Marimo Love: Housing!

Hello Lovelies!

I've decided to just make this an ongoing thing, since it's easiest to write about stuff you care about!

[If you want to read my earlier post where I went into detail about these marimos click here.]

My Marimos are being shipped to me now! I was way too excited to wait for them to be here, and made a quick trip to Michael's to get their housing situated!

I bought everything I could think of to make my own version of the cute little Marimo tanks I had seen on Etsy, YouTube, and other websites.  

Here's what I bought:

• "Stone granules", which is basically just sand only slightly thicker, in a light tan color
• Seashells
• A Wreath made of sticks
• Two spools of ribbon
• Four glass jars

 In total it was about $13, but could have been a lot less if I had used items I already have around my house.

Here is a picture of the "Stone Granules".  It came with way more than I needed.  I made four little dwellings and only used about half.

Here are the seashells and the little wreath.  To be honest I do not know what it is made of.

I bought two spools of ribbon because they were only 50 cents a piece!

My four little glass jars.

Step two, after acquiring everything, would be to wash EVERYTHING.  Something is going to be living with this stuff, so you want it clean!

Washing the glass and shells...

Step 3:  Add the sand or stone, or whatever you have for the base of your "tank".  If you don't have a base, skip this step! :]

Adding some stone granules to more of my jars...

Step 4:  Add the shells and any other decorations you may have!

I'm still not sure if this stuff is safe but I only added a bit to each tank.  I cut the twine holding it together and started to unravel it.

This is what the unraveling looked like.

This is my set up for another tank!

View from the top.

This is the first one I set up.  I LOVE how this one turned out!

This one is going to be a present for my cousin! I love the little jar it is in!

This is what my finished jar looks like, with the exception of water :]

The heart present jar!

The largest jar :]

I love the ribbon on this one....it reminds me of the bows my grandma used to tie into my pig tails when I was a little girl!

My favorite one! 

I love love love how doing these myself turned out.  I'm so excited for the little marimos to get here!

I put water in these tanks, but chose to use bottled water.  I've read that you can use tap water, but that it's a lot better to use filtered water!

♥Riley

P.S.  Show me your marimo tanks! I'd love to see them!

Beauty Bash Decor! {Benefit x Birchbox}

Hello all!

As I said in my last post, I won a Beauty Bash sponsored by Benefit and Birchbox! :] Here's a little post to show you all the decorations I made for the party! ♥

Here I took 7 black hearts from Michael's.  They came with rope to hang from, and luckily I already had some of this stuff at home, so I hung it from it! I took white paint pens that I also got from Michael's and drew letters onto them.  I thought that this would look cute and break up the mountains of pink decor I had planned! All of the little hearts were less than a dollar and the pens were a little more than a dollar a piece after the coupon.

Here I took washi tape and glitter paper and folded it across some baker's twine.  Then I cut the pieces into little pennant flags and glued them down.  Tiny decorations are the cutest! This craft literally cost nothing to make!

I wanted really fancy straws for my party, so I knew I'd have to make some! I bought a box of the most adorable pink straws imaginable, then took gold paper and folded it across the straws, cutting it into triangle pieces.  Then I glued it down. Super easy, super adorable, super cheap.  The straws were actually kind of expensive at around $10 a box.  The paper cost less than a dollar.

These are the supplies I used to make the invitations to the party! 

I used gold metallic paper, pink paper, patterned paper, and raised glitter paper.  All in all that cost less than a dollar since Michael's was having a HUGE sale.

I also added bows and little pink heart stickers.  These were both from Michael's as well.

I used clothespins to hold the pages together while gluing.... 

Putting on the mirror part....

I made six, five for my guests and one to scrapbook! :]

Here is the snapchat I sent out to my guests to keep them excited.  My grandma helped me to cut out eyeliner and lipstick shapes from foam posterboard.  Then I took my paint pens and wrote the label on them.  The netting design on top and bottom was done with a ruler and a dull pencil.  A sharp one would have cut into the board.

Here is a picture of the Benefit black heart decoration all put together!

Here is a picture of a finished invitation.  I glued black bows onto the tops of all of the "compact" invitations and added their first initials!

Up close and personal!

I even went out and found beauty puffs to put inside the invitations, just like real compacts!

I had my mom write inside all of the invitations, because I like her hand writing so much! :]

Now on to pictures of the actual event!

My house isn't really "party ready" with our animals and limited space, so I rented out a conference room at a local hotel!

The room was pretty big for a party for 6 people, so I had tons of room to decorate!

Here is a view of the conference room!  It shows the goody bags, heart wall, and dining table!

Here is the other side of the room, showing the craft table and craft supply table!

I wanted to make a wall just for photo opportunities, and used my benefit chain in it!  The other two chains were made with tissue paper and cord, and my boyfriend actually helped me make them!

I bought little milk jugs for my guests, put the cute pennant straws inside, and set them on a serving tray with doilies!  I added cute little name tags for functionality as well as the whole adorable effect!

The heart wall was all my mom and sister's doing!  They blew up 27 balloons {maybe 26, I'm not doing a great job of counting right now} and stuck them to the wall in a beautiful heart shape! Super cute and suuuuuppperrr inexpensive decoration!

I made six little terracotta pots for dirt cups! I taped them off in a straight line {a lot harder than it sounds, they don't tape straight} and mod podge'd glitter all over them, then wrote "Benefit Beauty Bash" on them!

Full table with terracotta pots and milk jugs!

Dining table, with doilies, coasters, and a little pink tree I made out of foam and tissue!

Goody bag table with our hand made Benefit decor!

Craft table with six unpainted frames and another little pink tree!

Craft supply table!

Food table with two little flower-tissue wreaths I made the night before! They were even on the wall but for some reason the picture does not show it that way! Here's where we chose to hang the little washi pennant banner!

A view of a bigger part of the whole room! We also hung streamers and lanterns from the ceiling for optimal cuteness!  The cream and green colored walls really complemented the color scheme of my party!

The opposite view of the party room, with my little sister {who was both a guest and a tremendous help} in view!

Close up of a paper tissue tree!  I'm obsessed with the polka dot fabric!

A view of a lantern from below, because I was obsessed!

Aerial view of the food table! {More to come, look for future blog posts!}

Thank you so much for reading! I will be posting more about the party in the next couple of days!

♥Riley

P.S. I would love some feedback! ;]