Wednesday, 17 December 2014

MERRY DIY CHRISTMAS

Victoria at Victoria's Vintage is hosting a "Christmas Decorations Competition" in association with AbleSkills (a trade and construction training provider company- do check out their link!). It is fun and simple to enter- just showcase your DIY Christmas decorations on your blog and upload the link onto Victoria's page!

This competition is great to get into the spirit of things! I love admiring everyone's awesome homemade decorations :o)

I actually started making Christmas decorations in early November (no judgement okay! I've never celebrated Christmas properly complete with decorations and all that jazz before, hence my enthusiasm and eagerness) hahaha. I even opened all the doors to my "Family Guy" advent calendar before it was even November. Yes, I like to live life on the edge!

Progress shot: Paper houses for my fairy lights, metallic paper cranes and a singular flower:

Below: The finished product. You can buy the fairy lights that I used for about 99p from any bargain discount store- a great way for christmas decorating on the cheap!

Click below to watch the Christmas lights being switched on in my little Christmas paper town. I even put a festive song on the background for you to enjoy! hehe:

PERSONALISED STOCKINGS

Below: Here are some Mongolian inspired snow-white stockings I made for my two neices and nephew. I personalised the stockings with glitter letters (I opted for a clean typeface (Ariel)). There's alot of different textures going on, being the sensual being that I am haha. I'm very happy with how these all turned out! In particular, I love the pom poms and tassels!

CHRISTMAS IN THE BEDROOM

Above: Glitter & white pom pom garland, paper flower & Hox3 sign. Note: I didn't make Chibi, I just put colourful pom poms on him)

My giant baubles are inspired by Studio DIY. They are made out of balloons, silver metallic pipe cleaners and wrapping paper! Such a simple and fun idea. Mine are no where near as brilliant as Studio DIY's but I still adore them!

Here is a full length shot of my "house' with my decorations and ornaments:

Above: Without festive lights, Below: With lights! yay!

I decided to give my bed a more cosy feel by draping icicle lights under the eaves of the bedframe of my house's roof. I am totally milking it!! I L-O-V-E waking up in the morning to this!

CHRISTMAS WINDOW DISPLAY

I have always drooled over fabulous Christmas window sill displays. Yes, that is right...I had Christmas window display envy from a young age!! In addition to drooling over various festive window siills, I remember I vowed to create an A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. display when I am older!!!! I drew a lot of my inspiration from this post. I kept most of the same structural elements featured, and just tweaked, customised and injected some of my personality and favourite things into it. Geometric windows, little bunny and Totoro is what it's all about!

Christmas scenery in the making:

Do you like my My-neighbour-totoro-holding-an-umbrella paper snowflake?! It's pretty delicate mind you, so I had to be extra careful when I put this little number up. I probably won't be making any more of these in the not-so-distant future (way too time consuming!)

Above: Full length shot of my festive window display

Above: Close-up photo- Little girl pushing a pram with a bunny in.

Above: Close-up photo- Totoro and Chibi

EVERYONE LIKES A GOOD PARTY HAT

I have taken it upon myself to dress my plushes with an array of my DIY festive hats. I made mine from rolls of wrapping paper I bought from Primark (£1 per roll)- you can't go wrong with that! I bought about 4/5(?) rolls. After a tough day of work, it's nice to turn on the TV (I watched "The Fall" whilst making these, if you're asking for specifics) whilst crafting away 'til the early morning of the day.

So, without further ado, may i proudly present to you...MY DIY FESTIVE PARTY HATS!


Pee and Poo (toilet escapees): Yay! Day off from the bathroom!!!

Left: Super small origami stars made from strips of ribbon. Gizmo is in for a surprise!

Right: Special hat for Gizmo ('cause he's one of my favourites!)

The gang: IT'S PARTY TIMEEEE!!!!!
Mr Raccoon loves his new Totoro hat! Totoro has two Christmas trees in lieu of ears =D

Left: Queen-Kebab-the-duck and her wee jazzy crown. I recycled my old fuchsia wooly jumper and made it into a snuggly one for Kebab! I really wanted to knit him a little pom pom hat but alas I am only but an amateur who possesses the most basic of knitting skills!

Right: Is that you Bedtime Bear???!

Bedtime Bear was my favourite to dress up. I secured his beard and moustache combo with dressing pins and double sided sticky tape.

Above: Domokun's head didn't really fit the paper crown so I improvised!

ORIGAMI CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

The traditional evergreen Christmas trees aren't really my style, so I opted for a pretty pink tinsel one. I reallyyyy wanted the largest and best tree to decorate but my budget only stretched enough to buy this little one, not that I'm moaning 'cause it looks really cute and ultimately it's the decorations which makes a successful, amazing Christmas tree! There is only one thing missing now: FAIRY LIGHTS!

I embellished mine with some origami paper cranes and parcels (aka origami waterbombs)
The crowning glory of my tree is Posi (the cat from Creamy Mami (one of my favourite animes of all time). It is somewhat of an unconventional tree-topper but I think she makes a great wingless "angel". I just used a piece of thread to secure her on top of the tree! I am planning to add some nice, soft, feather wings to her back at a later date.

I hope have you enjoyed browsing through all my little handmade decorations this year.

Love and lots of little Christmas kisses xxxxxxx

Thursday, 11 December 2014

Duette® Blinds Competition

 photo DUETTECOMP_zpsa2f56495.jpg

Duette® Blinds are hosting a blogger competition, which gives you the chance to win £500 worth of made-to-measure blinds for your home (or other place of your choice), expertly designed and installed by professional fitters! Do click on the link above and check them out!

Duette® blinds offer not only an array of beautiful, stylish window blinds; they are energy saving (they reduce the heat lost through windows by 46% -you can save up to 26% on heating bills!!) too!

When I saw that they posted this amazing competition, I knew I had to get involved! My sister and her family are completely renovating their house and I know that Duette® blinds would be a key factor in transforming the look of their home and enhancing the beauty of the rooms.

As a requirement, you need to include a minimum of two Duette® blinds images. These are my chosen two:

What divine blinds! They are so striking and really make the room picture perfect! I chose these two Duette® blinds images, because not only are they modern and on trend but the colours are very invigorating- the blinds sets the mood for the room! I never thought of sprucing up a room by using colourful blinds as a design detail before...until I saw Duette® blinds!

To enter, I needed to create a moodboard that shows either:

How you would use Duette® energy saving blinds as part of clever ways to insulate your home and stay warm

or

A preview of the interior colour trends that are hot for the home in 2015 that include Duette® blinds imagery.

I chose the latter 'cause I enjoy looking at colour and interior trends and how you can use them at home.

Below, is a selection of colours that I chose which inspired me and that I particularly liked from the 2015 Elle Decor trend preview and the Spring 2015 Pantone Fashion Colour report:

Feel free to check out my pinterest page for my "2015 Interior Inspiration" board!