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Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts
Friday, 30 January 2015

Everyday Fashion: Accidental Fashionista

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The weather has been seriously conspiring against my efforts to blog. First it snowed - which could have been good except it melted really quickly into a grey slush - then it rained & now it is unendingly cold & grey & miserable.
Add to that a schedule (not mine) that has made going to town (where most of my in door photos are taken) impossible & you will end up with a very frustrated blogger.

These pictures were taken on Tuesday after I got back from yet another fruitless photo taking mission. I'd had to remove my belt (my abdomen was screaming at me) & I was at my new desk working out some of my frustration playing with mixed media (my new obsession).


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Wednesday, 20 August 2014

Making Mobile Phone Photography Look Like You Have a DSLR

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This post should probably be called 'making your photos look as good as if you had a fancy pants expensive camera' but you know, I've made the image & doesn't it sound way more catchy this way?

Okay so in my opinion the most important step in making your photos look like you're using a fancy pants camera is the editing but I would like to say a word for background & composition. I feel sometimes that people who take their photos on their cameras forget that however good or bad your camera is, the photo is only as good as the subject :)

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Tuesday, 21 January 2014

DIY: Superfood Brown Sugar Body Scrub

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Everyone knows how to make a scrub right? You mix oil with sugar/salt & done. So why is mine any different? Well mine contains ginger, orange zest & juice, brown sugar & canola (rapeseed) oil which are all incredible for your skin....I wish I had planned it, I had no idea until I started writing this post!
I made this because I wanted a treat - something luxurious that was cheap & I could make at home with things that were already in the house. Can you tell it's January?
I also wanted to see what I could do about this weird skin thing I get on the top of my arms. I hoped that by making a sugar scrub with some acid in it would have dual exfoliating action & finally get rid of whatever it is that's wrong with my arms. Well it seems to be working + it smells great!
So I started off with 2 cups brown sugar, 1/4 cup rapeseed oil (aka canola oil - you can use any oil, this is just what I had in a pretty bottle) & the zest of 1 orange & half the juice. Then I added a grated piece of ginger about the width of a pound coin because it smelt good. Apparently all this stuff is awe-inspiringly good for the skin (I am still really shocked how much these ingredients do for your skin).
The reason it's all so good for your skin? Well

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Monday, 23 December 2013

Star Chain - Christmas Card Recycling

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You have been inundated with Christmas cards, every surface is 6 cards deep & yes they are very nice but it seems a shame to just bin them as soon as Christmas is over. Sound familiar? This really easy & pretty alternative to paper chains could be the answer to your problems.
This is actually a really pretty Christmas decoration & kept my foster brother - who has been known to use every scrap of wrapping paper in the house making paper chains - busy for hours. Plus it taught him the basics of sewing, recycling & focus....this is a magic project.
So, what you need is:

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Friday, 20 December 2013

Christmas Round up

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Usually I would do a 'Weekly obsessions' post on a Friday but I thought I would sum up my favourite posts from this months Christmas craziness.
I think I got a good range of posts in this list, maybe even one or two you missed or haven't had time to check out yet.
  1. Turkey, Cranberry Sausage Rolls: Christmas flavours always inspire some amazing recipes & I am so proud of this, it is one of the best savoury things I have ever made!

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Tuesday, 17 December 2013

DIY Jam Jar Snowglobe

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These things are so cute & really great use of old Christmas cake decorations & jars. They are also a GREAT way to keep little brothers entertained - or even for doing with older kids....they are lots of fun. Plus you can use anything, as you can see, for the figure in the middle. One of these is a lego mini figure for the snow globe that's going to be my brother's Christmas present from my foster brother.

This is the kind of craft that was being done in my primary school for as long as I can remember...these are way cuter though....

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Monday, 16 December 2013

Last Minute DIY Gifts

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My family is having a DIY Christmas, the concept being that everyone in the immediate family makes the gifts for everyone else...it's turning out to be a lot of fun. You guys should try it.
Even if you aren't having a DIY Christmas, I know you can agree, DIY gifts are the most special...even if you are making them for yourself!
These are my favourite, quick, inexpensive DIY gifts, yours too...as soon as you try them.
 
So, the options are: DIY tinted lip gloss, Marbled Hot Chocolate Melts & Pink Grapefruit Bath Salts.
The lip gloss is crazy simple:

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Tuesday, 10 December 2013

DIY Shabby Chic Clay Christmas Ornament

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So these are my favourite DIY ornaments. They are classy, minimal & a great use of cookie cutters that have been hanging around the back of your cupboards. They are also very, very fashionable this year, I mean look at these ones.
You could create the texture with anything - hand print, buttons, doilies or - like I did - some spare lace. Then use cookie cutters to create the shape you want, a skewer to create a hole & once they're dry some string or wool to string them.

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Tuesday, 3 December 2013

DIY Christmas Decorations: Button Wreath

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My foster brother get's mental about Christmas as soon as Halloween is over & as soon as the advent calendar goes up he needs to be kept busy otherwise Christmas ends up being cancelled. So this year I thought I'd test kid friendly Christmas decorations on him so I can confirm that all of these are kid friendly (he may be technically 15 but an 8 year old would run circles round him).
Anyway, this one was his favourite so I thought I'd start with it....
There are tutorials for these all over the internet so I won't go into too much detail. All the tutorials I saw did however use wire & wire cutters which aren't exactly kid friendly....or easy for anyone to use.

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Tuesday, 26 November 2013

Decoration-a-Day Advent Calendar

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As I said in the advent calendar shopping guide, I love me an advent calendar. They are possibly my favourite bit of Christmas....actually, almost certainly. So having seen all the awesome DIY advent calendars on Pinterest I realised I HAD to make a DIY calendar but I didn't have that much time left when about 3 weeks ago I realised that Christmas was coming & making an advent calendar should be probably be done soon.
 

This isn't exactly the best photo of the calendar I made but I had to put it up in the living room which is painted lime green...

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