DIY Must Try: Improv Polka Dot Wallpaper

Love polka dots?
Love wallpaper?
On a budget and/or not willing to commit to big renovation project?

Well here is the perfect DIY for you (and me)!

I present to you the easiest and cheapest faux wallpaper DIY ever!

and how good does it look?

This awesome project is from Finnish blog My Second hand Life on the Indie Days website. It is in Finnish but there is an English blurb at the bottom. There is no actual DIY instructions but I thought I would add some here. And I haven't done this project yet (hence the "DIY must try" but I am hoping to try it out ASAP, probably going to the shops to get my supplies tomorrow or by the end of the week)

Now for the how-to.

All you will need is:

• a wall
• a roll of little dot stickers in the colour/size of your choice otherwise known as circle label stickers.

So this is the kind of thing you are looking for. You can find a roll at your nearest Officeworks or other stationary store. Probably just in the stationery isle of your super market will do. One of these should cost you between $5-$10! Change the look of your walls for LESS than $10! How crazy is that?!

The instructions..

1. Select the wall you want to polka dot. It can be one wall in your room to use as a feature or two walls or even 3. All of them?! The ceiling maybe even or a door (I do like the door idea).
2.  Make sure it's nice and clean. It doesn't have to be spotless but no one wants to look at a dirty wall. Just use a damp cloth. If you are having any difficulties, consult a professional (that's a joke).
3. Start sticking! You can place your dots as dense or as sparsely as you like! You can place them randomly like in the photo at the top or you can be really pedantic and space them all out evenly with a ruler (this will probably make this DIY more difficult and time consuming).
4. You're done! Step back and admire your hard work. ☺

Of course there are alternatives to dots. Use stars, squares or cut up your own shapes from a roll of colour tape. And it doesn't have to be on a while wall either! It's all up to you. Hopefully I can try this out soon and I will post some photos up.

In the mean time good luck with this!

Julie

Little projects: Origami business card stand

Hey internet,

So I've been following How about Orange for a while. It's a blog by a woman named Jessica Jones, she's a graphic designer. On her blog she posts little DIYs, free printables and  desktop images and other cool little fun things she find on the internet. Needless to say I have spent a good amount of time on her blog (especially during my HSC)

Anyhows, so I saw this link to a tutorial to make an easy origami business card stand a little while ago (post here).  Thought it was worth trying, but thought "hang on I don't have any business cards to put on it". So I left it and continued surfing the net as I do.

Don't you think they look pretty nice all coordinated with the stationary and such?!

Anyway, months later, I made some business cards/contact cards for The Jolly Cottage for the markets! And these neat little crossed my mind. So I made some!! 

Here are my new cards! Don't mind some ink leaks and wonky printing/trimming. They're handmade, complete with some washi tape. But they look pretty good if you asked me. What do you think?

And here are my cards in my little card stands! Yay!! They aren't really in the colour/pattern of my choosing. Just recycling a map of Taronga Zoo my little sister printed off when we took her there last school holidays (pretty sure it was the winter break). I thought it looked nicer then all the other random stuff in the recycling pile. Huzza! for recycling and saving the planet! Think I will make another proper set of business card stands for the markets. Any suggestions on the kind of paper. Colour? Pattern? 

Pretty happy with how everything turned out. Those card stands are SUPER easy! You should try it yourself. I've even embedded the instruction video for you! It is just below. :)

Woo! It can also be used as a phone stand too. Multi purpose. I like it!

If you try it out, let me know and tell me how you went and we can chat over how awesomely easy they are to make.

Anyway, have fun with that and enjoy your weekend!

Julie

DIY must try: Himmeli

So I do a lot of surfing the net and saving images and bookmarking pages and pinning things. So here are some things that I want to try out now, some time in the future (or possibly not get around to doing however unfortunate).

First up.

Himmeli

Himmeli is a Finish tradition where they hang intricate, hand-made, straw mobile over the dining table to promote a good harvest. These traditionally geometric mobiles can look quite modern and geometric and have been recreated by designers for general decorative purposes. Here are some examples below (which I just pulled of Google Images). 

A traditional himmeli made from straw.

A collection of mobiles and ornaments by Melissa of AMradio. You can by her things from her Etsy shop Hrŭskaa.

One of my favourite things by Melissa are her brass himmeli mobiles like these awesome hanging planters.

A himmeli pendant light by designer Paul Loeback.

I stumbled across these beautiful mobiles after watching a tutorial on how to make on the KIN Comminity youtube channel. You can watch the tutorial below.

It looks so easy to do, I just want to make some to decorate my room and to make for Christmas. Bring a little of Scandinavia into my house (I miss Sweden). If any of you internet people try this out let me know and show me!

Till next time,

Julie