Washi Tape love for spring

I’m a bit late on the washi tape train but hey I was to stingy with myself to buy “some tape” for about 3,50€ per role. Okay, okay I got it. It’s a great invention with multiple use on nearly every surface in every thinkable way. Fine.

So I got a good bunch of tape roles to test my creativity. I found mine on Tchibo for 12,95€ for 10 different colors. That’s a pretty good deal I think and of course it was sold out right away. 

Let me show you what I did with it. Washi tape is really easy to handle, you can tear of the piece you want ( no scissors needed!) and stick it to anything and remove it really easy if you don’t like it that way.

I started with the window in our living room. It’s quite big so I had a lot of space to decorate so I started to tape the word “Frühling” which means spring in German. I like to have a message to look at everyday. Keywords or little quotes can be uplifting and a little reminder for anything. This can be transitioned easily to other seasons or moods. Perfect for expressing yourself.

With my spring decorations I bought last weekend in Hannover I decorated some spring twigs.

Washi tape was part of it, too as I made little flags with just wrapping a piece around some twigs to spice everything up a bit. I haven’t made a photo of the flower vase in which I decorated with simple “x” with different styles of washi tape. Makes a plain and boring vase look more pretty immediately.

As I was doing my washi spree not even the candles where spared. The yellow one got a wrapper and the tea lights got their bottoms taped. The aluminium cups look much more friendly now.

So that’s for now, but I’m sure there are millions of other ways to use this tape. I’m sure that I’m going to figure out many more ways to show you how I used it. 

xoxo,

New Blog Header

You never know when enthusiasm and creativity flashes and you’ll be more productive during one evening than in many weeks ago all together. As making the button was kind of easy I kept going and here it is, my new blog header.

It’s the first one using pretty pictures and not just text. I think it turned out very well and reminds me of our relaxing days at the Baltic Sea in fall. I remember that those days there were nearly the last golden days in fall so the memory is precious to me during the cold and dark season.

What do you think, do you want to move into my Cosy White Cottage?

xoxo,

Button Alert!

 

                                             <a href="http://the-cosy-white-cottage.blogspot.de/" target="”_blank”"><img src="http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p492/minny777/BlogButtonTheCosyWhiteCottage2_zps1284a79b.jpg" /></a>

I always thought that creating a button for my blog is way to difficult to handle and that I don’t have the patience to do it. Oh, I was so wrong at least for my abilities. I found a great tutorial over at Projects around the House that worked so well.

The picture of the little white house was taken at the Baltic Sea in a little village called Dahme. I loved the little cottage right from the start with it’s thatched roof and it is right next to the beach.

Don’t you fell in love with it, too?

xoxo,

Shades of Grey Crafternoon Project II

As mentioned earlier this week here is my second project.
It’s more about redecorating an old lamp I took with me from my parents house last year. The lamp shade was really ugly and had a stain on it, so I put it directly in the bin. Finding the right replacement shade was really difficult, too small, too big, too narrow, too whatever. You know the game.
So on my trip to IKEA a few weeks ago where I bought the plain coasters I turned into this beauties, I found a beautiful lamp shade that fitted my imagination and idea for the make over in it’s best way.
So have a look at that ugly bottom…this marble style was even out of style when my parents got it. But as I saw real potential when switching the color, I took it with me. Back then I had some bold bright color like turquoise in mind to make it pop. Anyway my current style now is more neutral and I’m about to switch our home to this style as well.
As preparation I cleaned the bottom with some cleaning solvent to make sure it’s clean and the paint will stick to it.
I’m so pleased with the result. It has such a modern and chick charm and I don’t want to trade it for anything else. The bottom now looks like solid stone or cement or whatever you might call it. The hubs suggested to switch the cable and the switch as well as the color doesn’t fit. For now I’m hiding the cable really well. Perhaps some future place might ask for this adjustment.
Another beautiful piece for our home and the best about it is that I created - okay changed - some part of it with my hands and that feels so good and special.
The third project I was approaching during this crafternoon did not turn out well. I think there are some adjustments I need to make and only God knows when I find some time during holiday preparations and busy work days. But as you can seen it’s trial and error with the projects here. Anyway I hope to come up with this soon.
Hope you enjoy a lovely weekend.
xoxo,

Shades of Grey Crafternoon Project I

Finally, here it is. The first small project from my Sunday afternoon craftwork. I'm sorry that it took me so long to get this post done but I had some issues with the photos as I took them by myself and was struggling at some point with uploading them.
Some weeks ago we had friends over for dinner and I wanted to place the casserole with our food directly on the table so everyone can serve themselves and can choose their portion size. It turned out that the only coaster I owned was a pink one which ruined the table setting as it was very autumn style with leafs and stuff.
As I strolled trough IKEA a few weeks ago I picked up some plain coasters to have something neutral for my next dinner with friends. As you can imagine those coasters where really boring so I tried to spice them up.
Here’s what I did.
 
Aren’t those real cuties? I like the star pattern best as it’s not the classic shape. ( Or is it just my inability to tape the right proportions of a regular star ;o) You never know).
I think this DIY is an easy way to create small presents for your mother, mother-in-law or grandma. When I’m not coming up with another idea, I might pick this, too.
My second project is more about redecorating but it involves some grey, too. I will post about this later this week.
xoxo,

Fifty Shades Of Grey Crafty Afternoon

Ladies, I enjoyed a lovely crafternoon today and I’m so pleased with the results! For the pictures of my processed work anyhow I need some daylight to get good shots.
Hope there will be some time soon as I’m really excited. :) It felt so good to create something fun with my hands and turning something old into a new treasure for our apartment.

Source: sweetseptembernights.tumblr.com via AnneMarie on Pinterest

Wish you a good start for the new week that lies in front of us!

xoxo,

Fall DIY - leaf chain for your window

Fall is now officially enrolling here in Germany. The temperatures get really chilly over here, especially at night. Today was a beautiful, sunny fall day out here and I took a small stroll around my neighborhood. The leafs have started to turn their color and it’s really appealing to me, so I wanted to bring this home with me.

 

In general I’m a huge fan of everything natural but for my DIY project I bought some fake fabric fall leafs as real one world crumble and won’t stay beautiful long enough.

Supplies you need as shown on the first picture:

• fabric fall leafs
• ribbon ( color of your choice)
• hot glue
• scissors

So this is what I did:

1.) I arranged my fake leafs in a to me appealing pattern. As I have two different colors of leafs it’s all about the mix.

2.) Then I simply glued the leafs in a row to the ribbon

3.) Knot a small loop to hang the chains in your window

I made 3 of these chains to gather next to each other in my windows and finally found some time so rearrange the decoration on my windowsill.

So that’s how it looks like right now in my living room when you peek out of the window.

Crafty, perhaps you enjoy to try this simple DIY for your home? I would love to see pictures or hear how this DIY worked for you. It’s so easy and quick!

I think this DIY is great for any other season to simply substitute the items or shapes you sew together. This is going to be a go to for me to try different styles in upcoming seasons.

Have a lovely week and be creative!

xoxo,

DIY ‘Wedding sniff’

As already mentioned last week we’re attending a wedding this weekend. The celebration takes place at the Baltic Sea in a small town. As the happy couple lives together for quite some time now they don’t need any house wares and as far as I knew there is no register for the wedding at any store.
So money for honeymoon will help them most to let the two of them have a great time in Australia. Just an envelope with some banknotes has no personal touch to the present so I was thinking very hard about a great way to wrap the money.

This is what I did:
As weddings are always quite emotional and I tend to be a bit teary-eyed honestly more often than I like to admit, I thought about a special hankie box.

• wrapped a squarish cardboard with gift paper as a base for the present. (Coincidentally I had a pretty hankie box running out of hankie ready for me to use for the present as well)
• Cut several pieces of light pink paper in the seize of a 5 Euro bill and wrote my lines on it
• taped together 5 Euro bills and pink cards alternating

I thought about a funny line to work my way to the good wishes for the couple. It wasn’t that easy to find the right words but I finally came round with this:
Tears of joy?  (5)  We recommend wedding sniff  (5)  side effects  (5)  Love  (5)  Laugh  (5) Affection  (5)  Trust  (5)  Couple time  (5)  Luck  (5)  Appreciation  (5)  Sharing everything  (5)  and some personal wishes for the couple finishing with your signature.

• folded the chain of money and greetings like zigzag
• put it into the hankie box leaving out a some part of the chain for a first glimpse what the present is about
• added a wedding couple, heart-shaped confetti and wrapped everything with transparent wrapping paper
• decorated the foil with some glitter glue pens, some hearts and a clover

 

I think this is a cute way to take part in the emotions of this special day cause you never know when you might need a ‘hankie’.
What do you think? What’s your favorite way to give presents on such special days?
Have a good weekend, mine is starting today already as we are off to the wedding location tomorrow to enjoy some couple time as well.

DIY Polka Dot Candle

Inspired by the little cupcake candle in on the righthand side I thought why not pimping the candle glass with a few dots, too? So the things I got on hand where nail polish and some hole strengtheners (normally for office use when the punch hole of documents are ripped apart, you know what I mean?) 

1. Place the stickers all over you candle glas
2. Paint the inner circles with different ( or all with the same) colour
3. Don´t let it dry too long, otherwise you will pull off the nail polish with the sticker
4. Let it dry completely
5. Finished!