{DIY} Artsy Journal

 

 

 I made a pretty new journal the other day that I have begun taking to class with me. It's just so cute and since it fits in my purse (and coordinates!), I figured why not? I haven't written in it yet, though.

 

 

I grabbed some wrapping paper, scrapbook paper, double sided tape, and scissors, as well as the notebook. The actual composition book, not the movie.

 

 

 

I wrapped the book very simply with the wrapping paper, securing it with the tape along the inside edges. I added a random magazine cutout...not sure where I got the magazine. I cut two strips and a butterfly from the scrapbook paper, and added letter stickers for my initials.

 

I then added a length of ribbon, also attached with tape (yeah, it's not getting roughly handled and I had already burned myself with my hot glue gun that day, so...).

 

Tie it up and you're done! Write in it, or just let it hang out on your desk!

 

 

DIY Target Chair Makeover

 

Hello, everyone! I have for you today my recent chair makeover. I got this chair on clearance at Target for $10 (I think it was originally $20, so a pretty good deal) and I've had it for awhile, but now that my room is coming together and the accent colors have pretty much picked themselves (these were not my original accent colors, not even close!), I had to do something with the stark red color.

 

 

The red Target office chair. It sticks out like a sore thumb right now. That's going to change........now.

 

I started by tracing a rough template on paper with a pencil. These were not by any means totally accurate, I just needed something to help me cut out the basic pieces for the covers.

 

 

I cut the back piece on the fold and the seat piece on two folds, so now I have these. Man, are they wrinkled. A quick iron will fix that!

 

I decided to add stripes to the covers, so I snagged two curtain tiebacks (please don't tell my mom) and stitched them in place with white thread.

 

I pinned the whole back piece in place and made adjustments and cuts to fit it in place all the way around. I had to do the top first and then the center bottom, the sides, and then the rest of the bottom.

 

If you are noncommittal like me, you may not want to permanently attach this just yet. I stapled mine in place.

 

The whole cushion stapled in place. I went to bed so I could get a fresh look at it the next day.

 

And if you still like it the next day (I did), remove the staples and pin the cover back in place. Be sure to smooth it out, unlike me.

 

Stitch the cover in place with matching or contrasting thread. I used dark red, so it shows in some spots, but is totally hidden around the stripe.  

 

And once you secure your threads and snip the excess, you now have a chair to be happy to see! Or at least, I am...I have issues.

 

Have a wonderful Thursday!

{DIY} Accent Pieces

 

Hello, everyone! Today, I am sharing with you a couple of accent pieces I worked on recently. I covered up a box and made it into a tray for my sewing table, and I recovered a brick so it would fit in better on my bookcase!

Here is the "tray" before. Just a boring little ipad mini box. For this mini project (no pun intended), I used scrapbook paper, hot glue, scissors, and some tiny clock embellishments. I cut strips of the scrapbook paper and glued the long sides in place. Then I glued on the short end pieces. Any excess paper is folded to the bottom. Then I hot glued on the little clocks -- I though they added a nice touch -- and placed everything back into the new tray!

 

Isn't this better than seeing ugly words on a stark white box?

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Next, I dealt with the brick. This is a very old brick. I used it for a science project back in maybe 3rd or 4th grade. And I'm starting my second year of college in the fall.  So to make it over from the ugly old fabric stuck on it, I grabbed some leftover pillow sham fabric, hot glue, and scissors for the job. I wrapped the brick like a present and instead of taping, I placed beads of hot glue to secure all of it.

When I first pulled the old sunflower fabric off of this brick, I was in shock but not much. The fabric had been on there so long, that the green and yellow from the flowers was dyed into the brick! I couldn't believe it! But I also could. Either way, I'm glad the new fabric is plenty thick enough to hide it easily.

And here is the recovered brick in its new spot. Full disclosure: I took these photos before the walls were painted and the books, brick, and kindle were all moved to the bottom shelf yesterday.  

 

Happy Tuesday!

{Room Makeover DIY} Memory Board Makeover

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Hello, All! Today, I wanted to share with you my memory board makeover. It began as a plain ivory ribbon board I picked up at a junk sale a few years ago. I got a rabbit some months after that (who I no longer have, sadly), and she chewed it and possibly urinated on it. So even though I cleaned it the best I could, it’s still horribly stained. So my solution was to cover it with my old Happy Bunny flat sheet and use the parts to my homecoming mum to decorate it. Those of you who have made your own mum know how expensive they are to make -- it's hard to just toss that stuff out! Later on down the road, it began to hold jewelry. Which brings us up to speed to this:

To makeover my board, I used 3 different types of 3/8 inch ribbon, a stapler, a pillow sham that matches my comforter, pins, scissors, and I had my little box handy to hold my jewelry and such while I worked. You can use hot glue for the assembly if you like, but I was running low on glue sticks and the stapler is faster and more satisfying to use – excellent stress relief!

I started by removing all of the jewelry and hair accessories and placing them off to the side in the little box.

Then, I ripped of the fabric. I was going to remove each piece of ribbon, but I realized I didn’t have to, as it all came away in one piece. Do you see what I mean about the late Daphne now? Plus, the missing ribbon…which I believe she chewed off…it’s funny how this board was used to block her from scratching/chewing my wall, and yet she managed to totally destroy this board AND my carpet!

I separated the front and back pieces of the sham *carefully* and the whole thing came apart pretty quickly once I started snipping away. I now have some gold piping for whatever and the backing is on its way to the scrap bin! I laid out the large piece and smoothed it out before setting the board on top.

Now staple, staple, staple! And maybe stop part way down one of the sides to refill your stapler because you forgot to check it before you started….or is that just me?

To do the corners, I just grabbed the fabric up and put 4 staples over the edges to keep it in place. Then, I took a hammer and tapped over all of the staples to be sure they would stay.

Trim away the excess fabric…

Isn’t it pretty?

Planning out where to place the hanging jewelry.

I used gold and mint ribbon to tie into my room’s color scheme. It really looks lovely. I stapled it with about three staples on each end and tapped them down with the hammer as well. I also tapped the staples on the hanging ribbon as I chose to leave it on.

And here is the little beauty along with some elementary school clay work (wow those are both almost ten years old now…) and a street sign I got from a friend – her grandparents had them in their garage and no longer wanted them. But it looks so cool on my wall!

But then, I still have my flower I used…I can’t bear to throw it away.

So I didn’t. I separated it from the other two layers….

And hot glued it to my lamp! I also added some mint ribbon to it. I got this lamp from Target on clearance for around $6.

As always, thank you SO MUCH for reading and have a wonderful day! And by the way, I now have NO IDEA what to do with that little window box, but I still want to paint it and use it! Hopefully an idea pops into my brain soon!!

-Natasha.


 

Back Home.

I have been having issues with Wordpress and finally made the jump and got back on Blogger. One of my favorite blogs is hosted on Blogger -- it's fate <3

Hopefully it won't take me too long to remember how to use everything!

{Nifty & Thrifty} New Fabulous Finds!

I found some new things for my room in a bin buried in my niece's closet. I'm not sure where this stuff came from, but I know it's been in there for awhile! I hope to make them all fit into the theme/colors for my room, because they have far too much potential to pass them up! By the way, here is my inspiration collage for the room:

First up, is a green window box with hooks inside and a magnet closure -- perfect fit for my jewelry. I want to paint this mint and the little window will either be white or black. I'll keep the two-tone thing going.

  

Next, is this lovely little mirror. What you can't see is that it is in two pieces. But I simply have to glue this together and it's done and ready to hang!

This little dry erase board calendar may or may not be used. I'm really not sure yet. But it looks cute so I might use it. I don't know!!!! :(

And lastly, this poor little frame. I'm not entirely sure what to do with it yet. Maybe wrap some cork with fabric and hot glue it into the back for a pinboard? Not sure yet...

As always, thanks for looking/reading/liking my blog posts!

-Natasha

{DIY} Pants

Above is the pair of pants I started out with. They were ridiculously long on me as jeans, so I cut them down with the intentions of finishing the hem. A year later, that still had not happened. I finally fixed that this weekend.

I started by going through my fat quarters and trying to find one I liked cuffed around the pants leg. I ended up going with a tan remnant that possibly came from a curtain, I'm not 100% sure.

I cut each cuff on the fold, as well as two lining pieces from a white cotton fat quarter. I cut each white piece in half along the fold and set it aside. Then I opened up each tan piece on my table.

I then centered the lining inside the cuff piece and ironed it as one piece of fabric. I didn't use any interfacing, I just wanted to iron everything this way. It works for me, okay? :(

Measure down 1/2 inch and pin across for your hem. I did both edges of both pieces but realized while sewing that I didn't need to.

But as you can see, I left them in while I did the hem anyway.

After pressing from the right side, I wrapped one of my cuff pieces around the bottom of the pants leg and pinned to mark where I needed to cut it. Then I used the cut cuff to mark and cut the other strip.

I stitched this with a zigzag stitch to make sure it would be secure.

 Then I pinned and stitched on the cuffs right sides together.

 

I flipped down the cuffs and ironed across and I was done! Then I went to try them on...

 

And tada! They look great! Please ignore my ugly feet. And no, that is not my stomach at the top. Oops...! Thanks for reading and I hope this encourages you to tackle a DIY clothing project you have waiting, because if I can do it, you definitely can too!