Simple DIY projects
Published in
6 min readJul 14, 2017
My secret(rather not so secret) indulgence is — making crafts. Being a student with limited funds, a major challenge has been to work with minimum supplies and cheaper alternatives, often recycling. Here are some of the DIY craft projects I worked on recently (@Mom, Dad — Don’t worry, I do these only after I am done studying)—
- String Curtains
- Pen Stand
- A jar of shells
- Box Organizer
- Pine cone snow globe
- Wine bottle and some lights
- Name plates
1. String Curtains —
Materials:
- Strings
- Gift wrappers or colored sheets
Steps:
- Decide on a few shapes you like. You could stick to a particular theme(I chose a holiday theme, and the gift wrappers I used emphasized that)
- Cut the sheets/wrappers in rectangles and fold them in half. The folded sheet ought to be big enough to cut out the shape you desire
- Draw the design on the folded card for reference and cut along the marking. You should end up with two cutouts, each will be a mirror image of the other(TIP: It is easy for the cutouts to get mixed up. Keep them in pairs)
- Cut the string to the required length as per the window or door
- Lay down the strings on the floor
- Arrange the shapes you cut out earlier along the strings. Adjust the placement of the paper cutouts with adequate spacing
- When you are happy with the arrangement, glue the cutouts on the inside(the non-colored side), stick them together with the string laid down right along the center. Make sure that the cutouts don’t slide along the string, you could staple them if necessary
2. Pen stand —
Material:
- A small Carton box (preferably a cuboid shaped one)
- Colored papers(I used to colored sticky notes). You could use plain white ones too
Steps:
- Place the box, with longest side as the height
- Check the top and bottom ends, use the sturdier side as the base. You could reinforce the base with some cello tape and extra card-stock if needed
- Cut open the side opposite to the base in any shape you like(TIP: Mark the shape of the opening before you cut. You might want to cut a little outside the marking, as it is very likely to cut extra)
- Optional step — you could wrap the box with a plain or patterned sheet of paper.(I liked the plain brown color of my box, so, I skipped this step)
- Cut the colored/white sheets into small rectangles. Fold it in half. Trace out one wing of a butterfly, starting from the folded edge
- Cut along the trace. Partially unfold the cutout to get a complete butterfly with symmetric wings. Make more such butterflies
- Glue the folded edge of the butterfly cutout and stick on the front side of the box in a suitable arrangement
3. A jar of Shells
Materials:
- Shells
- Sharpie Pens(Micro-tip permanent markers)
- A glass jar
- Glitter(Optional)
Steps:
- Look up some designs/patterns for reference
- Trace the patterns on the shells
- A few shells could be simply decorated with glitters
- Arrange them neatly in the jar
4. Box Organizer
Materials:
- Boxes
- Gift wrappers
- Masking Tape/ washi tape
Steps:
- The ideal boxes usually would be flat looking ones with the opening flaps on the top
- Cut out the top flaps
- Wrap the sides of the box with the gift wrapper and seal the top edges with tape. You could use decorative masking tapes(or washi-tapes) to add definition
- Now, choose one each of the long and short flaps of the top panel you cut out earlier (mine were same sized since it had a square base)
- Make slits going mid way at the center of the two flaps
- Assemble the flaps by inserting/interlocking them along the slits you just made as show in the picture below
- Place this fixture inside the box to create partitions
5. Pine cone snow globe
Materials:
- Pine Cone
- Glitter
- A small glass jar
Steps:
- Glue the edges of the petals of the pine cone to add glitter, or you could use a glitter glue instead
- If needed glue the pine cone to the inside of the lid of the jar
- Fill the jar with little glitter
- Close the jar with the lid
- (TIP: You can rub the outside of the jar with a paper to create static charge. Then shake the jar gently to make the glitter particles stick to the walls of the jar)
6. Wine bottle and some lights
Materials:
- A clean glass bottle (Unique shapes make the piece more interesting)
- Glass Liner tube or glitter glue
- Glass paint or Nail polish
- Sharpie(optional)
- Grain of Rice lights(LED fairly lights with transparent or copper wire) (Optional)
- Curling ribbon
Steps:
- Decide the pattern you would like to trace on the bottle
- Trace the pattern using a sharpie or a permanent marker. In case you would like to erase a trace, use nail polish remover(acetone) to wipe it off
- When happy with the trace, go over it with the glass liner tube or the glitter glue. Let it dry
- Fill in the design with glass paint or nail polish. Add glitter if you like. Let it dry well
- Tie some curling ribbon if you like
- Put the lights inside the bottle
7. Name plates
Materials:
- Card-stock or panels from an old carton box
- Gift wrapping paper
- Curling Ribbon
Steps:
- Trace the alphabet on to the card stock
- Cut out the pattern neatly
- Place the cutout on the gift wrapping paper and trace the original outline. Now mark an outer border with sufficient margin (at least 1 inch spacing) from the original border
- And cut it along the outer border
- Stick the card stock to the gift wrapping sheet aligning it to the inner border
- Cut the excess area into 1/2 inch wide strips
- Fold these strips and glue them to the back of the card stock. This will help you neatly seal the edges while retaining the shape of the cutouts
- You could add some definition by tying curling ribbons at the ends
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Do let me know if you liked any of these ideas. Most of these projects were inspired from brilliant ideas shared on Pinterest (strongly urge you to look it up). On a parting note — There is inspiration waiting to be discovered even in the smallest of things, so don’t stop exploring.
