Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

DIY: Stud Shorts!

I finally got around to this DIY! Yay! This is what become of the purple pants from this post and I absolutely love the way they turned out. Since I converted them from pants I was able to customize the length which is really important for me when wearing shorts and I feel really comfortable wearing these at work. I did have a few rips when fraying but other than that the studding actually went pretty smoothly! I used a few varying sizes of pyramid studs and voila!
Late afternoon is my favorite time of day in the front room; the light is so cozy and it creates dancing rainbows, like the ones you can see on my shirt, all across the walls.
I've made a few other pairs of shorts this summer, they may make it up here one of these days!
 

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Snail Mail #3

This package was too long overdue! When I first started working at Nature's Twist I immediately thought of this friend and had been waiting for the right piece for her, and it ended up being labradorite!  Normally I would mosaic or sticker a jewelry box but since this piece was special I thought it should have it's own box. These wooden boxes are 1$ at craft stores and can be painted, mosaic-ed, stained, whatever your hearts desire or covered in fabric like I chose to do this time. You can buy cheap fabric squares at the craft store or use scraps!

I took out the screws and wrapped the box like a present, using Mod Podge to secure and cover. The only problem I ran into is that the box has a hard time shutting now that there are two layers of fabric in the middle but it looks pretty! I took one picture of the pendant with flash and one without, trying to capture the coloring in the stone but it's difficult to capture the iridescence of labradorite! Let me just say this piece is ten times more beautiful in person! Of course, another funny address label and an Oscar Wilde card to inspire - 'Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.'  Happy Birthday!! 

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Succulents!



I love having greenery indoors! Plants are the easiest way to bring your indoor space to life (heh, get it?!) especially if you live without an outdoor garden or space to use. Succulents are pretty much level one for hardiness/easiest and you can create them with just about any container you can get yer paws on. There's no wrong way to put a plant container together and you can either buy or forage materials if you're crafty *cough cough broke* like me! 

Containers that can drain are ideal but if you have an abundance of thrift store goodies/glass (said with a wicked sneaky smile) or other unique container, you can still use it! 

To help with drainage layer the bottom of your container with about 3/4"-2" of materials, depending on your container. You can use small pebbles, gravel, aquarium gems, seashells, etc. and I also recommend spreading a layer of activated charcoal, aka aquarium charcoal or activated carbon, across the bottom of your drainage surface. 

Care for succulents is easy as they are hardy lil plants and can deal with it if you forget to water them once and a while - also remember they really only need to be watered about once every two weeks or whenever the soil completely dries out. Light wise, succulents are happy just about anywhere, even in partial shade. I often move mine about the house so feel free to experiment with location. 

Plants! I only brought a few plants with me and a couple of those had died during the moves. Home Depot finally has a great selection of succulents and house plants so I picked up a few new ones to fill the empty jars of dirt in my window...which are totally sad looking. I also got a basil plant for the kitchen : )
My big terrarium used to be teeming with life but without my care over the summer, well...jar of dirt. Technically none of these are really terrariums, since terrariums are usually enclosed so they are self sustaining but terrarium is fun to say so go with it. 

When your ready to plant your succulents just slowly wiggle them out the the plastic container and roll/squeeze the plant in your hand a bit, allowing excess dirts to collect in your pot and the roots to loosen up. 

Fill your container most of the way with soil and dig out a little hole for your succulent, deep enough to cover all of the roots and a bit of the stalk. Most succulents can be potted together but allow some room for them to grow or plan to repot them. I added some spikemoss just to see if it would grow well so we shall see if it works! 

 Another great thing about succulents is that they can be grafted or regrown very easily. During my potting a few pearls from the string of pearls fell off so I tucked them inside this shell where they will grow an entirely new plant! 

There are so many neat and creative terrarium ideas out there; there isn't a wrong way to make one! You'll see in mine I've added some extra adornments, shells, crystals, found organic bits, and so on so just  have fun with it!

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

DIY Glitter Oxfords

As a person who is disgustingly obsessed with glitter (seriously, I will glitter anything) let me just say that Mod Podge is heaven sent. In all my glitter trials nothing has ever come close to the happiness I get from Mod Podge. And no, they didn't pay me to say that.
The hardest thing for me to find was the shoes. I'd been looking and looking, but sometimes it's very difficult to find anything in my size (I have dinosaur feet) so when I saw these at some random DSW-esque store I was stoked! I also found true love. Yes, true love in a shoe. Shoes I will probably never wear but shoes I love all the same. Could there be a sweeter deal...two for one? Don't mind if I do! Hopefully one day I'll share the other pair. 
Glittering is so easy, just a little bit of MP and a lot of glitter! I mix mine in a shallow container, picture here is the bottom of a plastic cup, and you want the glitter to glue ratio like 5:1 - more glitter means less coats. These shoes took at least 5 coats and there are some spots that literally refuse to have even one tiny sparkle on them. Whatevs. For loose glitter, I gotta hand it to my girl Martha, she knows what she's doing. I toyed with the idea of painting the lacing area, but couldn't decide, so when I was done I just dipped my shoelaces in the leftovers. I'd like to replace the laces with either, real glitter laces or maybe some fine gold ribbon. Either way, voila!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

DIY - Travel Trunk Revamp


Ok, I don't know if this constitutes as a "DIY" project because I didn't make the trunk or anything so I guess you would call it a DIY trunk upholstery? I love travel trunks and I actually collect them - one day I hope to have a legitimate stand up travel trunk but for now this works! I had the great fortune of finding this trunk as it was being left on the street (city streets can often be a goldmine!) so it wasn't even sitting outside for long. A girl was moving out of her apartment and decided not to sell it because it's a little banged up and held some old fabric and costume materials but the best part was she said I could keep everything in the trunk as well, which included this amazing fabric! The raw wood inside would snag at clothes so I figured, what better way to solve this problem then use the free fabric as lining! Ta-da! I used the "present wrapping technique" with a staple gun to secure the main areas, like the corners, and then a glue gun to round off and secure the edges by the metal edging.

I dont know how well this picture shows it but the fabric is super textured, soft and sturdy with velvet fleurs. In the top photo you can see a secret pocket that runs the length of the lid; the last thing I want to do is add some velcro across the pocket to secure it, or maybe some ribbon or something. Either way I haven't done this, hence the rough edge, but a secret pocket is super awesome! Since I'm living in limbo, the trunk is basically my room which of course means I had to go ahead and decorate.

 I, am, an obsessive knick knack collector slash collector of randomness (I got this from my mother). To me decorating means putting my treasures on display, grouping them, regrouping them etc. Here we have some geocaching trinkets, the lizard and the marble. Postcards! Best decorating tool ever, beautiful and versatile. The card on the left (ink) was a gift from my incredible artist friend, Yvette Fuentes. Stones for channeling good vibes, very important (another thing I got from my mother). The small polished rose quartz (stone of love and self love), was a wonderful gift from some very good friends to carry with me on my trip. Quartz crystal and chrysanthemum stone both essential to my 'new path' in life. River rocks, the red, green and orange, or just rocks I've found that I like. If anyone wants to know the specifics of any stone just message me, I'm happy to gush about it!

I got this Squidy flask a few years ago from Stellar Custom Images on Etsy and I love it! It's held up really well and they have tons of great images and different items which make great gifts. Below are my favorite postcards from the Road Trip, the ones I'll probably end up framing for my next real place.