Smore Gift

 Last week, we wrapped up our year of Secret Sister...a little different.  We usually do a fun "3 Clues" happy hour, but this year we just did a porch exchange, with our name attached.

 My secret sister likes to travel, but....quarantine.  So I tried to put together a bucket of things for adventures near or far.  I put in a picnic blanket, a monogramed coffee....or wine cup, and then all the stuff for making smores.

Baseball Wreath

 My brother's girlfriend decorates her house every month with a theme.  I'm not sure I have the energy, but I DO have the energy to help her.  She decided August would be baseball (our team, the Rangers, just so happen to be red, white, and blue, so she didn't have to change out her lights).  She had found some baseballs in her backyard, and I had a ton of ribbon left over from projects I brought over.  We used a wire wreath from the dollar tree.  Eventually, I'll post a tutorial on making a wreath (again).  I've done so in the past, but this post is about those baseballs and how we got them to attach to the wreath.  I've tried hot glue, but they are heavy, so this time....

We used my brother's drill and some wire.  It worked so much better than I could have imagined!  So, things you can drill....baseballs!

Sea Shell Checkboard

 A lot of beach vacations end with a bag of shells for me.  I recently brought a bunch of beach themed crafts to GMT.  This is one of them...it's super simple, but a fun way to use some of those shells.

I bought a 1 1/2 foot board and had the home improvement store cut it down to squares.  I painted it white and then I took a regular kitchen sponge and figured out what size square would be the right one for 8x8.  In this case, it ended up being about 1 1/2 inch.  I took some blue paint and sponge pressed it down.  I liked the 'holes' left from the sponge stamp, but you can go back and paint it to be a solid square.  Afterwards I added two different kinds of shells I have.  You could also just paint the same shell two different colors.....or use bottle caps or sea glass....whatever is around.