DIY planters from yogurt containers

After a very long gap, here I am with a DIY. Weather is finally warming up and it is time to sow some seeds and enjoy the spring. I don't have a green thumb but I try hard to maintain my plants and I'm positive one day I will grow plants that produce veggies/fruits/ flowers. I got a couple of growing kits from Five below to start with. When my mother-in-law visited us she collected a lot of yogurt container saying she will come up with a use for it. I said her I will keep it as long as she is here and then I will recycle it. In the end, I came with this idea of using it as planters for my plants. Let's see how I did it.

DIY Shadow Box using Cardboard

Recently, I made a keepsake gift using shadow box and when I went for shopping shadow box I found it difficult to find a size I want. This is a second time it is happening, The first time was when I was planning to make DIY Gemstones Picture Frame/Shadowbox. I couldn't find a box that it deep enough to fit the stones and also I couldn't find a square one. So I settled for a square one with less than one inch deep and decided to break the stones to fit inside. I thought I should give a try making my own shadow box and I am sharing it with you today. 

15+ DIY Easter Baskets that aren't baskets

Are you ready for easter egg hunt? Today I am sharing 15+ DIY easter basket ideas that aren't baskets.Why you ask? I thought it will be fun to make your own baskets based on what you want to fill up the basket with instead of getting a big basket and thinking of what to fill up the basket with or getting a small basket with no place for big items. Here are some cool ideas without baskets so that you don't have to think what to use the basket for after.

DIY Edible egg basket from The Krazy Coupon Lady

Picket Fence Easter Basket from Kleinworth & Co.

Beach Towel & Pool noodle Easter Basket from Down Home Inspiration

Another Beach towel Basket from Lovebugs and postcards

Fabric Easter Basket from Moda Bakeshop

Handmade Baskets with birch bark from Damask Love

Upcycled Grocery bag Easter basket from Lia Griffith

Easy Bunny Paper plate basket from Small steps online

Easter Baskets for Kids from Red Ted Art

Easy DIY Animal Baskets using felt from Atkinson Drive

Bunny Basket DIY from Mer Mag

Milk Carton Woven Basket from Red Ted Art

How to make a Wire Basket from U Create crafts

DIY Braided Bread Basket from Wonderful DIY

Easter Basket Cookies from Oh nuts! 

Are you making mini easter baskets for display or for any easter themed project?

Origami Easter Basket from Paper Kawaii

Cupcake Wrapper Baskets from the Tomkat Studio

Mini Easter Baskets from A Spoonful of Sugar

Hope you like this round up of non basket ideas for easter. Share what you think in the comments below.As Always I will be happy to hear from you.

DIY Flower vase at home - An upcycle project

Has flowers started blooming where you are ? In new york, finally temperature has started to increase and we are waiting for the blossom to occur. While we are waiting for it, I thought I would show you how to up cycle a found item at home to turn into a beautiful vase to put your colorful flowers for showcase. Also ,don't throw away those old nail polish during spring cleaning ,you can use them to beautify your vase. Let us see how.

Materials Required :

Any bottle you wish to use as vase (I am using sparkling water glass bottle)

Spray paint in color of your choice

Nail polish in variety of colors

Gold paint or enamel or spray paint

Step 1: Wash and dry the bottle you wish to up cycle. Spray paint them in the color of your choice . I used a white spray paint to mask the blue color of the bottle.

Step 2: I thought of adding, marbling effect to the bottle but somehow my nail polish did not work to bring out that effect. So, I decided to add mosaic effect .To do this, simply use your nail polish brush to draw a small patch of rectangle and repeat this in variety of colors. 

Step 3: Once the nail polish is dry, paint the remaining area in the gold paint .Mask the nail polish area with a newspaper and masking tape or painters tape and paint the remaining area in gold paint. (I used gold enamel paint).Here, I imagined the vase like a wall with half of mosaic and the remaining is just empty plain gold wall.But , you can even take inspiration of mosaic patterns and mimic them in your vase using various nail polish colors. Once the gold paint is dry, your vase is ready to hold the beautiful spring blossoms.

Add drops of nail polish thinner or nail polish remover to make your thicker and old nail polish to use them in the DIY projects as shown above.Why to throw them when there are lot of uses ,like this one?;) What do you think about this up cycle? Have you done any flower vase by yourself or you always buy them at stores? Will you give this a try ?? .Share them in the comments below.As always I will be happy to hear from you. 

Click here , to see how I transformed a Tropicana bottle into a vase and also to make cupcake liner flowers from last year. 

How to sew Tab Top Curtains under $10

When there is really a need and your budget is not up to the level , thrift store and some creativity comes to rescue. Today I am sharing How to sew tab top curtains for 70" X 40" window under $10. I was looking for patterned fabrics online to sew curtains for our living room and bedroom windows.I added the fabrics to the cart and the total was like around $80 to $100.And the retail ones were not up to our taste and budget too. We(Me and My husband) were like we don't want to spend that much for curtains as we are in rented house ,meaning we may move anytime and there is no guarantee that we can use the same curtain in the house we may move in future. And my husband suggested rather you can buy craft supplies for that ;) . I was like Ahhh !!! That sounds a good deal :P. So, we decided to thrift for fabric to make our own curtains. You may be lucky enough to get appropriate sized curtain for your window but we are not .We only got a over sized curtain.But I made it to fit the window size. Here is how I did.  

Materials required :

Fabric for curtain - In my case 1 oversized curtain (Approx 70" x 58") ($5.99)

10 buttons for tabs - $2.00

Sewing machine

Matching thread 

Iron

Seam ripper

Velcro (Optional)

Step 1: Wash and dry the fabrics .Plan on how you are going to utilize the available fabric to sew the curtain of your desired size. The curtain I got was approx 70" X 58" as mentioned and so I decided to use the bottom part of the curtain to make 2 separate curtains and top part for making tabs.

Why tab top ? Because the rod was fixed to the window frame in such way it is difficult to use rod pocket kind of curtains .So, I ended up making tab top so it is easy to put on and it take it out for laundry and other stuffs.

Why 2 curtains? We have Air conditioner in one part of the window ,so I thought of making the curtains easy to fold it into half and secure it with velcro during summer time and leave it full during the winter.

Step 2: Once you are done planning , cut the fabric. I cut the bottom part into half to make it two curtains and made a template for the tab using a paper. I just folded the paper across the rod to find out the approximate length for the tab. My template ended up with 9" length and 1.5" width. Pin the template to the fabric and cut two pieces for each tab. I decided to make 5 tabs for each curtain. This may vary according to your window size.

Step 3: Sew the tabs with 1/8" of seam allowance with right sides facing each other on all the sides  leaving the top opening. Turn it inside out. I just used my fingers to stuff ,push and turn .You can use any stick like thing for help or just use fingers . Iron the tabs.

Step 4: Stitch the button holes for all the tabs. Change the feet to button hole feet in your machine , insert your button into the button hole feet to set the length of the button hole. Mark the place of the button hole in your tab and feed it into your machine. Rest is the machine's job.Once done, use a seam ripper to carefully make the hole for button.For clear instructions of how to sew a button hole refer to your machine's manual. Because it varies from machine to machine.If your machine doesn't have that feature, you can hand sew the button hole, click here to learn how. 

Step 5: Fold the sides of the curtains, iron and pin it.Sew it to secure. Do this for both the curtains.

Step 6: Cut two pieces of fabric one for each curtain for attaching the tabs with 1.5" length and width similar to that of the curtains .Lay the curtain right side facing up and then position the tabs with equal intervals and then place the lining piece we just cut with wrong side facing up. Pin it all together and make a stitch.Don't forget to change your feet back to the normal one.

Step 7: Iron along the seam and turn the lining piece to wrong side of the curtain. Fold the edges and make a stitch to secure.

Step 8: If your machine supports button stitching , change your feet to button feet. Position the button in place , lower your feed dog and select your button stitch (I use brother SB700T).In my machine it is 40 .The manual says to measure the distance between your holes in button and set the width accordingly but for me it did not work. When I asked the lady with whom I purchased the machine.She said to not change the width and just check whether needle goes through the holes correctly with default width and yes, it did. So before changing the width just make sure it works correctly. Again if your machine does not have this feature, you can sew the button by hand, click here to learn how.

You know what ?? You are done !!! Once the buttons are sewn, you can now hang your curtains and be amazed at your work. If you have a Window Air conditioner like us , you have one more step to do.

Step 9: Sew velcro in between the buttons and the corresponding closure above the hem of the curtain.So, that When you A/c is On, you can just fold the curtain in half .Also sew the velcro in the lining before you fold and sew it along with the curtain.

Don't mind the insulation, we are still in winter ;)

Some extra points:

1) You can change the shape of the tab at the edge according to your desire.

2) You can make a top stitch all around the tab if you wish so but I felt it is good without.

3) Remember not to skip the ironing part where ever mentioned, it makes the task easier and neater.

4) The curtains were a bit small to the window size but it solved the purpose and so I did not bother much ;)

5) When I fold the curtains into half and velcro it, it seems like it is sagging a little but again unless I say, it is not noticeable and also it does not comes off.So, note that as it is lighter it holds but this idea greatly depends on the weight of the fabric.

So, what do you think ?Have I done a good job for under $10 ?? If you are on a budget , definitely check thrift store for fabrics. Search for flat sheets, bed covers for larger size of fabrics to make it into curtains.Measure your window size before you go to thrift and also remember to get an extra curtain or flat sheet or what ever if two or more is available in the same design you want. Trust me ,it will be useful to make some design changes later on. Share this your friends and comment below on your thoughts. As always I will be happy to hear from you,

Happy Earth Day !!!

As today is Earth day ,lets celebrate by making some recycle or upcycle crafts.I am listing the links to various recycle or upcycle crafts I have done so far.

1) Crafts from Cereal box
2) Eyeglass case makeover
3) Pen holder using magazine papers
4) Milk jug crafts
5) Containers Makeover
6) Glass etching
7) Flower vase from a juice bottle.

What are you waiting for ??I am sure you will have supplies to make any one of these projects lying around your home.Grab them and start crafting to celebrate the day.

Have fun Crafting!!

If you have any clarifications,feel free to leave your comments below or write to vikalpah@gmail.com.

Milk Jug crafts

Milk jug is one thing everyone will throw it after it is used.But I got inspired by the idea shared by Natalie from Creme de la craft and tried my hands on that idea.Though I did not get it right the first time ,it was worth trying it for 2 or 3 times.Yes , It was a sandwich box which she made from milk jug.But I personally prefer it for storing my supplies rather than using it for sandwich.I made one for my brother which he is using for storing his shaving kit.As always there are lot many uses for this milk jug but now we will see how to make a box.

Materials Required :
Milk jug
Marker
Xacto knife
Button
Elastic
Scissors
Piece of wire/Thread
Duct tape(Optional)

Step 1:Mark the shape to cut as shown below.Mark the three semi circle flaps in such a way that they should overlap each other.

Step 2: Using xacto knife make a hole as shown and use scissors to cut the remaining shape.The final shape should be as shown below.

It should look like this after cutting.

Step 3: Decorate the closing flap .I used duct tape to decorate closing flap as well as the small flaps as I didn't remove the stickers.If you don't want the stickers to be shown you can decorate it or remove stickers by soaking it in water before you start to cut.You can also use paint, mod podge & paper ,washi tape ,etc to decorate it.

Step 4: After decorating ,now its time for attaching fasteners.,I am using a button and elastic to close the box. Make a hole and insert the elastic inside and tie a double knot to secure it.I used hair elastic as closure.If you don't have one you can get the normal elastic used for sewing.

Step 5: Use needle and thread to attach the button in the closing flap or make a small hole with a knife and insert the button using a piece of wire and twist the wire after inserting to prevent it from falling and secure it with the tape.Yay!!! you are done.You can now use your beautiful decorated box for storing your supplies.I am using it for storing my craft supplies.What will you use it for ??

Another simple way to use your milk jug ,

Step 1: Cut you milk jug all around below the handle by using xacto knife and scissors.

Step 2: Cover them with duct tape and decorate it with some stickers.As said before you can also use paint,washi tape,mod podge and paper,etc to decorate it.

Step 3: You can also use as such ,or cut a strip from the already cutout piece of milk jug and cover it with duct tape and staple it on both the sides to look like "Basket".If you are doing it for kids ensure that you use a piece of tape both inside and out side to cover the staples so that they don't get hurt with the ends of the pins.Or better to use a needle and thread to attach the handle. I love this after attaching the handle , I felt like a kid and was walking here and there with this basket for few mins after crafting this :P And I am sure your kids will love to have one like this to store their toys or crayons.Or may be if you are like me you can make one for yourself :)

Easter is approaching and this is one of the best way to make a Easter Basket under budget :).Oh yes !!Forgot to mention.It passed the weight test.I tested with 15 bottles of paint (As shown).

Hope you enjoyed this post.Feel free to share your comments below or write to vikalpah@gmail.com for any clarifications .I will be happy to hear from you.