Tag: how-to

15 Cute And Expensive Looking DIY Gifts You Have To Make

Since Mother’s day is coming up, I’ve been thinking about what gift I could give to my mom (even though she says she doesn’t need anything).

I always feel like I’m really bad with gifts since I struggle to pick something. But after thinking about it, I’ve decided to make something this year instead. So naturally, I ended up searching online for easy DIY gifts I could make.

DIY Gifts That Everyone Will Love

Now, these gifts aren’t specifically for Mother’s day though, you could make them for someone’s birthday, as a housewarming gift, or any other occasion. You get the idea.

What I really love about DIY gifts is that they are so much more personal and special because you make them yourself. And the ones I found for you below are all really cute and useful too.

For the full instructions on how to make any of the DIY gifts listed below, please click on the link underneath each image.

1. Sharpie Dot DIY Flower Pots

Such a cool idea to write someone’s name on a flower pot in such a cute way. It makes it so much more personal!

You can also get creative and experiment with different colors or patterns.

Found from Cutesy Crafts

2. Rose Petal Bath Salts

These rose petal bath salts look so pretty in their glass jars.

I think this could be a really cool gift for a bridal shower or spa day with friends.

Found from Paper n Stitch Blog

3. DIY Sweater Mittens

If you have any old sweaters lying around that you aren’t using anymore, why not repurpose them and make these cute mittens?

Found from Feathering My Nest

4. Colorblock Cutting Boards

Instead of giving someone a plain wooden chopping board, why not add a pop of color to it? It’s a simple touch that makes it look very elegant.

Would make a great housewarming gift I think.

Found from Lovely Indeed

5. Arm Knit Chunky Blanket

Okay, I know this one might look like it would be too difficult to make, but it really isn’t.

And you don’t need any special knitting skills or tools to make this blanket, so why not give it a try?

The tutorial provides easy and clear step by step instructions that you can follow to make your own chunky knit blanket.

Found from Made Up Style

6. DIY Scented Room Spray

Everyone loves walking into a room that smells fresh and clean, so these scented room sprays will be a big hit with any homemaker.

You can create these using your favorite essential oils and scents.

The extra detail of putting dried flowers in the bottles also makes it more special.

Found from Design Lovefest

7. Vanilla Brown Sugar Scrub

This sugar scrub is really easy to make, you just add all the ingredients together.

Make it look cute and gift-worthy by putting it in a pretty jar or container.

Finish it off by adding a printed tag and some string.

Found from Suburban Simplicity

8. Spray Paint Marble Planters

These spray paint marble planters will all come out with their own unique design.

It could take a few tries to get it right though, so the author suggests that you try it with some paper cups first.

Found from Vintage Revivals

9. DIY Rope Basket

This basket was actually a cheap dollar store basket, can you believe it?

Adding the rope, some fabric and a bit of color make it look so much more expensive!

Found from Lydi Out Loud

10. Gilded Edge Agate Coasters

Instead of buying these coasters at an expensive price, you can make your own gilded edge agate coasters at about $8 each.

All you need is some round, flat agates and gilded paint.

Found from Making Lemonade Blog

11. Microwavable Hand Warmers

These hand warmers are pocket size, so you can keep them in your pockets to warm your hands. You could easily make larger ones too.

These would make great gifts for children or anyone who gets cold easily!

Found from Rae Ann Kelly

12. Wooden Slab Keyholder

If you know someone who’s always looking for their keys, this could be a useful gift.

Found from The Crafted Life

13. Galaxy Marble Coasters

These galaxy marble coasters have such a cool design each one you make will be unique.

You don’t have to stick to these colors though, you can experiment and make your own colored coasters.

Found from A Kailo Chic Life

14. Flower Throw Pillow

Turn a plain inexpensive throw pillow into one that makes a statement!

This could be perfect as a housewarming gift. Remember to consider the color of the person’s living room, you could make this in any color.

Found from West Elm

15. Easy DIY Pom-Pom Rug

This is one of my favorites. I love this fluffy and cozy pom-pom rug!

And I really like that you can choose your own wool and colors to make someone totally unique!

I’ll likely be making one of these for myself!

Found from Home Lover

If you found some inspiration from these DIY gifts and enjoyed this post, be sure to pin it to Pinterest so you can come back to it again later!

Pin it for later!

April 22, 2018
10 Homemade Soap Recipes That You Can Make Today

Making your own homemade soap is much easier than you think! And it’s a lot of fun too. In this post, I’ve rounded up some of my favorite homemade soap recipes so you can also try them out.

Making your own soap has lots of benefits and it can actually save you money depending on the soap you make.

You can also control what goes into your soap and thus avoid any ingredients that are harsh on the skin. Homemade soap is thus perfect for sensitive skin.

Homemade soap can also make a great gift for your loved ones. You can get really creative with the soap you make and can often turn it into something that looks like a piece of art.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which means I might receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you!) if you purchase something through one of my links. Please see my affiliate disclaimer for more information.

Homemade soap recipes anyone can make

Below I’ve compiled a list of some of my favorite homemade soap recipes. They are all unique with different sizes, shapes, and aromas.

Combine these beautiful soaps with the right packaging and you instantly have a unique and personalized gift.

1. Lavender Honey Lemon Soap

Found from Sisoo

This is one of the easiest soaps you can make as it uses a “melt and pour” base.

Using a melt and pour base is perfect for beginners. It’s basically a base that you can buy and you just have to melt it and add your desired scents, colors and textures to it to create your very own soap.

If you’re looking to buy a melt and pour soap base, I’d recommend this goat’s milk one from Amazon.

2. DIY Amethyst Soap Gems

Found from Mary Makes Good

These Amethyst soap gems are sure to be a hit with everyone! People will actually not believe they are really made of soap!

And don’t be worried that you won’t be able to make this. It’s actually very easy if you follow the tutorial.

It might take a bit more time than some of the other soaps do because you have to cut the gems, but that’s the fun part! And you’ll end up with a unique soap gem every time!

3. Rosewater Pink Clay Soap Bars

Found from Hello Glow

I just absolutely love the texture of this one! And best of all, this soap bar is not just a body soap, but can also be used as a facial cleanser.

The clay in this soap works well for absorbing any excess shine and oil from oily skin.

4. Peaches and Cream Soap

Found from Happiness Is Homemade

This peaches and cream soap smells amazing and everyone will love them!

It’s also really easy to make and requires only a few ingredients.

The recipe shows how you can make either a layered soap or a swirled soap. Of course, you can also do both!

5. Honey Oatmeal Handmade Soap

Found from Creative Me Inspired You

Who doesn’t love honey or oatmeal? And now you can have it in your soap too!

This honey oatmeal soap gives off a rich and deep aroma that will make you want to use it again and again.

Wrap it in some basic paper and twine and you have a cute personalized gift that anyone would love!

6. Coffee Sugar Scrub Cubes

Found from A Pumpkin And a Princess

Sometimes your skin needs a good exfoliation. These coffee sugar scrub cubes will help remove dry skin cells and improve circulation, giving you smoother and firmer skin.

And do I need to mention they have an amazing coffee and orange scent that you’ll love?

7. Orange Flaxseed Soap

Found from Confessions Of an Overworked Mom

Another beautifully textured soap, this time with flaxseed and pieces of grated orange peel.

This one is also really easy to make with a melt and pour soap base that you can melt in the microwave if you wish.

8. Herb and Spice Glycerin Soap

Found from Hello Glow

If you’re looking for something a bit closer to nature, you will love these glycerin soaps.

You just need a clear glycerin soap base (you can get one from Amazon here) and then any decorative ingredients you wish to add.

Put them in a soap dish by the bathroom sink to add a little spring and summer to your bathroom.

9. Pumpkin Spice Soap

Found from The Things We’ll Make

This pumpkin spice soap would make a perfect fall gift and looks really impressive.

I’ll admit, this one is a bit more on the difficult side as it doesn’t use a pre-made melt and pour soap base, but it’s still easy enough for beginners to make.

10. DIY Lavender Loofah Soap

Found from A Pumpkin And a Princess

This is exfoliating loofah soap is great to get rid of dry skin cells and will leave your skin feeling fresh and smooth.

It’s super simple to make loofah soaps. You can basically use any soap recipe you want and just add the loofah.

All you need is to place a loofah of the desired size in the soap mold before pouring the soap mixture into the mold.

If you’re looking to make your own soap, I’d recommend you first experiment with the melt and pour soap bases.

You can get a goat’s milk one here on Amazon, or a clear glycerin soap base here on Amazon.

Loved these homemade soap recipes? Pin it for later!

If you enjoyed this collection of easy homemade soap recipes, be sure to pin it for easy reference later!

March 25, 2018
10 Super Easy Steps to Start a Money Making Blog Today

So, you’ve decided to take the first step and start a money making blog. It’s definitely a decision you won’t regret! Blogging can change your life in so many ways. You can earn a full time income, connect with people all over the world, and have a platform to voice your opinions. Whatever your reason – you won’t regret it, trust me!

In order to start a blog and get your blog online, you’ll need a domain name as well as hosting. The domain name is the name of your blog and the address people will see when they visit your blog – my domain name is blastaloud.com. Hosting is the service that will allow your blog to be visible on the internet.

Now if this all sounds complicated to you, please don’t worry! Below I’ll show you step by step where and how you can get all these things to get your blog up and running in no time. And it will be much easier than you might think! In fact, you can do all this in 10 minutes or less! And don’t worry, you don’t have to be tech savvy to do any of these things, you can just follow the steps below! Ready? Okay, let’s get your blog set up!

Note: This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my affiliate disclaimer here.

Click here to sign up for hosting with Bluehost from as little as $3.95 per month with a free domain name!

Step 1: Sign up for hosting

There are many different hosting providers out there, but the number one I recommend is Bluehost, mainly because they make starting a blog super affordable. You can start your blog from as little as $3.95 per month on the basic plan, which is the one I recommend because it has everything you need. And as an added bonus, you’ll also get a free domain name if you sign up for a year of web hosting, how awesome is that!? I don’t know of any other web hosting that does this, so it’s definitely a bargain to get right away!

With Bluehost, its really simple and easy to get your blog up and running with WordPress. They have an easy to understand panel and they offer one click WordPress installation, which is what you’ll use to start your blog. And if you ever get stuck, they have 24/7 technical support so you’ll never have to worry about not having someone around to ask for help!

Click here to sign up for hosting with Bluehost from as little as $3.95 per month with a free domain name!

Step 2: Choose your domain name

Now that you’ve chosen your hosting package, it’s time to choose your domain name. Bluehost will tell you whether the domain name is available or not.

Choosing a domain name can be a bit difficult at first, especially since there are already so many websites out there. But be patient and try to come up with a list of possible names for your blog, so that you have some backups if your first choice isn’t available. When I tried to come up with names for my blog, I probably went through about 15 names that were unfortunately already taken before I decided on this one which was available at the time.

Tip: I’d definitely recommend that you go with a .com domain name, as search engines tend to trust domains ending in .com better. This becomes important later when you start driving traffic to your blog.

Step 3: Complete your personal information

After you’ve chosen your domain name for your blog, fill out your personal information.

Step 4: Choose the right package & optional add-ons

On this step, it’s important to make sure that you have the right hosting package selected. I’d highly recommend that you take the 36 month plan, that way you get the lowest price for your domain and you don’t have to worry about renewing it every year. Now guys, its only $142.20 for a whole THREE years, which is an amazing price. I monetized my site in my second month of blogging and made MORE than $142.20 in my third month of blogging (and my income has been climbing each month). So it’s definitely an investment that pays itself off really quickly – within the first few months of starting your blog!

On this page you can also select additional add-ons and services for a small fee that’s then added to your purchase. The only thing I’d recommend you take here is the Domain Privacy Protection option. This will keep your personal contact information private in WHOIS databases. If you’d like more information on this, you can read about it here.

Step 5: Add billing information and password setup

Next, you’ll need to add your billing information. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to choose the password for your account.

Step 6: Create your account password

Great job for making it this far! You’ve now created your Bluehost account, so it’s time to choose a password. Make sure it’s a secure password as this is the password to gain access to all of your site’s content! And of course, don’t forget this password.

After you’ve successfully chosen a password, you should see the success show below screen below. Don’t stress if it doesn’t appear immediately, it can take a minute or so to process.

Step 7: Choose a theme

Bluehost will allow you to choose one of these free themes for your blog. You can choose anyone you like here for now. You can easily change your theme again later.

After you’ve chosen your theme, you should see the success message below. Go ahead and click “Start Building” to start building your WordPress blog.

Step 8: Choose your blog type

You’ll now be prompted to choose what type of site you want to create. In most cases, this will be a personal site such as a blog, but if it’s for your business you can also select that.

Step 9: Fill in site details

After you’ve chosen your site type, you should see a screen with an option to launch your site. After you click it, you’ll have to fill in your site title and description. The site title will typically be your blog name (e.g. BlastAloud), and the description is just a few words to say what your site is about.

Step 10: Launch your site

After filling in your site title and description, click on “Next Step”.

Congratulations! You have just set up your very first blog!

You can visit your site domain name (e.g. mine is www.blastaloud.com) to see what it looks like. Typically WordPress will create a sample page and post for you titled “Hello World”. You will be able to delete these and create your own posts and pages.

So, what now?

Now that that your blog is successfully up and running, there are a few things you’ll likely want to work on.

Create pages

Before anything else there are two pages I’d recommend you create: An “About” page and a “Contact” page. The “About” page is just a page with a little bit of background about you and the reason you started your blog. This is just for readers to get to know you a bit better. The contact page is where you tell readers how they can get in touch with you. This page can have a contact form on the page and/or include your email address or social media links.

Create posts

Now I’ve seen a lot of bloggers recommend that you first have to write 15-25 blog posts before you launch your blog and make those posts public. I personally didn’t do it this way. Rather, I made my blog public with 0 posts, and published each post as I created it. There was no waiting until I had a certain number of posts before I published them all. I can however understand why some bloggers recommend you do it this way, because if you have plenty of posts, you’ll have more content for readers to go through. I didn’t really find that it made much difference, so I think it’s up to your personal preference.

Find a theme you like

You don’t have to keep the free theme you chose when you set up your site. You can if you want to though. There are some premium themes that give you a lot more functionality and ways of customizing how your site looks. I found my theme on ThemeForest for $49. Of course, you can always use a free theme at the beginning and upgrade to a paid theme later if you want.

Get traffic

Once you’ve got your basic pages and a couple of posts available on your website, it’s time to start focussing on traffic. When your blog is still new, you can’t really rely on getting traffic from Google. But one platform that can bring in a lot of traffic is Pinterest. It’s what I use to drive traffic to my blog and it works like a bomb, trust me!

Monetize

When you have enough content on your site to keep users interested and you’re starting to get a bit of traffic, then it’s time to start thinking about monetizing your site.

Now there are lots of ways to do this. The easiest, and quickest option is running ads on your website. As a newbie blogger I’d recommend you sign up for Google AdSense as they don’t have strict requirements in regards to the number of page views you need a month.

Another way to monetize your site is through affiliate marketing, such as with Amazon. This way you can promote products/services on your site and you’ll receive a small commission whenever someone makes a purchase using your link.

Don’t give up

Now guys, this is really important. Do not give up! There will be days where you feel overwhelmed, frustrated or even just too lazy to work on your blog. But don’t give up. That’s the only way your blog will be successful. And the sooner you start, the sooner you will get there. So start a money making blog today!

November 28, 2017