Archive for the ‘DIY’ Category

Remember last week when I posted that Cavern Arrow wallpaper? Well, a blog reader and blogger in her own right Ombre Ombre  emailed me and told me about these badass stencils she found on etsy called Olive Leaf Stencils. OH HOLY AWESOME.

(I literally wore the outfit translation of this room today. Im going to show you later!) 

I obviously picked all the ones I liked the best, but they had a much larger variety with a bunch of styles… not just these bold geometrics.

So all of you people that claim you rent and can’t wallpaper, DO THIS! Its so cheap($35 per stencil)  and cool, and if you screw it up, you can just paint over it.

I really would love to do this somewhere, but WHERE? I may have a tiny little wall that I could do it on in my kitchen. OR, I could scrap the hummingbird paper in the kids room and do this in a white/aqua combo.

Another idea, is to take the stencil and do something more intricate, like this:

This is wallpaper by the Paris based  company called Minakani Walls.  It’s obviously much MORE intense than the stenciled walls, but you could take the stencil and fill in each triangle in its own color. You could also do it on a background of something other than white.

These are just ideas… now lets see what we all do with them. Someone do this and report back to me please!

In the meantime, I’ll think of a project I can do. Even using these for Ikea Hacking would be amazing!

I’ll keep you posted- have a great day!

Aight, so this is one of my best creations ever. As you know, I got a new Fuji x100 for Chanukah. Amazing little vintage looking babe of a camera. I also bought the brown leather case it came with… which is also gorgeous, but I was eh on the strap. My husband actually gave me the idea to make one. Obviously, I hit M&J, and the strap was as good as done. Once you have all the supplies, this couldn’t be easier to make! When I saw the green and red stripe, I obviously thought: VINTAGE GUCCI! Yum, yum, yum…

You need:

1.5 yards of striped webbing… thats what the thick canvas strap part is called.

2 swivel closures -if the bottom of the clasps aren’t wide enough for your webbing, you also need

2 D-rings, I found amazing leather covered ones

2 buckles

Glue, sewing machine, or iron on hem.

(A lot of these items are available in store only or by emailing info@mjtrim.com)

Instructions:

First you thread the buckle onto the webbing, then you thread that through the D-Ring to which you have attached the clasp. After that you thread the webbing back through the buckle, underneath the first piece. Sounds complicated, but I promise when you are in the moment its obvious. Then you glue/sew or use iron on stitches to secure the end piece of the webbing back over the edge of the buckle onto itself. NOT onto the long part that goes around your neck because then you won’t be able to adjust it. And thats it. The whole thing takes 5 minutes.

The reason why you can use glue here, is because the webbing and buckle are so secure that even if the glue did open, the camera wouldn’t fall. We are just using the glue to hold the end down… You could also take it to the shoemaker and have them sew it for you.

(Thanks to Courtney of Breaking Down the Big Beige Box, for modeling for me! PS, she is so beautiful, look for more photos of her showing off my shit in the future. And guess how we took these photos? The Brown leather camera case is empty cause I needed it for the photos! )

I also made one with a raffia band, for summer, or you know, when you are on safari and stuff.

Even if you are a novice DIYer, this one is easy, manageable and professional looking when finished! ENJOY!

I made this DIY about 5 years ago, before pregnancy turned me into the most allergic to dogs person on the planet. Not kidding, if you have a dog and we go out to dinner, I start to get a rash, red eyes, itching, I’ve even had blisters. Last year, I slept at my parents house one night with my daughter when my hub was out of town. By 11 pm, I had all the windows of my old bedroom wide open and I was still wheezing…because that room is our dogs stomping ground. Finally, I had to kick my dad out of his bed and sleep upstairs with my mom because thats the only room in the house where the dog isn’t allowed. 27 years old, 8 mos pregnant at the time, and sleeping in a bed with my mommy. Weird.

Anyway, this dog leash was made back in the day, before I was allergic to him and Baci was MY DOG. I’ve had it sitting around for years, and I finally decided to post it. I took it apart a little bit so that I could show you all how to make it. It looks super high end in person, like Bottega Veneta.

Sources: Cord, tape, clasp.

I borrowed Truffles, my friend’s french bulldog for a little demo:

She was a great model! And how cute are her owners little rain boots with the bows?

Enjoy your pets people! You never know when a horrific allergy is going to spring upon you out of nowhere. Boo.

For my next DIY, Im going to revisit one of my favorite DIY’s – the lucite clutch.

When I saw these rings over on JewelMint’s site, I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to do with them… An Alexander McQueen style clutch. Those famous clutches have knuckledusters attached to a demure hard bag that almost looks like a sunglasses case. The rings are adorned with skulls.

Our bag, references that…first in that we are using rings as a handle for a bag and second in that they look kind of skeletal in an I’m a tin man kinda way. I love the idea of the acrylic box as purse… this DIY is so easy, and its super cheeky and fun…

Basically, you start with an acrylic box from the container store. Then you just position the rings, use a glue gun, E6000 or liquid nails to secure it, and hold it in place until it dries. Et Voila! In the past, I’ve drilled into lucite boxes to make clutches, but there was no way to drill into these… I tried!

 

Hope you enjoyed this, it sure was fun to make! Thank you to JewelMint for the fabulous products!

 

I’m finally get to show the piece I made with my JewelMint products! Sooo… I started with these faux diamond earrings. I wanted to give them a bit of an edgier look, something you could wear out at night to dinner, instead of just to a formal affair. First I thought I would neonize them (I believe I coined that word?) Like I do to everything. But then I decided to go for that dark, raw diamond look that all NYC’s chicest girls are wearing these days… Think big chandelier earrings filled with raw and black diamonds in an almost brass looking metal… very cool.

So first I spray painted them black. I had a moment when I wanted to keep them all black. But then they were too dark… So after they dried, I scrubbed the paint off parts of the earrings… thus giving them that brushed and burnished look. Truth be told, they looked awesome as is, and can definitely be worn that way… But I then decided to use a scrap of luggage colored leather to back the earring. To me… the look is very Ralph Lauren goes home for the holidays… you know? And the best part is… you can take that piece off any time (because all you did was poke the back of the earring through the leather) AND you can use multiple colored leathers to change up the look! (When they are on the ear the earring is centered on the leather. When you lay them down, it doesn’t look centered because the post is sticking up… FYI.)

(The look: Ralph Lauren goes home for the holidays?)

So at first I wasn’t sure if this was a good project… But I wore the earrings out to my friends secret santa last night. I didn’t tell anyone that I made them and I just didn’t say anything about them at all…. Lo and behold, ALL THE GIRLS NOTICED THEM AND LOVED THEM! They even put in requests that I make them a pair! Tomorrow I am going to show you how awesome they look on. (When there is someone around to take a photo of me!) For now, enjoy the DIY. Its so easy and you can totally do this to any pair of faux diamond earrings… I think Im going to try this on a pair of studs too…

A big thanks to JewelMint for sending over the products!