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October 9, 2012 In DIY

DIY Tassle Necklace

I remember when I was a child I loved playing with the tassels around the house. I loved how soft little ‘brush’ end of the tassels were. My mother had a teeny tassel on the end of the key for the glass cabinet in our living room. I used to steal it from the door and play with it while I watched TV. Man, did she get mad when I would inevitably forget to put it back! Hoo boy!
Now that I’m a grown up, I can play with whatever the hell I like, (I mean, except when I’m visiting home…. ‘Hi Mum!’) So when I spotted this necklace I just had to have one, but for $175 it was a little out of my price range. ‘I could totally make one myself’ I decided and high-tailed in to the nearest craft store.One thing you’ve probably noticed by now that all of my DIY’s are… how shall I put this? Stupidly easy? I can’t help it! I guess I’m inherently lazy. Anyway, this one is no exception. Sure, you can make the tassels yourself if you are more patient than I am, but for $3 for a pack of 4, I was willing to take the lazier option.  In actual fact, this project cost me around $9 (as I already had a spare chain laying around) and roughly 15 minutes of my time. Talk about a bargain!What I ended up making isn’t really the same as the necklace in question, but I actually would wear this version more. (You could still make one similar by getting a series of different colours in the same size, as opposed to the colours and sizes I chose. The method is still the same!)

September 18, 2012 In Uncategorized

Easy Peasy Cupcake Toppers

I’ve mentioned this already (probably a few too many times) but it’s my birthday on Thursday, so it’s pretty much birthday week around me at the moment! As I share my birthday with a co-worker, I thought it might be nice to make cupcakes to bring into work for her (read: us) on the day. But cupcakes weren’t festive enough apparently. Nope. I decided to add that little extra something to make them a little more exciting, and it was so simple I had to share it with you. All you need is some washi/MT tape, some toothpicks and some string (although the last one is optional).READ MORE
September 11, 2012 In Uncategorized

DIY Hair Bands

Where did this fad for elastic hair bands come from? I’ve started noticing these looped elastic bands everywhere lately! I have to admit, it’s quite the brilliant concept. Such a simple idea that has gone so far!
Anyway, I was in a store the other day and they were selling a pack of two for $15…. fifteen dollars people! Now, I have no problem spending money on quality items, but $15 for two? From a chain store? No.Me being me, I immediately declared “I could make these myself!” and decided to hit up my local craft store for supplies. All up I spent around $3 and 5 minutes; this got me 50cm of each colour elastic and made 6 hair bands all up. Not bad huh?

August 28, 2012 In Uncategorized

Letters to Friends

Living interstate from most of my friends and family means that I’m always trying to keeping in touch with everyone… well, you would think so… I’m actually terrible at keeping in touch with the people back home! I don’t mean to be so useless, I just get carried away in my day to day life, plus I’m really forgetful with these things. Oh dear!In an attempt to make up for the minimal frequency in which I make contact, when I do get around to sending out some letters, I try to make what I send just that little bit more exciting…

July 10, 2012 In Uncategorized

Make Your Own: iPad Wallpaper

Let me start off by saying that I am no expert on iPad’s or anything like that. When I first decided to make a wallpaper I figured that I could just upload any old picture as long as it was big enough and it would be fine…. but then when I flipped my iPad horizontally the background would cut off at the edges! Oh noes!After doing some research online and experimenting for a while in Photoshop, I finally managed to work out how to create not only the correct sized image, but a template that you can use whenever you want to make a new wallpaper.The most important thing to remember when making your wallpaper; is that when the iPad rotates different parts of the image are shown. You will need to take this into account when creating your image.

The screen is 1024 pixels (on the long side) and 768 pixels (on the short side), however your image needs to be a square shape to be able to accommodate both of these sizes. 768 x 768 pixels in the center are always visible but as I said before: when your screen rotates different areas of the image will be visible depending on the view as shown below:

With all this in mind here’s you are now ready to make an iPad wallpaper template (trust me, you’re totally ready…):1. Start off by using Photoshop or some other image editing program. Create a new image with the dimensions 1024 pixels x 1024 pixels (132 dpi).
2. Next we are going to add in some grid lines so that you can see your image divided into the areas above. Select the View menu and the New Guide option. Create your first Guide 4.6cm on horizontal orientation- a blue line will appear vertically down the left hand side of your image.3. Repeat Step 2 again three more times with the following measurements:
 - 4.7cm (vertical orientation)
 - 31.7cm (horizontal orientation)
 - 31.7cm (vertical orientation)
Your image should have an even border around the edge like this.4. Save your image as a PSD file so that you can use it again in the future - you now have a template for iPad wallpapers!
5. Now you can use your template to create images: Select a photo or image you would like to use (preferable bigger than the original image) and copy the image into your template. From here you can re-size the image making sure that the most important part of the image is positioned in the center square (like this.)6. To save your image select the File menu and Save for Web & Devices and save your image as a .JPG file.Hooray! Now you know how to make a shiny new wallpaper for your iPad! Once you have your template set up (which realistically takes about 5 minutes), you can make a new wallpaper whenever you want. I made a new wallpaper using a photo I took back in summer, but you could create an image from scratch if you are so inclined.

Never again will you need to use one of the boring ol generic backgrounds that come with your device. Everyone is going to be so jealous of your amazing computer skills!

PS. If you like the wallpaper I made you can download it for free below!
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May 30, 2012 In DIY

DIY: Dino Planters

A few months ago I spotted dinosaur planters on etsy and was smitten with the idea. I had wanted to buy one of my own, but when I came across some rubber dinosaurs in the toy section of my local department store for only $2 each, I thought I’d give it a try myself.My love of white is well documented on this blog as well as my love for a feature colour combination. As such, I chose white and gold for my dino’s but you can obviously tailor yours to whatever colour you want. There were so many colours to choose from at my local hardware store!
April 15, 2012 In Sunday Sessions

Sunday Session 15.04.12

 
I’ve never really been into embroidery as a whole, but this week the internets have shown me that embroidery doesn’t have to be just stitching landscapes and flowers!

LINE ONE: I Didn’t even realize that some of these pictures were embroidered the first time I saw them! Who thinks of great things like toast embroidery?
LINE TWO: Wow! Now, embroidered car doors by Severija Incirauskaite-Kriauneviciene are pure art!
LINE THREE: Love love LOVE this Embroidered Calendar. So simple and elegant.
LINE FOUR: I don’t know if they ever ended up selling these DIY Stitching pendants but what a brilliant idea! I love the thought of being able to customize my own necklace in what ever colour combination I like!

April 10, 2012 In DIY

DIY: Upcycled Bottles Display

I have a tendency to buy something for a single use, but instead of keeping it stored away for the next time I need it, I devote hours to finding random uses for said item.Which is pretty much exactly what happened when I recently purchased a can of spray paint. Originally, it was purchased to touch up a couple of scratched palings around my house. However, it wasn’t long before I starting thinking: “What else can I spray paint?”In my defence, spray painting is stupidly fun. There really is no other cheap medium in which you can get such a smooth even finish so easily.

I had actually wanted to do this DIY for ages, inspired by these beautiful painted bottle - I had intended to create something similar. I popped down to my local thrift store to find a few bottles to use, only to find that they were having a sale on glassware! I picked up all you can see here (with the exception of the wine bottle – which I ‘emptied’ by myself) for a measly $2! Bargain! My good luck inspired me to get a little more exciting with my DIY-ing (especially as I only had white spray paint).

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March 21, 2012 In DIY

Home made Notebooks

Can we take a minute to talk about notebooks? I’m pretty sure you’re all like me and can’t resist a good notebook… No? Just me then? Fine. I have a huge collection of beautiful blank books just waiting to be written or drawn in. Aaand a lot of them will stay that way! I don’t want to ruin their crisp perfect pages with my horrible handwriting or a drawing that didn’t turn out… I have a problem, okay! (Don’t judge me.) 

One of the ways I’ve found to combat this problem is to make my own notebooks. They are the perfect size to carry around in your bag for making lists and notes, and they are super light so you can take a couple with you.

February 23, 2012 In Uncategorized

DIY Decorated Porcelain

One of those so-simple-why-didn’t-I-think-of-that DIY’s that I always see going around is decorated porcelain. Such a simple and effective way to improve or revamp old crockery around your home, I always wanted to try it myself, but I was never sure where i could get the tools necessary. On a recent trip to my local craft store, I spotted these Porcelaine 150 pens for a measly $9! There was a whole selection of colours, but as this was my first try I decided to stick with simple black to test it out. And guess what; It was SUPER easy! Hooray!

To do this at home, you will need:

For my first attempt, I chose an old mug I had laying around, a sugar pot I picked up from the craft store for $2 and Loki’s food bowls that I thrifted for 50 cents each.
Decorating your items is as simple as pie… no, even easier! (What? Sometimes pies are hard to make…)
1. Give the pen a good shake before use, you may need to press down on the tip repeatedly to get the ink flowing.
2. Make sure your item to decorate is clean and dry - if it is wet the pen will not draw well on the china.
3. Now, I am notoriously impatient, so I didn’t use pesky things like stencils or guides. I’m all about the free-hand baby! But if you would like neater prettier designs than me, this would be the time to measure out and stick them on.  4. Because the pen is basically a marker you can just draw on your porcelain as you wish, I found that the pen would start to run out of ink after a few lines, so keep a small piece of paper or cardboard close by to re-load the tip and test the flow. (To do this press down on the tip a couple of times until the ink starts to come out again - Be careful you dont get too much!)
5. If you make a mistake, a touch of nail polish is perfect to wipe away your design. I believe a damp cloth would also work, but I chose nail polish because as an alcohol it dries very quickly, so you don’t have to worry about getting the China too wet to draw on.
6. Let the paint set - this will depend on the pen/paint you’re using: some can just air dry and some you will need to bake in the oven - check the directions on the product.
7. Voila! Proudly use your new and totally unique cup/bowl/plate/tattooed china doll!

My test subjects turned out even better than I had expected! I already have plans to try this again, next time with more colours and patterns! My dinner sets wont know what hit them!