diy: painted vase with a chalkboard label // mother's day inspiration

This DIY was inspired by our mom.  She absolutely loves flowers and gardening!

Kelsey and I found this adorable card on Treat Cards, and we knew we had to get it.  For as long as I can remember our mom has been gardening.  Our backyard is always bursting with flowers, and is so lovely to be in.

This mother's day we will be lucky enough to celebrate with our mom, and both our grandmothers!  Our mom's mom is traveling out from Alberta to stay with us for a while, so that will be lots of fun.  Our mom definitely got her love of gardening from her mother, so I imagine there will be lots of flower love happening this weekend!

Now mom will have a new customizable vase to display her lovely flowers in!

This vase is super cute, and you can use it for any occasion.  Also you can make the chalkboard label as big or small as you would like!

Materials:
-vase (any shape or size - we thrifted ours!)
-acrylic paint (we chose to use white)
-chalkboard paint
-chalk
-masking/painting tape
-paint brush/sponge

Instructions:
1)  First, wash and dry your vase thoroughly.
2)  Pour a generous amount of paint into your vase (more than you think you will need).
3)  Tip your vase on it's side, and rotate it, letting the paint completely cover the inside of the vase.
4)  Pour out any excess paint (you can put this back in the bottle if you wish).
5)  Wipe the lip of the vase clean.
6)  Tip upside down, and let dry overnight.
7)  Using masking tape, tape a rectangle or square onto the vase (in the exact shape you want your chalkboard message label.
8)  Tape exactly around the edges of your first tape rectangle, and peel off the original rectangle.
*or you can always choose to freehand something!
9)  Following the directions of your chalkboard paint, paint it on (I painted on one layer, let it dry for a couple hours, and then painted it on another layer and let it dry overnight).
10)  Once you are sure your chalkboard paint is dry, peel off the tape.  Be very careful while doing this, our chalkboard paint started peeling off with the tape.  You may need to hold down the paint layer with a finger while you slowly peel the tape off.
11)  Use a toothpick to clean up the edges of your chalkboard label.
12)  Now you need to condition your chalkboard.  To do this rub a piece of chalk all over the area covered in chalkboard paint.
13)  With a slightly damp paper towel wipe the chalkboard clean.
14)  Write a fun message!

diy : dried flower deco

Today's DIY comes in the form of one of my favourite ways of decorating - dried flowers. Seriously, when you live in a place like Edmonton, where we STILL have a foot of snow on the ground and no sign of spring flowers, you learn to improvise, and dried flowers are an awesome way to add a vintage, romantic touch without spending tons of money.

Drying flowers is the easiest thing to do - truly, take a bouquet or even just a single flower, flip it upside down, and hang it for a couple days until the flower is completely dried out. To make sure your dried flowers still look pretty though, make sure you begin drying out your flowers while they've still got a nice colour and aren't turning brown at the tips. You don't get to enjoy your fresh flowers for quite as long if you're planning on drying, but you'll have gorgeous dried flowers to decorate your place with!

*friendly tip: if you're drying a bouquet of flowers, wrap a piece of lace around the elastic that's holding your flowers together!

After your flowers are dried, don't feel like they have stay hanging! Add fun touches like putting them in vintage teacups, old milk glasses, mason jars, glass soda bottles, or in unique vases.  

Aren't these lovely?! And yes, I'm a little obsessed with drying flowers, pressing flower petals, etc. They are literally all over our apartment :) As much as I absolutely love (and prefer) having fresh, living flowers, dried flowers are just so romantic and have the added benefit of decorating your space for a very small cost, lasting forever, and keeping you sane through those long winter....and spring months ;) haha!

p.s. ♥ clara