We're Here with the Mystery Box Challenge and My Idea Came to Me Like This

As we sit down to tackle this week's Mystery Box challenge, I have to admit that my mind is racing with ideas. The box contains five random items that I'll need to incorporate into a single project. It's always exciting to see what creative possibilities each new challenge presents. In the past, I've had great success with crafting items from everyday materials, but for this challenge, I'm hoping to push myself out of my comfort zone.

As I pondered various ideas, one concept kept creeping back into my mind: making photo booth props! There's something about taking silly photos that always brings a smile to my face, and I think it would be fantastic to create some oversized, whimsical accessories for just that purpose. My friend Liz, who edits our show, came up with the idea of using craft supplies to make these fun props, and I thought it was genius. Now, I'm excited to dive in and see what kind of silly spectacle we can come up with.

First things first, I need some material to work with. That's where the metallic green paper comes in – I'll use this as the base for my cat eye glasses. The plan is to cut out a fun shape that resembles a pair of glasses frames, and then add some embellishments to give them a more vintage vibe. Bedazzling these bad boys will be key to achieving that retro look.

Now that I have my paper cut out, it's time to add the finishing touches. I'll need some glue, of course – but not just any glue! I've got an adhesive glue dot at my disposal, which will come in handy when attaching the craft stick to create a sturdy base for my glasses. It won't be easy finding the perfect spot to place the stick, but I'm determined to get it just right.

Speaking of the craft stick, I should probably explain how I plan to use it. Essentially, I'll be using it as a makeshift frame for my cat eye glasses. Once I've glued the paper in place, I can attach some green gemstones to give them that extra oomph of style. Who wouldn't want to rock a pair of sparkly cat eye glasses at their next photo shoot? To complete the look, I might even whip up a cute bow tie or add some kissy lips – the possibilities are endless!

While my cat eye glasses are taking shape, I have another project percolating in the back of my mind. It seems that this Mystery Box challenge has given me an opportunity to get creative with the Industrial Craft belt – one of the items included in the box. The plan is to use it as a base for some kind of fascinator or headpiece. My goal is to create something regal and elegant, like you'd see at a royal wedding.

To achieve this look, I'll need to cut out two circles from scrap felt – one larger than the other. Once these are dry, I can use hot glue to attach them together in a circular motion, creating a pinwheel-like effect. It's going to take some patience and finesse, but I'm excited to see how it turns out.

To finish off my fascinator, I'll need to add some flair – perhaps a ribbon or some other embellishment? Once everything is securely attached, I can admire my handiwork in all its glory. Who knows what the judges will make of my creations? Will they be delighted by the whimsy and fun, or will they find them too over-the-top? Only time (and the judges' decisions) will tell.

As I reflect on this week's Mystery Box challenge, I'm reminded that sometimes it takes a little push to get us out of our comfort zones. While I might not have started off with the most conventional idea, I'm excited to see where my creativity takes me. Bring on the next challenge!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso we are here with the Mystery Box challenge and I kind of hmed and haed and tried to think of something I was like maybe I could build something out of these sticks but um I was talking to uh my friend Liz who's an editor here at hgtv.com and she produces my show and she came up with the awesome idea to make photo booth props so that is what I'm going to make for the Mystery Box challenge first thing I want to make out of some of our decorative paper is some cute um cat eye glasses that you can hold on a stick to use in a photo booth for a party so I'm for this I'm going to use this metallic green paper the whole idea with the photo booth props is they should be kind of oversized and and silly so that you can tell that it's uh all in good fun all right once you have your general shape you just want to cut it out with the craft knife so we've kind of cut out our silly specks and now I'm going to bedazzle these with some of our green gemstones to give them you know that real like vintage feel okay and the last step for our glasses is to glue them on to our craft stick you could use regular glue for this but I'm actually going to use an adhesive glue dot figure out which side you want your stick to be on and voila you are ready for your photo booth you can make a really cute bow tie to go with your glasses or some kissy lips so you could do a little this action so we've got our paper photo booth props but I wanted to make some kind of fascinator or something to go along with them so for this I pulled out the Industrial Craft belt I've already kind of been cutting on it so the piece is a lot smaller and you want to trace some circles you know we have to use five items out of our mystery box for this challenge and while these guys are really cute they only used three the paper the gemstones and the craft sticks so this kind of fulfills the rest of my requirement plus it's really cute so first thing we're going to do is cut out our circles and we're going to use these to make some really pretty um rosettes to go on our fascinators this is very like you're ready to attend a royal wedding you know I have a lot of those that I've invited to all right so once you have your felt circles cut out we're going to turn them into little rosettes and for this you want hot glue gun and you're just going to put a generous dollop of hot glue right in the middle right in the center like that and you're going to pinch it closed now this is really thick felt and I'm using a low temperature glue gun so you know I can do this and it's not too hot but if you're using thinner felt you're going to want to wear some kind of protective gloves or something cuz that hot glue will seep through and burn you so once that's had a chance to kind of adhere then we're going to put another bead of glue in the center of our little half circle and kind of pinch that clothes they kind of look like a little um fortune cookie so don't squeeze that too hard or it will just like squeeze all the glue out and it won't stick very well and you are going to want to hold that until it cools completely so that it really has chance to grab that felt because um the felt is kind of porous and will absorb the glue and Pull Apart okay so while our little rosettes are drying I am going to turn this into the base for our fascinator now I have just some scrap felt here I've got like hot glue under my fingernails um I had some scrap belt here and I cut you know a large large circle with some overlap and then a smaller Circle you just want to take your glue gun again and kind of work in sections to get hot glue everywhere to kind of bring that over you just kind of like plead it then take your circle of felt and this is just going to clean this up and cover cover it up so give that a good bead of your glue okay so now that kind of looks like a little pin cushion type thing so we're going to go ahead and attach a ribbon to the bottom of it too and this is so you can tie on your JY fascinator so like that all right so now we have all of our little rosettes and we have our little fascinator base so now we're going to glue these on and I'm hoping that it will just look like a big flower okay I can't wait to see what everybody else made out of their Mystery Box I hope nobody else made photo with props maybe they didn't we'll just have a big partyso we are here with the Mystery Box challenge and I kind of hmed and haed and tried to think of something I was like maybe I could build something out of these sticks but um I was talking to uh my friend Liz who's an editor here at hgtv.com and she produces my show and she came up with the awesome idea to make photo booth props so that is what I'm going to make for the Mystery Box challenge first thing I want to make out of some of our decorative paper is some cute um cat eye glasses that you can hold on a stick to use in a photo booth for a party so I'm for this I'm going to use this metallic green paper the whole idea with the photo booth props is they should be kind of oversized and and silly so that you can tell that it's uh all in good fun all right once you have your general shape you just want to cut it out with the craft knife so we've kind of cut out our silly specks and now I'm going to bedazzle these with some of our green gemstones to give them you know that real like vintage feel okay and the last step for our glasses is to glue them on to our craft stick you could use regular glue for this but I'm actually going to use an adhesive glue dot figure out which side you want your stick to be on and voila you are ready for your photo booth you can make a really cute bow tie to go with your glasses or some kissy lips so you could do a little this action so we've got our paper photo booth props but I wanted to make some kind of fascinator or something to go along with them so for this I pulled out the Industrial Craft belt I've already kind of been cutting on it so the piece is a lot smaller and you want to trace some circles you know we have to use five items out of our mystery box for this challenge and while these guys are really cute they only used three the paper the gemstones and the craft sticks so this kind of fulfills the rest of my requirement plus it's really cute so first thing we're going to do is cut out our circles and we're going to use these to make some really pretty um rosettes to go on our fascinators this is very like you're ready to attend a royal wedding you know I have a lot of those that I've invited to all right so once you have your felt circles cut out we're going to turn them into little rosettes and for this you want hot glue gun and you're just going to put a generous dollop of hot glue right in the middle right in the center like that and you're going to pinch it closed now this is really thick felt and I'm using a low temperature glue gun so you know I can do this and it's not too hot but if you're using thinner felt you're going to want to wear some kind of protective gloves or something cuz that hot glue will seep through and burn you so once that's had a chance to kind of adhere then we're going to put another bead of glue in the center of our little half circle and kind of pinch that clothes they kind of look like a little um fortune cookie so don't squeeze that too hard or it will just like squeeze all the glue out and it won't stick very well and you are going to want to hold that until it cools completely so that it really has chance to grab that felt because um the felt is kind of porous and will absorb the glue and Pull Apart okay so while our little rosettes are drying I am going to turn this into the base for our fascinator now I have just some scrap felt here I've got like hot glue under my fingernails um I had some scrap belt here and I cut you know a large large circle with some overlap and then a smaller Circle you just want to take your glue gun again and kind of work in sections to get hot glue everywhere to kind of bring that over you just kind of like plead it then take your circle of felt and this is just going to clean this up and cover cover it up so give that a good bead of your glue okay so now that kind of looks like a little pin cushion type thing so we're going to go ahead and attach a ribbon to the bottom of it too and this is so you can tie on your JY fascinator so like that all right so now we have all of our little rosettes and we have our little fascinator base so now we're going to glue these on and I'm hoping that it will just look like a big flower okay I can't wait to see what everybody else made out of their Mystery Box I hope nobody else made photo with props maybe they didn't we'll just have a big party\n"