Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Custom Notebooks DIY

These little custom notebooks are handy and perfect gift for anyone like your husband, friends, mom,sister,brother.Believe me !!They will surely thank you for your little handmade gift.It will helpful for your mother to write her grocery list or a list of phone numbers(Even though she has a smartphone ,She will refer to her notebook) or for yourself to take to library for quick notes or your hubby to note important points at the meeting.You can make these notebooks at whatever size you want with the simple supplies at home.Let us start to make the notebooks.

Materials required:
Cereal box for the cover
Bunch of papers you want to use (I used A4 printer paper)
Needle
Thread
Awl or any pointy object to make holes
Xacto knife or any knife to trim the paper to your required size

Optional Materials For customization :
Markers
Colour papers
Glue stick
Gold foil or aluminium foil

Step 1:
Cut a part (Front or back) from the cereal box and trim the edges according to the required size.If you want want to add customization do it at this point.(Discussed later in this post).Take a bunch of papers(I took 20 sheets) trim to fit the size of the cereal cover.Fold each sheets into half separately and then stack them one above the other.

Step 2:
Mark five holes with the Awl or any pointy object ,2 holes (one at the top ,one at bottom) 1cm from the edges.Other 3 holes at the equal distance from the previous 2 holes.Make the holes in one paper and with that as a guide mark the holes in the rest of the paper and the cover.While making holes work with the set of 4 or five papers at one time to make things easy and also you will get clean hole in all the papers.

Step 3:
Thread the needle.(I used 3 strands of embroidery thread).Start at the middle point from the inside of the notebook leaving some thread to knot it at the end.Stitch along the holes as shown in the stitch diagram.I have marked the holes as A,B,C,D & E.Stitches as 1,2,3, so that it will be easy to follow.When you reach the middle point ,secure with the knot at the outside of the notebook and pull the knot by passing the needle through the same middle hole and secure a knot inside with the thread which we left at the beginning and trim the excess. Hurrayyyyy!!!You are done!!!
Start as shown in the left side and follow the stitch diagram in the right.

Finished look of the stitches.

Customization :
There are various ways to customize this notebooks.I will show some of the ways which I used.

1)As I decided to gift these notebooks for Valentine's day I decided to go with the Hearts theme.But you can totally customize it according to the occasion or your favorites(If you are doing this for yourself).I cut out some hearts and glued gold sheet (I saved this sheet which came with a snack bag inside :) ) to the back side.You can use gold foil or aluminium foil if you want silver colour.(shown below)

2)You can cover the cereal box cover with the colour paper and customize it.Do this before piercing the holes .If you don't want the stitches to show out you can glue a strip of paper and cover it(as shown in the pink notebook).If you going to present it to guys, go with some manly things like his favourite games ,mustache , shirt & tie(Blue Notebook), etc.



3)In this Notebook ,I just used markers to add some interesting emoticons and mustache .And I also added a pocket to the back cover of the notebook to keep any bits of paper like bills,some cards,etc.To add that take a strip of paper, larger than the length of the notebook and make a zigzag fold at the sides to fit the notebook and glue the sides and bottom part to create a pocket.




If you make any of these notebooks, feel free to share in my page.Also if you like this post, feel free to share it with your friends on facebook,twitter,Instagram or pin it for later.If you have missed my other valentine's day projects ,below are the links



Have fun crafting !!!





Thursday, January 23, 2014

Photo Display using Push pins & Corkboard

Normally, We don't see some of our old photos filed in a album on daily basis .It rarely happens when a friend comes home for the first time or some cousins come home ,we turn our albums to see how we were at the small age.I thought ,Why not to display some of those photos as a wall art so that we get to see everyday.Here is how you can do that.
I came up with this idea to use photo calenders of 2013.We printed 2 calenders for 2013 with our photos.As we are not going to use those calenders anymore.I don't want to throw away the calender with our photos.So I cut the photos from that to display it in our room.This is a great project to try on a sunday afternoon.


Materials Used :
Cork board
Push pins
Any kind of thick cord (I used woolen yarn)
Cloth pins
Glue
Patterned paper
Foam stickers
Rhinestones.
Acrylic paint
And some old photos (Of course, you can also print new photos which you wish to display to create this wall art)

STEP 1:
Do a little makeover for the wooden cloth pins used to hang your photos.(Just to add a little more interest to the display)
1st method: Apply glue and paste a patterned paper cut out in the same length of the wooden cloth pin.Add some foam stickers and rhinestone to embellish to look more beautiful.



2nd method :
Paint it with a color of your choice and add some stickers.Write some words that denote the emotion of the photo like :Love, joy , happiness,etc.






STEP 2:
Now that the cloth pins are ready, we are now going to prepare the cork board to hang the photos.
To do this ,poke five push pins on each side as shown.Take any thick cord (Like cotton cord or wool yarn)and knot it on the 1st push pin and go through each push pin in zigzag manner and knot the cord at the last push pin to secure it .

STEP 3 :

We are done !!!!!Hang the photos in whichever manner you wish using clothpins.Combine two yarn layers to hang the photos if your photos sag.This is perfect when you can't drill holes on the wall and you have a cork board laying around without any good use. You can also poke the push pin in some pattern like a tree or triangle on one side of the board and use the other side of the board to pin your notes or ant other papers.

Alternates for cork board:
Peg board, thermocol sheets or Styrofoam sheets.You can also use a old photo frames.





Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Wooden Clothpin gifts for Valentine's Day

I hope everyone is preparing for Valentine's Day purchasing gifts for your loved ones or crafting gifts for your loved ones like me.I will share with you some crafts with which you can make beautiful and tiny gifts for your love.



1)Tiny trick to say "I Love You" :
Materials used:
Cloth pin
Glue
Markers
Tiny bit of a normal paper and a piece of card stock
Rubber band
Red acrylic paint

STEP 1 :Cut a normal paper with the measurements as shown in the picture and write your message.Open the cloth pin and put the rubber band at the end to keep it open.Apply glue at the openings.This is the back of our cloth pin.

STEP 2 :
Paste the paper where the glue is applied and leave it to dry.It should look as shown below.


STEP 3:
Once it is dry, you can remove the rubber band.Now you can work for the front of the pin.For this,Cut out a heart shape from a piece of red cardstock to write "Open My Heart".If you don't have a red cardstock ,you can use any thick paper like cardstock and colour it in red to write your message.Cut it half ,so that one piece fits on the top part and another on the bottom of the pin.Voila!!! you are done.You can now open to see the cute messgae hidden at the back.:)




You can also paint the cloth pin with red acrylic paint, but it is totally optional.

2)Cloth pin Magnets:



Materials Used:
Cloth pins
Glitter
Foam stickers
Elmer's glue/Mod podge
Magnetic tape strips/Magnets
Markers
Acrylic sealer/hair spray

This cloth pin magnets can be used as fridge magnets to hold pens and grocery lists or can be used in your office desk to hold your documents or pens.So, you can make some of these to gift it to your mother to use in her kitchen or your father or husband to use in their office desk.

STEP 1:
Apply mod podge/glue and put some glitter on it and leave it to dry for 10 to 15 minutes.Be sure to have a paper under the pin so that you can collect the remaining glitter and use it for the second coat :).Repeat this step for 2 to 3 times till you are satisfied with the result.
STEP 2:
Use acrylic sealer or hair spray to seal the glitter.And stick the foam stickers and write your message.
STEP 3:
Glue the magnets at the back to use it on fridge or office desk.I used magnetic tape strips as it will lie flat when you adhere it to any metal surface.


Alternate ways :
Instead of glitter,you can also simply paint the wooden pins or glue some patterned paper and attach magnets.
Or if you don't have magnets, you can paint and write the subject names on it to gift the school going children, so that they can use it as a clip to combine their notes subject wise.







Thursday, January 16, 2014

DIY Image transfer on wood

Do you have a lot of photos sitting idle in your hard disk or computer or Instagram?Do you think you have to spend more to frame your favorite picture and hang it for display??No worries.Here is this simple way to do at your home.Pick your favorite photos and let's get started.


Materials Required:
Wooden plaque
Acrylic gel medium
Foam brush
Laser print of the image to be transferred
Gloss glaze.
Black acrylic paint(Optional)

Step 1:
Reverse your image in any of the photo editing tools(I forgot to do this :P ) and take a laser printout in a normal A4 printer paper (Ink jet print is not recommended for this particular technique).
                                          
Step 2 :
Cut the print into the shape of the wooden plaque.Apply a thin coat of acrylic gel medium(I used Liquitex gloss gel medium) over the wooden plaque as well as in the printed image.
Step 3:
Slowly place the image on the wooden plaque.When placing the image ,fold the image into half and place the center and smooth out the image to the corner using a rewards card/old credit card to remove the air bubbles.Let it dry for 8 hours.


Step 4:
Now comes the interesting part !!!!We are going to slowly remove the top layer of paper leaving the ink in the wooden plaque.:)Do this with a patience.Use a damp cloth and wet the surface.Then slowly rub your fingers over it to remove the paper.Do this in circular motions and from inside to outside.

Use a damp cloth and wet the surface.

Removing the paper by rubbing in circular motions

Few pictures in the middle of the rubbing :)
Step 5:
 Voila!!!!!Apply a coating of glaze to seal it.And now you are done!!!!I personally felt a coating of black paint around the edges will give a frame like look,so I painted the round edge of the plaque with black acrylic paint.(This is totally optional)
Before applying the black paint.


After applying the black paint.Which one do you like/prefer?

Few other transfers for your inspiration :
Using the same technique,I did three other photos transfer into different shapes of wooden plaque and have displayed it together in my living room.These photos are all from different occasion like Reception, Nalangu, Exchanging of garlands during my wedding.


I made one for my mother's birthday.Father & Mother into deep discussion :)A shot from my wedding.

Front and back of the wooden plaque.
Hope you enjoyed this post. These make beautiful gifts and also as an great gallery wall if you are doing your own photos like I did. Share what you think in the comments below. 

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Customized Earphones

Customized Earphones:
Materials required:
Embroidery floss & scissors.

Use embroidery floss and wind around the earphones wire.I used three colors for one and two colors for the other one.For the two color earphones ,you will need embroidery floss of approximately four times the length of the wire.No problem if you ran out of floss in the middle ,you can make a square knot and join another set of floss(Picture 4).
To start, make a square knot.

Don't trim the excess, wind around it along the wire so that they don't show.

If you want a break :)take a binder clip and clip it around the wire so that they don't unravel.

Picture 4 - If ran out of floss in the middle ,make a square knot with another set of floss and continue .


After knotting ,it looks like this.

A closer look of ,3 colors & 2 colors earphones

Final look of the earphones.


To make your mobile chargers look unique, click here http://vikalpah.blogspot.com/2014/01/customized-chargers.html








5 ways to Customize mobile chargers

Hope the new year is going good for everyone.As a first DIY of the year let us add a bling to your phone chargers and ear phones so that they look unique from others.When two friends have a same mobile brand in a hostel room or two persons in a house have a same mobile brand,there arises confusion.We always think ours is lost somewhere.To avoid this,let us add some embellishments in your favorite color or design .Lets see the various ways of  "How to " add that unique touch to your chargers.
To make customized earphones ,click here http://vikalpah.blogspot.com/2014/01/customized-earphones.html

Bling it :
For this you will need some rhinestones and glue.I used G S Hypo cement. Any strong glue is recommended.
Just add a drop of glue to each rhinestone and place it as you wish.Let it dry for an hour. Bling ! Bling !You are now ready to use.


Tape it :
Use duct tape or washi tape of your favourite design and tape it around the charger and at the ends of the USB .


Paint it:
Use acrylic paint and some adhesive stencil to add your design to the charger.Remove the stencil ,before the paint dries to avoid peeling of paint.


Stick it:
Use any sticker to decorate your charger.I used Martha Stewart stickers used for glass painting.

Monogram it:
Use any permanent marker and draw monogram on your charger.I used sharpie marker and first letter of my name.

Which one is your favourite way of adding uniqueness to your chargers?Will you try any of these?Share with me about your views of embellishing your chargers in the comments below.