Ten Crisp Toffee Chocolate Bars

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on December 6, 2012

DIY Holiday Wreath

Today I’m guest blogging over at Juggling Act Mama about my DIY Holiday Wreath that cost less than $20 to make! I really wanted to incorporate more blue and silver into my holiday decorating scheme. Since I had so much fun making this hydrangea wreath in the spring, I decided to make my own holiday wreath. All the supplies to make this wreath can be found at a craft store, such as Michael’s or A.C. Moore.

DIY holiday wreath

What do you think of the results? I’m really pleased with how cute it turned out! For the full tutorial, head over to to Juggling Act Mama!

sister m signature

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on October 26, 2012

I realized the other day that we have hardly any Halloween decorations in our house besides our cheapo plastic pumpkin that holds candy. I didn’t want to spend too much money considering Halloween is only five days away so I decided to just focus on sprucing up our fireplace mantle. The Halloween pennant banner is really easy to make and I’ve got a free printable below so you can use the same spooky letters if you want.

I picked up a few other decorations for the mantel earlier today. The glittery pumpkins were 50 cents a piece at Michael’s. I found the owl at Marshall’s for less than $10. My husband and baby T and always complaining that an owl outside keeps them up at night so I thought he would fit in perfectly to our Halloween display. I bought the baby pumpkin a few weeks ago. All the other pumpkins I bought at the time have since rotted so we need to pick up a few more this weekend for carving.

Halloween Pennant Banner Tutorial

Materials Needed:

Orange, black, and white cardstock
A few yards of rickrack or another type of string/ribbon
Double-sided tape
Masking Tape
Large scallop punch (this step is optional if you don’t have one)
Ruler
Scissors
Pencil
Halloween candy to munch on

Directions:

Use a ruler to make a template for the pennant flags. Mine measured out 6 inches on the short side and 9.5 inches on the two long sides. Sketch out the measurements with a pencil and use scissors to cut out the flag. Use this flag to trace 13 additional flags alternating the paper color if desired. Cut out the rest of the flags.

Use a scallop punch to make 14 scalloped circles (Alternative idea: if you don’t have a scallop punch, you could use a can to trace a large circle.) Print out the font templates below if you want to use the same message and font on my banner. (For Macs: Save the two jpeg files and open it in Preview to print.) If you want to create your own message or use a different type of font, I highly recommend checking out picmonkey.com. They have a lot of different Halloween fonts right now as well. Trace a small circle (I used a small can) over each letter and cut out the 12 letters.

Use double-sided tape to attach the scalloped circle and font circle onto the pennant flag. Lay out the rickrack and tape the flags to the rickrack using masking tape. Hang the Halloween pennant banner on your mantel, step back, and admire!

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on October 16, 2012

rolling storage cart do-it-yourself tutorial

One of my favorite retailers, Serena & Lily, is selling these adorable vintage-looking rolling storage crates in their baby section. I fell in love with the little carts. I realized I already had unfinished crates very similar to the ones featured in the S&L catalog, as well as some ball bearing casters leftover from a previous project. I decided to turn this into a little DIY project and made one for less than $15 since I had some of the materials on hand. If you have none of the materials, it will cost you about $30 to make a rolling storage crate.

rolling storage crate

The rolling storage crate is perfect for storing the many books we have in our household. My son loves pushing it from room to room.

rolling storage cart books

Alternatively, it also makes great toy storage bin as well. Here is the cart filled with trucks, cars, trains, and plains:

rolling storage cart toys

Here are the materials I used on this project:

rolling storage crates materials

Unfinished wooden crate– approximately $9.99 (be sure to use a coupon if you buy it at Michaels)
1/2 pint Old Masters Wiping stain (I used Early American 11716)
Four 1″ ball-bearing swivel casters
Letter stencils
Stencil paint
Stencil brush
Cloth or rag to apply wood stain
8 small screws
Drill
Screwdriver

I started off by applying the stencil to the crate. I chose to write “Books,” but you can be more creative with your wording if you like (the Serena & Lily crates say Soft Drinks, Lemonade, Super Seven or White Star.) I was going for a retro font from the Mad Men era, but I think the font ended up feeling a bit more old west saloon. I still like how it turned out, but it wasn’t what I originally had in mind.

Once the stencil was dried, I applied a wood stain. I used a cloth to apply it. Since I wanted the rolling storage crate to have a distressed feel to it, I pretty much slapped the stain on and didn’t worry about making the coverage exactly even.

The wood stain took about 24 hours to dry. I recommend putting it outside if it’s nice out or in a room you are not using- the fumes were a bit strong while it dried. Once dry, I used a screwdriver to screw the ball-bearing swivel casters on. Each caster had room for 4 screws, but I only used the two outer wholes (photo below.) If I used all four screws on each caster, the screws on the inside of the crate would poke through the bottom of the crate. Since the casters are not being used to support a person’s body weight, I think two screws on each caster would be sufficient. You could use a drill to put eight starter holes (two per each caster) in the crate, but I ended up putting the screws in with just a screwdriver.

wheel

I love how this DIY project turned out! Have you ever been inspired by something you saw in a catalog and decided to make it yourself?

This post was shared at:

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on October 4, 2012

It’s yet another rainy day in the Boston area today…will it ever end? I’ve had this recipe for homemade playdough for awhile and it’s been on my “to do” list to make it forever. Baby T was about to turn into a Disney character himself if I did not tear him away from watching yet another episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse today. It was easier than I expected to make the homemade playdough- I made three small batches so I could use three different colors.

I love how this recipe is all food-based ingredients. T is at an age where he tries to eat anything he can get his hands on. He definitely thought the red playdough was watermelon and put a piece in his mouth before I could stop him. Boy was he surprised when he tried it…he made quite the face! He recovered quickly after a couple sips of water and a bite of banana. Once he realized it was something to play with, he had a lot of fun checking it out.

Homemade Playdough

Author: m

Ingredients

½ cup flour
½ cup water
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
3 tablespoons salt
1 and ½ teaspoons vegetable oil
food coloring drops

Instructions

Mix together all the ingredients (except food coloring) in a small saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, constantly stirring. When the playdough starts to thicken, add the food coloring drops. Continue stirring until the dough begins to gather around the spoon. Remove the dough from the pan and cool on wax paper.
Repeat recipe as desired for additional playdough colors.

Source: Adapted from Musings from a SAHM

Do you have any favorite rainy day activities?

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on February 5, 2012

As you might have seen in my part of the Super Bowl Appetizer Contest, I had NY Giants appetizer picks in my Buffalo Chicken Bites. I thought I would share with you how I made these. They are really easy to make and are cheaper then going to a party supply stores for team decorations.

Here is what you need:

– A computer with internet connection
– White Card Stock Paper
– Colored Printer
– Scissors
– 1 1/2 inch circle paper punch/or stencil
– Double Sided Tape
– Flat Toothpicks

On a word processor, paste your teams logos (you can get them off the internet on Google Image by searching for your team.) Size them so they will fit in a 1 1/2 inch circle (I did this on MS Word.)

Print out on stock paper and punch or cut out into 1 1/2 inch circles. (if you don’t have a circle punch, you can trace a circle around the images with pencil and then cut them out)

Cut as many circles out as you need toothpicks for, then make as many blank circles as you made logo ones.

Take the blank circle and place two pieces of double-sided tape on the circle. Place toothpick on the tape.

Take logo circle, logo-side up and line it up with the tape-side up circle with toothpick in place ( making sure to line the logo up with the toothpick so that the logo will be straight)and press together. Press hard until everything looks stuck together.

You can make these for different teams or actually anything! I made the following for my friends who are fans of these teams:

And put them in cupcakes with green frosting and homemade chocolate footballs.
New York Teams!

Group Picture! GO Jets, Bills, Giants, Panthers, Eagles, and Cowboys! Note there are no Patriot cupcakes.

I made my favorite cupcake recipe, which I have already posted about 2 years ago. In the post, I referenced a guy I was dating. Well that “guy” I was dating is now my boyfriend and we have been together for 2 years as of yesterday!

-k