Top 5 DIY Gift Ideas for friends

Here's 5 easy, homemade and fairly cheap gifts ideas that would be perfect to give to your friends for Christmas...

1.Word Necklaces

Go to a charity or second hand shop and find an old dictionary then pick a word that describes each of your friends and cut them out. Stick the definition onto the charm blanks like these then use a glaze like Diamond Glaze to seal them and attach a chain. Easy, personalised necklaces describing your friends in one word.

2.Friendship Bracelets

You could make some lovely bracelets for friends using the tutorial above from PS I Made This... Or use any of these jewellery making tutorials to mkae gorgeous gifts for your friends.

3.Hot Chocolate and Personalised Mug

Grab a mug like this and use a Sharpie pen to draw or write on it and bake in the oven for an easy personalised mug (Heres a tutorial). And then add some cheap, easy to make hot chocolate or white hot-cocoa and maybe a candy cane or even homemade marshmallows.

4.Map Coasters

Just follow the instructions over on casasugar to make these gorgeous coasters, I'm sure your friends will love these and you can always change the paper to scrapbook or wrapping paper.

5.Glittered Vase

These vases add the perfect splash of colour to any room, here's the tutorial on how to make them but if you want to keep fresh flowers and water in them make sure you put the glitter on the outside of the bottle.

Hope you like the ideas

Katie

xoxo

Doctor Who shoes

I painted myself some Doctor Who shoes!

Now I can express my love for Doctor Who when I'm out and about...

Step by step photos for you now...

Step 1- Paint one shoe brown and one blue.

Step 2-I forgot to get a photo of me doing the darker stripes but I did it the same way as the lighter ones. 

Just place sellotape along the shoe leaving a small gap between each piece and paint over it and you will have some pretty straight lines. With the light brown you may want to paint them on twice as you can see threw mine a bit.

Step 3- I forgot to get a photo of this step too, sorry! But I used the same sellotape method here, just use sellotape to make the black stripe and then 8 white squares to act as the windows of the TARDIS. Oh and also paint the little flap bit black.

Step 4-Now we get to paint the little white stars on the black flap, write 'Police Box' onto the black strip and place a little white square in the middle of the black line for the light.

Step 5- I used red paint for the bow tie and braces but then used a black Sharpie to draw on the buttons and draw around the bow-tie and braces.

Step 6- And finally I wrote these little quotes on the back end of them. The blue one says 'Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey stuff' and the bown says 'Bow ties are cool'

and they're finished!

Katie

xoxo

Top 5 Gift Basket Ideas

With Christmas just around the corner (YAY!) I thought I would put together a post of some easy gift basket ideas for friends and family so here you go....

1.For the one who likes to read-

Grab a fluffy blanket, a book or maybe a giftcard to their favourite book store,  a packet of Hot chocolate mix, a mug and a bookmark and your friend will have the perfect night in! As an alternative for movie lovers you could swap the book for a movie or a netflix giftcard and the bookmark for a bag of popcorn and you have a great movie night in.

2.For the one who likes to bake-

Gather together pretty cupcake cases, cute toppings, some cooking utensils, an apron or oven gloves, a recipe book and maybe some cupcake boxes then place in a pretty basket and add a ribbon. Simple.

3.For the one who likes to garden-

Buy a flower pot from a gardening store, they're normally only a couple of pounds and fill with gardening tools, seeds, homemade gardeners hand scrub gardening gloves, watering cans, a kneeling pad and  a cute lawn sign. 

4.For the one who needs to be pampered-

Just fill up a pretty wicker basket with some of these and your good to go; scented candles, bubble bath, chocolate bar, body lotion, nail polish, body scrub, soap, shower puff, face mask and bath salts 

5.For the one who likes travelling-

 

I saved my favourite for last, how about a vintage map like this one ,some pins to mark where they have been and where they want to go in the future and a pretty journal or notebook like this one from paperchase to write about all there amazing adventures. Easy, cute and fairly cheap little gift set that you can put together and package in a pretty box.

Hope you find it useful,

Katie

xoxo

Make-up Compact Photo Album

I made a tiny, mini little photo album today out of the compact from my old pressed powder. Once the powder was finished I cleaned it out and kept it because I just couldn't bare to throw it away because I knew I could repurpose it. Then today I stumbled across the perfect upcycle tutorial here and this is how mine turned out...

 You can follow the tutorial over on Bursts Of Creativity really easily so I won't bother putting one up myself so just follow the above link for the tutorial.

But I also used my typewriter to type up the words rather than a computer or stamps as I found my mums old typewriter in the loft and haven't stopped using it since, I just love it. The quote on the front is one that my friend had told be the day before and it seemed somehow fitting, the first half is on the front and when you open it up you  get the second half of it. It reads 'Memories aren't recycled like atoms and particles in quantum physics... They can be lost forever'Its the quote from the beginning of Lady Gagas 'Marry The Night' music video and I must admit I really do like it even though its quite sad really when you think about it, but now, whenever I look at it I will think of my friend :D 

Katie
xoxo

Last Minute Halloween DIY's

I know it's super late but I just completely forgot about Halloween but here are some gorgeous printables and DIY's for you guys...

1. Candy jar and Potion Printables

http://blog.hwtm.com/2011/10/spells-and-potions-halloween-creepy-jars-candy-labels-free-printables/

2.Creepy Drink Printables

http://blog.hwtm.com/2011/10/spells-potions-halloween-creepy-drinks-free-printables/

3. Halloween party set

http://www.mygrafico.com/freebies/free-printable-halloween-party-kit/prod_5511.html

4. DIY Freestanding Ghost

http://mamaguru.com/cheesecloth-ghost-craft/

5. Witchs brew frappucino flavour

http://lifeinthethriftylane.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/witchs-brew-frappuccino-flavor.html

6.Halloween Paper Pack

http://www.mygrafico.com/freebies/halloween-10-digital-papers/prod_5565.html

7.Witch's fingers pretzel sticks

http://gandcjohnson.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/halloween-treats.html

8. Glowing Jars

http://www.intimateweddings.com/blog/diy-glow-jars-tutorial/

9.Cutlery packs

http://fun.kyti.me/index.php/2012/10/eat-drink-be-wicked/

10. Easy Pumpkin Favours

http://blogs.babble.com/the-new-home-ec/2012/10/16/10-diy-halloween-treat-bags/

I hope this makes up for the fact that I'm so late! ;)

Katie
xoxo

My Top 5 Craft Blogs

This is just a post about my top five favourite blogs for craft plus I put them in order so you can see which are my favourites...

1 Eat Drink Chic by Amy Moss I simply ADORE the printables that Amy Moss designs as you might be able to tell by the amount I link them :) The first post I ever came across of hers was her Ice Cream Parlour Buffet Concept and since then I have been an avid reader of her blog. She regularly posts a huge range of printables and DIY's for the home that are simply gorgeous and oh so simple to make. NOTE: She is currently on a break form her blog but will be returning in November.

2.Funky Time by Sibylle This is a great blog and I just love the vibrant oranges and yellows of the sites graphics. Sibylle designs some great graphics and makes the funkiest DIY's, I especially love her recent ping pong ball candles, they are so cute. She also releases a quarterly magazine online that normally about 70 pages and contains articles from other bloggers plus DIY's, printables, up cycles and tablescapes.

3. Just Something I Made by Cathe Holden I get a lot of the graphics I use off of here, her site is just great! It not only has a huge (and I mean HUGE) selection of free vintage printables, she also has a range of DIY's. This is one of my fave blogs purely because of all the vintage stuff that she posts, which I just adore, I swear I was born in the wrong era! 

4.PS I Made This by Erica Domesek This is a tumblr based blog that I follow and the author has also released a new book to go with the blog. She blogs mainly about fashion and how to make clothes and accessories but she also does some tutorials on food too occasionally.  

5.A Splendid Assemblage by Dina Dina posted loads of great fashion DIY's and how to's especially ones that are inspired by famous fashion brands. My favourite of her DIY's was the inspirational quote T-Shirt, I robbed the quote and made my own t shirt with it ;)

Batman Bleached Tee

I made a batman bleached Tee over the weekend for my brothers Christmas present...I know, I know its far too early, but I wanted to try it early in case it didn't work so that I would have time to come up with a new idea before Christmas. 

What you will need:

T shirt

Bleach in a spray bottle

Card

Pencil

Scissors

Sticky black plastic

1) Draw your shape onto the card and cut it out

2) Now draw round your card onto the sticky back plastic.

3) Now put a big piece of cardboard in between the top  and stick the shape onto the tee.

4) Now spray all around the top with the bleach

(after one spray)

(after two)

(After the third and final spray)

Katie

xoxo

Quote T-Shirt

I brought a t-shirt from Primark a couple of weeks back with the idea of wearing it with my navy blue pleated maxi skirt. It was white with an Aztec print on it, it looked quite like this one from Topshop that I found online.

But with a little bit of inspiration from Dina over at A Splendid Assemblage I decided to customise it.

 I printed out the quote in a big font on to some paper then placed it in the middle of the shirt. As it was such a thin shirt you could see the words behind it so I grabbed my fabric pens and simply traced the words through the shirt. Then I ironed it and it was done, all in all it took me about 15 mins,well, if you took away the hour I spent trying to decide whether to do it or not because I was worried about ruining the top ahaha ;)