April DIY: Coffee sleeve travel journal

So April's DIY is finally here!!! It took a little longer to get it up here than anticipated, but alas here it is and it is super cute! This month I will walk you through a little on-the-go travel journal I made out of coffee sleeves while in Toronto :)

Step one: gather your coffee sleeves. I grabbed 8 for this project, but only ended up using 6. I tried to get them from a variety of places so I had different colors and textures. I tried Panera, Dunkin Donuts, and Tim Hortons I think.

Step two: gather a small stash of supplies to bring with you (or use at home). I chose a few scraps of paper I thought looked nice together, some miscellaneous rub-on and stickers, a glue stick, a stapler (this is a MUST for me, makes assembly SO easy and quick on-the-go!), a small pair of scissors, 4 colors of paint, and a small handful of trinkets and buttons.

Side note: these are little inkers that I picked up at the Dollorama in Toronto. They are not super well made and will probably only last you a few projects. However, for only a $1.00 they are the perfect size for travelling.

Step three: gather ephemera from your trip. stuff like, tickets, menus, brochures, etc. if you are doing this day by day, you can use that day's collections, otherwise save it all to use at the end of your trip.

Step four: open up the sleeves so they lay flat, instead of around your coffee (they are usually perforated).paint your coffee sleeves. you will only need to paint one side as the others will be glued together, I painted the most textured sides.

Psst! the Oh, Canada spread is my favorite :)

Step five: decorate!! I used bits and pieces of this and that, here and there mostly attached with staples because glued to the textured surfaces is difficult, and I like the look of the staples. I ended up with six total spreads that will be folded in half when the book is assembled.

Step six: fold each spread in half. Then you are going to glue the BACK of one spread to the FRONT of the next. as you can see in the picture it is easy to make sure you are gluing the right pieces together by lining up the two closed ends next to each other. Continue gluing back to front until all pages have been added.

Step seven: decorate a simple cover. I chose just to do the front and leave the raw look on the back.

Step eight: enjoy an eco-friendly, fun, and simple little book to remember your trip :)

March DIY : free mini cookbook

This is a super quick and easy way to organize random recipe cards you have laying around, you know the ones that fall out when you are looking for a cookbook in your cupboard? Or it is a good excuse to gather new ones :)

You will need:

recipe cards, indexcards
patterned paper
hole punch or crop-a-dile
keychain ring or binder ring (not sure what exactly they are called but you will see the picture)
letter stickers
other embellishments
paper trimmer or scissors

Step 1: Gather recipe cards from your local supermarkets. Most of them have little racks here and there and offer them for free! Or, you can use your own recipe cards or index cards.

Step 2: cut to pieces of your patterned paper the same size as your recipe cards. (note the keyring here, this is the best type to use)

Step 3: punch a hole in the top left of each recipe card. I would use one with a hole already in it to line up the next one I was punching like shown above, til they all have a little hole.

Step 4: punch holes in your front and back cover. Make sure that when you do this you hold them wrong side together, otherwise your back cover will have a hole on the wrong side!

Step 5: decorate your cover. I simply wrote cook on the front and added a strip of striped patterned paper below it. Then I added a flourish sticker and inked the edges. I also inked the back cover's edges, but that's all I did for the back.

Step 6: use your ring to hook them all together.

Step 7: enjoy your cute new mini cookbook! You can hang it on a hook in the kitchen or cupboard and add more cards to it as you collect them. Also, you can make divider cards for each section if you wish, I didn't because these are already color coded. Have fun!!

365's first DIY!

I am so excited for this! It is definitely something I am going to try and do once a month and possibly more if I have the time. Our first DIY is going to be a sand dollar pillow. Now, you can adapt this method to make flowers instead of sand dollars and you can sew them on anything your heart desires :) Here is a look at the finished product first. I wanted another decorative pillow for my bed and here is what I cam up with.

Here is what you will need:

*a piece of paper or cardboard
*a pencil
*a collection of things that are round and can be traced(cups, bowls, doll house lamps, etc)
*a sheet of felt in each color you would like to use (I used dk brown, tan, and light blue)
*a needle
*thread or embroidery floss of your choosing
*plain white throw pillow (if you are making the pillow of course, mine is from IKEA)

STEP 1: Gather your collection of round things, mine range from about 1" to 2 1/2"

STEP 2: Trace them onto your paper or cardboard.

STEP 3: Cut them out. I did six different sizes and numbered them according to size.

STEP 4: Pin your circle template to your felt and cut around it. Keep cutting various sizes of various colors until you have about 25 circles (less if you need for another project)

STEP 5: layer your cut out circles. I did some with three layers, some with two and varied the size differences.

STEP 6: Pin them to your fabric/pillow in the pattern you would like. I did the bottom left corner in a sort of triangle shape.

STEP 7: Sew them in place. I did five long stitches on each one to emulate a sand dollar, but for a flower you could do more stitches and/ or shorter ones.

STEP 8: Toss on your bed and enjoy! (the pillow next to it I made also, it is simply a square of fabric with a button in each corner)