🌟BEAUTIFUL SPRING DECOR DIYS | Mystery Box Challenge

Today is the first installment of this year's Mystery Box Challenge. Hey there, my name is Yami. I am your Latina next door. Welcome back to Mi Casa, where I share high-end home decor and DIY on a budget, as well as extreme before and after room transformations. If that's something you enjoy, please make sure to subscribe so that you too can become part of the familia. In today's video, we are doing the Mystery Box Challenge. If you don't know what that is, it was created by my dear friend Courtney over on Creative on the Cheap. Basically, she grounds up a group of YouTubers. We all have to make purchases from a designated store. Most of the time, it's a dollar store. And what we do is we pack it up and we ship it to another YouTuber. Now, in this box, we get two challenge items, usually things that we probably wouldn't use to craft ourselves. And sometimes there's a twist and we have to do a specific theme or she's got specific guidelines depending on the month. The YouTuber who receives the box has to create out of the items in the box, no matter what they are. Okay, so I have my box right here. And one of the things that we're supposed to do is open the box and look at the items for the very first time on camera so you can see our genuine reactions. My box came from Valerie over at Auntie Cuckoo. I think this is the first time that she's joined this challenge. So if you don't know who she is, she is the sweetest person. And what you'll love about her channel is is that if you wanna go out shopping, and you wanna know what's on sale before you go out shopping, she's your girl. She does a lot of shop with me videos where she shares what's out in the stores before you even go out. So I like to go window shopping with her before I even leave my home. Definitely check her out if you haven't done so already. I'm gonna go ahead and open this up and then afterwards, I'll tell you who I sent my box to. Ooh, okay. All right, so the first thing I see is some foliage. Looks like Dollar Tree foliage. And this is really nice ferns, actually. I haven't seen this greenery yet. So that's actually really cool. All right, we have my mystery box item right here. I'm gonna go ahead and put that aside. We saved those for last because those are usually the best. Ooh, what's this? Oh. Thou shall not sweat it. Powerful words there, my friend. You have some faith in me. So excited to be part of this challenge with you. I have no doubt you will create something as classy and beautiful as you are. Happy crafting friend, Auntie Cuckoo. I'm telling you, she's the sweetest woman ever. You guys are gonna love her. Now, I don't know if I'll still love her after this, but we'll see. Toblerone. Ooh, I even, man, what is this? I'll have to check this out. It's a little candy. I'll have to eat that while I craft. So there is a twist this month, and this time the twist is in this paper. I'll explain that at the end. Oh my God. This cute little sign. Actually, it's adorable. It says moo. It's a cow. And it's a cute little chicken wire sign. Oh my God, why would I wanna change this? It's adorable. Looks like it's from Dollar General. Looks like Dollar General's got cheaper things than Dollar Tree. Oh, this is cute too. Ooh, look at this. It says, you go girl. Man, I need to go to Dollar General. Sarcasm, welcome. Ooh, look at this. Okay, all right. All right, got a little lantern. Where's this from? LED lantern, okay. That's so cute. What about, okay, there's a photo clip string, and it has lights on it. So not only does it have like a little light, but you can hang photos on it. Very cute, very cute. Okay, oh, this is adorable. I think it's like, this is like nautical inspired. These right here. I don't know what I'm gonna do with this. Okay, what, ooh, what is this? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Okay, ha ha ha ha ha. Do you want me to make something out of a purse? If you guys don't know, I created some DIYs, like seven DIYs out of a green purse last year. And that was a fun video. There's no $100 in this one though. All right, so here's my second mystery box item. So, okay, or mystery item. And then, oh man, these are so pretty. Okay, instead of two wall shelves. This right here, that's what they look like. So, yeah, very nice. All right, let's see. First mystery challenge item. There's always a moment of apprehension when you're first opening it up, because you're like, oh, plastic watering stake, yeah. All right. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, Valerie. Squishy, but it's hard. Oh man, I don't know. Stake, what the? That felt a little weird. Okay, so I see the squishy part is bubble wrap. Okay, let's see. That's cute. Not bad at all, actually. I quite like that little birdie. I can work with this. This, not so much. All right, so for this month, there's a twist. And we have to send some guidelines to the person that we're sending the box to. And we're supposed to send them a guideline for color to use, material to use, and embellishment to incorporate in our DIYs. So Valerie sent me green for the color, felt for the material, and embellishment is ribbon. So I have to use these three different guidelines, or yeah, I don't know, guidelines, rules, laws, executive orders. Okay, I'll stop. Yeah, for my projects. Before I start, really quick, I sent my box over to Jennifer over at A Little Bit of Calm and Crazy. You know her. She's been a part of this challenge for quite some time. She is absolutely hilarious and does some really beautiful DIYs. So I'll make sure to have both her and Auntie Cuckoo's links in my description box. You can check their channels out. I will also have a link in my description box for the playlist for the entire group. That way you can see one and hop onto the next and hop onto the next in the order of the way we gave our boxes. So check them out because you're gonna be in for some serious laughs. All right, I am up for the challenge. Let's see what I create. So for the first DIY, I'm gonna be using these two little shelves. And the first thing I'm gonna do is remove the little hanging brackets on the back. But as you can see, when removing the brackets, you're left with this little indentation in the back. So we got out the table saw and we made it nice and smooth. Next thing I did was took some wood glue and I added it to one of the edges and then I put the two pieces together. I made sure to line them up. And then I took some clamps and I clamped them down together so that they would dry and create one piece. Next, I took some of my DIY paint in the color gypsy green. You guys know I have used this several times over. I have created some beautiful candle holders and I thought I would continue with that same green theme, especially since that's one of the things that I needed to do in regards to this challenge was incorporate the color green. The little shelves weren't real wood, but they did have a wood veneer finish and I thought I would leave that exposed and only paint the sides. Now, after adding my first layer of paint, I decided that the gaps between the two little shelves were a little bit too much exposed. So I decided to add some wood filler. I used a damp cloth to remove the excess wood filler and I let it dry. And then I gave everything a second coat. After I was finished painting, I removed the painter's tape and then I painted the side edges of the little tray as well. And then to add a little bit of detail, I had this corner stencil and I decided to stencil this little design on the four corners of the little tray. I let everything dry and once it was dry, I wanted to seal it with my DIY clear wax. That way everything was nice and protected. This clear wax along with the DIY paint that I used for this tray is available on my online shop as I am a retailer now for DIY paint. This clear wax is made of non-toxic chemicals and it will not fade over time, which is why this has been the only wax that I have used for years. As you can see, it brings out the color of the DIY paint and it makes it get richer. Now you leave this to dry overnight. The following morning, you buff it and this is how the tray turned out. For this next DIY, we're gonna be using several items. And the first thing I'm gonna do is remove the inner plaque from this frame. Next, I took the self-watering plant thingamajigger and I got my wood burning kit and I cut the stem off of the little globe portion. Once I cut the long portion off, I began to slice the little bubble part in half, going down the natural seam that it already had. I set that aside for a minute and then I decided to cut down some poster board to fit inside of the frame. I wanted to give the paper a custom look, so I had this iron organ design stamp that I wanted to try out. And so I filled up my ink pad with some black ink and decided to use it for this. Once my stamp pad was full, I just applied it by dabbing it all over the stamp. And then all I needed to do was find the perfect placement on my poster board and press down. Now, once the ink was dry, I just used a glue stick and applied glue all over the back of the poster board and then inserted it into the frame. As the poster board was drying onto the frame, I went back to my little plastic piece and I began to clean off all of the edges, making it nice and smooth. Once I was happy with the edges, I gave it one coat of my DIY paint in the color sandy blonde. This is the same color that I used for my bookends, if you guys remember. While that dried, we were moving on to the next step, which was I had to incorporate felt into this project or one of these projects from my mystery box. So I decided to start cutting out one inch square pieces. As a matter of fact, I cut out one inch square pieces, one and a quarter inch square pieces, and one and a half inch square pieces. And I use my little Fiskars rotary blade for this. This is one of the tools that I had featured in my last video where I talked about all of my crafty tools. Once my little squares were cut, I began to round off the edges of each of the squares with some fabric scissors. I would then cut a slit into the little round circle and with a hot glue gun, I would bring in and glue one of the sides over the other. This actually created like a little cup out of that circle. Then taking a little pearl, one of those that you can find in Dollar Tree's floral section, I began to hot glue each of these little petals onto the pearl. And I would glue them down, overlapping one another. I started with the smallest size petals first and began to work my way out with the medium and then the large ones. The next thing I would do is I would cut a larger square and then round out those edges as well. Then I would make little slits towards the center of it. These would be petals and so then I would come in and round out those edges as well. At the end, you should have a little form like this and you can sit the flower right on top of it. I take some hot glue and apply it to the bottom petal and then I add the flower and put it right on top. I repeated this process two more times to create a total of three flowers. Once the flowers are done, it's time for the next step. I am taking hot glue and putting it all over the edge and I'm gonna hot glue it down onto the bottom center of the frame. And then using some pieces of the fern that I had gone in the box, I inserted it and hot glued it onto the frame as if it was coming out of a little vase. Once the greenery was added, then I did the same thing with the felt flowers. And I love how this cute little 3D piece of artwork turned out. All right, so for this next DIY, we're gonna be using this really cute bird that Valerie sent me. Now, it's super cute, but I'm not really into that red color so I am again using my sandy blonde and I am gonna apply a coat all over the bird. And I went ahead and gave him two coats to make sure I covered every area. Next, I used some of my clear wax again and with a little lint-free cloth, I applied it all over the little bird. Next, while the clear wax was still tacky, I decided to add white wax so that I can give the little bird more dimension. It was doing pretty good, but I wanted to make sure I got in all of those little feather nooks and crannies. So I got the white decrepit dust and I sprinkled it in between and then I rubbed it down with my lint-free cloth. And that really got in between all those little feather crevices. That way, I could accentuate them even more. When I had applied all of the white, I made sure to rub off any excess decrepit dust and wax and then I let it sit to dry. While the bird dried, I took some of the gypsy green again and began to paint this little dollar tree cube that I've had on hand for a little while. Next, I took the cloth that I was using earlier to put wax on the little bird. And since it already had wax, I just went all over the little cube with it. Next, I took some fine grit sandpaper to sand it down a little bit, remove some of the white wax, and also distress some of the edges. Next, I took a damp cloth and removed any remaining excess. Once that dried, I sat my little bird on top of the cube and this is how it turned out. For my next DIY, we're gonna be using these two little nautical pieces. And the first thing I'm gonna do is remove the little rope and beads. Then I'm gonna remove the stickers. Next, I'm gonna take these two pieces and I'm gonna glue them together. I'm gonna use a clamp for this one as well while it dries. Once it's dry, I removed it from the clamp and then using the color sandy blonde again, you guys know I love this color, I am gonna apply two coats all over this piece on all four sides. Now, this step wasn't extremely necessary, but I went ahead and added some wood filler after I painted it with the first coat of paint in order to fill the gaps in between them just a little bit more. And once dry, I gave it another coat of paint. Next, I took a dowel that I had on hand and using my miter shears, I cut it down to create a little pole. And if you've been here long enough, you might already know what I am doing. I'm creating a little sailboat out of this piece. And the next thing I am gonna do is I'm gonna drill a hole in the center to go about halfway down, making sure that the dowel fits. I added some wood glue inside of the little hole that I had drilled and then I placed the dowel inside. Next, I drilled a really tiny hole into the top of that dowel. And then I screwed in a little hook that I had from one of my picture hanging kits. Next, I took some scrap fabric that I had on hand. This was from when I created a table runner for my dining room table. And I just cut it down to size. I cut both ends off using my pinking shears. These scissors have a sawtooth blade, which cuts the fabric in a sawtooth pattern. That way it helps prevent the fabric from unraveling. Each sail will have two pieces of fabric, both right sides facing out. This way, no matter what angle you are looking at the little sailboat, it will always have a exterior piece of fabric showing. Using, again, my pinking shears, I cut across the little rectangle piece of fabric and I created both sails. And I know, I am totally gonna go against my better judgment and I am going to hot glue this fabric together. You guys know I never do this. But these little flags are so small that I said I figure I'd go ahead and do it since it was the simpler option. So that's what I did. I used some hot glue and just put a little bead all over the edges of each of the sails so that they would stick together. Then with a needle and some thread, I began to attach the little flag onto the sailboat. And it was actually very advantageous to have this little hole inside of the end pieces originally because that's what I use to tie my string to. I wrapped the string a couple of times through the little hoop. Then I made a couple of knots and cut the excess thread. And then I went to the other corners of the sail and attached those to the boat as well. Here I'm attaching it to the dowel. I did the same thing to the second flag and here is how the sailboat turned out. Now the sailboat that I created last year has a little companion. For the last DIY, I am gonna be using this purse. And the first thing that I wanted to do was cut the long strap from the purse. The final twist to the mystery box challenge that I hadn't used was to incorporate some kind of ribbon. So I decided to use the strap of the purse as kind of some ribbon trim. Then I began to cut off the top portion of the purse that had the handles. Next, I began to flip and fold the top portion of the purse over onto itself. Then I cut a piece of foam board the width of the purse bottom, as well as the length so that it would fit inside and help the little purse stand on its own. And then using the purse handles that I removed to create the ribbon, I'm gonna create a border on the bottom lip of this little purse. And I use my hot glue gun to adhere it. I kept wrapping it all the way around, gluing it as I went. And then once it was done, all I needed was some toiletries and it was complete. All right, so that's it for this month's mystery box challenge. Let me know if you enjoyed it. If you did, please make sure to give this video a thumbs up. Let me know in the comments below which one of these DIYs was your favorite. Thank you so much, Courtney, for inviting me on another mystery box challenge. I hope you all are well. In the meantime, I have some other videos right over here that you can enjoy watching. If you haven't subscribed yet, please consider to do so because there's more fun where this came from. I will see you guys next week with another home decor and DIY video. Until then, adios.