Natalie's Creations

It all started with a quite large item that I needed to wrap for a bridal shower… I refused to buy 386647123476 rolls of wrapping papers so I thought about personalizing a large piece of plain white paper to make it more meaningful. 

With a bunch of colored calligraphy pens, I started writing. My husband was watching me, he asked: “Are you sure of the spelling?” :-) Wouldn’t it be a disaster? of course I was sure!

Here is how it looked when finished

and here was me presenting my gift to be bride to be…

I used the same idea on a Christmas gift and it also turned out pretty cute!

Are you tired of all the gift wrapping ideas yet? :-)

Do you hate spending tons on money on gift wrapping papers? I do. I actually stopped buying wrapping papers for a while now. I use kraft papers, newspapers, construction papers, and regular white papers for gift wrapping and I constantly looking for ways to creatively decorate the gifts. Check out some of my gift wrapping posts here, here and here.

This time, I’m recycling plastic shopping bags. I love the gold polka dots on this H&M bag.

…so I cut it up and use it as I normally would papers.

It’s a little sheer but you wouldn’t have this problem if your gift box underneath was solid. I don’t really mind that you can almost see the writing on the box.

I added some baker twine and a gift tag and we’re good to go. Check out how I got the gift tags in this post. 

Here is another gift wrapped with the other half of the bag. Some purple silk ribbon brighten it up a whole lot too! 

Save money on wrapping papers this season!

Have you ever felt like you don’t even want to bother with accessories because you don’t want to go through them to pick ONE that you would wear? 

This problem is especially worse for my bracelets. I totally think it’s time to do something about that?

I used:

-some cardboard tubes/cores that I saved from gift wrapping papers rolls (These are the thick, sturdy ones).

-A candle stick 

-some marking tools

-some cutting tools

-1 wine cork

-1 metal screw

-hot glue gun

-fabric

I measured the tubes and cut them to size, depending on how many bracelet you want it to hold. Make sure it’s can stay balanced on your candle stick too!

The I traced the shape of the candle stick onto the tube

Cut it out

I took out the cork and made sure it fit into the candle holder just like a candle would.

I also put paper tape around where I cut to reinforce it. 

This part is hard to explain but the picture should help a lot. I basically put the screw through the tube and right onto the cork that was already sitting on the candle stick. This surprisingly held everything together very nicely.

Next, I picked out some scrap fabric (I would love to have some some black velvet but I found this animal print instead, oh well)

Measured and cover the whole tube using the hot glue gun.

Ta-da…

Not too bad eh? :-)

Found this feather on a beach walk with muh Hubbie. 

Finally decided to make it into a … pretty thing for my desk :-)

I think it’s romantic, do you?

Introducing my $5 clear plastic phone cover. It’s cheap, almost invisible and does a little but to no protection for my phone :-) I feel like it could do a little more if I let it 

First I traced around it on a blank piece of paper to create a template

Cut it out

Tried it on to make sure it fit snuggly inside the case 

Then I went crazy drawing some random lines and shapes :-)

The possibilities are endless, I can use patterned papers, pictures,… any designs or color can be used… 

Do you like the idea?

Some how I started with Hubbie’s costume :-) and here, my friends was how it all went…

I attached 2 XL t-shirts together and tried to use as much of the length as possible

Then, I attached the the gold trim around the hems. You can see all the supplies here.

I moved on to using 1/4 of the curtain panel 

Add gold trim to both ends of the curtain panel as well

Create some pleats 2/3 of the length  

The final steps are: attaching the panel to one shoulder, put the rope around the waist :-)…and then…

Made my Hubbie try it on…

…when he’d much rather be…a Ninja :-P

Hey guys, 

Happy weekend!

I wrote a post saying that I wanted to be Cleopatra for Halloween and some of you showed interest. I got some awesome encouragements and suggestions. Thank you!! :-). I also convinced my Hubbie to be Julius Caesar :-P

I used the following pics as my inspirations for my own costumes.

I found this old white beach cover up in my closet. I was about to cut the sleeves of some white t-shirt for the top part… 

…and this white knit top turned up :-)

For Hubbie’s costume, I used 2 extra large T shirts. These I also already have on hands.

I also searched my stash and found this fabric. My mother in law brought it to me at some point in the past. It’s some kind of upholstery fabric and it has some gold under tone. I would love for it to have more gold but I will make use of what I already have.  

I took Allie’s advice and went to the Dollar Store and DII store to get a few things. I was actually disappointed as I couldn’t find much, besides these:

- Some gold Christmas ribbon - 99 cents each

- Gold curtain tieback - $1.99

- 1 panel of curtain - $3.99

- More Christmas decorations :) - 99 cents each

Will show ya how things turn out next …

1. Wrap the box in white

2. Pick out construction papers with colors of the rainbow

3. Cut 1/2 inch strips of paper, 2 for each color

4. Line up the colors to resemble the rainbow

5. Do the same to the second set of paper, placing the strips perpendicular to the first set. The the order of the color the same.

6. Start weaving. Over, under, over, under…

7. Pull all strips together tightly. Place a few pieces of clear tapes on top to secure them.

8. Place the white box on top. Wrap the strips of papers around to the back and connect them using small pieces of clear tapes.

9. Bring the second set of paper to the back as well and start weaving again. Use a toothpick to help if it’s getting a little difficult to pull the papers through. 

10. Secure each strip with tape

The finished gift from the back…

…and the front

I went an extra step and did a second layer of gift wrapping just to add some excitement to the gift opening session :)

I placed the small box into a larger box …

..and wrap the larger box in white again

Made a few rosettes with the left over construction papers.

Attached some ribbons on them and placed them on top of the box…

Here is now it looked.

No, that was it. I didn’t put this box into an even larger box.

Here is my grandpa opening the gift :-)