DIY: line your drawer!

I know I said I would show you what that cryptic photo was today, but I got a little discouraged ... I'll save it for later.  

Instead, today I bring you a quick, cheap and very easy way to dress up your drawers!!! 

Do you have a drawer that looks like this one?

I'm pretty sure everyone does.. Mine is the bits and pieces utensil drawer.. And I got fed up with mine so I decided to make a drawer liner to pretty it up.

What you'll need:

* Some cardboard - you can get it from an old cereal box (my favourite source).. I found mine laying around on the floor. I'm not sure what it was from!! Perfect size anyway :)

* All kinds of circles -  Mine were left over from a little shoot and a present I made. I used fabric ones from this, as well as paper.

* Some clear contact - (the stuff you cover school books in). You can buy it from craft shops and newsagents and Big W (or Target, Kmart...etc) here in Australia.

Instructions:

1. Cut your cardboard & contact to the size of the drawer you want to line

2. Peel the backing from the contact and get sticking! Remember to stick with the side of the circle you want to show down (so when you flip it over and stick it on the card it will show)

3. Once you've put all the circles you want on the contact, flip the contact over and stick it to the cardboard... 

It's that easy!

Make It: Stick wall hanging

by FIKS*D 

Don't forget to vote on what you think I should rename my blog! >>

(There is a prize involved if you come up with a name that I love more than my own ideas!)

DIY: Date Book

Well, this week I managed to cross 2 things off the list! I finally reached 100 followers (I was sitting on 98 for a while there, so that's exciting!! Thanks guys!) aaand Mr Peck bought me a pleated skirt for valentine's and it finally got here, and I love it!! YAY! Feels good to achieve something! Do you think I should have a 100 followers celebration? 

I also managed to finally get another thing off my to do list... I made a  little book where Mr Peck & I can stash our date ideas and write a little something or stick in a picture to remember it by.

This year we're hoping to be a little more into the whole dating thing and try and be more spontaneous and adventurous. To help along the process I thought it might be nice to have dates kind of pre-planned so on date night/day we can whip out the book and have an idea there. I think it will help get rid of boring movie/fast food dates. 

I've made a little tutorial for you guys so you can make it too! 

I have written a tutorial for a notebook before but this one has some extra features.

You will need: 

A ruler, craft knife, pencil, card (or a cereal box), small envelopes, split pins, a rubber band, paper for the pages, paper for the date ideas, paint, stamps, glue or sticky tape.

1. Measure and cut 16cm x 24cm in brown card (I use cereal boxes) as well as as many sheets of paper for the inside as you want. I used 12 sheets of office paper to make 24 spreads. Measure to the middle (12cm along the 24cm side) and score down the card only. 

2. Clamp all the sheets together, this makes the sewing a bit easier - I've used dog clips here. Don't worry if your pages stick out from the card a bit, you can trim this later.

3. Sew all the sheets together with a sewing machine along the fold line - I do this by hand (eg not with the pedal) so I have more control. I use a normal needle and cotton with a medium sized straight stitch. You could use thicker cotton for a stronger bind, but I've never had any trouble with mine. You might want to coat the stitching with some wood glue once you're done for extra strength.

4. Decorate! These are some hand carved stamps I made from erasers. Let me know if you want a tutorial on that... It's super easy. I use regular acrylic paint for the stamping because I don't have any ink.

5. For keeping the book closed, I cut 2 circles out of the card at 2.5cm diameter each and put a split pin through the middle of each. I measured 12cm from the top and about 2.5cm in from the edge and used a pin to create a small hole. This made it a lot easier to poke the split pins in. When you split the split pins, make sure you leave a little gap between the circle and the book for the tie or band to fit in. I used a rubber band to close it all up.

6. Stick in little envelopes to keep your date ideas in. 

7. I used my stamp again to decorate the paper that we write the ideas on.

Then you just have to think of a whole bunch of date ideas! I like the idea of pre-buying something thing like tickets or gift vouchers. Anything you can do to make date night fun and ready to go.

Projections

It's almost home time and boy am I excited! I have been practically counting down these last few days. We have been keeping fairly busy with trips to Yosemite and mini outings around LA. 

When I get home and sort through all the bazillion photos, I'll post about the highlights from the trip and then we can get back to normal! In case you can't tell, I can't wait for normal again!!

Travelling is super fun... but after almost 3 months away, I can't wait to get back to reality... and to making things! I've been so inspired by the blogs I follow and have compiled a little list of projects I can't wait to start on when I get home (which will be Saturday - we leave on Thursday.. thanks to the time different, we lose a whole day!)

Attempt to make my own stencil pillow like this one.

I have always loved the typography look and have been wanting to add it to our house décor for a long time... Now I might just be able to do it in an inexpensive DIY! Yay.

Knit Socks!

Before I left you might remember I was furiously knitting for my exhibition installation. I never posted any pictures, because I never took any on the night!! But it's still up (I'm hoping) and so I'll make sure I take some before I take it all apart.... Annnyway, moral of the story is that I bought some wool which had a sock pattern on the underside of the paper band that holds it together (what's that thing called?!) and I wanted to try it then but felt like I was cheating by doing any sort of other knitting than for my exhibition haha.... sooo when I get home I really want to try knitting some socks.. I'm a little scared... they seem hard.

Jar for new dates/experiences

One of the things that Mr Peck & I really want to get into this year is trying new things together. We feel like we used to do that stuff when we were dating, but now we kinda got boring. So, this year we are going to try and have a jar full of ideas for dates and things we want to try together. That way when we can't think of an idea for date night, we just pull out one from the jar. So I want to make a nice jar and put a whole list of ideas in it. I'll share the list once I'm done!

Design/Buy an awesome calendar

Along similar lines to No.3, this year I want to start putting exciting things on the calender! I think that seeing events coming up and being able to put things up on the wall is a great way of keeping positive and excited... So if I don't find a really cool calender, my plans are to design one.... 

Try a project with fused plastic bags

I saw this idea a while ago and wanted to try it out but never got around to it... now is my chance! I'm thinking wallets & totes... Can't wait to see how it goes!

But wait, there's more!

I have a whole list of other things to do too... mostly job related. This year is the year I start work... kind of anxious, hopeful and excited all in one... 

So first off I need to get my portfolio looking amazing..

Then I need to apply for a whole heap of jobs..

And then I probably need to buy some work appropriate clothes...

And if all the fails, I need to look into what it will take to start selling my ceramics!

I haven't seen the final product from last years ceramics class. (I glazed them before I left but they didn't get fired yet.) I'm hoping they all came out amazing and that I can somehow do a deal with college to use the ceramics shed... We'll see.

So that's my list! Keep a look out, coz regular posting is about to begin! Yay! So excited :)

Tour of a House: Easy DIY decorating

Hi!

Today I thought I'd share with you a few of my favourite elements from our house, and some easy ways to decorate a rental house.

Our house is definitely still a work in progress. We have limited budget and are renting so it's no where near what I wish it was, but it is a house and it is a pretty good one. So, I'm content!

This is a recent little project that I'm half way through. I've been wanting to do it for ages and I finally did it! I knitted socks for my table! hehe. I've seen the dip painted tables (and other things) and love the look. But I also love knitting and have been wanting to incorporate it more into the house. Very simple but cute and adds a splash of colour to the table. The kitchen/dining colour theme is yellow (and leads to the lounge with splashes of red)

I got these books for free from our college library. Every so often they have a book sale and then give away the ones they can't sell. I particularly like the one entitled "How Gertrude Teaches her Children"!  It is a cute way to decorate. The little moose came from Europe somewhere, gift from my mum. Also note pompom (very fun and easy way to add pops of colour) and min mini owl - from Tasmania.  (The lounge is colour-themed red - if you can't tell!) 

Then, there is the massive bean bag I got from ebay (as a gift for Mr Peck) which took Mr Peck and I about 3 hours to fill. It took 6 x 100L bags of beans and was horribly annoying to fill because it has segments and you have to get your arms in the bag to move the beans around constantly to let the others in!! Phew. We did it though, and only ended up with about 1/2 a bag of beans on the floor! Also note the milk crates... budget furniture at it's best!

And this is also another of my recent projects. I am drawing sayings to fill one wall in our lounge room. These are the 4 I have so far (the first resides in the bedroom) and I have ideas for about 8 more. They are just pen and gouache on cartridge paper bluetacked to the wall. If this were our house, I would probably get them frames and make a whole heap of holes in the wall to hang them. But it's not. So bluetac and my DIY washi tape to the rescue!

How to Make ... Washi Tape!

Are you like me and just can't bring yourself to spend a lot of money on things that even though they are really pretty, will probably just sit there for ages without use? 

I've always loved the look of washi tape but find it so expensive and hard to justify. So, I decided to get creative and make my own.. 

All you need is some double sided tape and tissue paper! Too easy!

How to curl your hair without wrangling a curling iron!

Hi!

If you're like me and really struggle with a curling iron or GHD but looove curling your hair then you may just have stumbled upon one of the most exciting posts of your life... Yup. Really!

I am about to change your life with one video. You will be astounded at how easy this process is .. and at the amazing results you can achieve. ... I think I will stop talking it up now, you can judge for yourself (ps, get ready to start laughing at my accent... i kind of rock the bogan aussie thing hehehe)

You too can go:

(my top is from H&M)

How? Just watch!

An easy way to make cute notebooks!

Better late than never I guess.... I am finally getting around to making the rest of my 30 Days of Creativity things before I do the giveaway.

Today I didn't feel like doing anything but I gave myself a kick in the proverbial and made a little notebook. Very simple and a lot of fun. You can get pretty creative with what papers you use but I wanted mine to be fairly minimalistic. (Let's not talk about the mess I made in the spare room while making this little number shall we? Really, I don't know how I do it... this is not a messy thing to do and yet I make it that way... >.< )

Click below for the how to.

Things you will need (and a running commentary on what I used) :

• 1 x cereal box (or similar weight card)
• A selection of paper for the inside (you can do whatever you want)
• 1 x sharp craft knife (sharp is good.. dull knives are the worst!)
• Some strongish glue (I used Elmer's School Glue - it's pretty strong but can also be pretty wet, so I used a paintbrush to paint on thin layers... which reminds me, better go wash that baby out!)
• 1 x ruler (I like my metal ruler because I can't accidentally shave some off ;) It has been known to happen...)
• 1 x Shipping Tag (Optional - I used it as a decorative way to close my book)
• 1 x Mini Bulldog Clip (Optional - I used it as a decorative way to close my book)

Step 1:

Flatten out cereal box (skip this step if you have flat card)

Step 2:

Measure and mark the size you want your notebook to be. My finished notebook is 13cm by 8cm so I measured 13cm by 16cm (so you can fold it in half to get final size)

Step 3:

Glue something nice on the printed side of the cereal cardboard (unless you want the cereal box look). You can make the brown the inside or outside of the cover, your choice.

Step 4:

Cut the inside pieces to size. As you can see, I chose a range of papers, including some images and lined paper for variety. 

Step 5:

Score the middle of the cover with a bone folder (if you don't have one, use the back of a butter knife like me), and inside papers if you want. I didn't do this but had to go through and fold the papers to make them lay flat after I bound it.

(make sure you score as close to the middle as you can - don't worry too much, you can trim uneven edges off later)

Step 6:

Sew along the score line. I used a lovely yellow thread to go with the yellow I used inside. Get creative, red would be nice, or brown to keep it natural looking.

NB: I didn't use the pedal to sew, instead used the hand sewing wheel option (what is that thing called?!), that way I had more control and less chance of breaking the needle 

(I have broken needles sewing card a few times.. always scary, especially when you are super close to the needle trying to get a good look at what you are doing!)

Step 7:

Once you fold the book in half you may have some of the inside papers sticking out past the cover - never fear, this is where trusty sharp knife comes in! Get your ruler, line it up against the edge of your cover, press down firmly and trim off the edges. 

Please don't cut your fingers off on this step. I didn't take any pictures of this step, I  thought that unwise! (and I don't mean the cutting off fingers step, I mean the other one... the non cutting off fingers one :)

Step 8: Optional Decoration

Take your shipping tag and score two lines wide enough to fold around your notebook - this will vary depending on how much paper you used.

Step 9:

Glue one side to the back of your notebook, somewhere close to the middle. (it's not too important - wherever looks good to you)
You could even sew the tag on if you wanted more sewing detail.

Step 10:

Secure with mini bulldog clip 

(I tried to use magnets but didn't have any strong enough. This would be a nice touch if you don't like the bulldog clip)

Step 11:

And you're done! Fill it with whatever your heart desires.. Don't be scared, just do it!

Hope you enjoyed my little tutorial! Ask away if you have any questions and feel free to share this tutorial around, I just ask that you credit my little blog :)

All photos ©FIKS*D