DIY Archives » Fellow Fellow

DIY Spotty Jars and Jewellery Dishes

May 9, 2013 | DIY

Mother’s Day is only a few days away now, and if you haven’t got Mum that perfect present yet, have I got a treat for you! :)

Please welcome Jasmine, a friend of mine and a fellow blogger who has put together this super cute and very easy DIY for you all! Jasmine’s blog, Scissors Paper Stone is so full of creative ideas, stories from her life, and even her secrets on where to find craft and baking supplies here in Singapore, so do drop by and say hi to her!

And now, the DIY – take it away Jasmine!

I really love DIYs that make use of items that I already have at home. This DIY uses nail polish and hole reinforcement stickers to create that polka dotted effect that we all love. The hardest part is probably deciding which ceramic or glass item is screaming for a new look!

All you need is:

- hole reinforcement stickers
- nail polish
- glass jar or ceramic dish

So simple!

1. Stick the reinforcement stickers on the glass and make sure they are firmly stuck on.

2. Paint a coat of nail polish and leave it to dry. Paint a second coat if you would prefer a darker effect.

3. Once all the dots are painted, leave it to dry for a few hours. Once it is dry, carefully remove the reinforcement stickers.

And that’s it!

I’ve used it here as a sweet little vase, but you could also put a candle inside as a votive, or even store some pencils in it on your desk. And in case glass jars aren’t your thing, this technique also works on ceramics!

I just used a couple of plain white dishes to create some cute spotty catch-alls for around the house – they’re perfect for storing stationery or even as a jewellery dish on your nightstand! And in case you’re wanting to go a bit more bold – why not try gold nail polish on black!

The options are endless, try mixing and matching different nail polish colours (neon anyone?) and different sized jars and bowls.. and most of all, have fun with it!

And last but not least, some final notes:

- If you make a mistake, dip a cotton bud in nail polish remover and gently remove the nail polish and start again.
- Due to the toxic nature of nail polish, please do not use the finished item for serving food.

Tags: Ceramics, Contributor, DIY, Dot, Easy, Jars, nail polish, Spot

DIY Geometric Stamp Town

April 11, 2013 | DIY

So, it turns out I’m not quite ready to be finished with little stamp houses yet, I hope you don’t mind :) I’m so happy with how this little artwork turned out! And it’s even EASIER than the last one, if you can believe it, with no special carving tools needed at all. There are so many things that can be formed from geometric shapes, so by creating a bunch of geometric stamps (squares, rectangles, triangles) in different sizes, we can then get creative constructing all sorts of different buildings! I’m sure this isn’t a new idea, but jee it’s fun :) There are endless possibilities! So lets get down to it shall we? Here’s what you’ll need:

Materials

- Stamp block (if you’re in Singapore, I got mine from Daiso, but Jo also sells really nice ones here)
- Pencil
- Scalpel/knife
- Ruler
- Paper/card to print on
- Stamp pads/ink (most of mine have been bought at markets, or given to me as gifts, so unfortunately I’m not really sure of the best places to get the exact same ones!)
- Lino tools (optional)

**If you’re interested in creating something exactly the same as mine, here’s a PDF of the shapes I used, and you can find the ink colours I used below**

Step 1. I started by planning my shapes on a piece of scrap paper (you can download them here). Remember that rectangles and triangles can be rotated to create another variation. I also found it useful to create triangles to fit one edge of the squares/rectangles. This way your roof will match the base of your house.

Use your pencil and ruler to mark out squares/rectangles/triangles in various sizes on your stamp block, then use your knife to carefully cut them out. My block was thick enough that I didn’t need to mount the stamp onto anything, but you can if you want to.

Step 2. Take the paper/card you want your artwork on and, using no ink to start with, lay out the first row of houses to get a feel for placement. Play around with the shapes, be creative! Once you’re happy with the placement of the first line, you can start inking and printing. I’d recommend keeping a damp cloth next to you to clean off each stamp between printings. Also – be very careful when handling the inked stamps! I ruined my first artwork attempt by dropping an inked stamp onto my page by accident. Such a bummer!

Step 3. Continue laying out and stamping your little houses until you’re happy with it. Don’t forget the details like doors and windows!

And that’s it! You’re done. Frame it and stand back to admire your work :)

I’m hoping to share some more suggestions of what you can create using these geometric stamps in the coming weeks, so be sure to keep an eye out for that! :)

Tags: DIY, Geometric, House, stamp, Town, Village

DIY Bunny Garland

March 14, 2013 | DIY

I love bunnies! Not just at Easter time either, all year round.. they’re just so darn cute!

Easter is a good excuse to get more of a bunny fix without looking obsessive though, so I thought why make a bounding group of buns for above my desk?

I had some extra embossing foil lying around, so decided that would be my material of choice – and boy do these bunnies shine! If you don’t have any foil though, you could easily make them from cardboard and just colour them in, piece of cake! Carrot cake in fact. Yes, I went there.

Ok, so here’s what you’ll need!

- Embossing foil (something like this. The metal I used was approx. 0.1mm thick)
- Bunny template (I’ve made one you can use: A4 and Letter)
- Sharp pointed tool (or large needle)
- Blunt pencil
- Scissors
- Strong thread
- Beads (optional)
- Foam sheet (optional)
- Sticky tape (optional)

Step 1.
Print out your template, and use it to cut out a bunch of bunnies.

Step 2.
Put something soft down on the tabletop, like a piece of craft foam. Take one of your metal bunnies and overlay the template again. Using your sharp tool, pierce through the two circles marked on the template. These will be where your string goes through. Do that for all the bunnies. Then, keeping the bunnies on the craft foam, take your blunt pencil (if it’s too sharp it might rip the metal) and indent lines and patterns into the bodies of your bunnies. Flatten them out again if they’ve bent a bit.

Step 3.
Once you’ve finished decorating your bunnies, all that’s left to do is thread them onto your string! Make sure that you always thread them in the same way – from front to back through the first hole, then from back to front though the second hole, so you’ll end up with a line of string running along the backs of each bunny. If you want, you can add a piece of sticky tape to the backs to hold them in place along the string.

Step 4.
String them up and admire your work! :)

It turns out that it’s quite a hard thing to photograph.. I’m not sure they’ve really done it justice! Oh well.. still cute :)

Tags: Bunnies, DIY, Easter, Embossing, Foil, garland, metal, Rabbit

Two Things .01

March 8, 2013 | Two Things

I saw these two pictures side-by-side on my pinterest the other day, and couldn’t believe how beautifully they went together! Aren’t they lovely? I’m especially fond of those Anemone Magnets, which you can make for yourself by following the instructions over on The Purl Bee!

L: Anemone Magnets from The Purl Bee R: Leonore Crochet Blanket from Couverture and The Garbstore

Have a great weekend guys! See you back here on Monday :)

Tags: blanket, crochet, DIY, magnet, Two things

Bookbinding 101 on Design*Sponge!

March 7, 2013 | Featured, Photography

Hi again guys! Just wanted to drop in and share with you some exciting news!

My friend Pooja has written a three-part ‘Bookbinding 101‘ series for Design*Sponge, and I was lucky enough to be the photographer! The first post is up now, so go check it out – you can learn how to make a 5-hole pamphlet stitched book!

Thanks so much Pooja!

Tags: Bookbinding, design sponge, DIY, featured, photography, tutorial

DIY Stamp Village

February 7, 2013 | DIY

A little while ago now I bought a couple of blank rubber stamp blocks with the idea I would carve them up into something awesome and amazing. Alas, awesome and amazing didn’t happen at the time, and so they’ve just stayed in the draw, forgotten and unloved… until now, that is!

I’m still not sure ‘awesome and amazing’ has happened, but would you settle for cute and fun?

I thought with Valentine’s coming up, these sweet little houses would be great for decorating wrapping paper, cards, tags, or little bags.. and once Valentine’s is over, you could even carve yourself a little bird or some smoke to stamp in place of the hearts. :)

Here’s what you’ll need:

- A pen or pencil (having now tried both, pencil is probably better)
- Rubber stamp blocks (if you live in Singapore, try Love Sprouts – Jo not only sells blank blocks, but also some of the most gorgeous and finely carved stamps I’ve seen!)
- Carving Tool (mine has interchangeable heads – try Amazon.com)

*Please note that I’ve never taken a class to learn how to carve stamps, and am by no means good at it! The steps below are just created from my own experience. You do whatever works best for you, and if you want to share any awesome tips or tricks you’ve learned, please let me know in the comments!

Step 1.
Use your pen/pencil to draw your design on the rubber block (remember it will be reversed when you stamp it). If you’ve got lines to cut out, make sure you draw them fairly thick so it’s easier to see where you want to carve. Cut the block down so it’s about the size of your drawing (not too much free space around the drawing).

Step 2.
Carve out your stamp. I started with the smallest head on my carving tool and went around all the edges of my house first before using the larger heads to take out the bulk areas, and finishing the details with the smaller heads again. But it’s entirely up to you how you want to tackle it. As you can see it’s far from perfect, but still gives a cool effect!

Step 3.
One I was finished, I washed the stamp off (this is why it’s better to use pencil, pen could transfer onto the paper even after it’s been washed) and dried it. I then tested my stamp with ink, and carved a bit more once I’d seen how the stamp came out. And that’s it – start stamping! Repeat these steps for as many houses as you want, and don’t forget the little hearts that come out of the chimney. I did the hearts separately so I could stamp them in a different colour, and also so they could be interchangeable (with smoke, or a bird) down the track.

(you can see here that I did one in pen, and the others in pencil. When I went to print the one I’d outlined in pen, the first few prints also come out a bit blue).

Tags: DIY, House, Ink, stamp, valentine, Village

DIY Fine Line Drawing

January 17, 2013 | DIY

Morning all! I’ve got a fun little DIY for you this morning.. we’re all going to learn how to cheat at drawing! Haha

I’m pretty sure this was a technique I learnt in primary school, but it was worth a re-visit when I sat down to draw some buildings the other day. I’m just going to lay it all out there and just tell you that I’m not a very good freehand drawer. You know how there are those people who can just sit with a sketch book and pen and create the most amazing illustraions? Well, that’s not me and I so badly wish I was. I envy those people.

SO, that brings me to cheat-drawing. I’m sure you all know this technique, but like I said – it’s worth a re-visit :)

Here’s what you’ll need:

- A printout of the building/s you want to draw (at the size you need)
- Pacer pencil (or a very sharp pencil)
- Very fine tip black drawing pen (mine is called Micron 005)
- Graphite pencil (thick or thin, doesn’t matter – just with a dark lead)
- 2 bulldog clips
- Thin card/paper for the finished drawing

Step 1.
Take the printout of your building/s and turn it over. Using your graphite pencil, scribble heavily over the back of the image area. It needs to be solidly covered.

Step 2.
Once the whole image area is covered, turn the page back over and position the image on your white card. Using the bulldog clips, secure the top of the two pages together so they won’t move.

Step 3.
Begin tracing over all the lines on your image with the pacer pencil. Make sure you press hard and try to get fine, clean lines. Check from time to time that the image is transferring onto the paper underneath.

Step 4.
Once you’ve finished tracing over the image, remove the page. Now you can begin going over the lines with the fine black pen. Feel free to add in detail or shading if you want to.

Step 5.
Once all the lines have been put down in ink, it’s up to you whether you want to rub out the graphite lines underneath, or leave them there.

And that’s it! Frame it, make it into a card.. up to you! I put mine into a bit of a shadow box with a few other trinkets and a mini garland.. cute no?

Tags: Architecture, Building, DIY, Drawing, Line, Pen

Workspace Wednesday 64.

January 2, 2013 | Workspace Wednesday

What an epic DIY year 2012 was!! So much fun was had over here in the Fellow Fellow sudio, creating more DIYs than I ever thought could possibly come out of my brain!

I thought it would be fun to compile them all into one post (now that 2012 is over!), so here they are… all 26 of them. :)

I hope you’ve enjoyed all these DIYs as much as I have over the year.. here’s to another very productive DIY year! x

(PS. some of these DIYs were created for other websites such as Fossil and Say Yes to Hoboken… you’ll find the full DIYs over on their blogs by clicking on the images above and following the links.)

Tags: 2012, DIY, workspace wednesday

DIY Pocket Warmers

December 13, 2012 | DIY

I had such a great response from the DIY Heat Pack I did a while ago that I thought doing a mini version, perfect for Christmas gifts, was definitely in order!

If you live in the northern hemisphere and winter is descending upon you, I’m sure these sweet little pocket warmers would really come in handy! They’d be a welcome gift for just about anyone (make them from their favourite fabrics and colours!), or would even make the perfect stocking stuffers!

They’re super quick and easy to make, so lets get to it!

Here’s what you’ll need:

- Cotton fabric
- Uncooked rice
- Essential oil (optional)
- Pinking Sheers
- Fabric Scissors
- Pencil (normal, or fabric pencil)
- Sewing machine and thread
- Something round to trace around
- Funnel (optional)

Step 1.
Start by choosing your front and back fabrics, and place them wrong sides together. Use something round to trace a circle onto the fabric using your pencil. Keep in mind that this will be the line you sew around (mine was approx. 7cm (2 3/4″) diametre).

Step 2.
Cut out a square of fabric around your circle, making sure to leave at least 3cm (1″) around the outside. At this point, if you’d like to embroider anything onto your fabric you can. I just used some wool to highlight some of the flowers, but this is totally optional.

Step 3.
Sew around the circle as carefully as you can, leaving a small gap (approx. 1.5cm or 1/2″) wide in the stitching – this is where you’ll pour the rice.

Step 4.
If you’re using essential oil, place some rice into a bowl and add a drop or two of oil, mix. Pour the rice through the hole you left in the stitching (a funnel might help here), and fill the circle until it’s sufficiently full but not bursting. Take it back to the sewing machine and close up the hole.

Step 5.
Cut around the outside of the circle (not too close to the stitching) using your pinking sheers.

That’s it! Now go throw them in the microwave for 30 seconds to a minute, pop them in your pockets, and feel the warmth :)

Note: It’s probably a good idea to put them on a plate in the microwave to help keep them clean.

And as always, you can find all my other DIYs over here :)

Tags: DIY, fabric, Heat, Pocket, sew, Warm, Winter

DIY Christmas Tree Gift Toppers

December 6, 2012 | DIY

With Christmas looming, I’m sure there are more than a few gifts that need to be wrapped in the coming weeks! I had some sticks leftover from the wreath DIY last week, so put together these really cute little trees that make the perfect toppers for a gift, don’t you think?

You’ll need:
- A stick or two, not too thick
- Strong scissors
- A hot glue gun (or glue more suitable for wood if you have it)
- Regular craft glue
- Embroidery thread in any colours you choose

Step 1.
Using the scissors, cut your stick into smaller parts – 2 the same size, one slightly smaller, and a very small piece for the trunk. Lay them out to make sure the tree ratio is to your liking :)

Step 2.
If your stick still has some bark on it, I found that cutting it away in the areas I was going to glue helped the glue to stick better. If you have a better glue for wood than hot glue, feel free to use it instead. Place your sticks on a piece of scrap paper and, using the hot glue (very carefully!) stick the pieces of your tree together one-by-one and press tightly until they’re dried. Be very careful with your little trees, they’re quite fragile.

Step 3.
Once the glue is set, take the embroidery thread and glue one end to the tree (wherever you like) using the craft glue. Once it’s dried, wind the thread around the tree in any style you like. Once you’re happy with it, secure the end with craft glue.

Step 4.
Now all that’s left to do is to cut out a little star from cardboard, and glue it all to your package!

And as always, if you’d like to see more DIYs, feel free to head to the DIY Archive! :)

Tags: Christmas, DIY, gift, Topper, Tree, Wood, Wrap

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