Cheap and Easy Christmas Ornaments DIY

It's December, and that means CHRISTMAS!

I LOVE Christmas. Last year was the first year I had my own flat (without flatmates) to decorate. We also were a bit tight on money so I made these DIY ornaments to go on my first full sized Christmas tree (I already had quite a few ornaments as my mum has been gradually building up my collection in my stocking each year since I was about 10 - yes, I still have stockings!).

Toilet Roll Stars / Flowers

I saw these on Pinterest and decided to make them. They're super simple, just cut a toilet roll into 5 strips, flatten them a bit, glue together (hold it with pegs), paint ( I used gold and silver poster paint that I found in my mum's supplies from when we were kids!) and sprinkle with glitter. I then sprayed mine with hairspray to seal them a bit but that's optional.

Mini Bottles of Glitter

These were inspired by a necklace tutorial I saw. I found the bottles in a local pound shop. I think they are so cute and I'd wanted to buy them for ages so when I saw the tutorial I finally had an excuse to! I filled them with glitter (I made a funnel with paper to help with this), put the stoppers in and tied green wool around them to hang them on the tree. I bought two different types of glitter, the larger flaky one is from the pound shop and the normal one was from Wilkos. Although the pound shop one doesn't really look like proper glitter, I quite like the effect.

Organising the Expedit

Over the summer holidays I had a bit of a drive to make the flat prettier and more organised. I finally got around to tidying up the massive Expedit we have in the living room. Since we moved in (nearly a year ago) it has been a dumping ground for anything that didn't have a home elsewhere. That was not an ideal solution as it was on full show in our main living space. I had been feeling a little overwhelmed by trying to sort it but when I got started it was actually pretty quick and easy.

Unfortunately I don't have a before photo (I am so bad at remembering to take those!) but just imagine a jumble of random things, no organisation, no coordination etc.

And now it looks like this, tada:

In terms of how I went about tackling a daunting organisation project, I decided to make a list! I wrote a big list of all the things we had stored in the 3 areas I was tackling (under the stairs, the Expedit and the spare room cupboard) and then I marked which would fit in the Expedit, where each thing was mostly used and whether it was pretty or not (the last was a criteria for most of the items on the Expedit as it is on show and the other storage areas are not). From this I decided which things to store where and could then organise each area.

I have known for a while that I would like the living room colour scheme to be based around this blanket that I bought from Primark a couple of years ago (as much as I can control the colour scheme in our rented flat on almost no budget). I absolutely LOVE this blanket, I wear it all winter and it is so pretty as well as warm!

I thought that I wouldn't be able to style the Expedit with the right colours but then I realised that these boxes that I already had tie in nicely with the red, as does my knitting bag. That gave me enough inspiration to try to make it work with the colour scheme and I think I succeeded (I don't like things to be too matchy-matchy).

I made cut some paper to go inside the clear drawers I store our first aid in (that took a bit of trial and error to get the right shape). I didn't have nice paper with red or navy tones in it so I went with some pink patterns that are close enough for now. I might change them at some point to fit better.

I also found this tissue box at Aldi which I think is really cute and was the perfect colours. And I added that pink box that had been hanging around in a cupboard (little secret: the box doesn't have anything in at the moment, it's just there cos it looks nice and to fill up a cubby!).

I'll post about the transformation of my magazine files soon.

The only thing left now is to find some nice fabric to cover the boxes at the bottom. That will have to wait for a trip to Walthamstow I think...

Pretty Paperwork

I've been wanting a letter tray for a while now. Bank statements, pay slips, bills and other bits of paper get left on our dining table all the time. I wanted somewhere to put paper while it waited to be sorted or filed... and six months later I finally got around to making this:

It's not perfect but it's a lot cheaper than the pretty ones you get in shops (in fact it was free as I already had everything I needed) and it's a lot prettier than either a cardboard box (which is what it is, essentially) or the cheap ones you can find in pound shops (still more expensive than making this!).

So, here's how I did it.

First I cut one side off a cereal box so I had a tray shape and flat piece of card board. Then I used the spare cardboard from the open end of the box to make little 'L' shaped supports and stuck the flat piece into the box to make a second tray using a glue gun (I know that sounds confusing but the pictures should hopefully make it clear!).

Next I covered the top, sides and a bit of the inside with some pretty wrapping paper. I used a mixture of about half and half PVA glue and water for this. I didn't bother to cover the bottom or right inside the lower tray and it won't ever be seen but you could if you wanted to be thorough. If you want to cover the inside of the lower tray, I would suggest doing this before you stick the upper tray in.

I then left the tray to dry for 24 hours before coating it all over with the glue and water mix. I did this twice leaving it to dry 24 hours each time. And that's it. Now I have a pretty letter tray to put all my un-organised paperwork in!

Cheap and Easy Hand-Wash Upgrade

I've been wanting a nice handwash dispenser for a while but I just haven't got around to finding one. Recently I bought a Tesco Value hand soap for the bathroom and I realised that if I pulled the label off it would just be a nice plain white bottle. Then I thought to decorate it with Sharpies to match the toothpaste mug I have.

I think it looks really sweet now and it was basically a free project as the soap was the cheapest I could get anyway to have in the bathroom (and it smells really nice!) and I already had the coloured Sharpies It was really easy to do, if you go wrong, you can wipe it off with some nail varnish remover. I'm not sure whether it will last, it might fade or rub off with use but if it does I can clean if off and put another design on.

Babushka Doll Peg Bag

This was my Christmas present to my mum. I was inspired by this pin, which I thought was really cute but although I thought my mum would like it, I didn't think she'd LOVE it and I couldn't help but think that I could probably make one shaped like a Russian Doll, and my mum LOVES Russian Dolls, so I had to try! (Sorry for the lack of photos, I didn't start taking them until I had all the pieces ready)

Materials
Main fabric
Lining fabric
Filler fabric
Wire coat hanger
Felt (face colour and hair colour)
Embroidery thread (for face details - I used black and red)
Paper for making the pattern (I used newspaper)

To make the pattern I just drew round a cereal bowl for the head and then drew the body freehand. When I cut it out I folded it in half length-ways to make sure it was symmetrical. Now that I have finished it, I think it would actually be better bigger. It turned out smaller than I'd intended even though I put in generous seam allowances so I would suggest making it even bigger (my pattern measured about 39cm by 27cm).

From the pattern I cut out 2 pieces of the main fabric, 2 pieces of lining fabric and 2 pieces of another stiff fabric I had for strengthening (you could use any spare fabric or interfacing or batting for this, it's just to give it a bit more bulk and help it to hold it's shape when it is hung).

I then cut the top off my pattern in a kind of extended 'w' shape to make the pattern for the headscarf (see photo below) and cut one of these from another fabric. I hemmed the bottom of this (the 'w' shaped bit) as this would not be sewn to the main piece.

I cut a circle from some skin coloured felt, sewed on some felt hair and embroidered a face on it. After testing out a few faces on paper I decided on a very simple closed eyes and a small smiling mouth. Anything more looked a bit silly but you might be able to pull it off if you're better at drawing and embroidering than me!

Once the face was done, I sewed it onto my scarf fabric (I centered the face at this point but it did end up a bit wonky by the end so you could leave the face until the very end and sew it on there to make sure it is in the right place (or you could be better than me at sewing even hems...).

I pinned pieces for the front of the bag together (lining fabric, then filler fabric, then main fabric then scarf) and cut the slot for the pegs. I then hemmed this. You can add binding but I decided I liked mine as it was and with the stripy fabric I thought binding wouldn't look good.

Next, I layered up the back of the bag (lining, filler and main fabric) and sewed together the front and the back, right sides facing. Start and end at the top of the head and leave a small opening for the hanger to go through. I then used pinking shears to trim the hem to stop it fraying. Turn the bag right way out through the peg slot.

Finally, cut a wire hanger and bend it to shape so that it will go round the edge of the head and shoulders of your bag inside, then just slip it inside through the peg slot and you have a Babushka Peg Bag!

Also, my mum did LOVE it!

DIY Christmas Present Rundown

So, now Christmas is well and truly over (although our tree is still up as I haven't got round to taking it down, and the Christmas chocolates are still tempting me every evening!) I thought it was time to write a little overview of the 12 homemade Christmas presents I gave this year (or I guess it's last year now...). I will be dedicating whole posts to a lot of them hopefully over the next few weeks but I thought I'd do a quick overview and post some photos first.

Here's they are:

1. 3 guitar pick keyring holders (inspired by this pin on Pinterest, 1 not shown as it was for my boyfriend and he was around when I photographed these!)
2. Kindle Paperwhite case (designed by me)
3. Headphone case (following these instructions)
4. Travel wallet (loosely following this tutorial)
5. Leicester City Football Club themed baby booties and hat (the booties are my favourite tried and tested pattern and the hat is a new pattern I found, which is really quick and easy, see below for pic)
6. Christmas hair clips (inspired by this post)
7. Knitted headband/ear warmers (it's just a strip of knitting so no pattern!)
8. Tote bag insert (inspired by this)
9. Russian Doll Peg Bag (my own design)
10. And finally, my pride and joy, a Quiet Book for my niece (there were many websites and blogs I used to help me with this but I will write a whole post on it instead of putting it here)

Here are some more individual pics:

I'll be doing more detailed posts on the Quiet Book and the peg bag, the others are either fairly self-explanatory or the links I've posted are easy to follow.

Easy Earl Grey Bath Salts

This is a really simple, cheap and quick DIY and it makes a great gift!

Ingredients:
Course Sea Salt
Epsom Salts (I found them at Boots, they don't seem to be sold many places just as plain Epsom Salts)
Earl Grey Tea Leaves (or any other scent you want to add - I think you can use oils but I haven't tried it)
Bicarbonate of Soda

If you want to give it as a gift, you will also need a nice jar/tin and some pretty paper to decorate it along with glue.

Use twice as much sea salt as epsom salts, add in about 1/3 as much of bicarb of soda (as epsom salts). (So that's 6 parts sea salt, 3 parts epsom salts and 1 part bicarb.) Mix it all together and add in enough tea leaves to give it a nice scent (about half the amount of epsom salts was about right for me). And that's it, easy!

To make the jars, I used some plastic ones that had once held scented playdough. I just washed off the old labels and made new ones from some pretty paper I have. Then I glued them on using glue mixed with about the same amount of water and covered it with a couple more coats of the glue mix once it was dry.

I gave these ones to my boyfriends mum and sister for their birthdays, and I gave some as Christmas presents last year. They are a super quick way to make a cheap gift.

Jewellery Holder DIY

My latest project was to turn an old wooden cutlery tray into a jewellery holder for all my necklaced and bracelets.

It was pretty simple and quick (except for waiting for the coats of paint to dry) but I did it over a few days. I'm sure you can work it out for yourself but here are the steps in case you want some tips!

1. Sand down the wood a little so the paint will stick better.

2. Spray paint. I am terrible at spray painting, this is only the second time I've attempted it and I got a few drips etc. Basically, the trick is to keep moving and do super thin coats, but I haven't quite mastered it yet!

3. Screw in little hooks. I found these at a local shop that sells household/DIY stuff. It was about £1 for a pack with loads more than I needed so I've got some left over I could use for another project.

4. Hang all your jewellery on it! (Sorry for the poor quality picture, I haven't got the lighting sorted in my new flat yet!)

I was intending to hang it on the wall but I've just moved into a rented flat so that may not be possible any more. It looks fine leant against a wall though. Now all I need to do is sort through my jewellery as I hardly ever wear most of this!

Pretty Useful Drawer Dividers

So my sock/tights drawer used to look like this:

It was a nightmare to find the socks I needed, and it didn't really fit.

Now it looks like this : ) after a really simple and quick project:

First, I did this (socks sorted by type):

Then I cut some newspaper to the size of the drawer and worked out how much space each type of sock could have/needed in the drawer.

Next I cut some cardboard to the right height for the drawer and the right lengths for the pattern I had made on newspaper. I taped them together and checked that they fitted in the drawer (I did have to trim them a bit).

Then I covered them with pretty wrapping paper using glue mixed with water.

I waited for them to dry and covered them with another layer of the glue and water.

And ta-da, a drawer organiser and a much better organised sock drawer!