12 Days of DIY: Day 6 & 7: Bowtie and Holiday Postcards

 I made a few random things the past few days using things I had around my room and markers I borrowed from Vi.

DAY 6 - Bowtie

I used the sleeves left over from my dress to make a cute little bowtie! I attached it to a bobby pin and wore it in my hair today :)

Modeled by the fantabulous Jingle.

Look at Morris, soaking up the spotlight!

DAY 7 - Holiday Postcards!

Some of my friends said they were sending me things (or intended to since I kept forgetting to give them my address and the mail people lost a package :( ). So I decided to send some of them a postcard. But it being the holiday time I couldn't give them any old dull postcard. I had to jazz them up a bit. Hence the extremely life like recreations of winter scenes in Spain.

4.50 euros to mail all of these! And there are only 5! Tsk Tsk Correos

Floating Snowmen are common in Madrid

Exactly what Segovia in the Winter looks like :P

2 sleeps till LONDON!!!!!!

♥

12 Days of DIY: Day 4&5: Men's Shirt to Dress & Wire Christmas Tree

Hola!

DAY 4: Recycled Men's Shirt into Dress

I spontaneously created this today while I was avoiding class by watching New Moon and listening to Mackelmore. Off topic: It's my first time watching the Twilight movies. Just wanna say they are fairly stupid but I'm team Jacob - and Team Alice/Jasper, if they had a team....

I had bought this really large men's button down shirt thing at the flea market a few months ago and had a general idea of what I wanted to do with it. I only recently bought the crappiest sewing kit known to man so I was finally able to make something. I searched around Pinterest for a good tutorial that I liked but they all either involved too much sewing that would require a machine or needed a men's shirt with long sleeves. Mine was this awkward XL funky short sleeved number. In the end I just winged it and improvised.

The Finished Dress!

yay for self timer photos in the kitchen!

 It's a bit longer in the back and I would wear it with leggings or a skirt underneath. The shoulders still need to be hemmed though (I didn't have any matching thread). It also reallly needs to be ironed but the ironing board in the laundry room is really gross so I'll stick to wrinkly, thank you.

the collar

Basically I just cut off the sleeves, cut the armhole so the shoulder was smaller and took in the waist a bit, so the bottom was more of an a-line. I didn't really measure because if there is anything I hate in the world it is measuring things.

The original shirt

DAY 5: Wire Christmas Tree Ornament

This one is not as exciting but was very easy to make. It is just layers of wires and then a squared off loop at the end to make the tree base. It would be very pretty with beads but I don't ave any. I also made a hook so if I ever encounter a Christmas tree this holiday season, I can put it on.

On another note, in 4 days I am headed to LONDON FOR CHRISTMAS!!! I am very excited. Gonna meet some new family and embrace as much holiday cheer and commercialism as I can because it is REALLLLLY lacking here. My residence only put up the Christmas tree and some decorations in the lobby this afternoon!! It's crazy.

Anyway, have a good day!!!

♥

12 Days of DIY: Day 1, 2 & 3 - Earrings, Rings and a Vest

My Christmas project for the year is the same as last year! 12 days of DIY!! Each day, for about 12 days, I will make something diffferent, Christmas related or not. I'm excited because this year I will have to be REALLY creative due to the fact that I barely have any crating supplies here. But CHALLENGE EXCEPTED!

DAY 1: Ornament Earrings

While we were in Barcelona, we came across a store that was selling Christmas decorations and ornaments. So for a total of 50 cents I bought these little red gems and turned them into festive earrings. Even the guy at the bank liked them.

DAY 2: Wire Rings

Wire is my new best friend. Honestly, I love it. I made a few rings after being inspired by both SecretLifeOfABioNerd's YouTube tutorial on wire rings and I Spy DIY's rings as well. I really wanted to make a heart ring but I don't have small enough pliers so I had to get creative. I also made them above-the-knuckle rings because they look so much more badass.

 DAY 3: T-shirt Vest

A while ago, in the flea market where my wallet got stolen (angry feelings still reside) I bought a few items of clothing that I thought I could turn into other things. So with one of the t-shirts I decided to make a vest. It is completely no-sew, just some cutting and tying. And I love it! I've worn it a few times and it's very comfy. I'm pleased :D Here is the tutorial I used from the fantastic site Wobisobi: Grey, No Sew Vest, Diy.

Something unrelated: If you have been Christmas music deprived like I have been, I have found a great playlist on 8tracks of Christmas songs. It's got the usual jingles but also a lot of random versions of songs by people you didn't know sang Christmas songs or originals you haven't heard in a while. It's so festive!! I miss snow :(

The playlist: Mixed Up Holiday Tunes

Stay crafty :)

Last year's projects (only made it to Day 7):
Day 1 & 2: "Tribal" Necklaces and a Cupcake fail
Day 3: Golden Snitch Ornament
Day 4 & 5: Cellphone Revamp and Glitterized Boots
Day 6 & 7: Safety Pin Necklace and Some Random Jewelry

12 Days of DIY - Day 6 & 7 - Safety Pin Necklace and Some Random Jewelry

Day 6: Continuing with my love for safety pin jewelry I developed when I was in Quebec earlier this year, I tried my hand at a safety pin necklace. I think it turned out pretty well.

I think that the dollar store has stopped selling safety pins because finding the last box was quite a challenge. Plus they are all different sizes and it's a bit too long. But I still really like it.

Action Shot!

Day 7: This day, I just tossed together some jewelry after a little adventure to the bead store. I love that place. It's got everything from beads to gold findings to silver jewelry. My heaven. I whipped up these apple earrings using some of the many apple ornaments found around my house.

Litterally. There is a giant bowl filled with them and another vase in the kitchen. 

Here we have the lovely Bow Wowie, named after (Lil') Bow Wow himself modelling these earrings.

They were too short originally but a few more jump rings and they were just the right length.

Doesn't he look darling?

I also whipped up a little robot ring using on of two pendants and ring backings I bought. Each was 75 cents so it only a buck 50. Awwww yeahhhh.

I'll probably buy another one to make a set of earrings.

In the last post I said I'd do something origami, but it has been given me so much grief that I just about threw the paper off the balcony into the freshly fallen snow. I couldn't find the paper I wanted, some paper I tried was too thick, turned my fingers silver, various other stuff... But I still have ideas up my sleeve and plan on completing all twelve days!

12 Days of DIY - Days 4 & 5 - Cellphone revamp & Glitterized Boots

Like the bottom of my page says: "Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies". So very true. Today's post involves glitter.

Day 4 was pretty basic. My phone was in much need of a back cover overhaul. I never like the last thing I had painted on it but it was fairly permanent so I left it for the last couple of months or so. It took about an hour to scrub everything off. It required a bit of time soaking in a mixture of stain remover and dish soap and a whole lot of scrubbing to get the paint off. Then about 15 q-tips to get the little dots of nail polish removed. My fingers hurt from all the scrubbing but watching Battlestar Galactica eased the pain :)

I settled on something very basic: a glittery blue. Primarily because that particular nail polish only cost me 50 cents and it's super pretty!! I will probably add some more detail later but I like it for now.

The previous phone cover  when first painted - it was horribly scratched before I repainted it:

Day 5 involved more glitter (yay!!). For a while I had wanted to test out DIY glitter shoes that I had seen on many sites (like here and here). While most of those shoes were done with gold glitter I don't wear gold too much. Naturally silver was the next option.

Originally I wanted black glitter but it wouldn't show up when I tried it, unfortunately.

Basically I just combined approximately even parts Modge Podge (mine is matte) and glitter and pasted it on the boots. When it dried I added more, covering up any gaps or spaces. This stuff got everywhere and somehow ended up on my face, as glitter always does. -_-

I think that it looks a little futuristic and spacey, which I'm okay with. I'll leave the silver for now, but I might change it to a dark purple and see how that goes. I've already got some random outfits planned in my head for such dramatic looking shoes.

For some reason, every time I look at them, I think "glitter cowboy books" even though they are not...it's weird...

Safety pins and origami next :)

Happy Hanukkah!

12 Days of DIY - Day 3 - A Golden Snitch Ornament

The moment  I saw this awesomeness online, I knew I had to try. I've seen all the movies and have only recently started reading the books, but it looked so cool! I have come to learn that my projects will never end up like those that I model them after, but you live and let live.

I originally painted an ornament with a colour called "antique gold" but it didn't look right so I had to go get proper looking gold paint. It still isn't as metalic-y or bronzey as I would like but I don't really want to work on it any more. The wings took forever to get one. A mixture of contact cement and painter's tape was used in end.

I think it kind of looks more like a golden bat than a golden snitch but just picture it whizzing around in the air then it's all good.

Happy Monday!!

12 Days of DIY - Days 1 & 2 - "Tribal" Necklaces and a Cupcake Fail

Happy Holidays!! I'm attempting to do another 12 days of crafting (leading up to New Years). The general idea is that everyday for 12 days I make a different craft or do something DIY related (like baking or nail art). I'm already behind (shocker) but it's all good.

So to start things off, I decided to try my hand at I Spy DIY's Tribal Necklaces.

Source

Lately I have been falling in love with lots of the different DIYs on her blog and this one seemed relatively easy to do. I am currently not at my regular home so this majority of  my craft stuff is not with me, but embroidery floss is fairly easy to walk with. I used that, combined with a cotton cord from the Dollarama and some gold and silver findings to make a bunch of bracelets and necklaces.

 

This one took forever because instead of just wrapping the embroidery thread around the cord, I Chinese Staircased it. It was very time consuming.

Once I get silver clasps, I'll finish the set off.

 

the cord - the basis for the jewelry

Day 2 involved a whole lot of cupcake fail. I had some tinfoil aluminum star shaped baking thingys and I thought, why not make some yummy treats for me and my mum? Well it turns out that with out a box to bake from, I'm a hopeless fail. I followed some recipe on an australian website that seems to have led me astray. Extremely dense, almost rock like cakes are not particulary tasty.

Oh lordy, can't forget the icing. I attempted multiple times to make some creamy, fluffy, thick icing but it ended up being nothing of the sort. I tried to salvage what ended up being a lemony glaze with green, festive food colouring, but the end result turned out more like moldy looking stars than holiday themed desserts.

there really is green icing - at least it was tasty

From now on Betty Crocker and myself are going to be the best of friends. Harry Potter Fans will like tomorrow's project :)