Create More, Consume Less Series: Project #1

Being a minimalist, I enjoy giving gifts more than I enjoy receiving them. Of course, I prefer and value experiences over anything. I feel like that’s also the norm for most people trying to live a simpler life. It just makes me happy and feel good inside. But what if you are also a minimalist who is trying to save as much money, yet still give a thoughtful gift to someone?

I stumbled across this thought a few months ago when I was trying to think of a perfect anniversary gift to give my boyfriend. His birthday lands exactly a week after, so I knew then that I could splurge and go all out on his birthday/experience gift and instead make him something special for our anniversary.

I found a few ideas on Pinterest and put my own personality on it. The result…a simple DIY date ideas gift in a jar. It’s not only easy to make, but you might already have most of the supplies, such as the mason jar, lying around at home going unused!

Supplies:

• Clear glass mason jar with lid
• Pack of wooden popsicle sticks
• A black sharpie
• Watercolors or paints in a few different colors (optional if your sticks come painted already)
• A paintbrush and water (optional)

Instructions:

1. Get ideas for dates you would love to do together (Tip: Pinterest is a great source for coming up with ideas! I also searched for nearby things to do and places we have never gone to with good ratings)
2. Categorize your dates any way you like. I chose to use these four lists: Stay in, places to eat & drink, out & about (free), and out & about (cheap/$).
3. Once you know how many categories you will make, choose that amount in different colors and paint both sides of the stick. (Tip: I used water color paints that I already had at home, but you can buy popsicle sticks already painted at craft stores and even local dollar stores too!) I also love the colors of the sky so I chose to personalize them with yellow and orange as sunrise colors and blue and purple as evening/night colors.
4. While you wait for the popsicle sticks to dry from painting, decorate your mason jar with stickers such as letter ones or cute tags you may have in your craft stock.
5. Make a legend or key underneath the lid using your black sharpie marker, and then color code with paint or colored markers.
6. Lastly, write out your date ideas on the colored popsicle sticks making sure to use the right color for the date category. (Tip: Start off with one color for each list you made, that way you don’t miss any.)

I hope you guys enjoyed this DIY as part of a series I’m creating called Create More, Consume Less. Happy crafting!