Back to School DiY - Notebook Makeover!

 Back to school!!
Turn your dull notebooks into colorful, super trendy artworks!

you will need:
✂ soft cover notebook  

✂ hard cover notebook
✂ fabric

✂ embroidery thread

✂ embroidery needle
✂ scissors

✂ white thick glue

Thread your needle with the embroidery floss and make a little knot on the edge. Make a hole through the soft cover. Pull the thread all the way through and decide the shape you want to give.
You might need to push the needle through the same hole over and over. Make sure you are not pulling too hard.

Keep going with the long stitches adding new colors of thread.

 

Stop when you feel you have the desired result.

✂ ✂ ✂ ✂ ✂ ✂ ✂ ✂ ✂ ✂ ✂ ✂

Put the hard cover notebook on the fabric wide open (wrong side up).
Draw a rectangle around, larger that the notebook. About 1,5cm for the top and bottom kai about 2-3cm for the sides.

Start gluing the fabric on the covers using a thick glue and a paintbrush. If you use normal liquid glue you will end up with glue stains on your fabric. When you have secured the one side on the cover, pay attention to the spine. Make two slids for the spine piece and cut it off. Continue folding the side pieces and glue them down.

When you finish you will end up with something like the photo above.

 For a cleaner finish glue the first and the last white page of the notebook onto the fabric you have just glued, hiding the trim pieces.

You are done! Now you can decorate your notebook with ribbons, buttons, lace and anything you like!

Have a great new school year!

Trash finds - Mirror revamp!

As my blog's name says...

i love finding things that are useless to people and throw them away,

and transform them to something useful. This time my trash treasure is a mirror!

It has a golden frame and a few drippings of white paint.

My first thought was to paint its frame. Then i realised that the frame was made of metal and i decided to make something different! Spice it up a little by using fabric instead!

If you like the result, just follow the steps below.

Take it apart.

It will be used for my jewelry exhibitions, so i chose a fabric in black and red

(which will match my shop's colors and the rest of my exhibitional items).

You can choose any fabric you like but remember that by using a thick one, you might end up with ugly folded corners.

Put the empty frame on the fabric and mark its shape, measuring about 2-3cm away of each side (depending on your frame's thickness).

After cutting out the shape, snip the inside corners to help the fabric turn over the frame.

Apply a thin layer of white glue and turn each side of the fabric over,

remembering to stretch it each time.

Repeat the same process for the front side.

Then cut the corners diagonally in order to make neat corner folds.

Then glue the excess fabric on the back, covering the whole frame.

Put the mirror inside the frame, secure the back and...

it is READY!!!

If you need to attach any small parts (such as nail hangers)

just make tiny snips on the fabric and push them through.

What do you think?

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La Valise Rouge * part II

Once upon a time...

there was a  very sad, brown suitcase. She was very old and dirty and nobody wanted her anymore!

She was left next to the trash bin, all alone!

Luckily, Mrs L was passing by after a while. She saw the poor suitcase standing there, terrified that the garbage truck with the huge teeth would come soon.. 

Mrs L thought "this one can become a masterpiece!"and took her home. She washed, repaired, painted the suitcase red and she also drew black dots everywhere!

She knew it was a girl-suitcase and she named her Sweet Case!

Mrs L thought it was the most beautiful sweetcase in the whole world! 

Sweet Case sat on the couch with Mrs L and smiled at her! She whispered: "you are my friend now! you took good care of me" and smiled again with her new red handle.

Time passed and Sweet Case thought that she wasn't just a livingroom suitcase! She was meant to travel! She thanked Mrs L , and said that she had to move on, and become what she was supposed to be!

She packed herself and closed the door behind her! She was ready for a big adventure! Took a deep breath and moved on!

She was waiting outside the elevator door when a thought crossed her mind: "you learn more using the hard way".

So she turned around and started climbing down the stairs...

 Nobody had seen her for a long time! She sent a postcard once saying that she was travelling around the world and that she had so much more to see!!

A few months  after, Mrs L heard a continuous banging noise coming from the stairs! She opened the door and saw Sweet Case climbing up the stairs breathless!

She didn't even say hello! She went inside the house, took her place on the couch, took a few more breaths, then looked Mrs L in the eyes an said:

"I've travelled around the world , i've seen so many things... but i am empty without a friend!"