Saturday, March 19, 2011

"Out" tissue paper ... "in" paper doilies

I had to prepare a gift bag for my friend's little daughter who turned 7 las t march ( she lives in the US and I am so late with this..shame on me !). But I realized that I did not have any tissue paper in the house...humm..snowing outside, not very inviting for an outing...I had bought some dollies at Michael's for 75 cents (for my DD upcoming birthday) and I said to myself..why not? it is simple:0)

AND BEAUTIFUL! I love these paper doilies, sooo feminine aren' t they?


ah...my gift bag was cute but I wanted more...humm..



....this is it! a BUCKET BAG!









Filled with girlie goodies!I hope the little girl enjoys it as much as I enjoy preparing it!
Andrea

Low budget photo studio

I had been using my home-made- cardboard- box -portable- low low- budget photo studio for a while..I saw for the first time here..soooo simple!






BUT... I wanted to have something even easier to carry here and there inside the house, so I came up with a cheap idea:
I had these white poster boards that I used for my daughter's birthday and an old wood frame....I glued them together leaving the bottom part detattched...

This is how it looks in the back...
Sideways...



Folded with a paper clip..
Opened...
In action...







Always better to put it closer to a window and some people use a source of light ( lamp) coming from the top, but I prefer simple daylight. I do not like the shadows, but some prefer with the artificial source.

The brighter the day the better...
It is not perfect but better than the pictures I used to take in the "BPS" ( before photo studio) era :0)

Andrea

Everybody should try!!!

I have made many hair accessories for my daughter and I must say I enjoy doing this so much! It is fun, fast, the final product is always cute, anyone can do this! All you need is pieces of ribbon, leftovers of fabric, needle, thread OR the ever present glue gun and that is it!






























Never a dull hair day! :0)!

Andrea

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Girls bedroom on a budget

Since we moved to this house 2 years ago I wanted to give my little princess a beautiful big girl's bedroom.

BUT I had to this on a budget, which was not bad all because I simply LOOOOVE to go to second hand stores and hunt for hidden treasures. And I had idea of exactly what I wanted, so I knew it wouldn't be so hard AND it would be fun! It was and we ( me and her) love the results!

Sorry again if do not have the "before" pictures, as back then ( 4 months ago) I didn't know I would have a craft blog to show it!!)
















Believe me, 90% of this bedroom was done with thrift stores /revamped things or DIY decor details!

The only really new stuff here are the bedding , from Winners, the reading chair ( it was her first christmas gift 2 years ago, also from Winners), the butterflies on the wall..WINNERS ( do I need to tell I love this store?), the mattress and the lamp base, from Zellers ( not the lampshade!!)

So, here we go:

1. Bed: from the thrift store, for $ 19.99, very romantic the way I wanted it, white AND already distressed:0)! ( we bought new boxspring/mattress of course)


2. Wood carving detail: Michaels, $3.99 , painted and distressed by mommy


3. Lampshade: Pink with cute polka dots bought at the thrift store for $4.99
4. Dresser: bought ugly , cheap ( $69.99) and dark navy blue at the thrift store and transformed into this beauty! see details here






5. Chandelier:

It was silver and no lampshade and of course no beautiful dangling crystals, from Canadian Tire, I think it was $39.00.






The shades I bought at Walmart for 4 bucks each and made the rosettes out of satin left overs; the little crystals ( plastic) are from little gift bags from dollarama, 1 dollar for a pack of 4). I just cut them off and used my trusty hot glue gun to attach them to the lampshades.Also attached a cute pink ribbon on the bottom.

With Ivory spray paint from kryllon ( I primed first) I painted the cold silver colour with this warm cream colour that matches the wall colour.

The dangling crystals come from 3 sources:

- from an old chandelier a friend was throwing away ( can you believe and they are real crystals!)
- from christmas sale at canadian tire ( I still don;t know why they were there being sold- 99 cents a pack with 4) as tree ornaments?? come on , they were MEANT TO BE a little girls room chandelier beauties!
- Cheap necklaces sold at claire's

6. Dress up clothes hanger: also from the thrift store..originally meant to be a ballerina play rail but I thought it was very flimsy . It was purple and with some light pink plastic spray paint it is now, well, a feminine dress up hanger !

7. The perfect little bookcase:
From where ....guess? .....yes, thrift store...$19.99....sooo delicate and functional! and the gander..hum..so many possibilites...



8. Cheap BUT very cute fabric from fabricville: 99 cents/meter, it is like a shear but has cute polka dots on it..even me that I am not at all a sewing diva could make these drapes!



The curtain holders are door knobs i brought from Brazil last time I went there, aren't they amazingly cute?

On the ugly vinyl roman shade why not a cute pom pom trim? yes yes yes!


8. other details:

- Tissue paper flower, you can find a tutorial here



9- Mommy's old (very old indeed !:0) little shoes... touch of vintage AND sentimental...

- From the thrift store a cute mug and plate to hold some hair clips

- This doll (also from Brazil) used to hold her diapers by her crib..now holds her ballet gear...she grew up , uh? )


And here she is..teh happy little princess that lves on this bedrooom eradung her favourite book:



Andrea