DIY Magnetic Picture Hanger

Ever since I got back to painting, I have been looking for exciting and inexpensive ways to hang my art. I first saw these wood frames on Pinterest and instantly fell in love. I just had to make one for myself but without breaking the bank! 

I am so stoked at how these turned out and I love how easy it is to change my artwork whenever I want without the hassle that comes with boxed frames. So if you are like me and love switching artwork then read on to learn how to make these for yourself. The best part, you can create this in whatever size you want!  

Materials: 

Artwork

Four pieces of Balsa wood

Magnetic strip

Cutter 

String

2 Eye Screws

Begin by cutting and sanding your balsa strip to the size you want. You will need four strips.

Next,  grab a cloth and stain the wood in your choice of color. I went with "coffee bean" by Pascol.

Allow the stain to dry then cut and glue magnetic strip on one side of the wood. Repeat with the remaining three strips.

Then take one of the wood strip and measure half inch in from either ends and mark. Twist eye screws into the points you just marked until fully in. 

Thread your string through the eye screws and tie a knot. Optional- you can add beads or any other ornament before you tie the knot.

Now lay the piece with the eye screws down so that the side with the magnetic strip is facing up. Lay your artwork on top, straight and centered. Then place another strip on top so that the two magnets are facing each other. Do the same for the bottom of your artwork. And that's it: your beautiful wall art is all set to hang.

Wisteria

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial. If you love the Wisteria painting above, you might enjoy looking at more in my previous post. 

Have a lovely week! xx

P.S: If you followed this tutorial to create your very own picture hanger, then please do share. I would love to see it! :)

Little Birdie Themed Birthday Party With Free Printables

YOU GUYS
I have been dying to share this with you!

You know how much I love diys.

And how much I love to do party decor on a budget.

Like this one here.

And here.

So when Inaya was turning one, I wanted her first birthday to not only be special but also memorable - involving lots of home made decorations and home baked goodness. Why go store-bought when you can go all-out diy, right? I decided to keep "Little Birdie" as the main theme (after all she is called chirya (birdie) by her beloved Aunt. I also wanted the colours to be soft, so I picked soft blues and pink and designed her birthday card.

I got chart papers and some lovely patterened papers from the craft store and used them to create the decor. I started out by designing the "Happy Birthday" banner.

Followed by "I am 1".

I used a styrofoam to create "1" sign

And used random boxes, toilet paper cardboard rolls and plastic cups to support some of the decor on the table. I found a really nice template for small bird house here and created my own for the bigger ones.

I made cute little buntings and tied them to skewers.

I designed toppers for the cupcakes on Photoshop, printed them out on normal printer paper and taped each to a toothpick. 

Some of the props for photo booth I designed on photoshop myself and the rest I found online.

Once I was done with the decor I got working on the desserts. Since we had invited a lot of people for the event, and having never baked for so many people before I decided to do two cakes instead of a tiered one. Besides, assembling a tiered cake seemed too complicated. I already knew how I wanted  the cakes to look so I just needed an awesome recipe for both.

Luckily the recipes I followed turned out amazing. Both the cakes were soft, moist, luxurious and simply DELICIOUS. I kept receiving compliments on how amazing they tasted! (Will share recipes in my next post)

It was a great party. We all had fun especially the little one.

If you are planning to throw a bird themed party for your little one or for someone you love, then you have come to the right place. Get clicking below for awesome freebies and don't forget to link back :)

 xx

click here to download "photobooth"

DIY Crepe Paper FLOWER

Flowers, you can  never grow tired of them! And I have been wanting to make these lovelies for an event.

Mikaeel's Thomas the train birthday party provided me with a perfect opportunity.

And they turned out amazing, adding that extra ooph to the celebrations!

The technique is simple and material easily available at your local art shop. You can make these well in advance, like I did and fluff them up on the day of the event.

So let's get started!

You will need:

Crepe paper

Scissors

String

Yup, that's it!

You can use any size you want, and create as many layers as you like. The more layers you have, the fluffier the flower. For this tutorial I used six 8"x8.5" pieces and five 6"x6.5" pieces for the center. 

Begin by stacking together six pieces of crepe paper.

Add a contrasting center and scallop cut the edges.

Accordion fold them together.

And tie a string down the middle of the accordion folds and if you wish to hang them up,  leave a long tail of string at  the end.

Using a pair of scissors curve each end of the accordion folds through all layers into petals like so:

Then carefully pull the center petal towards the middle. Crepe paper rips quite easily so be very careful. 

Repeat this for all layers, shaping up your petals as you go along.

Fluff up your petals and you're done! 

Easy peasy! And now you have a gorgeous flower. Use it as part of event decor, or hang it from a wall or simply use it as an embellishment on presents.

Enjoy!