PopBetty

A Love Letter to Pop Culture

D.I.Y. Idea: Dotty Decorations

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Dot DIY Ideas

Hi everyone! Hope you had a great Labor Day weekend. I personally had one of those “I need a vacation from this vacation” type of trips, and am only starting to feel normal again.

Question: do people have strong feelings about where to buy craft supplies from? For example, how do you feel about Hobby Lobby vs Michaels vs Walmart vs Dollar Tree vs [enter your favorite craft store here]? I’ve been doing far more craft shopping lately, and could use some guidance (e.g., are all the Hobby Lobby employees surly? Everywhere, all the time?).

That said, here’s a simple D.I.Y. idea I’ve been stewing over for awhile: using points or dabs of color to create a confetti-like effect (vs pointillism or Indigenous Australian dot painting, where the dots create or decorate recognizable forms). Links to the examples above and at right:

  1. Paint palette cards (and giftwrap) by Dear Hancock, found at Design*Sponge;
  2. Raval page flags at Paper Source {via};
  3. Poppies for grace confetti lolly bagDot paintings by Lauren DiCioccio, via Modish;
  4. Creative use of pencil eraser stamps by Carloe Liu (click through for more designs);
  5. Wonderful hands-on guestbooks by Bleu de Toi {via};
  6. Potato print artwork tutorial at Oh Happy Day;
  7. Textured wedding invitations from Wedding Paper Divas, design by Oh Joy.
  8. Pencil eraser bunting and wrapping decoration by Creature Comforts {via};
  9. Confetti lolly bags by Poppies By Grace, via Oh Joy.

Here are two more: confetti shoes over at Style Bubble & crayon chip wrapping paper by Liz Stanley.

I like this decoration method because it is inexpensive (tools used include pencil erasers, potatoes, thumbprints, bingo markers, and paint brushes), requires few technical skills, and produces such fun results. What do you think?

D.I.Y. Idea & Tutorial: Floral Wedges

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First, a quick note about the blog. Starting this week, I will be posting Monday, Wednesday and Friday only. I have some long-term blog projects I’d like to get done, plus I tend to go off in a million directions posts-wise, the result being that nothing gets finished. By limiting the number of days I intend to post, I hope it will allow me to focus and deliver. Okay, onto the post!

Inspiration 

Floral wedges

From left: floral high heels* {via} // Chinese Laundry wedges at ThreadSence {via}.

I’ve been considering potential D.I.Y. tutorials, and one idea that stood out was a tutorial for wrapping shoes in floral fabric. It helped that I already had shoes to revamp:

Target wedges

I bought these Target wedges long ago because I loved the shape, but haven’t worn them much since. The blue color (which is a bit darker than the photos) doesn’t really go with anything, being too blue to blend in, but not bright enough to make the shoes a statement piece.

Luckily, it turns out many bloggers have wrapped shoes with fabric before, meaning there are many inspiring tutorials for guidance. Here are the ones I referenced:

And here’s how it came out:

Floral Wedge Tutorial

Finished shoe versus old shoe

Finished shoe vs old side view

Ta-da! Much brighter and more fun than the original.

Here’s What You’ll Need:

[Read more…]

Hayao Miyazaki Craft Round-up, Part I

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PopBetty - Hayao Miyazaki Crafts Round-up
From left to right, row by row: Nausicaa Ohmu bento box by Anna the Red // knit Totoro baby cap by Hello Yarn {via} // Howl’s Moving Castle papercraft by Ben Millett // amazing Miyazaki-themed nail art by AttackedAstoria {via} // paperdoll sweater pattern Totoro hack by Marianne (UPDATE: tutorial) // Catbus cake by Coco Cake  // Catbus embroidery tutorial by Chelsea Bloxsom // Totoro crochet plushie instructions by heavens_hellcat {via}.

Right now, I’m putting finishing touches on the next Queen of Reversals recap (expect it tomorrow!). In the meantime, here’s a roundup of awesome crafts inspired by the works of Hayao Miyazaki. All relevant links & info should be in the caption above, save for two notes: one, that I’ve previously featured Anna the Red’s sleeping Totoro bento box; and two, as the original model is no longer available, here’s an alternate free papercraft model download for Howl’s Moving Castle.

D.I.Y. Idea: Curtain Flair

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D.I.Y. Idea Curtain Flair

While it’s much girlier than my normal taste, I really like the idea of sprucing up curtains with trim. It makes a big impact with very little expense or effort.

Above, Love Maegan has a good tutorial for black tassel fringe curtains, featuring this trim. A variation is this bright pom-pom trim, from a post on This is Glamorous (room designed by Lavender & Plum). There’s no tutorial, but I did find this similar trim with a quick Google search. Not pictured: put trim on the bottom of short curtains.

Design & D.I.Y. Finds: 04/04/11

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Colorful Design Picks

Some rainbow design finds for Monday:

  • eeBoo has a wonderful series of notebooks inspired by Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland.
  • Alexa Chung looks great in Erdem’s SS2011 Margot dress (originally $3,360, now sold out). Larger picture here.
  • Asos has this v. Jil Sander midi length skirt for $62.76. The blue is already sold out because I waited too long to post (sigh), but keep an eye out for similar items.

Hope you had a great weekend!