DIY Marble Side Table

Thought I would up my bed side table game by hopping on the marble trend in the least expensive way possible. Considering marble will be out of trend within the next few years, I wanted to do something that would cost me next to nothing. I have been contemplating ordering marble contact paper for a few months now but some rolls cost up to $50 on Etsy which is ridiculous since my side table was probably less than half that price!

ONE To create this side table, print off several copies of this marble print (download here). Take out your drawer and unscrew the knob. TWO Then, trim off the whites of your marble paper and affix it to the surface of your drawer using a gluestick. THREE Neatly, cut away all excess paper and fold it behind. FOUR Measure a piece of contact paper large enough to cover the surface of the drawer and the edges too. FIVE Slowly peel back the contact backing and smooth it over your drawer. If you fail at contacting surfaces, maybe practice contacting some old magazines to ensure your final product is always bubble free. SIX Trim off excess contact and re-pierce the hole where the knob is meant to go. SEVEN Screw knob back into place and you are finished! EIGHT (option lol) Artfully style your DIY, take many photographs and boast to family and friends 😉 Make sure they always stand 5 metres away so they can’t tell if its actually marble or not.

OPTIONAL: Before attempting this side table, I actually made a jewellery holder first. I printed off the marble sheets, glued them to card stock, contacted the whole thing and affixed it to my cork board using white push pins.

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Shelfie

Did you know bookshelves say a lot about a person? Take the bookshelf test here and then share your shelfie with me! I am a bit OCD with my Ikea expedit shelves; I need them to be their aesthetic self but at the same time, I need them to be functional and hold as much junk as possible. Here are my tips!

ONE: Collect a bunch of boxes and magazine holders to store the unattractive bits. You can also buy very cheap binders and decorate them like I have done here a la Kate Spade.

TWO: Hold onto those champagne bottles, glass candles and jars and fill them with fresh, dead or fake flowers.

THREE: Display your favourite accessories that you never seem to get to use. For me, these are my quirky clutches and my cat flats which have died a bit.

FOUR: Let it go. Its basically impossible for your shelf to resemble a Pinterest shelf so don’t worry too much. Have fun, switch it out regularly and inject as much personality into your bookcase as possible. Magazines, gift bags, candles, travel memorabilia and picture frames are all great space fillers. Try stacking stuff sideways and if all else fails, shove it in a storage bin and try again tomorrow!

DIY Lipstick Clutch

I came across this clutch a couple of weeks ago and for a cool 450, you can make it your cutest night out bag. But today, I have a cheap as chips and easy as pie DIY that cost me less than 10 bucks and 10 minutes of my Friday night in. You’ll need a plain box style clutch (mine was $5 from Colette!), a used lipstick and a red rubber. Make sure you visit my blog again next week to see how I styled it for a night out!

Start by scooping out all your old lipstick and filling it with some glue instead. Cut off a chunk of your rubber to create the bullet. I was lucky enough to have a red rubber at my disposal but I think red polymer clay or bluetack stained red could possibly work as well. To ‘shape’ your bullet, rub it against a flat surface so the hard edges disappear. Then push your bullet in the hole and glue the entire lipstick to your clutch! Make sure you glue it on the back side so you can still open your purse.

No Shaking Required (DIY Polaroids)

We are all guilty of getting something new and then wanting something more. Except if you took the time to reflect, this greediness could be zapped (or at least leak out) from your system. I have a 365-day journal from Kikki-K that I write in every day. It’s a very healthy way of letting stuff out of your system or being thankful for what you’ve been able to do a particular day. Sometimes, I’ll just write a recipe down or attempt to write my name in different fonts. You don’t need to have an epic day for it to be worth recording because some of the best days are those lazy days where you don’t do anything but you appreciate everything. If you don’t think you have the enthusiasm to keep up a diary for that long, why not try do it just for the summer?

If words aren’t your forte, then maybe photos are? I saw a quote once that constantly resonates with me: “The photographer takes photos of things they are afraid to lose.” This quote troubles me because of the nature of my blog and social media. I take so many pictures of myself and inanimate objects that the ‘afraid to lose’ part becomes weirdly egocentric!

I have also had another great internal conflict for far too long. That is whether to buy a Polaroid camera or not succumb to the trend. I’m just not cut out for leaving things to luck and with a Polaroid, that’s exactly what you have to do and I’m sorry but I’m just not hipster enough.

Wait … but here’s the thing, today I have a DIY that’s different and less mainstream so I guess I can just say I out hipstered all you hipsters. HA! The other day I realised I had never printed out any of my photos from high school. That’s six years of photographs that have never made it off my screen. That’s a lot of cringe …which leads me to my third and final installment of my New Year series: Reflection – a DIY.

Start off by gathering all the pictures you want to use. Instagrams are the best because they’ve been squared already but by all means squarely crop all your other pictures and pop them into a folder.

Download Pixlr if you want to give your pictures that faded, timely, accidental look. I like my pictures brightly lit and sans filter but go ahead and filter that baby out till your heart desires. Pixlr in my opinion has the best filters but if you want to throw some better ones out into the ring, comment down below!

Open Photoshop or Gimp (free but very powerful) and open a new file that is 4 x 6 in size (standard photo printing size). Then centre your photo and don’t be afraid to give it a lot of white space.

Print your pictures out and trim to size. Then take a Sharpie and write the date, a song lyric, the location, whatever!

Your fake Polaroid is good for all kinds of stuff. If you have heaps make an entire feature wall filled with them or hang them up on twine. I think printing off a whole stack, writing cute messages on the back and boxing them makes for a cute, personalised gift.

 No vanity mirror? No problem! I would much rather stare at my beautiful friends and family instead.

PINATA

Its the middle of the week so happy hump day! We’ve also hit the middle of the countdown to Christmas today so I thought I would share with you another Christmas ornament DIY – specifically a miniature geometric piñata ornament! I’ve been seeing huge geometric shaped pinatas  all over the place of late including Real Living magazine which was my source of inspiration for this DIY. Pinatas remind me of  childhood parties and candy so why wouldn’t you want a miniature version hanging on your tree? This is a very simple DIY so let us begin (:

ONE: Download this template and print it out. Then trace it onto a thin piece of white card. TWO: Assemble your geometric shape and attach some ribbon to it with tape. THREE: Cut 1cm strips of crepe paper, lay them on top of each other and cut 3/4 of the way down so you have pieces and pieces of crepe fringe. FOUR: Start gluing pieces of the fringe working from the bottom to the top and working on one face of the ornament at a time. FIVE: Give your ornament a good old trim so its shape is visible again and you are done! EXTRAS: Instead of crepe paper you could make a shiny ornament with thin foil paper and you can also place a bell or some beads in your ornament before you assemble the shape so it rattles like an actual piñata!

SQUIRREL

“Be like the squirrel girl, be like the squirrel/Give it a whirl girl, be like the squirrel” {White Stripes ‘Little Acorns’}

Considering this is my fifth post AND we’re only a month away from Christmas (27 SLEEPS!), I thought it was time we added some DIY-ing onto Style Smorgasbord. So today, I have a tutorial for some ornaments that I originally saw at Bed Bath and Table. I’ve been seeing a lot of twine kinda ornaments this year so when I saw this ornament in store, it was about $5 and I thought, hey I could totally make it myself! Of course, my take doesn’t produce the most uniform of decorations but I was really pleased with the result! To learn how to make these really inexpensive ornaments yourself using materials you’ll no doubt find in your house, keep reading! Oh and since I am obsessed with Christmas, expect a few more tutorials in the upcoming weeks!

ONE: To begin, take one sheet of newspaper and scrunch it up until it is egg shaped in size. Tape these acorn bodies into shape to make sure they hold together.

TWO: Taking some glue, spread it all over your egg and begin wrapping twine around your acorn, beginning one third of the way down and wrapping it tightly until you get to the base. Hold the base for about 30 seconds and it should stay in place nicely. Alternatively, hot glue could speed up this step!

THREE: Cut off a short piece of twine and attach it to the top of the acorn using tape so it creates a loop.

FOUR: Now this step took some experimenting and I used a variety of materials until I found a really solid one! I ended up using thin cardboard, cut into little semicircles but you could also try paper bags and cereal boxes. Then glue each semicircle around your acorn starting from the bottom to the top. The more semicircles you have, the better it looks!

Five: And then you’re done!!! If you want to make some branches like I did, just go hunt for a few thin but sturdy branches, tape them together, paint them white and stick them in a nice glass vase. Mine’s a maple leaf from a Canadian maple syrup if you’re wondering! I think these acorns would also look super lovely on a traditional tree or strung as a garland above the fireplace. Thank you for reading and I hope you have a lovely weekend!