June 15, 2018

Man Bouquet – A Rare DIY Post

Today is a special day here on It’s Just Life because I am going to share a rare thing with my readers. A DIY post.

I rarely attempt these posts because I usually just kind of forget to take pictures and document things when I make them.

Add to that fact that I really don’t seem to actually do that many craft projects anymore other than making cards and scrapbooks and the DIY posts are rare.

The one craft project I have featured on It’s Just Life is my DIY Tile Coaster post. It cracks me up because it is by far my most popular post of all ten years of blogging. It has really bad pictures and is just not all that great but apparently it has been pinned on Pinterest enough times that it is being shared everywhere. And the comments –oh the comments. I have faithfully answered each and every one of them. At current count there is a total of 204 comments. Now that does include my responses but still. That is a lot of comments. Most of them to ask things that are already written in the post.

One of my all time favorite pictures of my brother Mark with me a few years ago. 🙂

But I digress…

Today I just wanted to share a few quick photos of a Man Bouquet that I made for my amazing brother Mark’s 60th birthday. Mark is one of those guys that it is impossible to buy a gift for. He is a wildlife biologist, lives in Yuma, Arizona and has always been my buddy. When we were younger we were fast friends because we were less than 2 years apart in age. He always kind of looked out for me and is truly a pretty special guy. He reads my blog and comments occasionally which makes me smile. He has a great sense of humor and loves all things outdoorsy. He is looking forward to retirement and while we don’t make a big deal out of birthdays in our family usually this is number 60 after all. So something had to be done.

I decided to repurpose a little bucket that had held a present for Micah’s birthday and use it to make a little bouquet filled with fun things for Mark.

Shopping list :

styrofoam or floral oasis
bucket or container of sorts
Yeti tumbler or other beverage holder
gift cards
assorted fishing gear
jerky
small snack items
hot glue gun and glue
wooden skewers
crinkly paper shreds
bandana to use as bow

Assembling the bouquet is easy –simply place the styrofoam in the container so that there is a place to stick the skewers. I made the middle section have a little cube as well so I could put the tumbler in the middle and built the bouquet from there.

Hot glue the items to the wooden skewers and hot diggity — the project comes to life quickly and easily.

I used a bandana for a bow to make it look a bit more manly but you can do whatever makes sense for your gift.

It is not a huge project, doesn’t take a lot of time but it turned out really cute and hopefully Mark will love it. By the time this post goes live he will already have opened it so I am not ruining any surprises here.

This obviously works for any occasion . Just personalize it for your recipient and go have fun with it.

Have you ever made a similar bouquet? Tell me about it in the comments section and remember that each comment this month means a 50 cent donation to the Corolla Wild Horse Fund . You can read more about them here.

Oh and Happy Big 60 to Mark –hope it’s the best ever.