DIY & Your New Nest by Chelsea Barnes

A new apartment or house is a hard thing to decorate. Chances are you don't necessarily want things to stay the same. New decor is a must. In this economically taxing time, it is increasingly difficult to make your new apartment feel like your new home. This is where DIY is so vital. You can transform any space with the addition of a few new DIY projects. You can update your lampshades with these wonderful tutorials using scraps of fabric and ribbon. You can also create art for your walls using tutorials like this shoebox solution , or these paint chip art projects.

I'm currently moving into a new house, and the biggest issue I am facing is finding the space to put everything in an organized manner. Lucky for all new home-decorators there are so many wonderful tutorials available to teach you how to organize, clean, and even create storage for your new abode. There are even tips to teach you how to fake a clean home!

Check out this video from Design Sponge on DIY Headboards!

I hope these DIYs helped with your transition into your new home! Stay tidy & happy crafting!

Coffee Shops of Lynchburg by Richard Eaton

 Feeling uninspired with your DIY Project and looking for some inspiration and to get those creative juices flowing. In Lynchburg Virginia area there are many mom and pop shops and restaurants that there styles can be very Inspirational.  One of my favorite places to visit is the coffee shop The Muse. There coffee is always fresh and there are so many different choices. The atmosphere of the place is very artsy and a popular place for college students to hang out at. Another popular coffee shop among college students is the Drowsy Poet located on Lakeside Drive. Offering many choices of drinks and tasty treats. There is also live music on the weekend making it a great place to escape to during the weekends. The Drowsy Poet and The Muse are two of the best coffee shops in Lynchburg and are worth checking out during those time when uninspired feeling hits.

Lovely Lighting For The Garden by Becca Burke

I found this tutorial the other day on the lovely pinterest. It was really fun to do and the end product works really well! :)

So here’s what you need:

Mason jars

Wire

Wire cutters

Hot glue gun

Candles

Optional:

Whatever you need to decorate (ribbons, lace, etc.)

Sand

I bought my supplies at Wal-Mart and Michael’s. You can reuse jars from jams and jellies, pickles, or anything else that comes in a mason jar. 

And here’s what you need to do:

1. Measure about an inch from the end of the wire. Start making a loop there and twist the wire together below the loop.  I used a pen to make my loops identical. Make a bend in the wire to wrap around the jar.

2. Wrap the wire around the jar until it is directly across the jar from the first loop. Make a bend in the wire and create the second loop here.

3. Wrap the rest of the wire around the jar to the first loop and twist the wire around it to complete the wiring.

4. To add decorations, I put a rubber band on my jar so that I could make a straight line with the hot glue. If you are wrapping ribbon or lace around the jar like I did, I recommend putting hot glue on about an inch of the jar, then adding the decoration inch-by-inch. The great thing about hot glue on glass is that you can easily peel it off if you make a mistake.

5. Add in sand to keep the candle from moving around inside the jar.

6. Place the candle on top of the sand and light. Enjoy your new lovely lanterns!

Have fun with it! I know I did.

Make Mother's Day Special! by Ciara Hibbard

Mother’s Day is right around the corner! I was searching to find the perfect gift for my wonderful mother on this special day, but I was really struggling. I wanted to find something unique and heart-warming. Truth is, nothing is as memorable as something made with thought and love. So here is what I did…

After spending about 30 minutes in Michael’s, I walked out with 4 items that turned into an extremely cheap, easy, beautiful gift.

• 5/9 Mason Jar
• Sand (I got a deep salmon color)
• Rocks (I chose earth-tone colors)
• Small candle (Scent of your choice- My candle is 2.8 oz. in a glass jar)

I only spent about 13 dollars on 2 Mason Jars, 2 candles, a bag of sand, and a bag of rocks! Cheap, right?!

Now that I had all my supplies, I went straight to work.  I took the Mason Jar and filled a little over 1/3 of it with sand. The amount of sand you use depends on how high you want your candle to sit. 

Next I put the candle in, and left the lid on. It’s important to leave the lid on so the rocks don’t get into the candle. After I figured out where I wanted my candle to sit, I poured my earth-tone rocks around the glass of the candle. The rocks should be no higher than the glass of the candle.

Ready for the most exciting part of the craft? Light the candle and turn the lights out! The candle’s flame will beautifully shine through the rocks and reflect off of the Mason Jar. This creates a relaxing ambiance, with an even better scent.  The craft only takes about 15 minutes and turns out great! Top it off with a ribbon around the lid of the Mason Jar if you would like to. 

This is a fantastic gift to give to your mother if she loves thoughtful, heart-warming gifts. I know this will put a smile on my mother’s face! Enjoy!

How to get Mod Podge® off your clothing by Sarah Day

This month’s issue we featured an article on a DIY picture canvas using Mod Podge®. It only seemed fitting that our “HOW TO” this week was how to get Mod Podge®. out of your clothing.

1. Try to get all Mod Podge® off clothing while still wet. Whatever you cannot get off, let glue harden and dry on clothing.
2. Once the Mod Podge® is dry, take a butter knife and try to scrape off the glue. (Depending on how much glue is on your clothing you may not be able to get much off)

3. After you have scraped away as much as you could, take a generous amount of petroleum jelly (I used Vaseline) and cover the Mod Podge® area. Try not to get petroleum jelly on other parts of the clothing. Let this sit for about 7 minutes. Wipe off petroleum jelly.

4. Next, cover the area with dish soap and rub it into clothing. Let the dish soap sit for 15 minutes. Rinse the soap off but rub the spot to release any extra Mod Podge®. (At this step most of the

5. Lastly, run your clothing through the washing machine. Make sure the Mod Podge® is gone before putting clothing into the dryer. Wash as many times as needed. (Do not line-dry the clothing or dish soap will leave residue.)

Enjoy your just like new shirt!

Spice Up Your Closet With a New Summer Look by Ciara Hibbard

Every girl has that moment when they go to the closet and have no idea what to wear. After going through a day like this, I found a watermark tee from Ucretate Crafts and Sweet Verbana to give my summer wardrobe a little more flare. This craft is a super easy do-it-yourself T-Shirt project. It is somewhat of a lengthy project, but turns out super cool. I had to give myself about a 3-day time span to finish this project due to the drying part of a few steps. For starters, there are 3 things I needed to get.

1.  White T-Shirt
2. Tie-Dye
3.  Blue Gel Elmer’s Glue  ®

The first thing I did was wet my t-shirt with cool water and pulled the shirt over a water resistant board to separate layers or fabric, as well and make a surface that is easy to write on.

This next step is a little tricky. No matter what type of design you decide to use on your tee, you must make sure that the glue isn’t too thin or too thick. You want it to be thick enough that the dye will not bleed into the glue areas when you get to that point, but not too thick that you can’t read the words when it dries. After I drew on my design, I made sure the glue was COMPLETELY dry. 

Glue Too Thin

Glue Too Thick

When my tee dried, I soaked it in a turquoise dye--use whatever color you like! Keep in mind that most dyes will dry lighter than the color of the dye when it is wet. The instructions I followed didn’t give specific reasons for the drying process after it’s dyed, but I hung mine on a hanger which caused my dye to bleed into areas I didn’t want it to. So when you let yours dry, I would lay it out flat on your water resistant board. The dye normally takes over 8 hours to dry, so plan to have some free time to grab yourself a coffee, check out other cool HomeSpun DYI projects, or have fun with friends in between. J

Glue Just Right
(Photo by Ucreate Crafts and Sweet Verbana)

Take your dry tee and soak it in cool, soapy water for about 15-20 minutes or until it gets all of the access glue and dye out. 

When this is finished, just wash and dry the tee as you normally would. 

Enjoy wearing your new watermark tee!

From Trash to Treasure: Layered Candles by Nicole Kowalczyk

    

The other day I realized that I have a ton of candles that have burned all the way to the bottom that I can’t use anymore. For some reason, I was keeping them around, and I’m glad that I did! I found a super easy and thrifty tutorial for making new layered candles out of my old ones. All you need to buy is some candlewick string. This only cost me about three dollars at Michaels! Take your jarred candles and put them in a crock-pot on the high heat setting and put the cover on. Keep an eye on the candles, as they will all melt at different rates, since they are probably made of slightly different materials and are different thicknesses. When your candles are melted, decide what scents and color combinations you want in the layers of your new candle. Glue the end of the candle wick onto a penny or whatever other object you want to use as a weight, and tie the other side to the middle of a pencil, as shown in the picture to the right. Place the penny at the bottom of a clean, empty jar and balance the pencil over the mouth of the jar. Pour one color at a time into the jar and put it in the freezer for a couple minutes to harden between layers, so that your colors don't bleed. Once you build up to the top, you have your own DIY layered candle, made from stuff that you otherwise would have thrown out! Trim the wick and enjoy the sweet aroma of creativity! 

Reinvented Pallet by Matt Cooper

Final Result

I was recently racking my brain for a creative gift to give my girlfriend for our two year anniversary and saw this on Pinterest. We always try to find creative gifts for each other because we both enjoy heartfelt DIY gifts more. The idea is relatively simple but you can fill the pallet with quotes, song lyrics, poetry or even artwork. Make it your canvas and create something meaningful as a gift or wall decoration.

Materials needed:

•  3- 2x4 pieces of wood.
• wood saw
• Can of wood stain (I used a dark maple)
• Bunch of nails and a hammer
• Acrylic paint (at least 3 colors to add contrast)
• Letter stencils and thin paintbrush
• Medium and fine Sandpaper

About to apply the text to my pallet

1. Cut the 2x4's into 8 identical pieces that are between 18" and 1 foot. Sand the edges so they are smooth and even.
2. Stain the wood carefully and let it dry overnight.
3. Nail the boards together by bracing both sides on the back.
4. Paint your quote onto the boards using the stencils.
5. Apply a good thick coating of Matte Mod Podge over the front of the pallet to seal everything.
6. Find a place to hang up your reinvented pallet.

*Be aware that this project needs at least 10 hours of drying time between the stain and the paint so it is probably a two day project though the actual work time was only about 3 hours.

DIY Movement: Fleeting Fad? by Emily Hoosier

Handmade pride is making a comeback. I can’t remember the last time when sporting handmade items were hip, but I’m convinced it was quite a while ago. Today, college students are gathering for craft nights, knitting clubs are trendy and crafting is a moneymaking business! Handmade shopping bags and Mason Jars® are replacing designer handbags and crystal wedding glasses of yesterday.

Cultural shifts are nothing new. Trends and ideas have a way of circulating through eras and generations, but I don’t believe that DIY is a passing trend. The craving to create is naturally embedded in so many people whom aren’t necessarily professional artists living in studio apartments. 

Craft and art magazines, websites and TV shows are thriving because they recognized a need that was ignored.  Websites such as Craftcawker® and Pinterist® not only inspire cute and functional creativity but also lead us directly to the blog with step-by-step instructions. How convenient! Etsy ® is more than an online craft market. It’s now a multi million-dollar company connecting people to crafters and artists all over the world for the past 7 years.

A screen shot of the infamous CraftGawker.

DIY network and HGTV (home and garden television) are successful cable channels fully devoted to airing programming that helps its viewers do stuff and make stuff on their own.

Okay, maybe declaring DIY a movement is a bit strong. But DIY culture is taking a dip into the mainstream; and the water is fine.

From T-shirt to Tank Top by Shannon Craig

I stumbled across a photo tutorial for this project on Pinterest, my favorite spot for DIY inspiration. I was a little daunted to do a project without any verbal instructions, but the images were pretty clear and it turned out well.

Now, I’m a short girl with a small frame, so standard crewneck t-shirts almost never fit me well. Over the years I’ve accumulated a ton from extracurricular activities, colleges and freebies, but they usually get wasted as pajama shirts. That’s why I was thrilled to find an easy way (with minimal sewing) to revamp the style of the typical t-shirt, as well as give it a better fit.

Before you start, one thing you should know is that the scissors you use matter. I didn’t have fabric scissors available, but they would be ideal. Otherwise, just make sure your scissors are large and sharp, or all the cutting gets time consuming. After that, the steps are simple:

• 1.     Cut the neck off of your t-shirt. After that’s done you can easily pencil in a guide of where you want the neckline of your new tank to be—then cut that piece as well.
• 2.     Next you want to cut off your sleeves. Don’t discard these, you’ll use them later!
• 3.     Draw a line (and cut) from each shoulder down to the bottom of the armhole. Where you do this depends on the desired width of your straps.
• 4.     Cut along the seam of one sleeve until it’s a single flat piece, and cut down the middle so you get a rectangle a few inches in width.
• 5.     The hard work’s done! Fold and pin your rectangle in thirds lengthwise. This is what you’ll wrap around the back of your straps to form a racer back. Sew the piece shut around the straps and cut off the excess.

Voila! A unique and cute tank where you once had a baggy t-shirt. 

Shannon Craig in her new, homemade tank top! 

Like I said, I more or less stuck with these steps and I love the way it turned out. Also, if you try it on afterward and don’t like your neckline, it’s super simple to trim that down a little farther.