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!

DIY Abstract Flower Nail

We're coming to the end of summer so I thought I'd do one last summery nail tutorial before autumn arrives. This is surprisingly easy and looks really effective. You can substitute the colours for any others that you have but I really like the gold as the background as I think it adds a bit of glamour to the nail. 

You will need...

* Base coat and top coat

* A gold colour for the base (I used one from Primark that came in a Caviar nail kit)

* A selection of 3 colours for the flower (I used Beauty UK in Lilac Girl, No 7 Stay Perfect in Fox Glove and Natural Collection in Antique Coral)

* Any green colour for the stalk (I used MUA in Shade 5)

* Dotting tools (I have these ones and they are really great!) You could also use a cocktail stick

1. Apply your base coat and then two coats of your gold colour to create the background.

2. Take a largish dotting tool and dip it in the first colour. Then paint on a semi circle that looks something like this. The shapes should look a little like paisleys.

3. Using the same tool dip it in your second colour and paint a dot in the middle of the paisley shape.

4. Using a slightly smaller tool, paint a dot of your third colour in the centre of the other two colours. If you do this before the other colours have dried completely (so they are still a little tacky) the dot creates a small indent as well which creates a nice effect.

5. Take a medium sized tool and dip it in the green. Then sweep the colour round the flower and away to create the leaf/stalk shape.

6. Leave to dry completely before adding your top coat.

DIY Bow Nails

Bows are everywhere at the moment. Jewellery, clothes and hair accessories are covered in them so I thought I would try and design a manicure featuring them as well. This design is a little fiddly, but totally worth it.

You will need...

* Base coat

* Pale pink nail colour (I used this Nails Inc one)

* Darker pink/mauve colour (I used this No 7 one in Highland Mist)  

* Top coat (I used my No 7 Gel-Look one)

* Nail dotting tools or a cocktail stick

1. To start, apply your base coat and then two coats of the pale pink colour. Wait for it to dry completely.

2. Drawing the bows is a little fiddly and time consuming. It was difficult to take photos in focus whilst I was doing this on the nail, so I've replicated the strokes I did on a piece of paper for you to see...

With your dotting tool or cocktail stick, start by putting a dot in the centre. Then draw two triangles on either side of the dot to create the bow shape. Finally, after this has dried completely. Go back in with the pale pink colour and paint on the dot again. This just gives the bow a little more definition.

On my thumb, I then added two strokes below the bow to create the ribbon effect.

(Sorry for the quality of the pictures. I think I need a better camera!)

If you wanted to add little sparkle to this design you could always put a rhinestone in the middle of the bow instead of going back in with the pale pink colour...

Enjoy! :)

xoxo

DIY Beaded Friendship Bracelets

I used to make loads of friendship bracelets when I was about 13, and recently I saw a picture of some really cute beaded ones so I thought I'd do a tutorial on them. They're the perfect gift because you can personalise them to suit anyone. And they look really good layered up with a few different ones. The two in the picture are made using the same technique but with different materials, so you can see how versatile the design is. 

You will need...

* Embroidery thread or leather cording (the thicker one is leather cording - I got mine from Tiger)

* Small beads that can you can thread onto your cording

* Scissors

* Sellotape (or equivalent)

* A bracelet clasp (optional)

I'll show you how to make the thicker bracelet first and then explain how you can adapt the technique to make the bracelet with embroidery thread.

1. Cut 4 lengths of the leather cording: 2 need to be about 2 times the length needed to go round your wrist (or the wrist of the person you're making it for), and 2 need to be about double this length.

2. Tie the 4 strands together and place them in this formation..

As you can see I have taped the cords to the table at the top.

Then I have separated the cords out so that the shorter ones are in the middle and the longer ones are on the outside.

You then need to thread your beads onto the two middle cords. It doesn't matter how many you put on at this point - you can always add more or take some off.

Then tape the bottoms of the two shorter cords the the table as well to make them taught.

It should look something like this!




3. Now you can get started.

Take the right hand strand and place it over both middle strands. Then take the left hand strand and place it OVER the right hand strand and the UNDER the middle strands. This will make a loose knot. Grab the two strands and pull tight so that the knot moves to the top of the strands and tighten. I should look like this...Don't worry it's easier than it sounds!

5. Now, push one of the beads on the left middle strand up to the top, and repeat the action above but this time reverse it, so the left strand goes over the middle strands and the right hand strand moves over the left strand and under the middle ones. 

6. Keep repeating this alternating the sides and pushing one bead up on the side you are starting with each time. After a while it should look like this...

7. And that's basically it. When it reaches your desired length, tie a knot in the bottom to secure. I then added a clasp because I find bracelets hard to tie on but you could skip this step if you didn't have one.

To make the bracelet with embroider thread, do exactly the same but instead of having a bead after every knot, I did about 5 knots in between each bead, otherwise you couldn't really see the thread because it's quite thin.

Anyway, these are so easy to make once you've got the hang of the knots and you can be really creative with different colours and beads.

Enjoy! :)

Basic Ombre Nails

I know that there are hundreds of blogs posts about how to do ombre nails, but I'd never tried them before and so I thought I would add my take on the trend. Personally I love the look of ombre anything at the moment and the colours that I've chosen for this look are so summery and aquatic. But I'm excited at the prospect of using this technique with christmassy reds and golds in the winter. Here's my easy guide to ombre nails...

You will need:

* Base coat and top coat
* 2 coloured nail varnishes (I used this one and this one)
* Small sponge
* Plastic surface (I used old magazine packaging but you could use anything)
* Cotton buds and nail polish remover
* Cocktail stick (or anything else small and pointy!)






1. Clean your nails and apply your base coat. Follow this by one thin coat of one of your colours. I used the lilac because I though the turquoise would go better over the top.

2. Prepare your ombre - put two blobs of your coloured nail varnishes side by side on the plastic. Then take your cocktail stick and blend the colours together in the middle. Take your sponge and press the end into the nail varnish so that there is a thickish layer

3. Then simply press this onto your nail. Don't worry it will be messy and go over the edge as you can see.

4. To clean up the edges take the cotton bud and soak it in your nail varnish remover and simply wipe around the edges of your nail to clean up the excess varnish.

5. Apply a top coat and voila...beautiful ombre nails are all yours!

They look a little grainy from up close but from a distance (which to be honest is how most people are going to see then) they look great!

Enjoy!

xoxo