Wednesday 25 February 2015

Travel with Brittany: Passport Cover DIY

Hi Everyone! 

How are you? I hope you all are doing well! I am back with the first of a DIY Travel segment I would like to do. Today, I'm going to show you how to make your very own Passport cover. 

After a month of searching for one, I still hadn't found one I liked besides one that had to be ordered and wouldn't arrive to my apartment on time. Then, while I was in Walmart with a friend one evening, I found Duct Tape that was Paris themed and that I actually really liked. So I bought the duct tape. A couple days later, the idea to make a Passport Cover hit me. I had made a wallet out of duct tape, so why couldn't I make a passport cover as well? I needed one as I was going to Cancun, so I figured, let's try to! 

What You Need:
-duct tape
-scissors
-black duct tape or electrical tape

Step 1:
Cut three pieces of duct tape and lie them sticky side up on a flat surface. Take one of the pieces and lie it sticky side up overlapping the first piece. Do this with the third piece as well. 

Step 2:
Cut three more pieces and place them on top of the three overlapped pieces, sticky side facing down. Be sure to overlap the second piece to the first piece and the third to the second piece. You should have a double sided sheet laying on the flat surface. 

Step 3:
Next, take a piece of duct tape and fold it in half, putting the sticky sides together.Cut it so that it fits to the edges of each side of the sheet that you made. 

Step 4: 
Take the pieces you just made for either end of the sheet and use the electrical (or duct tape) tape to seal off the edges. Only do this to the edges that will face the middle of the passport holder. Once those have been taped, place them so that they cover the two sides of the inside of the passport holder. Then tape the outside edges. Do the width sides first (shorter length) and then tape the length sides.  Be sure that your passport will be able to be placed inside the two little pockets you have made. [NOTE: you may want to not tape one edge to the sheet of duct tape. If you leave it untaped, you will have an easier time slipping the passport in and out of the holder]. 

When finished, your passport holder will look like this (see picture to the right). It may take a couple tries to get it right but it can be done. It's fairly easy compared to making a wallet. Now all you need to do is slip your passport in it. I found it incredibly easy to spot my passport in my purse while in the airport. 

I hope that you guys enjoyed this first travel DIY. I'm hoping to be posting a few more as I continue travelling. Be sure to post pictures in the comments if you do attempt this project... or leave me the links to your own posts of this project. Until next time, Happy Travelling! xoxo

Friday 20 February 2015

Valentine's Day with Brittany: DIY Gift Ideas for Him!

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all are doing well on this wonderful Friday evening. Currently, I am sitting in my mom's living room waiting for my sister to get off work..... Impromtu visit home for the weekend. So while I am waiting, I thought I would get some writing done. So here I am with my final DIY Valentine's Day post. Today, I'm writing about a couple of DIYs that you can make your special guy for Valentine's Day or for another special occasion. Let's get started with the first one!

Things You Need:
-piece of wood
-3/4" Finishing nails
-embroidery floss (the colours are you choice)
-hammer
-stickers or markers (optional)

Step 1:
Remove the sticker from the piece of wood if need be. I bought my piece of wood at Walmart and there was a massive sticker on the front. After you have removed it, sand it with a light grit sand paper (if you feel this is necessary).

Step 2:
Print out a template of the shape you are using. For example, I printed a map  of my husband and mine's hometown area. Other versions I have seen have used States or provinces. Be sure to make the area that means something to the both of you... or to him. Once you have printed it out, cut it out. Then tape it down to the piece of wood.

Step 3:
Once the map is securely taped down,  start taking the finishing nails and hammer them about half way into the wood (You want enough to stick out so that you will be able to wrap the string around it). Make sure to space them about 1cm apart. Do this until you have outlined the entire outside of the shape you have used. If you are doing something similar to what I did, take some nails and make the shape of a heart around the spot that means something to you.

Step 4:
Next, carefully peel the map or shape template off the piece of wood. The nails should not move. Once your template has been removed, take the one end of your embroidery string and tie it to a nail. Then bring it down to the heart and loop it around one of those nails. Bring it back up to the next nail and repeat until every nail has been covered. [NOTE: Depending on how big your heart is, you may need to put multiple loops on the heart nails so that each border nail has an anchor to the heart]. Once you get to the last nail, you can tie off the string and cut any tails off.

Step 5 (Optional):
If you want, you can put a saying using marker or stickers some place on the board. For me, I put "Where We Began..." because the template I used was the area where my husband and I met. It is also both of our hometowns. I had some kraft paper alphabet stickers that were the perfect size, that I bought at Dollar Tree.

And that's it! You have completed your first little DIY present. This one can be time consuming, so be sure to put aside some time to do it. If you work at this and don't stop until it is done, it shouldn't take more than 2 hours. It was a budget friendly project and it turned out great!

The next project is another time consuming project, but doesn't require you to hammer nails into a piece of wood. This is also a gift that the both of you can enjoy and you can have fun planning a bunch of date ideas for the next 12 months.

Things You Need:
- 12 envelopes
- 12 rectangular pieces of cardstock
- markers
- stickers
- Washi Tape
- Baker's Twine
- 8.5x11" piece of cardstock
- ruler
- scissors

Step 1:
Get or make 12 rectangular pieces of cardstock. They need to be able to fit inside the 12 envelopes you have chosen to use. Outline each of the 12 pieces of cardstock with a red sharpie marker.

Step 2:
About a half inch to an inch down from the top outline, draw a line with the red sharpie 3/4 of the way across the cardstock. Next to this line put a sticker or other decoration. Write the month above the red line you just drew, in black Sharpie. Repeat this for all the 12 pieces of cardstock until you have completed one for every month.

Step 3:
Next, using the black Sharpie, write out the plan for each date. If you plan on giving a lot of information, try to use a fine tip Sharpie ( or write it smaller than I did). Stick them into envelopes.

Step 4:
Use the washi tape to decorate the front of the envelopes. I kept it simple by just using one type of washi tape for each envelope and using the same one to seal the back part of the envelope. Repeat this for each envelope. Once the envelopes are decorated and sealed, tie them together using the Baker's Twine. Make sure to keep them in order so your special someone doesn't open the wrong envelope and the date for that month is spoiled.

Step 5:
Next, take the full sheet of cardstock and outline it in red Sharpie. Then take some washi tape and put it in the top two corners to make it look like the washi tape is what is holding the paper there. In black sharpie, write your own message or use the one I used: To Show That I Love You, Throughout All The Year, I've Made Up Some Date Nights, To Send You Good Cheer! Some May Be Big, And Some May Be Small, But The Time Spent Together, Is The Point Of It All! Lots of Love, Your name here. Then underneath where you signed your name, but a piece of washi tape almost all the way across (from red line to red line) and then put a sticker on top of the red line.


And that's it! That's all there is to it! This one is definitely easier than the other one. I had all these supplies on hand already so it was definitely cheaper than the first DIY. With these two DIY gift ideas, you can definitely tweak them to make them unique. I hope that you all enjoyed reading about these two gift ideas. If you make either of them, be sure to leave me a link to see your blog post about it or leave me pictures in the comments section. I really do enjoy hearing from you all! Until next time, Happy Crafting! xoxo

Monday 2 February 2015

Valentine's Day with Brittany: DIY Valentine's Day Cards

Hi Everyone!

My Valentine's Day card I made from a Pin I found
So I'm back today with another Valentine's Day with Brittany DIY! This one is a little more time - consuming but is simple enough to make. Just make sure you set aside some time to do this little project. I'm really happy with how these turned out, especially considering I haven't had much luck making my own cards in the past! Let's get started!

Thing You Need:
-card stock
-supplies to decorate the cards with (ie. scrapbook paper, string, buttons, stamps, glitter etc)
-glue
-double-sided tape
-foam tape squares
-markers

Step 1:
Come up with a design for the front of your card. Great places to look are Pinterest and Google. I found a few cute yet simple designs I liked on Pinterest. You can also come up with your own if you are creative and have the time to design it.

Step 2:
Gather all supplies for your card. Once you have everything you need, you can begin to start making it.

Step 3:
This step will depend on what your design is like. For example, the card in the picture above required me to first find a picture of a puzzle piece. Then I had to trace and cut it out of my paper.

Step 4:
After that I chose my card stock and/or scrapbook paper and traced and cut out three different puzzle pieces. Once cut out, I lined them in black marker to make them pop.

Step 5:
Next, I laid them out on the card and figured out how I wanted them arranged. I then took double sided foam squares and attached them to the back of the puzzle pieces. I, then, attached the other side to the card in the layout I wanted.

Step 6:
Finally, I took my marker and wrote a little saying on the front. Because I did puzzle pieces, I wrote 'Love you to pieces' on the front. I left the inside blank so I can write a more personal message.

So that's it for this specific card. I did make a few others but I don't have pictures of them. If you are finding one on Pinterest, there is usually a link to tell you how to make it and what you will need for it! If you are doing one on your own, you can do whatever you like. Make it your own, even with the ones you find on Pinterest. Get creative with it! I hope you enjoyed this post. I thought it would be a great thing to post about seeing as there seems to be greeting cards for everything nowadays and greeting cards are so expensive. Be sure to leave me comments and pictures! I would love to see them and hear from you all! Until next time, Happy Crafting! xo