Recycling Soup Cans Part 2: Flower Pots

This is part 2 in the recycling soup cans series I am doing. If you'd like to see the first one- check it out here. 

This was inspired by a lesson I gave to my cub scouts. I taught them how to plant herb seeds for the requirement "grow something". We did it by doing the same technique I will be showing you how to do! 

Here is what you will need: 

Soup Cans (washed and goop cleaned off) 

Potting Soil

Flowers

Hammer

Nail

rock pebbles 

any embellishments you want to decorate them with

Here's my cans. I used goo be gone to get off the rest of the goop on the can. Two of my cans were tomato sauce cans so they were stained red inside. That wont matter though, because they will be covered. 

The first thing you want to do is take your nail and hammer in a few holes in the bottom of the can. This will allow extra water to drain out the bottom. 

I did 5 holes. 

I then went outside and found a bunch of rocks this size: (Get rocks smaller than pennies probably...I think mine were too big.) 

I bought this Miracle Gro Pitting Mix at Walmart. It was super cheap- I want to say 3 or 4 dollars??

I also bought my flowers at walmart. I liked the variety of color :) You will then put the pebbles in the bottom of the can. On top of that, put some potting mix in. Remove the flowers from the original plastic containers and place in the can. 

 I packed some more soil around the top to fill it up, then watered them. I just kept it simple with bakers twine tied on it. Look how simple! 

Just a few tips- keep them in sun, and don't over water! If you over water the soil will become so soggy with no way to dry out because of the small holes on the bottom. *Lesson learned...* 

I'm loving these cans! Are you saving yours yet?

p.s. check out my profile on pippit! pippit is like blogging, pinterest, and instagram smooshed into one app! The app should be available in the apple store and google store. follow me at handmadebygill and I will follow you back. 

DIY Cork Board Transformation

I love me some thrift shopping. Don't you?? I don't always find something- but when I do, I get really excited. Here in Utah we don't have Goodwill (at least we don't by me) so D.I. or Savers is the best option. I usually find more at D.I. though. 

While shopping there not too long ago, I found this pretty banged up cork board. I think I only paid $1 for it.

 I knew this little beauty had potential. It even had a hook on the back so I didn't have to put one on myself. I had all kinds of ideas for it. Here is the before: 

What I chose to do is take out the cork and cover it with fabric. I used hot glue to glue the fabric on it. If the cork board was in worse condition, I could have gotten some cork at Hobby Lobby to replace it. Just FYI incase you ever need to replace yours.

 I decided to keep the color since I had some cute fabric that perfectly patched. I sanded it up a bit to add a distressed/vintage look to it since it would match the fabric better. 

This literally took me only 10 minutes. I love finding things like this. How cute would this be in a little girls room with some pictures pinned to it?! 

Thanks for following along! Get craftin'! 

DIY Beach Wave Hairspray

Today I have a really fun post to share. I have been wanting to share it since I started the blog but then the computer broke.. and la de da. So, today was the day! 

I have naturally curly hair. But its really not the best curl. Some spots are curly, some are straight. And pretty much all of it is a frizz ball. Because of that, I hardly ever do it curly anymore. I did some research though and made a really easy homemade beach wave spray to help enhance my curls. 

Before I jump into the tutorial just know this- 

when I get in the shower, I take my brush with me. I wash my hair, and condition it. When the conditioner is in, I use my brush to brush my hair out. I let the conditioner sit on while I wash the rest of my body and then I rinse it all out. After the shower, I put my hair in a towel and DO NOT BRUSH IT AGAIN.  I only do it this way when I want to do it wavy like this. Moving on...

Here is what it looked like after the shower. Its best to let your hair dry half way before you actually put the spray on (in my opinion.)t

You will need 1 tsp of each of these:

some sort of gel (I got mine at Sally's a long time ago.) 

Coconut Oil (melt it in the microwave) 

Salt

And some sort of leave in conditioner/frizz control product. I used Paul Mitchell's Full Circle Leave In Treatment for curls. It's amazing! 

You will also need:

1 cup of hot water

a spray bottle (I got mine in the dollar section at Target by the beauty)

A bowl to mix it all in

A wisk

First off, you will take some sort of brush (boar bristle is best) and brush ONLY the top part of your hair. In the picture it demonstrates about how far down you should go. Doing this just makes the top smoother and lay better. 

Then, you will measure out a teaspoon of each of your ingredients. I actually ended up putting about a teaspoon and a half of salt though instead of a teaspoon. Wisk your ingredients in your bowl. Then, pour into hot water. Wisk again. After it's nice and mixed, pour it into your spray bottle. (Make sure you label it Beach Spray!)

Once it's in the bottle, shake it up really good. Then, spray on the part of your hair you didn't brush. (So all of your hair but the top.) Do not drench your hair with it. 

Now you have two options. If your hair is naturally curly, I would recommend just scrunching it with your own hands. If it is not naturally curly, use a diffuser. This one should work just fine. 

After you scrunch or diffuse it, let it dry. 

After it dries...

You should have something like this!

It's so easy, so cheap to make, and REALLY enhances curls you already have. I have yet to try this on someone who doesn't have curly hair already, but I promise you I will. When I do, I will update this post. Or, leave a comment after you use it and tell me how it went! 

Thanks for following along, 

Happy Beach Hair! 

(oh how I wish I was at the beach...)

linking up to these lovelies:

http://handmadebygill.blogspot.com/p/link-parties.html

-gillian