Craft Challenge May: Wall Art

Finally I found the time to show you my project for this month's Craft Challenge! I already finished it last week (yes that's right! It wasn't last minute work this time) and I must say I am pretty pleased with it.

Like my previous projects this one is also very affordable and it can be made in an afternoon.

April Blog Angel - And I was not bored!

So this time I have been the worst Blog Angel out there.... and it is such a shame because the blog I tried to help out this month is simply awesome!!!

April Blog Angels half-way post

As you know I have been participating in Rosie's Blog Angel 'program' for a while now. But what is a Blog Angel? 

If you look up the following 2 words BLOG and ANGEL you will find the following definitions:

Blog: a Web site containing the writer's or group of writers' own experiences, observations, opinions, etc.,and often having images and links to other Web sites. (http://dictionary.reference.com)

Angel: a person having qualities generally attributed to an angel, as beauty, purity, or kindliness. (http://dictionary.reference.com)

So if you combine the 2 words you know what being a Blog Angel is all about! It is about helping an other blogger by:

- Commenting on posts
- Button exchange
- Helping with the lay out 
- Guest posting
- Writing a post about them
- Following them on other social media platforms
- etc, anything you can think of will work!

For this month I haven't been the ultimate blog angel.... But luckily the blog I am trying to help is a blog that already has all the features and qualities of being a great blog! So I feel there is not much I can add.... But this blog does give back by inspiring me! So being a blog angel is not only about helping someone else it is also a great way to get new inspiration and to make new friends!

At the end of the month I can reveal to you which blog I am talking about, but I will try to find some way to end this edition with a special something. Not quite sure what it will be... but I am working on it.

April Craft Challenge 2013 - Vintage Hat Rack

So are you ready for my masterpiece?

 Well before you get all excited I must admit one thing... well actually two things...

1) I spent € 10 instead of $ 10... so basically I overspent € 3....

2) My dad helped me.... well actually he made the whole thing.... It went like this: I brought the knobs to my parents to show my plan and to ask how to do it and if I could use his drill. So I decided to leave my stuff at my parents for when I would come back to make it. And before I knew it my dad finished the whole project....

To be honest I am gald he did, because it looks amazing and perfectly finished! A real masterpiece if you ask me.

I hope you like it as much as I do!

Preview: April Craft Challenge 2013!

Here is a little preview for this months Craft Challenge! I already have to admit that I didn't really follow the rules on this one.... The idea is that you make something amazing for less than $10... But mine is €10... which looks the same.... but of course this is like €7! So I went slightly over budget, but as you might know I am no mathematician (my boyfriend will be glad to confirm this to you) so what else can you expect.

Here are some pics of the items I bought, the complete project will follow at the end of this month so don't miss it!!!

Hope to see you soon!!!!

Craft Challenge March!

It is almost the end of March and therefore it is time to show you what I made for this month's Craft Challenge.

I like to make easy, simple things that basically everybody can make without spending too much money.

For this challenge all you need is a basic t-shirt, I bought mine for only € 2.99 at Zeeman. The shirt is very affordable and also very comfortable! The fabric panel I used was something I had as a left over from last season.

  You just need to cut the panel in line with the shirt, but keep in mind you need to stretch the bottom of the shirt all the way out. This is the width of the panel you will need, then you just cut a square. You first finish of the top part of the panel with a small zig-zag stitch or an over-lock stitch. Then you crinkle/wrinkle the top part about 5 cm below the top. Once you have done this you can stitch the sides to the shirt and finally the bottom. It is pretty easy but you do need a sewing machine...

And here is the result!

I wanted to post a picture of me wearing the shirt with a cute outfit, but my boyfriend is in Sweden for a conference so there is no one to take cute pictures. But once I have cool pics I will be sure to post and share them with you!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Market 2 Market

And I am back!!! I have been so busy that I just could not find the time and energy to write new posts and let you know what's going on.

2 weeks ago I started a new job. And with a new job come a lot of new impressions, new people to get to know and new tasks I have to make my own. So you can imagine I was totally worn out every evening after I came home. 

Besides this I also had some busy weekends all packed with fun stuff to do! The 2 most important things were my visit to the IJhallen in Amsterdam with my friend Amy from Amy's Fashion Scrapbook. This is like basically a huge monthly flee market mainly indoor. 

http://www.ijhallen.nl/index.php

The reason went there is because a lot of people go there to sell old clothes, and we needed to investigate the location to see if it would be something for us to sell our clothes.... and believe me when I say we have loads of clothes to sell!

And last weekend I went to the Stoffenspektakel with my mother in law. And no this is not a typing error... I actually get along very well with my mother in law! She is the person that inspired me to start making my own clothes and other DIY stuff. The Stoffenspektakel is a yearly indoor market where they sell all sorts of fabrics and fournitures. And with all sorts of fabrics I really mean all sort of fabrics, from affordable to the real A-brand fabrics (Chanel, Armani) and also real leather and fur.

When you are a regular visitor you will probably know that, when I have time I like to make my own clothes. But since it is pretty time consuming I don't make things as often as I would like..... Below you can find an overview of the lovely fabrics I bought.

For Some of the fabrics I already know what I want to make but for some I am not sure yet... A few questions for my lovely readers:

1) which one do you like best?
2) any ideas as to what I should make?

Once I have finished an item I will be sure to put them online so you can be the judge of the end result.

Enjoy your weekend and see you soon!

Blog Angel Reviel post February

Are you a blogger? Do you want to help other bloggers? Do you want to share your amazing stories with other bloggers? Do you want some support with your blog? 
 If your answer to all these questions is YES you are the perfect Blog Angel Candidate!!! Because this is what being a Blog Angel about!

This was the first Blog Angel round for 2013 and we had to choose our blog. So I decided to go for Anja from Cocalores. Besides being an amazing blogger she has also become my German Blog Friend which is amazing! Oh and she also loves PINK so what what's not to like?!

So what did I do to help her out:

- I started following her on Pinterest, and since I really loved a lot of her Pins I made a post about her Pinterest boards hoping she would get more Pinterest followers. You can read the post here.

- Of course I did the regular commenting, since I already was a daily reader of her blog I had hoped that this wouldn't raise too much suspicion about me being her Angel.....

- Beside being a Blog Angel I am also participating in the Craft Challenge 2013 and so is Anja! So I also wrote a post on her amazing February DIY project in which she transformed a basic Ikea dresser (I have the very same dresser) into something special. You can read about it here and here.

- We also had great email conversations about our blogs and things we read! Which is always nice.

My goals for her was to attract some new readers and followers on Pinterest, and I hope I made that happen. But besides helping her I also gained a great friend which being a Blog Angel is all about.

So what are you waiting for?!

Go over to Craftbotic, start reading about our Blog Angel Society and get in contact with Rosie so you can also be a Blog Angel the next round!

Craft Challenge 2013 - My Repurposed Crafts!

Finally I can show you my Craft Challenge for February! I decided to re-purpose a crate which was a beer gift package. Since it just simple rough wood, it was pretty simple to paint it, pimp it and turn it into a flower basket!

Let's start by showing you the before picture and what I used to transform it into something else.

1) The before:

 2) What do you need:

You will need: Glue gun, paint brushes, wooden flowers to cover the words "Limburgs Genot", and I used some plastic beads.

You will also need paint, good white paint as a base coat and some colored paint. I used Acrylic paint (the cheapest I could find). I thought I would also need nails and a hammer to fasten the plastic lining but instead I used (wood) glue. I like my glue!

 3) Start painting:

Make sure to apply enough white base paint, I had to paint the crate 3x to get it really white. Then apply some stripes if you want to, you can also add polka dots or anything you want really... When painting stripes make sure you use tape to get nice straight stripes. And wait with taking of the tape until the paint is really dry.

When painting these wooden flowers, also first apply a white paint (2x) and then when it is completely dry apply some nice colors to the flowers. 

 

 

 4) When everything is dry:

Cover the inside with some (thick) plastic to make sure it is water resistant when watering the plants/flowers.

 5) Start gluing!

Now you can start gluing the flowers to the flowers to the outside of the crate. I also added some plastic beads to the smallest flowers.

 6) Finishing touch!

Add some plants! I choose for

hyacinths because they smell so nice!

Now go over to Craftbotic and vote for your favorite Re purposed craft!

DIY dresser transformation!

If you like a challenge you should definitely join the Craft Challenge 2013 hosted by Rosie from Craftbotic.

I decided to participate because all the challenges are free for interpretation and require creativity! They do not only require creativity because you have to come up with something awesome every month, but also because the participants make the most amazing things!!! My January challenge was pretty awesome I thought... until I saw all the creations of the other participants. The same goes for this months challenge. I haven't started mine yet but the plan and materials are on site! But when I saw the below item... I am starting to doubt my idea... It is probably way too simple... But I will just go with it and maybe I will amaze myself and all my readers!

Anyway here is the item I am loving at the moment the most! It is pretty amazing and I also think it is affordable and easy to do.

So what is the challenge, what did Anja from Cocalores do with this dresser? Below you can find a short guide on how to transform your dresser into something new.

1) You need to buy these:

2) Start gluing:

3) Placement:

4) Paint it in your favourite colour and your will have this amazing transformed dresser!

Are you impressed?! I for sure am! To read the complete DIY handguide to this cool project click HERE.

Blog Angels February Part 1

Surprise Surpise... guess what I am doing this month.... Yes you guessed right I am (yet again) a Blog Angel!

If you are new to this blog please click here and here to see what being a Blog Angel is all about.

This time (again) we got to choose for which Blog we wanted to be an Angel ... my pick was pretty difficult.... But in the end I choose for a blog that I really like to visit on a regular basis and I thought it would be a good blog to put my BA (Blog Angel) skills to the test. Because this Angel requires a different strategy... she knows how to blog and how to attract readers, but I hope I can support her in getting more readers and maybe help her gain some more (social) attention.

I can't reveal my strategy but I do have a plan... it does need some fine tuning.... but in the end I hope I can make her proud!

Because it has to be a secret till the end who my BA is I like to add some secret details to the "in between" posts.... and this time it is a quote which I think describes my Blog Angel in the way I've got to know her over the past year.

If you yourself are a BA this month, good luck! If you are new to the game, stay tuned because by the end of February I will reveal who my Angels was.

Swirling Cameleon

I thought it was time to do a little update on the lay out of my blog. What I wanted to do for a while now is using the button Rosie from Craftbotic made for me in the header. So I did a little DIY Blog Metamorphosis. 

And the result is somewhat different... To be honest I have to get use to the new lay out, but I quite like it. It is more playful, softer and cuter. But I am not yet sure if maybe it comes off as... a bit childish... too happy.... Well I will leave it like this for now and see if I can get used to it... If not I might change it back as it was.

What do you think? Is it a change for the better or did you like the old lay-out? Or do you have an idea on the header of my blog? I would love to hear your input!

2013 Craft(botic) Challenge

A Challenge?! Yes that is that the title of this post is! And this challenge sound pretty awesome! If you are a regular reader you might know that I am not that good at sticking to challenges.... I once tried the photo-a-day challenge... during which you had to take a photo of an item (which was mentioned on the blog) and post it.... half way the month I forgot to take the pics... and I just stopped.... If you also remember I said I would participate with the weekly OH, How Pinteresting item... couldn't keep up with this either...

But a new year has started so it is time to make new resolutions right?! The thing about this challenge if that you only have to do 1 item per month! So you have 4 weeks and weekends to make something. And I like making things and think of making things.... to sit behind my sewing machine and see how you create something. So will I keep up... I think so!

This is what the challenge consists of:

So for January we have to make something of leftovers! And boy do I have leftovers... My first thought was to use my fabric leftovers, but of course you can use anything you like; paper, flowers, fabric, wood, food! Anything you like!

And here is the first item of the challenge: I made a Tissue Case! I did use a tutorial so I am not sure if that is cheating... so please don't Rosie from Craftbotic the host of this challenge! The tutorial I used is from Very Purple Person. And to be honest I quite like the result! It is very easy to make, useful and you don't need a lot of fabric.

Well if you want to join in on the fun, it is easy! No signing up, just crafting!

Lieke's December Blog Angel Scrapbook

As you know in December I was a blog Angel for a blog I got choose! Curious to see which Blog I chose???

Reason I choose this blog is not only because Amy is a friend of mine, I also really like her sense of style and variety! This is why I wanted to share her Blog with the rest of the world! My goal was to help her get more readers, not sure if that worked... but here is what I did to help her:

1) to start I did the easiest thing, which is just commenting on her posts which mainly consists of nice outfits. Below an overview of her December posts:

 2) I noticed that she did not have any buttons, and as we all know buttons are essential in the blogger community, so I made her 2 buttons. I don't think they are on her blog yet, but now if she needs them, she can use them.

3) Besides things on her blog, I also also wanted to do something which was more in the Christmas spirit.... but I was not sure how to handle it.... so I decide to just give her a hand made Glossy Box! I am not sure if you know what it is, but it is a monthly subscription on  a box which contains all these amazing beauty products each month! And since she is not yet sure if she wants to order the Glossy Box I decided to give her her first box! I did include a little hint.....

The box contained: Burt's Bees Lip Balm / Weleda Facial cream / Yves Roches Mascara / Reload Soap / Vichy Facial Water Spray / Opi Shatter nail polish / Herome nail file.

And the little hint..... an (Blog) Angel Christmas card!

4) The last thing I did was this post: Better Sale than Sorry!
This is such a good post and really something that can help all of us!

So there you have it! This is what being a Blog Angel is all about, Caring & Sharing!
Have wonderful New Year's Eve and I will see you in 2013