Miniature Garland DIY

On thursday I was given a box of yummy chocolates, and the foil wrappers they were in were such pretty colours I just had to make them into something! 

Have you ever been given chocolates at the end of a meal and made the wrapper into something? For some reason my family always used to do this, it became a bit of a competition. Rings and flowers were the most common items, but today I am going to show you how to make a pretty miniature garland... however you will have to eat an entire box of chocolates in order to do this. I know, I know, I am so cruel!

What you need;

• Collection of foil sweet wrappers
• Pretty coloured thread
• A thin needle

Start by squishing each piece of foil paper into a little ball. If the other side of the foil is another colour try to fold it back and tuck it in, so that you can only see one colour on the outside. Squish it really tight together.

Now you should have a pretty little ball shaped jewel. Anyone else might think it was real gold! (OK, maybe not, but I think you could just about pretend it wasn't a foil wrapper.) Do the same to all of your pieces of foil and you should end up with a pretty little collection like below.

Now you need to get your needle and thread and start threading your 'jewels' on. You might want to use a double thickness of thread to keep them in place a bit more securely.

Taa daa. Now you can decorate whatever you like with your pretty, miniature garland. I decided to spruce up my stationary jar.

Hey, you could even make a bracelet out of them!

I'm definitely going to start hoarding more sweet wrappers after this! I may even have to start eating more chocolates!

Another thing I love to make out of sweet wrappers is origami cranes, I think they are the prettiest!

I love to make something out of nothing, especially when it would have gone in the bin otherwise! Do you make anything out of otherwise useless items?

Laura xXx

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Pine cone prettiness

Todays post is a little strange, I admit. But I am going to go ahead anyway.

In December I painted some pine cones for decoration, you may remember the post they featured in here.  Since Christmas ended I haven't known what to do with them, until I accidentally popped one into one of my tea cups, which I have on display in a glass cabinet. I decided it looked pretty, so I filled them all!

It's slightly bonkers but I like the way they look, so that is where they shall live for now!

Do you have any strange things decorating your house? Or is it just me?

Laura xXx

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DIY Tutorial Kindle Case and Stand

You may have noticed, since I have been banging on about it so much, that I have bought myself a Kindle, yay! Now, I want to look after my new toy, but the cases for it are pretty pricey, so I decided to make my own, and I am really happy with how it turned out. Lucky for you lot I remembered to take photos throughout the process, so you can make it too! I used a similar process to this tutorial I did a little while ago for an iphone stand.

To make the base

You will need;

• A piece of material measuring at least 49cm x 38cm
• 2 pieces of strong cardboard measuring 12cm x 17.5cm
• 1 piece of strong cardboard measuring 11cm x 17.5cm
• 1 piece of cardboard measuring 1cm x 17.5cm
• 1 piece of cardboard measuring 1.7cm x 17.5cm
• A needle and thread or a sewing machine
• Velcrow

To make the inside panel with elastic corner straps

You will need;

• A piece of thin cardboard Measuring 11.5cm x 16.7cm
• A Glue Gun
• Felt or a scrap of fabric
• A long piece of elastic

Making The Base

The base of this is basically going to be an rectangular pocket which we will then slip our pieces of cardboard into. Your card pieces should look like the below. I just used cardboard box card, but the stronger the card you use the better.  Use a craft knife, ruler and mat to cut the correct sizes.With your card ready, you now want to get your fabric and fold it in half with the wrong side of the fabric facing out. Place your cardboard in a row against the fold as below, then draw around the cardboard onto the fabric, then pin along the lines you have drawn, catching both sides of the fabric. Now trim around the edges of the line, leaving about 1 cm around the bottom and the side and a few inches above the cardboard, which will become the opening. Don't sew along the top yet! Now you are going to sew along the lines you have drawn. You can use a sewing machine but I just used a needle and thread. To make sure it was the right size I sewed the bottom line, then inserted the card inside the fabric so that I could follow the line of the card when sewing up the side. Below you can see the finished 'pouch'. Now you are going to turn it inside out so that the right side of the fabric is on the outside. Use the end of a pencil to poke the corners out, you might also want to trim the edges of the fabric at this point so that the corners turn out properly. 

Next we are going to re-insert the cardboard into the pocket. The order should go; Large rectangular piece, largest thin piece, large rectangular piece, smaller thin piece, large rectangular piece. In between each piece of cardboard we need to make a hinge. So sew along using the edge of the cardboard as a guide, be careful not to make it too tight or loose. When you get to the end you will need to use a backstitch, making sure the edges are tucked in neatly. See step 7 of this tutorial for a better idea.When finished the base should look something like the below, and should fold up around your kindle.

Making the Inside Panel

Now we need to make something for the Kindle to be held in with. Get your piece of thin card and your felt/spare fabric. Cut the fabric so that it looks like the below picture.

Now you will need to get out the glue gun and glue each side down, pulling tightly to make the fabric nice and taut at the front.

Here is the fiddly bit, you need to make your elastic corners, so you need a nice long piece of elastic. The picture below shows the back of the inside panel when complete. I have used the glue gun to glue each piece of elastic on the back.

Below is the step by step process to create the corner straps. I forgot to photograph this originally so I just used a piece of card for you to get the gist. Between taking each photo I turned the card over.

You can adjust the corners bit by bit as you go. When you get to the end untape the end of the elastic, and tie the two ends together. At this point you use the glue gun to stick it all securely to the back. Before I did this I placed the kindle in the holder to make sure it all fitted. I actually then left it there until the end of the process, but be careful not to get glue on it! Finally you will need to glue the panel to the middle piece of your base. Just use your glue gun to go around all 4 sides of the rectangle, then place and hold in the middle for a minute until it is dry.

To finish the whole thing off you will probably want to create a fastening. I just found some velcro, cut it into circles, then used the glue gun to fix it in place.

The great thing about this is that you can stand it up, both horizontally and vertically!

I hope you liked todays tutorial, it was definitely one of the most satisfying things I have made. If you have any questions just let me know, I would be happy to help!

Laura xXx

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DIY Stamps

I am very excited to have been asked by Claire of Claireabellemakes to guest post on her blog while she is having a festive break! So please hop on over to see my full DIY Stamp Tutorial post. Keep your eyes peeled as I hear there are going to be some fantastic guest posts over the next couple of weeks.

Laura xXx

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DIY Yourself A Free Christmas Tree

I have been feeling inspired to make some DIY Christmas decorations this year. The other day I saw a faux tree at the Hobbycraft shop. It wasn't your usual Christmas tree, it was white and had no leaves! It did look ever so pretty, but it was far too expensive for me to buy, which got me to thinking, perhaps I could make it myself! So off I went on a mission to find the perfect twig to paint white, and I think I found just the one!

I decided it would be best if I sanded it down so that the paint did not crack off. Unfortunately I had a few disasters where parts of it snapped off during this process, but I just stuck them back on after with a glue gun! After I had finished sanding I painted the whole thing with 2 coats of white paint.

You may remember me mentioning this post for a DIY painted pinecone garland. Well I decided to give it a go, but make individual decorations instead of a garland. I think they look so pretty! I also found some large pinecones so I thought I would paint them too as ornaments.

Wouldn't this be fun to do with kids!? I remember when I was younger we spent one Christmas with the family in Germay and hired out a couple of cabins. Of course we didn't have any decorations with us, so we made our own. It was the most memorable Christmas, and I loved making the decorations, even if it did mean stringing hundreds of pieces of pop corn onto string!

I really love the clean look of my cute little Christmas corner. I may just have to keep my twig and decorate it accordingly for the rest of the year!

Laura xXx

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How I asked my Bridesmaids the big question

I really wanted to do something special for my 4 lovely bridesmaids to be, so I decided to make them each a personal little Bridesmaid Box full of goodies!

They all started life as the boxes that my contact lenses had been delivered in. Luckily I keep all my boxes and I had just the right amount! I covered parts of them with brown paper, then I used my favourite medium to decorate the sides, nail varnish!

I wrote each bridesmaid's name out on the top in a pretty font, do you recognise it?

Inside each box was a personalised note book, a matching pen, a packet of rainbow drops, a chocolate bar, a contact list, a soppy note written just for them and an invite to my bridesmaid party! I also made them each an Aztec button, which I thought that they could keep as a little memento.

We are having the bridesmaid party on sunday and I am really looking forward to it. I thought it would be a chance for my 3 best friends to get to know Chris's sister a bit better and also to get them all involved in the planning of the day without it becoming a chore. 

I also think it is important to celebrate as much as possible, I really want to make the most of the next year and a half, and they will all be a big part of it I'm very lucky to have 3 best friends like them and a wonderful new sister in law to be!

What did you or your friends do to celebrate leading up to your wedding? I'm always looking for inspiration!

Laura xXx

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