Goodbye 2011, Welcome 2012!

Wow, today is New Year's Eve! It feels like four or five months since we celebrated the last NYE and i whispered "It's our wedding year" into MisterT's ear while we stood on the bridge close to our house and watched the fireworks. And now the two of us have been married for almost 9 months!

I started writing this little blog in summer and i still can't believe it already has 29 regular followers who are interested in reading about my life and my DIY stuff. Thank you all for your support and lovely comments! May all your dreams and wishes come true in 2012!!

We will celebrate at home tonight, snuggling on the sofa, watching a movie or two and eat our traditional caviar eggs and chili. We will probably go outside at midnight to see some fireworks and drink a glass of champagne, although i would prefer staying inside. There are too many drunk idiots out there who throw their firecrackers into the crowd.
The next morning we will watch the live broadcast of the New Year's Concert in Vienna. This is a MUST! Neighbors prepare and better grab some earplugs!

Despite staying at home i just made my own glittery party nails with dark blue nail polish and teal craft glitter. What do you think?

Too sad i cannot capture the sparkle with my camera.

I do not have any new year's resolutions because i never stick to them anyway. Actually my only wishes for the new year are health and happiness for me and MisterT.

But i have some things on my 2012 To-Do-List:

- start a diet ( as soon as i have eaten up all the christmas candy and chocolate)
- become a successful business owner or find an awesome new job that makes me happy
- or even better: win big in the lottery
- declutter the entire appartment
- bathroom makeover ( will be cancelled if i win the lottery)
- living room makeover ( dito)

We'll see what i have been able to reach by the end of the year.

Happy New Year!

DIY: Coffee Capsules Tree Tutorial

This is the tutorial for the coffee capsules tree i made last week as a christmas gift.

Unfortunately i did not take many photos for two reasons:

1. I never planned on writing a tutorial because i did not expect the tree to turn out that beautiful ( i know, i know, self-praise stinks...)

2. I was in such a flow while working on it that i totally forgot the world around me


Trees like this make great home decoration or wedding reception centerpieces if you decorate them with tealight candleholders instead of the coffee capsules. Spray paint the entire creation in white, black or turquoise for a modern look, light pink for a romantic style or glitter to make it fancy. Instead of paper flowers you could attach fake diamonds, crystals, pearls, butterflies, seasonal fruit or anything else that comes to your mind.


Total costs: 0, as i already had all the materials. Otherwise it would have been approx. 10-15€

Total time: 5-6 hours, plus one night drying time for the Plaster of Paris

Materials:

- a dry branch, not a fresh one! Fresh branches shrink after a while and the tree will become unstable then
- empty tin can ( or a vase or planter)
- plaster of paris + water
- old spoon or stick
- floral tape
- wire
- pliers
- fabric
- hot glue gun
- paper flowers
- coffee capsules
- old newspaper to protect the floor 

Instructions:

1. Fill Plaster of Paris into the tin can ( half-full) and add some water. Not too much, just enough to still be able to stir the mixture ( the thicker the paste the faster it dries) with an old spoon or such. Once the mixture is smooth and lump-free place the branch into the center of the can and hold it for a minute or so, until the mixture is solid enough to hold the branch in its place on its own.
Now let it dry according to the manufacturers instructions. It usually takes about 24 hours to dry completely, but i placed mine near the radiator and could continue working after 12 hours.

2. The next step is to attach the "wire mini twigs". Start by bending a loop at one end ( use one of the capsules as a model to make sure the loop has the perfect size) then twist the wire around itself to prevent the loop from coming open. Now double that length and cut the wire. Just measure by eye, it doesn't have to be the exact same length. Wrap the other end of the wire around the branch and secure it by twisting it around itself. Now it should look somehow like this:

 3. Repeat until you have attached the desired amount of wire-twigs.

4. Up next secure each wire-twig with hot glue. Apply small dabs of glue between the wire and the branch as marked in the photo below and let cool:

5. So far my tree looked like this:

As you can see the wire does not look pretty at all and it makes sense to cover it. At first i tried wrapping it with twine but that turned out to be a nightmare task which would have taken several hours, so i decided to use brown floral tape instead.
Start by covering the wire attached to the branch and then continue to wrap the tape around the wire of the mini twigs, until it looks similar to this:

( I was lazy and skipped wrapping the loops)

6. Up next cover the tin can with a piece of fabric and secure it with hot glue.

7. Lastly, attach the flowers ( or any other embellishments) with hot glue.

I don't have a tutorial for the paper roses because i made them them several months ago and since i create so many paper flowers i can't remember all the details. But you can find lots of tutorials via Google or Martha Stewart.

And that's it!

This project is linked up to my favorite Linky Parties

Christmas 2011

A few impressions of our christmas days this year.

Gifts:

 My mother's advent wreath and some decoration:

 Her cookies:

My parents' tree, decorated by me:

 My sister's tree:

More gifts:

Traditional christmas dinner:

A camera self-portrait:

And our first christmas e-card as a married couple:

Advent Calendar #24 - HoHoHo

You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

He's making a list,
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out who's naughty and nice.
Santa Claus is coming to town

He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!

O! You better watch out!
You better not cry.
Better not pout, I'm telling you why.
Santa Claus is coming to town.

Wishing all my readers a wonderful and merry christmas!

Advent Calendar #23 - Gifts

I already mentioned that all of my christmas presents will be handmade this year and shared some of them in previous blog posts.
I don't want to brag but i am absolutely in love with my knock-off coffee capsule tree!! So much that i would rather keep it than giving it away, haha!

It turned out amazing and looks way prettier than the original! I think this is the best DIY i have made so far and i will share a tutorial after christmas.

This alu gift "box" is a fun gift for my parents and i know it will make them laugh.

My father works a second job at a samaritan organization and delivers meals to the elderly people. Those meals come in aluminium food containers and everytime my parents come to visit us they bring along this food, since it is quick and easy to make and tastes good. I kept one of the aluminium dishes because i wanted to cut it and use it for a DIY project, but i think it's funny to return it to my hard-working best dad in the world. So i just folded it in half, padded it with cotton wool to protect the lazy Santa and wrapped it with brown paper.

My parents will also be given a DIY photo canvas but i forgot to take a photo of it. And i made this painting:

It is painted on glass and you can find the tutorial here.

I decided to give the wooden cutting board to my mother, and my father, who dreams of having a yacht, will get this little boat that i had pinned into my "Gift Ideas" board.

I rediscovered the pin last night and realized that the tutorials comes from Ann Woods. She makes the most adorable bird cake toppers and i am totally in love with her creations since i started planning our wedding last summer!
However, i did not follow her tutorial since the picture is quite self-explanatory.

I wanted to use handmade paper that i made a few months ago but could not find it, as always, and quickly had to make a new sheet. Again, not intending to sound narcissistically but i love how the two-toned paper turned out! ( anyone interested in a tutorial?)
I had some the blue pulp left over, and you know that i can't just throw things away so i splashed it onto my baking sheet to let it dry, thinking i could use it one day. When MisterT saw it he asked "Oh, is this the ocean for underneath the boat?" Et voilà, there was my use, faster than expected. MisterT is surprisingly creative from time to time a genius!

I could not wait to try the Martha Stewart supplies that i won at Mom Endeavors. I have never owned or used a Martha product before!
Moreoever i had collected some of the Ikea packing paper ( the one they offer for free after checkout) throughout the year and decided to follow the trend and use it with the seasonal stencils that were part of my prize package.
Ok, no, that's not true and i have to make a confession: The reason for keeping the Ikea paper everytime we brought home fragile ( and not so fragile items) is not because i am a visionary and knew it would become a popular gift wrap this year, but because i cannot stand the fact that nobody in my family seems to care about pretty packed gifts. I have numerous rolls of christmas wrapping paper and gorgeous fabric ribbon, but why waste the good stuff?? So by keeping the Ikea paper that otherwise would have been thrown away i kill two birds with one stone: I could test my new stencils and sponges and at the same time do not have to worry about how my family treats my gift wrapping. Geez, how mean does that sound??
After all that's what wrapping paper is for. But i belong to the minority of ( annoying?) people who actually take their time to enjoy the unpacking process instead of shredding everything apart. And i love pretty looking gifts and could spend days to pack everything for the ones i love, if only they would appreciate it. Oh how i wished everyone else was like me, regarding gifts.

Anyway, each gift is stenciled, monogrammed, wrapped with strings of wool and has a "handmade with love" gift tag.
 

 This cute idea on The Crafting Chicks inspired me to make my own tags. Feel free to use them.

This DIY card does not look as good as it did in my vision.

Then it's my mother's birthday the day before christmas; she will get store-bought gifts but this handmade card ( still working on it):

Everyone will get some small stuff in addition to their gifts, like chewing gum and a magnet for my father, reusable parchment paper for my mother etc. I also wanted to bake these cookies today but we ran out of eggs, so no cookies.

I had planned to make gifts for the kids as well, but my mother bought some Lego and HelloKitty items on sale for me to give it to them. 

MisterT and i will not be giving gifts to each other this year; we're broke. But i found a website where you can create a personalized video message from Santa Claus. Check it out, it's fun!

Advent Calendar #22 - Christmas Tree