DIY Decorative Vases

I am an avid drinker of Snapple, specially Diet Peach flavor. I always felt bad buying the 6-pack case of Snapple bottles and once I got drinking them, just throwing away (or recycling!) perfectly good glass bottles. So I started saving (some might also say hoarding) them in my dorm room until I came up with the perfect use.
I kept seeing decorative vases becoming more and more popular to add a special touch to a room. However, there was one small problem. A lot of the vases I saw in magazines, online, etc...had more of a "older" look to them, although very beautiful, it would not go with a college girl's dorm room necessarily. I needed a bright color scheme, something fun and exciting! That's how I came about making my own vases. The best part is that you can personalize them for any room color scheme, holiday, season, whatever you want!

Supplies Needed:

-Yarn in the color of your choice (I suggest getting multiple colors)

-Hot glue gun

-Glass bottles (Snapple, wine bottles, etc.)

-Charms, beads, or other knick knacks that you want on your vases

Directions:

1. To start, put a small dot of hot glue at the top of the bottle right below where the lid screws on. Trying to wrap the yarn at the top where the spiral-y part can be very difficult and look uneven because the yarn doesn't lay flat. 

2. After the initial dot of hot glue at the beginning you do not need to keep gluing around the entire bottle. As you keep wrapping the yarn around the bottle, glue will most likely be needed when the bottle gets to the bend where it stops curving. Other than that, you will not need glue to the very end.

3. Keep wrapping the yarn around the bottle. Try to get it as close to the very bottom as possible. Add a final dot of glue at the end and you're set!

4. Now, to spice the vases up a little bit and add the charms. Really, there is an endless amount of ways to add charms, beads, or other embellishments. I added them by threading the yarn through my circles and straws and wrapping it around the bottle. Then I simply tied a knot in the back to keep it in place and voila!

Paper Cup Lights

As you might notice, I have a common theme with my posts. I'm trying to spice up my dorm and my projects have been centered around it. This is another one. However, you can use these ideas for other rooms besides a dorm. 

The dorm that I currently live in is the oldest one on campus to the extent that it does not have overhead lighting (or central air conditioning for that matter :P). Therefore, I've had to make do with a floor lamp to light my entire space, but that wasn't cutting it. I wanted another form of lighting and I always thought that white Christmas lights in a room was cute and feminine but I wanted to take it up a notch. That's when I found this project on Pinterest from http://totallyloveit.com/diy-decorative-paper-cups-lights/

ADORABLE, right?!

So I decided to add the paper cups to a string of white Christmas lights. The directions were quite simple and easy. The worst part was probably wrapping the scrapbook paper to fit around the cups. 

Supplies needed:

Christmas lights

Paper cups (I would suggest the mini cups)

Scrapbook paper (pretty good amount, depending on how many lights are on your string)

Mod Podge

Scissors

Directions: 

1. Start by taking one paper cup and cutting it down one side vertically and removing the bottom circle. This way you can make a template on the scrapbook paper that will fit around the paper cup exactly.

2. Then start tracing onto your paper! 

3. Cut out your stencils and start applying Mod Podge to the paper cups and wrapping the scrapbook paper around them.

4. Finally, once the Mod Podge has dried, take your scissors and make an X on the bottom of the cup. 

5. All that's left is to slip the light bulbs through the X and they stay on perfectly! 

Voila! You have paper cup lights that can be tailored to any room color/theme :)

Desk Makeover

Over the summer, my dad's business was getting rid of a lot of their old office furniture. It was the perfect time to go rummaging through it all to see what I could get my hands on and turn into another project! I had seen a lot of furniture makeovers all over the web and wanted to do something like that. I've had the same two dressers in my room for as long as I can remember. I mean, they're pretty ancient. In fact, I don't think I've EVER had any other furniture. It was time for a change.

The taller dresser of the two was just full of nick nacks, junk, and some old clothes that I hadn't worn in years. Basically, it was a waste of space. So I cleaned out my dresser and passed it on to my little sister who has enough clothes for a new outfit each day. 

While I was rummaging through the office furniture, I came across an old, brown desk. It was pretty beat up and was made of that "fake wood." It wasn't the nicest looking piece. But that was all about to change!

Unfortunately, I do not have a before picture (beating myself up for it as we speak!) but hopefully you can see from the after picture that it looked a lot better than it did before. 

Here's how I did it:

1. I started off by painting the desk black. It helped to disguise the scratches and some of the rough patches and made it look sleeker than the brown.

2. Next, I picked out scrapbook paper that I really liked and started cutting it to fit against the cabinets and backdrop of the desk.

3. Then you just start applying the mod podge on the desk and placing the scrapbook paper on top! I would recommend putting the top coat of mod podge over the scrapbook paper as you go. This way the paper won't be going anywhere and you have it nice and sealed in :)

4. Wait for it to dry! (Which is fairly quickly.)

5. And there ya have it, a brand new, stylish desk!