diy: polka dot denim vest.

 So I was watching a Youtube video the other day and the girl in it (Katy, from Hellokatyxo) was wearing the cutest denim vest! She had mentioned that she got it from Forever 21. So I went online and found it! I began thinking, because the vest was $32 CAN (although this is not expensive), that since I had two denim vests already I didn't need another. I did figure however, that one of the vests I own could use a makeover! So I went to Michaels and got some white fabric paint and a medium circular sized sponge dauber (if that is what it's called, its the middle picture below).  I had gotten the vest at the GAP last year on clearance, I paid around $5-6 for it, so I with the paint and other materials the total cost was around $9. Much cheaper than the Forever 21 vest..

 I first gathered the needed materials:

-White fabric paint

-Circle sponge dauber

-Denim vest

-Newspaper

-Small disposable cup (for paint)

-Pencil

Right: I used newspaper to make sure I didn't stamp the whole circle on the vest, I wanted the seams to all look different.

I started on the back as a) it seemed easier to start with (less details ie, pockets) and b) if I messed up it was on the back, I figured it was better than the front!

I started stamping in a somewhat randomly organized pattern. I would do one row evenly spaced, then the next row would be in between the row above, if that makes sense.. The pattern is somewhat shown in the left picture above. From a distance it may look disorganized, but there was a system!

Another note is I didn't do the whole vest in one pattern. I looked at the vest on Forever 21 and each piece of fabric that was sown together had its own pattern. Basically the seams didn't line up and I feel that gives it an appearance of not being perfect. As well I just liked the look of this better than the alternative.

Under the collar I decided to use the eraser of a pencil to make the dots smaller and make the collar look a little more unique. When or if I ever had the collar flipped up it would look a little cuter! 

I did the back and the front in two days. I didn't want to rush the drying process so I did one side, let it dry and then did the other side the next day.

Here is the final product! I really like it! The dots on the Forever 21 vest are a little smaller, but I was unable to find a smaller sponge, so I went with this and I love how it turned out!

-B

diy: nail polish storage.

The other day (yesterday) I was looking at the masses of nail polish I have accumulated. So in the hopes of finding some sort of organizational system I looked to my friend Pinterest for inspiration - of course. I saw an idea that Lauren Conrad's The Beauty Department had done and decided to try it out! The majority of the time things I see on Pinterest are not as easy as they appear. Somewhat like a rearview mirror, 'objects in mirror are closer than they appear' - is this just me or are 95% of DIY projects extremely tricky. This DIY of course looked relatively simple and with my overage of nail polish I wanted to re-create it. So here is my process!

So I believe on The Beauty Department they used a plain old box and covered it with paper, although this is an idea, I went to Micheal's craft store and purchased a photo box for $2. They have cute floral designs (or plain if you wanted to modge podge, etc). I found this fit in better with my room and looked way more polished.  

 

Another difference is, they used plain paper and used a circular hole punch. This is a good idea because you get to see the true colors. However for the convenience (and because I couldn't find my circle hole punch) I used these little colored dots. I used the corresponding colors to the best of my ability. For the most part it worked well, with sheer colors and glittery colors I did use a white sticky paper and used a heart punch I had (not pictured). 

 *Just to make sure, I covered two dots with each color, just in case I ruined one..

Although this was the final picture, this was approximately 1/8th of my nail polish collection. So after two boxes I was ready to go. I also liked these boxes as you can throw some clippers and a nail file in there as well. The other feature of a photo box I like is that you can add your little tag to the front!

IT WORKED! I was very happy with the result!

-B