Mugswap!

In September I participated in a Coffee Mug Swap hosted by Yellow Umbrella and Pointing Up.  We "stalked" other bloggers on their blog, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter accounts to find out a little bit about them and then used that information to buy them a coffee mug which we felt symbolized them.

The other day I received mine in the mail and I could not be happier with it! It's a personalizable tumbler from Starbucks!

Remember those black pages with rainbow underneath that you scratched off to make a design? ( I used to play with them all the time when I was in elementary school... they're AMAZING!)  That's what's inside the tumbler.  So, not only do I save 10 cents every time I take my mug to Starbucks, but I get to design it myself!

Plus, Falen from UpwardNotInward, included a Starbucks gift card!  Seriously, the best surprise EVER!  I see a lot of Pumpkin Spice Lattes in my future!

Thank you Falen!  Have a good weekend all!

UPDATE:  I decorated my mug!

Fabric Covered Corkboard

We were in desperate need of some stuff to jazz up the boring white walls in our brand new apartment.  Conveniently, my roommate had a corkboard she didn't want anymore and gave it to me!  Plain cork is incredibly boring though.  So, I used extra fabric from our throw pillows and some push pins to make the board a little less boring.

It could use some notes though right? I hung it on the wall in our dining room near the front door. Hopefully I can find a use for it soon, but until then at least its a little LESS boring.

Cost of this project : FREE!

Don't you just love free projects!

Reusable Swiffer Pads & Stickygrams

If you own a Swiffer you're probably in love with it (especially if you hate vacuuming like I do) but the dust pads for them are far too expensive for someone on  budget.  So, I've started making my own Swiffer pads out of fleece.  Fleece is relatively cheap and it comes in super fun colors AND it washes well.  PLUS it's static-y (is that a word?) so it picks up dirt and hair from hard surfaces.

This is a no sew project.  Literally, just cut and use.  Now you could serge around the edges if you'd like but I don't really see the point since It's just used for cleaning.


I had this fabric laying around so the total cost of this project = FREE!



Something that was not- so- free? These Stickygram magnets that I had made from my instagram photos.  You get to pick 9 photos and they print them on magnets which are shipped to you for free! (I'm not being paid to tell you this I'm just incredibly excited about mine!) 

And then, of course, I instragrammed a picture of them because seriously they're just too cute (and I have an addiction.)

Happy Friday! Hope everyone enjoys their weekend's!

Furniture is Too Expensive

When you're as broke as I am and about to move into your first apartment you have to get.... Crafty.  I don't have money for a whole lot of furniture. (I'm honestly considering putting my mattress on the floor for a few months until I can get a bed.) So, to fix the problem of not having a dresser,  I am using the clear- drawered containers that you can buy at Walmart for under $20.  The only problem with the clear drawers is that I don't want everyone in the world seeing my underwear through the drawer.


Solution: Scrapbook paper in the front of the drawer.  Makes the drawers a little more fun too! PLUS, I had the scrapbook paper lying around from another project.  

This project = FREE!

So excited!!! Now if only my bed problem were that easy to fix...

Duct Tape = LOVE

I never really got into the whole duct tape trend until I found this project on Pinterest a few months ago.  Seriously, you can make anything cute (and coordinating) with duct tape.

So, I went out and found this AMAZING hounds-tooth duct tape and a turquoise-ish colored duct tape and set about turning these old boxes into containers for my CD's, etc.

They're perfect! ( & super cheap!) Yay for Duct Tape!

Craftgawker

I have a new found addiction to this website...  For anyone who is interested in DIY or crafty projects this website it PERFECT.  I'ts like Pinterest but all about crafts! It's basically Heaven AND it's incredibly addicting.  I've already found 2 projects I need to make ASAP.

The Plumed Nest

PLUS, they have something that they call a "gawkerverse" which is all of their other websites which are seperated into categories (Wedding, house, etc.)


It MIGHT be the most amazing website I've found in awhile... besides Pinterest because I will always be addicted to that!


Happy Gawking!

Chevron Friendship Bracelet

Lately, I've been in a nostalgic mood craft-wise.  Friendship bracelets are definitely included in this nostalgia.  Today, I found a bag FULL of embroidery floss and decided it was time to make some new friendship bracelets.

The one I'm working on now is a chevron design in in blue and black.  I, honestly, hate this color combo ( It reminds me of a bruise.) but these are the colors my boyfriend specificially requested.

To make a chevron pattern in a friendship bracelet you need 8 strings. Tie the furthest left string (shown here in black) to each to each of the strings to it's right until you reach the middle.  Then, tie the furthest right string to each of the strings to its left until you reach the middle.  Finally, tie the two middle strings together.  Make sure you tie two knots every time to ensure that it holds and make the design visible. And that's it!

To make a diagonal stripe you simply continue across the set of strings rather than stopping in the middle.

Tutu Adorable

Buying baby gifts is expensive.  Luckily, I have a really great discount at a few stores that sell baby stuff but I like to make DIY projects as well.  My friend recently found out that she's having a baby girl so I couldn't resist the urge to make her a little baby tutu!!  So, I figured I'd post a how-to of how to make a tutu!

I usually start off with a length of elastic.  To measure it I wrap it around my lower thigh.  I sew the ends together to make it a circle.  This ends up being the waist of the tutu.

Next, you have to cut the tulle.  I recently found a new way to cut tulle which makes making a tutu sooooo much easier!  If you wrap the tulle around a piece of carboard you can cut one end and make a TON of piece rather than cutting each piece individually.  This saves SO much time!

After you cut all of the tulle pieces, wrap each piece of tulle around the elastic and double knot it.  Keep doing this all the way around until you run out of tulle or elastic (or BOTH!)

I finished mine off with a zebra print bow and voila! The most adorable tutu EVER!  I can't wait for them to see it!

Happy Crafting!

DIY: Throw Pillows

If you read my past posts you know that I will be moving into an apartment in the Fall.  Our living room furniture is being donated to us by my parents but the throw pillows I'm leaving in Pittsburgh. (Not my style.) So, rather than spending a bunch of money on new pillows I decided to make them.  Not super hard.

I just cut the fabric into squares. (Seriously how pretty is this fabric?) And then sewed them together. My cat was a huge fan of them, obviously.

But she wouldn't let me near the stuffing!

Finished product!

Now I just need to get enough fabric for 2 more. Yay!

More Glitter

Ya'll are probably tire of hearing me talk about glitter but seriously it's like THE greatest thing ever invented in the world of arts and crafts. It just makes everything so... fun!  So, I recently used foam core to make some letters which I spray painted and glitterized using mod podge and glitter. 

I would love to tell you that I spray painted them for some amazing reason but, honestly, I was originally only going to spray paint them until I realized how boring they looked.  With the glitter added you can still see some of the purple though.  Especially through the pink glitter ones.  (The R and A.)

They're now on a shelf in my room that couldn't hold anything else. (I have a slanted ceiling so it's hard to store stuff up high.)  The letter's are a bit disproportionate but it gives it a more eclectic look. Right?

Spray Painting EVERYTHING

Lately I've had a bit of an obsession with spray paint.  I just LOVE that you can change the look of something so easily (and for very little money) with spray paint.  I'm moving in an apartment in a little over a month and I'm trying incredibly hard to not spend a ton of money on new stuff because, let's face it, college students are broke.  So far I have yet to spend more than $20 on any piece of furniture and most of it is being given to me for free. (Thank you parents!)

My bathroom last year was all brown with brightly colored polka dots and, of course, Target stopped selling that design.  So, rather than spending a bunch of money on new bathroom accessories I decided to spray paint the stuff I already have and  change the theme of my bathroom slightly.  

The garbage can and toothbrush holder are now a really pretty shade of turquoise  which will match my brown and turquoise towels (which I already own). Perfect right? It's a bit more boring the the polka dots it used to have but I can always personalize it later. (Or spray paint it again?)

Crayon Art

If you have a Pinterest account like I do (honestly, who doesn't?), and you've checked out the DIY & Crafts sections at any point, you've probably seen some of the melted crayon art work like these ones.

After seeing all of these AMAZING designs on Pinterest for months I finally decided to make my own!  I was surprised at how easy and quick it was to make! All you need it old crayons, a glue gun, a canvas and a hair dryer.

To start. you glue the crayons to the canvas with a hot glue gun... my glue gun was being exceptional difficult though... I think it might be time for a new one.

When you are completely finished gluing the crayons down, use a hair dryer to melt the crayons and you're done! Seriously, it barely even took me 10 minutes to melt all of my crayons.

Before: 

After:

I'm in LOVE!  Send my pictures of yours! I'd love to see them!

Have a Happy & Safe 4th of July!!!

Patriotic Shorts

Recently, I found a post here for turning jean shorts into patriotic shorts.  I'm a little more patriotic than the average girl so, naturally, I fell in love with this idea.  However, because of my "No Spend Challenge" I couldn't get the spray paint that I needed to finish this project before the 4th of July. (And really what good are patriotic shorts if you can't wear them on the most patriotic holiday of the year?) So, I decided to substitute some stuff.

I used painters tape to make the stripes and construction paper to make the stars. (I used a cookie cutter to trace the stars.)  Then,  I taped off everything I didn't want colored.

Since I don't have the money to buy more spray paint (shocking that I don't already have every color in the world...) I used permanent markers to color in all the empty spaces that weren't taped off and Voila! Patriotic shorts for FREE.

Permanent marker may not have been the best choice.  It didn't bleed or even rub off but when they wash they might not come out looking as good.  I'm okay with that though since 1. It was free and 2. How often do I really need patriotic shorts?

Hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July week!

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All that Sparkles

First of all, glitter is probably the greatest craft supply ever invented. Second, a touch of sparkle makes everything better.  With those two things in mind (plus some mod podge) I decided to glitter-ize EVERYTHING.  Well, not everything, but a lot of stuff and I could not be happier with the results! For future reference, however, I need more than one thing of glitter.

To start, just mix together mod podge and glitter into a paint-like substance.  I put foil in the bowl to make it easier to clean up.  Paint it onto whatever you want to sparkle-fy with a foam brush. Let dry and your done. Seriously, easiest DIY project ever. Now if I could just stop....

The more glitter you put in the less see-through it will be. I recommend using A LOT of glitter! Enjoy!