Category Archives: arts and crafts

5 tips for the weekend #7

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Wow, it’s been ages since the last “5 tip for the weekend” post, I know. It’s back again!

Btw, I recently noticed that some of your comments ended up in my spam folder – now I keep checking it regularly before deleting the spam comments (although that’s totally annoying…), but in case your comment went missing before I started doing that – I’m sorry! I love all your lovely comments!!! Maybe I just need to get a better spam-filter.

#1 craft idea: paint some shoes!

shoe refashion

source: E-outfit.com

#2 movie you should see

“Coco before Chanel” 2009

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Making a Tailor’s Ham and Sausage

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How to make a tailor's ham by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Hope you all enjoyed the long weekend (if you had one)! Did you use the long weekend for something crafty? Well, I did. Nothing too crazy, but I got a few projects done that had waited to be finished for a while.

I was sewing up a cute summer blouse and while desperately trying to press the darts into a nice shape, I thought I finally needed to tackle the tailor’s ham project I planned weeks ago.

I found a brilliant tutorial by Kristiann (the Victory Patterns lady!) who did a great guest post over at Tilly and the Buttons. Check out her site for the instructions and the patterns.

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Organising with Chalkboard Paint

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chalkboard paint organising jars by thisblogisnotforyou.com

This is a very quick DIY I did on the weekend. My messy boxes full of sewing supplies had been bothering me for quite a while. Normally I use plastic organising containers or empty cookie boxes, but buying containers can be quite expensive when you need a lot of them and I never find things after I put them in cookie boxes. I just have too many of them.

This DIY was inspired by a friend who sent me a picture of a craft/sewing room at IKEA Berlin. They had thread sorted in jars by colour. I liked the idea a lot – it looks so much better than plastic containers, is see-through (which is great for finding stuff!) and inexpensive.

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DIY chalkboard hairslides

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DIY chalkboard hairslides by thisblogisnotforyou.comHere’s another chalkboard project! It’s super quick and super simple and so much fun!
Just find some old hairslides or clips (I’m pretty sure you have them!) and spray paint them with chalkboard paint. In my last chalkboard paint project I explained briefly how to do this (please don’t spray inside the house!!)

The fun part is painting the hairslides after the spray paint is dry. (Let it rest for a few hours or over night, depending on how many layers you put on – just to be on the safe side! You don’t want to have permanent fingerprints on it – although that could be a fun DIY idea…) For painting them I used liquid chalk markers, you can easily get them online or in craft stores and they are quite inexpensive. Sure, you could use normal chalk instead but it smudges very quickly.

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We {love} Buttons – craft ideas with buttons

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Wow, third button post in two days – I certainly love buttons :)

Recently, I got some really awesome retro ones from the boyfriend’s grandma. They were so pretty that I had to take pictures of them:

we love buttons - thisblogisnotforyou.comI especially love these. The black/white would be great on a b/w dress.

we love buttons - thisblogisnotforyouCute for shorts or a white/dark blue blouse.

we love buttons - thisblogisnotforyou.comDefinitely my favorites! They are quite heavyweighted, but the anchors are just adorable.

we love buttons - thisblogisnotforyou.comI’ve so many of these leather buttons but I am still searching for a project idea. Any ideas?

we love buttons - thisblogisnotforyou.comFor a detachable collar or necklace?

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How to store buttons {super simple}

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storing buttons by thisblogisnotforyou.comWhen I went through my button collection on the weekend, one of the things that annoyed me was that I so often don’t use pretty buttons for my crafting or sewing projects just because I didn’t know I would have had enough matching ones.

I really love plastic containers with many different small compartments for sorting and storing stuff, but I have way too many buttons for that. And there are only 2-3 matching buttons for the most part, it’s not really a space-saver. (For buttons I stick to my old metal cookie boxes)

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simply adding some uniqueness to your clothes with buttons

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adding buttons to simple clothes by thisblogisnotforyou.com

We are starting this week with buttons! Why? – Because everyone love buttons! (If you don’t, please leave a comment saying why!)

I will share some more crafty button ideas later on, but let’s start with refashioning some clothes (because that’s what we love as well!).

What we don’t like at all? Spending loads of money shopping just to see her with the same shirt or dress a day later.

Adding some –  fun – cute – nifty – buttons to your clothes makes them unique in only a few minutes. And you don’t need to be a seamstress to add some spice to your style. Just needle and thread – and buttons.

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Valentine’s DIY

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Valentines DIY gift by thisblogisnotforyou.comAs you may have noticed, I am not the biggest fan of Valentine’s Day. Well, at least not the commercialised holiday it has become.
Anyway, I love DIY.
I love handmade gifts.
And this one is so much better than just buying a box of chocolates!

What’s even better: It’s simple and quick to make and it’s totally up to you what’s on the “lottery ticket”.

What’s on mine? Truth or dare! Many, many fun, tricky or sometimes embarrassing pretty personal questions for couples and a few pretty fun dares (the pink tickets), if someone doesn’t want to answer a question he/she picked!

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Embellished Sweater {DIY appliqué}

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Last week I went bargain hunting for some easy weekend upcycling projects. (I wrote about it in my “When a Crafter goes Shopping” post and explained my “method” of selecting the clothes.)

Now it’s time to share my first finished project with you: the embellished sweater.
embellished sweater

embellished sweater


When I saw Trash to Couture’s post a few weeks ago, I wanted to try a knock-off project.
Unfortunately I didn’t have any nice appliqués, so I postponed the project.

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Free Valentine’s Day Printables

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Free Printable Valentine's Day Card

My passion for Photoshop got out of hand today. Here are some free Valentine’s Day Cards I made for you to download and print.

Just right click on the picture you want, save and print. It’s as easy as that.
I left some blank, so you can simply enter your own text with Photoshop, Word or handwritten.

If you have any questions on how I made these, do ask! I’d be happy to help.

Feel free to leave a comment before or after downloading. – I’d love to know what your favourites ones are!

 

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Sewing a Jewelry Travel Case

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jewelry case tutorialhow to make a jewelry case

“Big girls need big diamonds.” – Elizabeth Taylor

What’s the point of owning a wide range of jewelry, when you can’t take all of it with you when travelling? Well, I probably could live with a single pair of earrings and just one necklace (sometimes that’s enough for weeks), but wouldn’t it be much better to be able to take more than that with you when you travel?

I lost a lot of jewelry by damaging and scratching it through storing it carelessly.

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When a Crafter goes Shopping

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Over the whole last week I was planning to do something crafty this weekend. Last night I sat down with a bunch of Burda magazines and a cardboard box full of fabric, determined to find the perfect weekend sewing project. Well, things always end up differently than you think. In the end, no fabric and no pattern was good enough and the only thing that I really liked would have been another massive project. This morning I decided to try something quick and easy – quick success can be really motivating!

I went shopping.

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chocolate bean pillbox {DIY in 15 minutes #3}

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chocolate bean pillbox DIY

Another DIY I did before Christmas: “anti-stress” and “anti-wanderlust” pillboxes!

All you need:

- tiny empty jars and bottles
- chocolate beans
- vintage printables + paper
- twine
- glue stick

chocolate bean pillbox DIYchocolate bean pillbox DIY

I used a tiny jam jar and a mini brandy bottle that I cleaned and dried up thoroughly. I sorted the chocolate beans by colour, to make the two sorts of pills look differently.

For making the labels I used free vintage printables I found online. Here are some of my favorites:

- free collage sheets

- vintage grunge printables

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knotted necklace {diy}

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I made this neckace months ago, but couldn’t post it since I made it for someone who reads this blog frequently for Christmas…well, here it is. It’s fairly easy to do, but it took me about 2-3 Gilmore Girls episodes until I had threaded all the beads. (Don’t ask how many – I didn’t count!)

I used three different colours of tube beads in random order.

I basically made two strings (each consisting of eight single strings) and knotted them together using the Double Carrick Bend and twisted the ends.

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upcycling a lamp with handmade paper

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I upcycled this old lamp from my parents today. Quick, inexpensive and pretty, such a fun thing to do! It took no longer than 30 minutes and all I used was a sheet of handmade paper bought in a stationary store and double-sided adhesive tape.

The paper was beautiful and not expensive at all.

Finding the right size for the pattern was a little tricky. Make sure your sheet of paper is big enough!

 

This post was featured:

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DIY Christmas gift tags

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I finally wrapped up all the presents. This year I used handmade gift tags.

I printed the picture/text I wanted to be on the tags on white cotton. One could also just plain white paper, but cotton looks much nicer. I got the picture from Two Things In Common.

I glued the cotton cut-outs on green paper and embellished the gift tags with gold thread.

 

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How to make a mobile phone case {the sewing}

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After making the pattern – here comes the fun part: the sewing.

If you haven’t done the pattern yet, here’s a link to the pattern making tutorial:
 #1 transfer the pattern onto the fabric

Note that you won’t need to add seam allowance any more. You will need two pieces for the outer and the inner fabric and one piece of fusible interfacing.

#2 transfer the pattern onto the interfacing

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How to make a mobile phone case {the custom pattern}

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Maybe you still need an idea for a last minute Christmas gift? Or you have a mobile phone yourself that just doesn’t seem to fit in any case? Or maybe you simply want to customise a phone case for fun.

Well anyway, this is part 1 of How to Make a Mobile Phone Case where I show how to make a custom-made pattern. And it’s fairly quick and easy. Pattern-making and sewing together takes about an hour. But if you’re figuring it out for the first time it might take a little longer.

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DIY grape-earrings and matching bracelet

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I made those a long long time ago, but I wanted to share this anyway.
I made two identical bracelets, one for my best friend and one for me. The matching grape earrings I made for myself. All I used were glass and plastic rocaille beads, earring hooks, a silver chain and silver wire in different strengths.

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old to new [upcycling a stained shirt Tutorial]

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So I bought a white shirt. And spilled something on it. Of course, that’s what white shirts are for. Luckily the stain was on one of the sleeves, so I thought about cutting them off. I read a lot of blogs about upcycling clothes lately and discovered a whole bunch of knock offs of this jcrew shirt:

My craft alarms set off and I decided to do this myself. Since I wasn’t sure how this would turn out, I tried it on a second, even older and more worn-out shirt before. Just in case. It turned out pretty well and now I have two – goody!

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