Pintrest Project #5: Chic Headband Organizer

Difficulty: Piece of Cake
Cost: $$
Time: 30 mins, plus drying time

Point of Project: To organize/display all of the adorable headbands that I have. Also to create storage for other hair accessories, like barrettes, hair ties, ect.

Infant/Toddler size finished organizer

I know this beginning part gets super repetitive, but as an English minor in college, giving credit to the origin of something was drilled into me; plus the creator deserves credit for the genius, not me:) So without further ado, I found this project from a fellow blogger Ruffled Sunshine via Pintrest. I think this idea is stellar and is a project that I did with my Sister-In-Law last night. I put a little twist on it though; using shimmer Mod Podge to coat the scrapbook paper, which I have some extra tips for. It gives it an extra flair and I think it will keep the paper from getting beat up as you take headbands on and off over time.

Materials:

• 2 large pieces of square scrapbook paper (I believe they are 12x12); printed or solid this is your choice
• Stickers for the lid (optional)
• clear tape
• Shimmer & or Matte Mod Podge whichever you prefer (optional)
• Brush for Mod Podge application (again, also optional)
• large canister, like one from Poppycock or Quaker Oatmeal **HoT TiP** the Quaker Oatmeal canister's circumference was perfect for infant-toddler size headbands, while the Poppycock canister fit adult headbands great.
• Short candle holder
• Hot glue gun and glue- got mine from Wal-mart for less than $4 including the glue!

Directions:

1. Clean out the inside of your canister and top of the candle holder. **HoT TiP** Also take off the labels on your canisters if possible because it will help to prevent the scrapbook paper from bubbling when you apply the Mod Podge layers.
2. Take off the canister's lid and cut your scrapbook paper to fit your canister using the top and bottom edged as your guide.
3. Tape your scrapbook paper in place on one end.
4. Starting at where paper is taped apply a thin layer of Matte Mod Podge with your brush to canister and work your way around applying the paper to the top of the Mod Podge layer as you go.
5. Rinse your brush with water.
6. Apply Shimmer (or Matte) over the paper so that it covers the entire canister. **HoT TiP** if you do decide to use the shimmer, dilute it with the Matte Mod Podge so your paper design is still visible and you get a slight shimmer.
7. Rinse your brush with water so it doesn't dry hard from the Mod Podge.
8. Let canister dry for a few hours, or overnight.
9. Hot glue the bottom of the canister to the candle holder and let dry.
10. You can apply stickers to the lid at this time if you would like. You could also apply the same paper to the lid with Shimmer Mod Podge if you wanted
11. Place headbands around the canister for a darling display and put your other hair accessories inside!

My adorable little niece with her new headband organizer:)

Pintrest Project #4: Pop of Color Toes

Difficulty: Middle of the Road
Cost: $
Point of Project: to get a salon design on my toes without the price

So this is a bit different than the rest of my DIY Pintrest projects, but still a money saver. The original pin was on fingernails, but I thought it would be adorable on toes! Please also let me apologize now for my less than beautiful toes:) Going back to the money saving aspect, the pedicures that I have had before cost around $25, then $5 per design; hence the reason I usually only get a design on my big toe. So $30 plus a tip is a lot to pay for pretty feet and this design is so easy, yet super fun. The next time I do this will probably be in the summer, but I was to excited to try it out, so here we are mid-January with my Pop of Color Toes!

Supplies:

• feet :)
• Bright white nail polish
• 5 to 6 other brightly colored nail polishes
• Clear Top Coat

Directions

1. Make sure your feet and toe nails are clean. Then paint each nail with 1 to 2 coats (depending on how it is covering) of white nail polish.
2. Wait for the white to dry COMPLETELY- do not get impatient people!
3. Open your first color and wipe off the brush on the inside of your bottle as best you can so there is mostly just color on the tip. Then gently dab three little circles, or "pops" per toe in a triangle pattern. For your left foot you will do this in the upper right corner; your right foot will be in the upper left corner.
4. Repeat this process until you have used all of your bright colors or you run out of room. You may not get a triangle pattern for each color but try to fill in the upper corners so the "pops" are close together.
5. Wait for your "pops" to try COMPLETELY- again do not get impatient. If they aren't dry when you apply the Top Coat, they will smear and your effect is ruined.
6. Apply a good coat of Top Coat over the top to protect the design and make it shiny and even. Wait for this to dry before you move around- you don't want to smudge this and then have to start all over:)

Pintrest Project #3: Falling in Love Tree

Level of Difficulty: Middle of the Road

Cost: $

Time: 1 hour

Point of the Project: to make a memento of a song or other words that are important to you and a loved one.

This is a project I found posted on Pintrest that was pinned from a seller on Etsy. This seller will do them for you for $72, but I thought with a little creative thinking I could make them for much less. Which I did. It only cost me roughly $11!!! This would be a great gift for anniversaries!

Materials:

• A pre-matted frame to hold an 8x11 picture ( Mine is a cheap frame from Wal-Mart that cost me $3.00 or so)
• 1 8x11 sheet of paper that has the lyrics of your song printed repeatedly down the whole page (white printer paper from home)
• Scissors (had at home)
• Colored scrapbook paper (Hobby Lobby, $0.59)
• Matching colored embroidery thread (Hobby Lobby, $0.98)
• Scotch Foam Mounting Tape (Target, $5.99)
• Pencil
• Computer with internet and printer

Directions:

1. Find the lyrics to the song you want to use, or the poem, etc...from the intenet and copy and paste them into a Word document. Be sure to put the song into a continuous format (See example below)

"Then" I remember trying not to stare the night that I first met you. You had me mesmerized.  And three weeks later in the front porch light taking 45 minutes to kiss goodnight. I hadn't told you yet I thought I loved you then. Now you're my whole life. Now you're my whole world. I just can't believe the way I feel about you girl. Like a river meets the sea, stronger than its ever been. We've come so far since that day and I thought I loved you then. I remember taking you back to right where I first met you. You were so surprised. There were people around, but I didn't care. I got down on one knee right there and once again I thought I loved you then. Now you're my whole life. Now you're my whole world. I just can't believe the way I feel about you girl.  Like a river meets the sea, stronger than its ever been. We've come so far since that day,
and I thought I loved you then.

  2. Fill the entire page with the lyrics by repeatedly copy and pasting them and then print it out with very narrow margins.

3. Turn the page over with the letters facing away from you and free hand sketch a tree without leaves that takes up the entire page. Make sure you complete a bottom branch on one side of the tree so that you can tie your hearts on it. The branches on the top can be incomplete as the will look like they continue behind the frame.

4. Cut out your tree and compare it to the matte on your frame. Make adjustments as needed.

5. Use the Foam Mounting Tape and cut out pieces to stick to the back side of the tree from the trunk to the branches to give your tree a 3D effect. IMPORTANT: for the lowest branch you are going to hang your hearts on, leave space to tie your thread!!! Remove backing from the tape and stick to your background paper so that the ends touch the matting on the frame(I used the backside of the glossy paper that came in my frame). You may have to do some adjustments with your scissors, which is fine.

6. Open a new Word Document and use a font you like to Type the initials that you want (mine were "C" and "T"). Space them well enough apart and from the edge of the page that you can cut out a small heart around them.

7. Use this heart template from stencilease and print it at 30% of original image size. This will be your template for your hearts.

8. Cut out your heart stencil and trace the shape onto your colored paper covering your initial.

9. Cut out your colored paper with the initials on it.

10. Loop two pieces of varying length colored embroidery thread around the lowest tree branch of your choice and tie into a small bow.

11. Then use a piece of foam mounting tape to hold the loop end of your thread (not where the bow is!) to your background paper. They should look like they are hanging straight down. Take off the backing from the foam mounting tape and attach your hearts to cover it.

Congrats! You're all done!

Pintrest Project #2: "I love you because..." message board

Level of Difficulty: Piece of Cake
Cost: $
Time: 15-20 minutes
Point of the Project: to let a loved one know from day to day why you love & appreciate them.

This is a project I found posted on Pintrest that was pinned from thestewartestate.blogspot.com. This is so easy to make and especially good if you are looking for a quick project that doesn't cost much or take a lot of running around to get materials. This would be a great Valentine's Day or Anniversary gift, or even a "Just Because" gift for a loved one. I have been writing a little something to my husband each day that he see's when he comes home from work and although at first he thought it was kind of corny, now he comments on it everyday.

Materials:

• a frame that can stand upright horizontally- I used a 5x7 frame but you could use any size.
• 1 sheet of 8x11 scrapbook paper in a pattern that matches your frame
• Scissors
• Dry Erase Marker to write, "I love you because..." and then your messages to your loved one each day

Optional Materials

• Sticker letters to spell out or a computer & printer to print out the words, "I love you because..."

Directions:

1. Take the back off the frame as if you were going to put a picture in it.
2. Use the background picture that the frame came with to cut your piece of scrapbook paper into the right size to fit in the frame. I do this by laying it over my scrapbook paper and cutting around the edges.
3. Now write with the dry erase marker, print out or use the stickers to put the words, "I love you because..." on the top half of your scrapbook paper. A good way to do this so that you make sure you can see all of the words is to take out the glass from the frame if possible and then put the scrapbook paper and frame backing in without the glass and do your writing, or sticking then. NOTE: If you are using the computer to type your words you will want to type them out on your scrapbook paper before you cut the paper to fit. I would just center your word on the middle of the page in the "horizontal" printing setting and then use the cutting method above.
4. When your words are on the paper in whatever fashion you choose, reassemble the frame with your message showing in it. Now you are ready to write your hunny a little love note on the glass with your dry erase marker!

Pintrest Project #1: Holder for Charging Cell Phone

Level of Difficulty: Piece of Cake
Cost: $
Time: 1 hr, plus overnight drying time for Mod Podge
Point of the Project: to keep all that pesky cell phone charger cord organized, easy to find and for travel.



This is a project I found posted on Pintrest that originally comes from a website called make it and love it. It was a super easy project and didn't take very long to complete.
Materials:

• a large clean empty lotion bottle- I used one of Target brands, "Johnson & Johnson" substitute baby lotion. ALSO, you want a bottle that is more flat than round so that it lays next to the wall nicely.
• Small bottle Matte finish Mod Podge
• Small brush
• Scissors- I found my kitchen shears worked best for this heavy duty cutting
• Exacto Knife
• 1/4 yard thin patterned fabric (I used calico weight)
• Pen
• Cardboard or newspaper to set underneath your project workspace so you don't get Mod Podge glue on the table, floor, etc...
• 16 oz. bottle of water or soda
• Sanding sponge (only if you can't peel off the labels)

Directions:

1. Remove the cover on the bottle. Make sure the bottle is clean inside and dry- you can wash it out with warm water and soap if not.
2. Peel off the labels on the bottle or use the sanding sponge to sand the words/pictures off of the label so they don't show through your fabric
3. Draw the shape you want to cut out on the bottle. I traced around the back label for the wall facing side of my holder and then free handed the straight line around the sides and front facing portion. Don't forget to draw a hole on the wall facing side for your outlet. I used a square shape for this since my plug in is a square shape.
4. Cut out your design. you can use the Exacto knife for the outlet hole, but I found the scissor worked for this as well.
5. Smooth out your fabric and cut it so that the piece will wrap all the way around your design and has a few inches left above the top and bottom of the design. After you have cut your fabric to cover the sides, trace the bottom of your bottle and cut out a piece of fabric for the bottom.
6. Lay out your protective layer of cardboard or newspaper on your work surface with your fabric (pattern facing down) for the sides laid out straight and with your bottle design centered with the front facing side up.
7. Get ready to use your Mod Podge! Brush Mod Podge onto the front facing side of the bottle and then turn it over onto the fabric. Add Mod Podge to the sides and wall facing side. Tightly wrap fabric around the bottle, so it's smooth and then overlap the ends of the fabric. 
8. Apply Mod Podge over the seam.
9. Cut off excess fabric on the bottom and around design of the top. Do not cut out the fabric around the outlet hole until the Mod Podge has dried overnight.
10. Apply Mod Podge over the rest of the fabric.
11. Take fabric piece for bottom and apply with Mod Podge.
12. Now let your holder dry on the bottle of water or soda overnight so that it's not touching anything
13. Use the Exacto Knife to cut the fabric away from the outlet hole.
14. Viola! Enjoy your new cell phone charging holder! 

Why?

My sister-in-law asked me a few days ago what my New Year's Resolution is. My reply to her was that I don't make them because generally, I can't ever seem to keep them.  Being curious, I asked her what hers was. She said that one of them was to learn how to do a new craft that she could use for gifts, maybe even Christmas presents next year. This got me thinking...

I also recently have become addicted to Pintrest. I have always been sort of "crafty" and when a friend of mine told me about it I knew I had to check it out (by the way, this is your cue to go Google that if you don't already know what it is).  She and I later joked after I told her that I had become obsessed with the site, that I can no longer take credit for my creative genius, at least not to the 50 or so friends/followers I have on my Pintrest boards:)

So back to the point: WHY have this blog?

I just completed Pintrest Project #1 and after showing it off at work, decided that I would start a blog to keep track of the projects I have done and also to review how they went. Now I know I called it 365 days of diy, but seriously people, that's probably not attainable for me time wise or financially for that matter, so my (drum roll please) New Year's Resolution is to do at least one new Pintrest project per week; besides, some DIY projects take more than a day to complete anyway with drying time).

So here is my coding for each post:

Level of Difficulty:

• Piece of Cake
• Middle of the Road
• Hard, but Do-able
• Basically Impossible...

Cost:

• $ = $0-$10
• $$ = $11-$25
• $$$ = $26-$40
• $$$$ = $41-$60
• $$$$$ = $61-$100

Here's nothing kids!