A Bird's Leap: April 2013

Monday, April 29, 2013

DIY Tropical Ombre Pot

We needed some fun pots to go on our balcony, and I wanted them to match our turquoise sun chairs. Some basic pots and spray paint to the rescue!

How to:

* Spray paint the whole thing white, with pot standing the right side up. Let dry.

(I used Valspar The Perfect Finish, Gloss White, about 4 dollars at Lowe's)

* Turn the pots upside down, and start spraying the bottom and the bottom edges with the turquoise: the color will spread a little while spraying, which makes for the ombre-ish effect.

(I used Valspar The Perfect Finish, Gloss Exotic Sea)

I like this spray since it is for both interior and exterior use, so I can have the pots outside.

Tip: If you don't want the color to get on the underside on the edge of the pot (as in mine), you need to protect it with something, like securing some kitchen paper around it to cover it while spraying.

I found the pots at Lowe's, but there are some cheaper ones in IKEA. Those we're a bit too small for these palm trees, though.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

DIY Playing Card Necklace

The first time I went into a Michaels I was very much amazed. I'd only recently discovered several good arts and crafts stores back in Finland since I was making things for our wedding, but the stores here in the US are so much bigger! With LOTS more stuff! So I bought A LOT of things that I wasn't sure about what to do with yet. Well, last week I figured out what to do with these mini "playing cards" I bought: a necklace!

How to:

Mod Podge together two playing cards, let dry.

Mod Podge one side of the playing card duos, let dry, and them Mod Podge the other side.

You could put on one more layer to make them stronger.

Make holes at one end of the playing cards.

I attached two big jump rings to each other (using pliers).

I attached three different lengths of chain onto the jump rings, one end on each (using pliers).

I attached the playing cards to the chain with jump rings (using pliers).

All done!

Monday, April 22, 2013

DIY Save the Date

So I got the super honor of making our friends a Save the Date. Emma sent me a message, which I saw at 3am this morning (the puppy was making lots of noise...), asking me to help. I was so excited I barely fell asleep afterwards! So after all the morning routines I got to work:

They wanted something they could send out electronically, but these can easily be printed out, too. The theme for their wedding is lace, which of course had to be incorporated into the design. Emma wants to have a elegant, but still pretty wedding. No pink, no bows, nothing too cutesy. It felt like lace in combination with subtle monochrome tones would do the trick.

I had this lace band at home, which I thought would frame the text beautifully. Emma wanted something pretty neutral as a background, so I used this postal office packing paper that has these beige stripes. I scanned the paper and the lace on top of each other like this:

So get some paper/fabric/anything you might want to use as a background, and scan it.

Then I used a photo software (Pixelmator for Mac) to cut out a piece:

Since I wanted lace at the top and the bottom, I copied the image, added it on above of the first one, and rotated 180 degrees:

Then I used BeFunky.com to make this old sun bleached effect:

(BeFunky --> Old photo --> Old photo 13 --> effect at about 70-80%

There are tons of fun effects there, so play around to see if you find something you like.

Save at the best possible quality!

Now I needed to get the line out from the middle, so I used a blur effect to brush it out:

(So if you didn't double the image, you don't have a line to brush out)

Then I started using iDraw (for Mac).

At this point I made the file 1200px wide, just so it's a smaller file to work with.

Then I put in the text:

Emma and me came to the conclusion that it looked best when "Save the Date" and the date we're in a huge font. After all, it is a VERY important date! It looked fun, too, to have this fancy font for the big words, and a more playful one for the rest.

Then it felt like there needed to be something between the name and the invitation-bit, hence the little dots, which I also made with iDraw.

This one I printed out on on our regular printer, they'd look awesome printed on thicker paper (that can be done at for example Office Max).

(Fonts: Save the Date is Two For Juan NF,

the the rest is with A Year Without Rain)

Please ask me if you have any questions and maybe are using some other software to work with your design, and I'll try to help.

Want me to make you one? Let's discuss!

Live in the SF Bay Area and want photos for your invitation?

I'm on board!

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Slow week.

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to let you know I have a few projects done, but Husband is on a work trip and can't take photos. He'll be back Friday night, though, so stay with me!

Have a super weekend.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

DIY Leather Feather Necklace

I was going to participate in a photo shoot with a gorgeous model, and needed a statement necklace to go with my vision. I wanter a feather necklace, but those darn things are so delicate! So I decided I would use leather. The shoot got cancelled, but I am planning on using the necklace in some other shoot. In this outfit, I did feel like I needed to go out and about! Instead I got to change into my sweats and take the puppy out to do her business. The first chance I get...!

You need: Leather, chain (and lock if a short necklace), scissors, Mod Podge (and brush), leather hole punch, (pliers). You can find leather at crafts stores, but I bought black leather pants from Goodwill in the fall for another project, and still have plenty.

How to:

Cut out feather-formed pieces out of leather.

Make cuts along the sides.

Make a small hole (smallest one) with a leather punch.

Mod podge the "underside" of the feathers (watch out for the holes),

otherwise small bits and pieces of leather will be all over your clothes.
Let dry.

How the mod podged side looks after drying:

With the help of pliers, attach the feathers onto your chain with jump rings you put through the chain links and the hole in the feather.

Ready for the summer!

I am in LOVE with this coral color Forever 21 has all over their shop. Wish they had these pants (and a skirt I bought in the same color) in a lemon-lime-ish yellow-green color, too. Yum.

White top from Lindex, pants from Forever 21.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Interior Inspiration Quote Poster

This is a quote a friend of mine saw at a bath mat back home (xo is from me to you, though!).

It's not often a bath mat makes me think, so I needed to share.

I do get very caught up in having stuff. Even better if it is stuff I can make myself. Since we moved from Finland to California, we obviously did and still do need a lot of things into a house that for the first three weeks basically only had a mattress and the kitchen essentials. I cannot tell you how much our necks and backs hurt from sitting on the floor, stairs or on the bed for a month. For a long time we've been managing with the stuff that I've shared on the blog (dinner table, project desk, chairs, drawer chests and a bed). I thought I would need more (sofa, sofa table, lots of storage space, big vases, paintings, random interior stuffs, I could go on forever), but I just realized no new big additions have been made in several months.

The last 5 weeks have just flown by with our puppy Nova, and I haven't even had time to think about all the stuff we (read:I) "need". My sister is coming here to do some volunteer work, so she's staying with us for a couple of months. That means lots of photography projects; less time to think about getting more stuff.

So this quote really hit me; I've got my little family in here, and that's most important. It has NOTHING to do with the fact that I'm happy we don't have more stuff for the puppy to chew on. Nothing.

Have a lovely rest of the week guys!

PS: Send me an e-mail or comment with your e-mail (I just won't publish the ones with e-mail addresses on them) if you want this quote poster file sent to you as a bigger one.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

DIY Monochrome Reverse Print T-Shirt

So I'd really really love to travel somewhere. Anywhere. Right about now. Were hoping to fly to Finland this summer, which tightens our budget for extra stuff up until then... which of course makes me want to travel even more! For now I had to settle for this "Just Go." t-shirt, which I did in a sort of reverse print: the letters are not the one's that are colored.

This this T-shirt by Maria I saw on craftgawker gawe me the inspiration for the print method, thank you!

How to:

Draw your print pieces out on contact plastic. I just made the letters by hand but you could also trace some text you print out to make it easier (just hold the print as well as the contact paper up to a window, so you'll see what to trace).

Cut out your pieces.

Take off the plastic from the pieces, and attach them onto your shirt.

Take some fabric paint, and dab it all over your pieces with a foam brush. I dabbed the whole thing into a kind of heart shaped form.

Take the pieces off, and let dry according to the instructions on your fabric paint.

The red stone earrings are from a previous project.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

DIY T-Shirt Chevron Pocket Update

I got this oversize t-shirt which I wanted to decorate somehow. Enter fabric paint! I had some black and some gold puffy fabric paint left from previous projects, so this was a no-brainer.

Also, I am super super in love with this skirt I bought from Forever 21! Too bad the puppy will try to nip at any clothes I wear, so this is not an every day option right now...

How to:

First I did this zig zag pattern with the black fabric paint:

I waited for the black layer of paint to dry (4 hours according to the package), then I painted the golden pattern in between the black ones. Should be wash safe after 3 days.

Not too elegant in zoomed close-up...

But looks fun from a bit of a distance.

Both oversize t-shirt and maxi skirt are from Forever 21. My creme blush (Maybelline Dream Bouncy in Hot Tamale) seems to match the skirt color pretty well, too!

What would you have done with the pocket?

Friday, April 5, 2013

DIY Summery Mandarine Body Scrub

Today I really needed a pick-me-up: it's been a long 5 weeks with the puppy. She's got kennel cough so we still can't take her out for walks, meaning she's running up the walls and we're trying to stay patient, calm yet assertive. Not an easy job with a high energy Australian Shepherd who's got a lot of pent up energy! Fingers crossed we can take her for her last shots next week.

So, back to the pick-me-up. I wanted a body scrub that would bring forth the glowy healthy skin, while still nurturing it. And it needed something fresh and summery in it. Just using stuff I already had at home was a plus, since I didn't have the car. Hello, mandarine scrub!

I made this with 1 cup of epsom salt and 1/4 cup of olive oil,

I mixed in the juice from one mandarine and grated the peel into it as well. Done!

You probably won't need that much for one use, so use 1 part oil and 4 parts salt for the amount you want. I'm not sure this will hold up more than a couple of days in the fridge.

If you don't have epsom salt, don't worry, you can just as easily use sugar or another type of salt.

(I bought the epsom salt at Target Pharmacy for about 3 dollars, and it's huge!).

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Hideaway: Anna-Rosa at MyLifebox blog

So I'm super excited about this one! Anna-Rosa, the Crete based blogger from MyLifebox has posted some awesome DIYs and recipes, but I was curious to see more. Now she lets ut take a rare peek at how she lives. I love her black and white crafts and am happy to see her home follows suit:

Gotta love a simple way to keep your crafts tools visible (DIY):

Annarosa came up with several awesome ways to display art (DIY),

here are two of them:

I love the different monochrome works of art that pop up here and there.

She studies architecture, so why not show it in her home?

Clever use of washi tape (DIY) as photo frames:

Anna-Rosa's boxer Booky looks comfortable :)

Thank you Anna-Rosa for sharing with us!

She also has a blog for her photography, this girl is a multi talent!

If you want to participate with your own hideaway:

E-mail me 3-10 photos (600px wide if square or horizontal, 400px if vertical) of your hideaway, preferably including some DIYd projects or handmade things.

I'll showcase the most suitable entries here on the blog. If you have links to the DIY projects or just want me to link to your own blog, I'm more than happy to!

Welcome,

Glad you're here!

I want to get you excited about making life a bit more beautiful, by doing things yourself. A big thanks to my friends for modeling!

PS: If you blog about my projects, please use only one of my photos and include a link back to my original post. I would also appreciate it if you leave me a comment with your post's url :) Thank you!