this little house

Showing posts with label this little DIY. Show all posts

EASY PEASY CHRISTMAS WRAPPING DIY

Gahh can you believe it's less than two weeks to Christmas?! I'd love to tell you I'm all ready for it but that would be a downright lie, and moi is hosting Christmas this year (eek!), for the first time ever (double eek!). I wonder if my family are as nervous as I am?! ;)

Sooooo, if like me you've still to buy half your presents and wrap them, I thought I'd share with you a little easy, peasy DIY. Do it yourself, you gasp. Like you haven't got enough already to do, right?! But I promise it is so super easy, cheap and a nice little personal touch to your presents.

All you need is a paper roll (mine is from Ikea, a huge roll at just £3), washi tape (also Ikea), bakers twine, and a good ole Sharpie pen.

Oh and on a side note, can I just say how amazing washi tape is when wrapping gifts, GAME CHANGER! None of the endlessly searching for the end of the sellotape and then ending up taping yourself more than the gift itself. A quick tear of washi tape and your present is wrapped before you know it. Oh washi tape, how I love thee.

Anyhoo, I'll stop rambling, if I go on it really will be Christmas.

What makes this an even easier DIY is that you can do it as you wrap your presents, so you kill two birds with one stone. Simply cut the paper to the size you'll need for your gift.

With your sharpie pen you could create any design you wanted. I personally went for a repeat design of Christmas words and phrases.

noel / joy / ho ho ho / santa baby

There you have it, a simple DIY, with a personal touch. I wish I could claim the tags were my own, but that would be another downright lie, jeez who's got time to make their own gift tag?! ;) They are from Marks and Spencer :)

Sunday, 14 December 2014 Comments: 3

if you know us over here at this little house, you know we're a fan of a garland :)

see are most recent ones here and here.

i knew i wanted to make caleb's advent calendar this year, but wasn't sure what i was going do. i then came across the cutest mini numbered pegs which sealed the deal that it would be an advent garland.

i raided my christmas wrapping box for supplies...

and then i got to work...

1. i cut the brown paper into 24 individual strips.

2. folded in half

3. attached festive washi tape either side to create a pocket

4. personalised each pocket with festive words using the letter rubber stamps.

5. filled each pocket with a chocolate treat.

6. attached a length of bakers twine to the wall and then hung each pocket with a numbered peg.

and ta da...

this was so easy to do and is also a great addition to the christmas decorations in our home too, yay!

december we are ready for you!!! :)

Friday, 29 November 2013 Comments: 6

it has rained, rained and rained some more these past few days. with all the good weather we've been having lately i'd actually forgotten we lived in scotland. well it is safe to say we've forgotten no longer ;)

it's interesting to watch cabin fever set in with caleb, he slowly starts to turn into a bit of a lunatic (so gets that from his dad ;) charging round this little house like a bulldozer. so before we were in danger of having no home left i bundled us both into our rain gear and out we went...

caleb was in heaven splashing in the puddles, not just with his feet might i add, yes it appears splashing puddles with your hands is even better according to caleb.

we then started to collect all the different colour leaves we could find, and fallen twigs. caleb was full of oohs and ahhs with his autumn finds.

too. cute.

the rain however was getting so heavy that we had to admit defeat and head back inside, but not without all our new found treasures.

it seemed a waste not to do anything with all these beautiful leaves, which gave me the idea of this simple garland...

we also found a home for this fallen branch...

which brings me to my next little autumn treasures. i'm obsessed with all the mini pumpkins and squashes you can get in the shops just now. there was me all pleased thinking they were the perfect accessory to our leaves and twigs, caleb however had other ideas...

i would like to introduce you to caleb's new best buddies. they've been inseparable all afternoon.

caleb, i really do love you my crazy, crazy boy.

Thursday, 17 October 2013 Comments: 6

there's nothing like a good wedding, especially a best friend's wedding. my lovely miss lisa will become a mrs this friday, and to say i am excited is an understatement.

lisa and i go way back.

back when lisa didn't own a brush (no joke)

or wear blusher.

back when i cut all my hair off after a bad dye job

and wore orange blusher

(yes orange! it said coral but who was i kidding, it was orange).

back when we would drink anything with wine on the label and take vodka shots from an egg cup not too dissimilar to this one...

i know, i know, the word you are looking for is classy.

god have we laughed over the years, and still do.

i could write all day sharing funny stories.

but i ain't got all day. this bridesmaid has gotta get her pamper on.

what i will share with you though is back in those days, lisa made edinburgh home for me. not claire the girlfriend to michael home, but claire the girl with a life outside her boyfriend home. does that make sense? probably only to me ;) i can't thank her enough for that.

the few friends i had in edinburgh at the time were actors and often our schedules meant we didn't see each other very much. i loved being with michael but in truth i was lonely. i wasn't used to having to rely on my boyfriend's social life in order for me to have one. i 'm a big believer that a good relationship is one where you build a life together but don't always have to live in each others pockets.

and living in michael's pocket i was.

until one day i got a phone call. it was lisa saying she was back from travelling and looking to move back up to edinburgh, and did i know of anyone who was looking for a flatmate. hell yes i did.

the rest as they say is history.

five years ago (feels like five minutes ago) lisa broke the news to me that she would be moving to leeds for a new job. i acted as any good friend would which was congratulate her and support her decision (okay so i maybe cried and asked her more than once was she absolutely sure ;).

that decision led her to meet her future husband.

i am so, so proud of you, lisa.

for taking that chance and moving somewhere new, i know how scary it must have been. seeing you happy with your little family now makes missing you a lot easier.

so let the celebrating begin.

lisa loved the hangers i did for my friend so asked me to make one for her wedding dress (total honour) and for the bridesmaids. for lisa's hanger i went for the to have and to hold quote, and for each of the bridesmaids i went with lyrics from bob dylan's 'make you feel my love', which i will be singing on the wedding day (eek!!). wish me luck, it's been a while since i've sang in front of an audience and i'm well aware that caleb doesn't count.

love you lisa!! xxx

like i said...classy :)

*purple puffin is were i got the image of that handsome sheep.

Thursday, 19 September 2013 Comments: 8

this little DIY - these little plimsolls

well for a start who knew the spelling was plimsolls and not plimsoles, or was that just me?! ah you learn something new everyday :)

i don't think you can beat a good plimsoll in the summer and there are some really cute designs out there, but armed with my new 'can pretty much write on anything' permanent marker from doing my friend's hangers i was itching to try it on fabric. so when i saw these white plimsolls in tesco i knew they were going to be my next victim...i mean project ;)

the plimsolls were £8 so i knew it wouldn't be the end of the world if this project didn't work, though i still did a test patch inside to make sure the pen didn't run when wet, which it didn't. very impressed.

can it withstand a scottish down pour on a summers day though? only time will tell ;)

what i like about this design is it doesn't matter if you don't do it exactly perfect as the pattern tricks your eye when you see the end result, and here it is...