Decoupage Tissues DIY

 " A duck who thinks he's a rooster and now a pig who thinks he's a dog!"

                                                                            (Babe; 1995)

For some reason I’ve never managed to make transfer graphics for decorating items, even though I have a proper printer and paint thinner. I got really frustrated, ‘cause all of my attempts were failures and I found so many interesting images on the Internet I wanted to use. So I came up with an idea. I’ve tried to print out a graphic on a tissue paper and.. bull’s eye! It came out really nice. So today I want to show you how you can get some new decoupage tissues with any picture you want.

Totoro T-shirt

 "We all need to find our own inspiration, Kiki. Sometimes it's not easy."

(Kiki's Delivery Service; 1989)         

Recently, my sister and I got into Studio Ghibli’s movies. If only we discovered them sooner! We watch one movie every Friday evening. So far we’ve seen: My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away,  Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, Secret World of Arrietty, Whisper of the Heart and Kiki’s Delivery Service and we’re glad there’s still so many to go. Thus, I came up with the idea to give my sister a T-shirt with Ghibli’s logo for Christmas. After little research I decided to make one instead of buying. My sister was so happy when she opened her present! So today I want to show how to make one yourself.

CD Cup Pads

"Now I love my coffee, it's probably the only thing 

I cherish in this foresaken mud ball called Earth!"

                                                                                                                               (License to drive, 1988)

After making the cook notebooks I had some of the oilcloth left. So I decided to make a new tutorial using them. I’ve always wondered what’s the purpose of those plastic circles in CD packages. I have plenty of them so I was thinking how I can recycle them. At first, I wanted to make a small rack but my attempts were all failures. However, this oilcloth is pretty inspiring – I came up with an idea for cup pads. So, gather all of your old, broken CDs and get to work!

New Year's Goals

"I have a strong psychic belief that the world will end on New Year's Eve"

(Ghostbusters II; 1989)                  

I wonder how many of us failed in your last year’s resolutions?  Well, I did for sure. It turns out that it does not take much to make them more likely to achieve next year. Most of us probably compose the goals the wrong way and that’s why we forget about them by the end of January. In today’s tutorial I want to show you how to make our goals more achievable using paper, scissors and a little bit of modern psychology, the basics of which I had a chance to learn during my university courses. Scientific texts quoted here come from the book "Improving interpersonal skills" written by Hanna Dolna, who is the coach at interpersonal training at my uni, during which, I learned how to properly formulate goals, and not just business ones.

Doily Christmas Tree

 "How could you have Christmas without a Christmas tree, Mom?"

                                                                                                                                         (Home Alone 2;1992)

I can say – making this Christmas tree really made my day. I wanted to create something that I haven’t seen on crafting blogs, so I searched a lot of them to make sure I won’t copy someone else’s idea. So far I haven’t found anything similar. I bought this polystyrene cone, but I wasn’t sure how I’m going to use it. The idea came quite quickly, when I saw those paper doilies. I grabbed the scissors and this is what I ended with.

Syringe Pen

"The colour of the pen! That I hold in my hand is Rr.rr.ROYAL BLUE!"

                                                                                                        (Liar, liar;1997)

Today's tutorial was inspired by a student from my uni, who has got a quite unusual pen - something like this. Upon closer inspection, it turned out it isn't what I expected - it just pretends to be a syringe, but in fact there is a normal ballpen inside it. But, it has inspired me to further experiments, which were succesful and ended with my new blog entry. I especially recommend this tutorial for medical students :)

Levitating Pumpkins

"It's Halloween, I guess everyone's entitled to one good scare."

                                                                (Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later;1998)

Halloween is not very popular here in Poland but every year more and more people start celebrating this joyful day, mostly teenagers. Every year there are more and more Halloween stuff you can get at shopping centres, so maybe someday it’ll be an integral part of All Saints’ Day. That’s why I decided to make a Halloween tutorial for you.  I’m sorry for the quality of the photos but I had to come back to my job and I don’t have a lot of free time. That’s why there are differences in light – some of them were taken in the morning and some in the evening. But nevertheless - Happy Halloween!

Happy Bookmarks

"A FROG?! In love with a PIG?!"

                                                          (Muppets take Manhattan; 1984)

Autumn is far from being the most cheerful time of the year. Each of us has fresh memories of the summer and we don’t have a warm welcome for the cooler months. Of course, they also have some charm of their own, but autumn is mostly associated with passing away, reflection and quiet contemplation. Rainy evenings are a perfect opportunity to catch up on books you haven’t read. As for adding some optimistic aspect to your meeting with reading, I’ve decided to show you how to make happy bookmarks. I hope their happy faces will chase away the autumn blues. It is also a nice tutorial for kids, because they usually get bored on rainy days.

Homemade Patches

 "You don't need a patch on your arm to have honor."

                                                                           (A Few Good Men; 1992)

How many times did you find yourself in a situation when it was impossible to find any merch of your favourite band because it’s not very popular? How many of you wanted a patch with your favourite game or anime but you’re short on money at conventions? It happens to me very often. In today’s tutorial I want to show you how to make a patch with your favourite logo using just a piece of denim and paint. It is also a perfect tutorial for punk rock fans, since handmade patches would be a great addition to their outfit.

Kitchen Hooks

"Eat your cereal with a fork, and do your homework in the dark."

                                                                                      (Pump Up the Volume; 1990)

This photo has inspired me to make cute cutting board hooks as a wedding gift for my bestest friends. Unfortunately, after a lot of effort, I failed - it was impossible to bend my forks without a vice. So I changed the idea a little bit and the final effect you can see above. And for the wedding - it was so... lovely. My friend was the loveliest bride! The food was delicious, the band did a great job with the music, the bride's wedding dress was amazing. They both looked so happy and I was happy for them too. I hope it all was just like they imagined.

Fluffy Cornflowers

"Can I get the icon in the cornflower blue?"

                                                                         (Fight Club;1999)

Once again I failed with adding new notes. And I promised! Unacceptable! But really... recent events are making me unable to find any time to add new ones. So there's a litany of the reasons of delays for those of you and I hope you'll forgive me: I am writing the first chapter of my master's thesis, I was on vacation, I was looking for job, I got the job I like, I got a ticket and I was felt down, I'm preparing for my friend's hen party and wedding, I had birthday, I was looking after my dying pet... So it was pretty much 50:50 for nice and bad events. And in today's tutorial - new ideas for chenille stems.

Kitty Hairband

"Everybody wants to be a cat.."

                                                   (Aristocats;1970)

Recently, I have noticed a new trend among the teenagers interested in Japanese culture – cat's ears. They're supposed to be „kawaii” and adorable, but those I found are, for me, too fluffy and too extravagant so I decided to make simpler ones myself. They can be used as a hair decoration for teenagers, as an element of a costume for kids or an interesting addition to your sexy outfit. Once again the basic knowledge in crochet will be needed here (for the new readers – you can find very comprehensible tutorials for basic stitches in „A vernal hair accessory”).

CD Photo Frame

"Did you get your precious photos?"

                                                                  (Blade Runner;1982)

My younger sister and I had got lots of various magazines with CD-ROMs when we were kids. But they took up a lot of space so I decided to put them in the CD sleeves. The empty jewel cases have been lying on the shelf for a long time, 'cause I thought they would be useful someday. And "someday" is today! I was thinking of transforming them into photo frames and realization came last week. Check it out - it's fast and easy!

Friendship Bracelets

"This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.."

                                                                              (Casablanca; 1942)

I remember making such bracelets on a summer camp (I was 11 then) as they became very popular among the girls, including me. We made a great team so we traded them with each other and in the end I came back home with dozens of such bracelets.
Today’s tutorial is made for a special request from a ten-year-old Iza, who recently became interested in making Filofun bracelets. She also liked my embroidery floss bracelet I never take off and she wanted to know how to make one. Due to lack of time to show it to her personally, I decided to make a tutorial here. The pattern is not complicated and it is only one of hundreds of possibilities of weaving.

Nuka Cola Earrings

"These earrings are a form of torture."

                                         (Made in America;1993)

In March, I was at Pyrkon in Poznań, one of the polish conventions, where I found Nuka Cola earrings on one of the stalls. I loved them until I saw their price - 25 $! They were obviously overpriced! I decided to make a pair myself since it's not that hard. It is also a perfect tutorial for my blog plus I can protect you all from ripoffs like that. It takes only few minutes to make them so feel free to use it.

A May Crate for Mom

"You're right, no human being would stack books like this."

                                                       (Ghostbusters; 1984)

My mom loves books but her bookcase is usually a mess, ‘cause she reads many books at the same time. That’s why I came up with the idea to make something that could keep them in order even when they’re not on the bookshelf. If you can find a small crate in a nearby marketplace, in this tutorial I will show you how you can make it into an elegant bookstand. It’s a perfect occasion to learn the decoupage technique. And since soon it’s Mother’s Day in Poland,  it’s my proposition for a present.

Striped Bottle Vase

"Do you have a vase? A vaaase??"

                                             (You've Got Mail; 1998)

Today, I’m going to show you how you can make an old bottle into an original colorful vase for flowers from your husband/fiancé/boyfriend. Besides its useful functions, it is also an interesting element for a house decoration. This idea comes more or less from my art class in primary school (I remember making paper Easter eggs using crepe paper like in this tutorial). That’s why I urge children to make one, too.

Zerg T-shirt in 10 minutes

"I am one of the Zerg now, and I like what I am."

                                                                                                                                            (StarCraft; 1998) 

How can you make a boring blank T-shirt one of your favourites? By putting your favourite motif on it! The idea was taken from here. It’s a very fast and cheap method to obtain a new piece of clothing. My motif is the Zerg logo from the game “Starcraft”. Every motif is good as long as you like it. You don’t need to be talented in drawing. Simply search for it in Google graphics and choose a picture of a high resolution. My T-shirt has been washed many times and the motif is still of perfect quality.

Happy Easter Eggs

Today’s tutorial is all about Easter. I got the idea at haberdasher’s, when I saw those polystyrene eggs and an embroidery floss stand below it. I have worked with such eggs a long time ago but I used ribbons for decorating them. The effect wasn’t very satisfying for me and I used tons of pins. This idea, however, requires tons of white glue but it’s cheaper and really rewarding.

A vernal hair accessory

The spring is coming, so you can finally take off your winter clothes and hide them deep in your wardrobe for six months!  But your hair needs special care after winter... It was a very rough time for it. But today I can show you how you can give it more life. It won’t be about any hair conditioners or volume shampoos, but… a hair accessory.

This idea was inspired by the tutorials from a Polish book “Crochet ABC” by Helena Gawrońska. It requires the basic knowledge in crocheting. But for beginners there are some links below, where you can find some very comprehensible tutorials for basic stitches.