DIY : Making My World

[everythingdiy]

I always find myself using random pieces of paper to hold my place in books, so I decided that I needed to make myself something better to use as a bookmark. I've been experimenting with these for a couple of months now and absolutely love them.

Materials: colourful/patterned cardstock of your choice, white cardstock, black construction paper, ruler, pencil, scissors, glue, other decorating tools if preferred. *Here is a template for the bookmark designs as well: Bookmark Monster Template Directions: 1. Print out your template sheet and cut out each of the pieces. 2. Trace and cut the body piece using black construction paper. 3. Fold your body insert (smaller square piece) in half and unfold to make a crease. Trace the full square onto your pattered/coloured cardstock paper. Fold it in half along the crease and trace around the triangle on the cardstock paper as well. (The square is the inside of the monster that shows, and the triangle will be it's head). Cut each of these out as well. 4. Trace the largest of the circles (eyes) as well as the teeth onto white cardstock paper and cut those out. Trace the middle sized circles onto a coloured paper of your choice to create the colour of the monster's eyes. Trace the smallest of the circles onto black construction paper to make the pupils. Cut everything out. 5. Take your black construction paper body as well as a ruler and pencil. Draw in the lines from the template that separate the two side triangles from the middle square. 6. Glue your patterned body insert along the back lines of the inside square, leaving a little black border around the outer two edges. Fold in each of the side triangles, one overlapping the other, to create one triangle - the head of the monster. You will need to glue the back of the top flap to hold the two together. If any extra paper overlaps, feel free to trim it off. 7. Trim the patterned triangle piece (that you cut out along with the body insert), matching it up with the triangle you just made, until you are happy with the amount of black border that would be showing. Glue the patterned piece to the black paper triangle. 8. Glue the eyes together in their order and glue each of the eyeballs onto the head of the monster as well. 9. Apply glue to the top part of the row of teeth (the row before each of the triangles start forming). Stick this under the top triangle, so the teeth are attached to the upper part of the monster body. 10.  Add any other decorations you'd like. I did this with a few other designs as well - obviously just leaving out the eyes and teeth. Everything else was still made the exact same.

[everythingdiy]

I always wear different flowered headbands, and I figured that it was about time that I made one myself. After pouring over countless tutorials online, I finally found one that produced the result I was looking for. Materials: silk fabric, headband wire, needle and thread, hot glue gun, small pearls, scissors, paper, pencil, mathematical compass, marker, felt material, candle, lighter, tweezers.

Directions:

Take your compass and draw six concentric circles onto a piece of paper. Make sure that the largest one is a bit bigger than you'd like the overall size of your flower to be. Cut out each of the circles.

Trace each of these circles onto your silk material with the marker. Cut each of these circles out as well. These are the layers of your flower.

Cut five slits into each of the circles, creating petals for the flowers. You can slightly round off each of the edges as well to resemble petals even further.

Light your candle. Be very careful with these following steps! Briefly hold each of the individual petals a few inches over the candle flame, just until the edge start to curl into the center. Continue this procedure with each of the petals on each layer of your flower.

Once you have finished the layers to your desired preference, stack them on top of each other - largest at the bottom - to create your flower.

With a needle and thread, sew the layers together.

Cut two small circles out of the felt material. These will be the base for your flower to attach to the headband.

With your hot glue gun, glue one of the felt circles to the headband, and the other to the back of the flower. Then glue the two of them together - attaching the flower to the headband.

Apply glue to the back of some small pearls and lay them into the center of your flower with tweezers. This keeps the mess from the glue limited and ensures that your pearls find the correct placement.

Hot glue dries very quickly, so your headband is ready to wear momentarily.

I'm definitely going to be making a bunch more of there in different colours, sizes and styles. The possibilities for additions are endless.

[everythingdiy]

When I was younger, my Nana and I used to collect stamps together. As a result of which, I have acquired a large box of stamps that is sitting in my basement - some in books, some not. I wanted to do display them somehow, and when I came across a photo of a table being done, I  had to try it.

Materials: stamps, glass surface, mod podge (gloss), paintbrush, paper, scissors. Directions:

Properly cut out all of the stamps you would like to incorporate (some of mine were still attached to envelope corners, so I had to shape them first).

I set newspaper down all over my working area on the floor in order to catch any spills from the Mod Podge before beginning.

Take your paint brush and paint a generous layer of Mod Podge on the front of your selected stamp. Press the stamp face down on the glass and paint more Mod Podge on the back of it, and along the edges.

Do this for all of your stamps, creating a collage effect as you go along - overlapping some, placing some upside-down, sideways, etc. I also added in postage markings and air mail stickers cut from envelopes for extra effect.

Once all of your stamps are in place, paint a thick layer of Mod Podge over the back of them all ensure that they are all fixed into place.

I cut black strips of construction paper and fixed them along the back edges of the table as well (to make sure the stamps wouldn't tear from rubbing on the metal framework that the glass sets into).

Let everything dry. You can paint another coat on if you'd like to as well.

A perfect place for my stamp collection! And my table has so much character now.