Tag Archives: DIY

Peachy Lace/Splash Nails for Spring – do it yourself!

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Peachy Spring Splash Nails made with Lace by thisblogisnotforyou.comHello again! I had a lovely sunny start into the week and hope you did, too! As there are signs everywhere of spring finally having badly kicked winter’s ass, here’s a really quick spring nails tutorial.
Nails? Yep, I know normally I don’t ‘do beauty tutorials’ and my nails are most of the time looking rather damaged by all my pins and needles, but I found this lovely peachy nail colour the other day. I had the idea of combining it with a neon pink nail colour I never wear and I think it turned out great.

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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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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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How to sew a book cover {that fits more than just one book}

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book jacket

Do you carry your book around wherever you go? Well, I do.
To keep them from getting damaged in my bag I use handmade book covers. No dog-ears no more!

Depending on how large you make the cover, it will fit several books that are about the same size.

book cover tutorial

book cover tutorial 7

book cover tutorial 6

book coverFirst of all you need to make a pattern.
What you need:

book cover pattern15

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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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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 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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St. Nicholas Day treat – DIY in 15 minutes #2

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This is a perfect treat for everyone who isn’t very fond of chocolate!

All you need:
- a small glass bottle with a cork
- olive oil
- fresh herbs (rosemary/thyme)

#1 make sure the bottle is clean!

#2 wash the herbs and put them into the bottle

#3 pour the olive oil into the bottle

#4 cork it up

#5 posh it up with ribbon or a cute label

Done!

PS: The oil should rest a few days before use!

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St. Nicholas Day treat – DIY in 15 minutes #1

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This is so tasty and -believe me- takes only 15 minutes to make.

All you need: 
- a bar of chocolate
- nuts and dried fruits
- an empty jar
- sandwich paper/ baking parchment

#1 melt the chocolate (stir until smooth and glossy)

#2 drop spoonfuls of chocolate onto the sandwich paper (disks of 4-5cm)

#3 add the nuts and dried fruits

#4 put the tray into the freezer for 3-5 minutes (or into the fridge – takes a little longer then)

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like fireflies in december [DIY advent calendars]

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#1 overflowing waterfall Advent calendar

I got this one this year. I’m still overwhelmed. Can you believe what was in there this morning (1st Dec)? A second smaller Advent calendar with 24 different tea bags. Calender-ception!

#2 pillow case into Advent calender

This one I made for my parents last year. It was a last minute project (yeah, December comes after November, I should start to remember that…).
It took a few hours, since I sewed the whole thing myself. It’s basically made from two pillow cases, one brown, one red and small pieces of white cloth.

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sweet dreams are made of this [bedtime candy, chalkboard paint project #1]

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“It is one of life’s bitterest truths that bedtime so often arrives just when things are really getting interesting.”

— Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #11)

After seeing some pretty awesome chalkboard paint projects we wanted to do some chalkboard painting ourselves. So we ordered the cheapest paint we could find on Amazon. It finally arrived today and we started right away! We have guests over the weekend and I love to prepare Betthupferl (German for bedtime candy), so I had the idea of upcycling some old jam jars. I keep loads and loads of jars, sometimes they come in pretty handy. Since I never used chalkboard paint before, it wouldn’t have been great damage if the paint wasn’t good at all.

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the brightest star in the sky [3D paper star tutorial]

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I promised to post some low budget christmas decor tutorials. Here’s the first:

How to make a 3D paper star:

But one of my ‘by the way’s first. If you’re looking for a book to read or christmas gift, Marian Keyes novel ”The Brightest Star in the Sky” might be worth checking out. I ‘accidentally’ bought it at the airport and read it. Normally it’s not a book I’d grab, but I rather liked it. The characters are pretty awesome and so is the story for the most part. But I hated the end. It ruined the whole thing. So if you’re someone who never finishes the book they started reading, it’s perfect.

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come dance with me

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I did it.

After a weekend of listening to Sinatra and being covered over and over in tulle I managed to make my own Petticoat. Here it is:

 I wanted to do that for years and had the fabric and tulle lying around since last year. It took quite a lot of time (all that fabric gathering is very tiring and costs a lot of time and nerves…) but good ol’ Frank (and some glasses of red wine) helped me not to lose it.

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