DIY: Paper-Clips Turned Bookmarks

In case you haven't realized, I absolutely love the dollar section at Target. There are so many wonderful things hidden there for only a dollar! Back in December, I snatched quite a few cute things from there and among them were these adorable tab-makers. You know, the kind you use to save your page in a book, textbook, or Bible. I added them to my basket because I thought they would look adorable in my new planner, bur last night I had an idea.

I love using things like this to hold my place in my Bible or other book I'm reading at the time, but after a while of use two things happen: one, the paper looses it's stickiness (yes, that's totally a word) and, two, the papers start to get all crumpled and not very pretty looking. To fix the loss of stickiness, I decided to use a paperclip and to combat the impending ugliness, I came up with this:

Tape.

Clear, packing tape to be exact. So, basically I faux-laminated these little guys and turned them into "bookmarks" that will last much longer than your average sticky note. Plus, I think they're pretty stinkin' cute, too.

What I used:

- Page Flags from Target

- Packing Tape (I'm not sure what Brand it is, but any tape that's heavy-duty and clear would be perfect!)

- Paperclips

- Scissors

How I did it:

First, I laid a long piece of tape sticky-side up on my desk and placed the little flags on top. The only thing you want to make sure when putting these little guys on the tape is that the tape doesn't wrinkle. Otherwise, it'll make a funny little bump. Other than that, it's pretty easy!

 

Second, I put a second piece of tape over the top. Don't worry if the tape lines up perfectly on the edges or not because you're just going to cut the edges off anyways. Just watch out for those pesky wrinkles (;

Third, I cut out the flags so that there was the tiniest border of tape left around them, but you can do whatever you think looks best.

 

Fourth, I cut off just a thin piece of the packing tape and slide it into the paperclip. Basically, what you're doing here is making the paperclip able to attach to the flag, but still be able to open and hold your page. So, make sure that you don't just lay the tape over the top, or else the paperclip would not be able to open.

Fifth, attach the paperclip to the flag. I put mine almost all of the way down to the side without the detail cut-out. The farther towards the middle you place the paperclip, the less of your bookmark will show when you use it.

That's it!


Now you have cute little pager markers that will stick around longer than a sticky-note. (Pun totally intended.)

DIY: Glitter Reindeer Silhouette

This project has been floating the internet (ahem...Pinterest) for a while and I finally got around to doing it. It stuck with me one, because I have an increasing love for deer (which sounds strange out-loud) and, two, I. Love. Glitter. But kind of in a secret glittered-toenails-in-the-winter and glitter-pillows-on-my-bed rather than the every-top-i-wear-is-shiney kind of way. Actually, I don't think I own any clothes that glitter at all. Anyways, back to what we're really here for: 

 Most, if not all, of the versions that I've seen have done it with glue and sprinkled glitter on top. Which, I think looks super great. However, I was at Target the other day browsing their dollar section (which I absolutely love!) and I found a bottle of silver glitter glue for, you guessed it, a dollar. So, I decided to do the project with glitter glue. It definitely looks a little different, but I like it. Also, it only cost me a dollar, which is rather nice for this college student (: 

 What I used:

:  

- Paper (A heavy, card stock kind or, in my case, a piece of old sketchbook paper) 

- Reindeer silhouette (I googled it, printed off one I liked, and cut it out so that I had the outline.) 

- Glitter glue

- Pencil & eraser 

- Scissors (for cutting out the silhouette to trace) 

- Strong coffee. This is optional, obviously, but gosh coffee makes things that much more wonderful.

 How I did it:

   

First, I traced an outline around the picture I had cut out in pencil. Do this lightly, or else it might end up showing through the glitter. Then make sure you erase any pencil marks outside of the lines that you don't want to show in the final project. It's a lot easier to do before the glitter is added, trust me on this one (:

Then, I just applied the glitter glue in a pretty thick layer (think: the amount of frosting you'd like on a cookie, rather than the amount of paint you put on a wall). After that I just let it dry for the rest of the day and it was all done!

Heads up, the glitter glue takes longer than you think it would to dry because we're applying it on so thickly. So, give it plenty of time to dry out and try not to poke at it too much (I'm totally guilty of this!) because it leaves funny little marks all over it once it's done.

   

And that's it! It seriously is that simple, but it's such a cute little piece! I think it'd be really fun to do a saying in glitter, or maybe some other silhouettes in different colors. You can really take this project anywhere. The sky is the limit. 

 Yay!

DIY: Pretty Circle Cutout Garland

 

Currently, I live in the biggest room of a house shared with two other roommates. We affectionately call it "The Cutest House In GV". I've lived here for a little bit over a year and I'm still slowly making the house "cute". Sure, we've lived here for a while and all of the basic things are in place, but a lot of the things that make it look lived in and welcoming are still being added.

If I think about all of the things I want to do in the house at once (baskets here, new floors here, shelves here, etc), then I become incredibly overwhelmed. However, if I think it about it in sections, then suddenly I'm superwoman and I can do anything. This month my section is the corner in my bedroom that houses my keyboard and guitar and this project is the first thing I've done to make it look a little more delightful and a little less sterile.

I made a garland, or banner, because it was something that I already had everything I needed to make it, and because it's something that's easily changeable/removable. So, without further-ado, here's how I did it:

What I used:

- Paper doilies

- Tissue paper in white with sparkles and silver

- Pages from an old theology book

- Large hole punch (mine has scalloped edges and is about an inch across)

- "Rubber cement" because I find that it dries faster and holds better than normal liquid glue

- Scissors

- Tape

- Mini hole punch (which I actually didn't end up using)

How I Did It:

First, I punched out a ton of holes from each of the papers that I had picked. The amount that you make depends on how long your garland is and how far apart you space them. I wanted mine spaced pretty closely, but my garland isn't all that long. So, I ended up do way more than I needed to, but I just put the rest in a plastic baggie for another future project.

From there, I cut the twine in the length that I wanted (you could also totally use clear fishers line or floss if you don't want your "line" to show up!) and started rubber-cementing (gosh, that sounds silly) the circles to one side of the line. I did mine so that the "heights" alternated, like this:

After that, I put the same type of dots directly over the backs of these so that my twine wasn't showing through. Then, I hung it up where I wanted it on the wall with some tape (until I find some thumb-tacs!).

Super simple! 

(I also made the doily one while doing this, but it was so simple that I figured a "tutorial" wouldn't really be worth it. All I did was cut another piece of twine to the length I wanted it, folded four doilies in half and placed them on the twine once I hung it on the wall. Easy peasy.)

Slowly, but surely, this little corner in my room is becoming a whole lot cuter. Hallelujah.

"Vanity" Drawer Organization

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen: my first organization project on this little blog. Please note, I'm using the term "project" pretty loosely. This was a "project" that took less than 30 minutes to do and not a whole lot of planning (other than the fact I was keeping my eye out for some containers for a couple of weeks). 

Meet the top drawer of the dresser in my room. Currently, my dresser has four drawers (though the bottom one is like a double deep drawer and should really count for two) and I use the top one as a "vanity" drawer. What does this mean? It means two things: one, because I'm a college student and live with roommates I don't really have a space in the bathroom for all of my "getting ready" things and, two, I don't really have any sort of vanity to store these things in my room. Thus, the top drawer of my dresser had a job: to be the place where I jammed stored the things I used to get ready and just do life with. As you can see by the picture, this drawer was a mess.

I could not find anything. Bobby pins were scattered around the drawer, hairbrushes could go hiding for days, headbands were everywhere and nothing made much sense. Which led to loosing time in the mornings searching for things, which ultimately led to less time for coffee in the morning and we all know what that means (;

So, I decided to organize my little drawer and make my mornings a little less chaotic because, let's be real, this girl needs all the time for drinking coffee that she can get.

What I used:

 

- Two mini-containers that are supposed to be used for office supplies

- Two pink containers from the dollar section of Target 

- One white container that was already being used in the drawer, but not very well

- One Yankee Candle from a candle that is long gone

The Process:

For my little project, the process was pretty simple. I took all of the items out of the drawer, wiped the drawer down, and then separeted the things into different piles:

- Things used daily

- Make-up -ish things (Please note, I don't wear a lot of make up [read:foundation and mascara on a crazy day] so, I don't have a lot of things in this category.)

- Hair things (bobby pins, ties, head bands, etc)

- Things used not so daily (sunscreen, wisp toothbrushes, moisture masks, etc.)

Then, I put them in containers that made sense for me. I corralled the mess of bobby pins and hair ties into the little office containers. I put make-up related things in one of the pink containers and not so used thing in the other pink container. Then, I just put the more daily used things where they fit and made sense.

See:

Ahh. So much better then the mess of things that I started with. I can now see where everything is, which means less chaos in the mornings and more time to breathe and it cost me $2.00, which means more money for this college student. Not too shabby if you ask me (: