DIY Looms (Kaitlyn edition!)

With all the craziness of the holiday season and trying to finish up some of my own crafts while studying for finals, I have not been able to work on any projects you have not see yet! With that being said, one of the blessings of living on a Sorority hall is that you are bound to find one or two crafty girls around. Luckily I did not just find a crafty girl, but one who has her own make up tip blog (check out Kaitlyn's blog here!). She created this great craft that is simple yet looks great (plus I have been eyeing it up for the past month!).

Things you need:

• Cross stitch holder (all sizes work!) - can be found at any craft store
• String (you can get the low quality kind! A more stiff string works better)

The directions are so straightforward I barely have to write them down. Take your string, wrap it around the holders, then hang them up. Easy, simple yet so crafty and so chic!

DIY: Dorm Christmas!

One of the biggest struggles with being at college is being away from home during the holidays. I love seeing my house get beautifully decorated, listening to Christmas music and being surrounded by my family. While I cannot bring my immediate family to college, I find that decorating the dorm is a great way to get into the spirit of the season! Here are some tips, tricks and maybe even some new ideas to decorate!

Get your own tree! A mini tree is perfect because it does not take up that much space yet you can still go all out with lights and ornaments. Why not try something different than a classic green tree (like Kaitlyn's pink tree) to spice things up even more?

Another great DIY activity is making your own ornaments. At any craft store you can purchase ball ornaments that you can open up and fill with your own ideas. I filled one with tinsel and a gold snowflake yet the other with gold balls. Both very different looks, but both look great on the tree. Glue ribbon around to further complete the look and finish with a big bow on top and string to dangle your ornament.

\

My room mate made the ball pictured below. She took a plain ornament from Salvation Army and completely covered it in multi-colored glitter to give it a cool, yet different effect. Do not be afraid to experiment and make every ornament your own! The more personalized they are the more your tree will feel like one from home.

The ever classic snowflake - a college DIY'ers dream. Simple, essentially cost free and is open to so many different creative elements. This is one of my favorite tutorials on how to make a 6-pointed snowflake. Simple and easy! Try making some with scrap booking paper, or better yet outline them in glitter to really make the snowflakes stand out. 

Be as creative as you can be and have the best holiday season during finals! 

DIY Dry Erase Board/Calender 2.0

As I continue to embark on my effort to not break my budget with Christmas presents, I am finding more and more creative ways to give people cute organization tools that are so useful! A few months ago you saw me create my DIY Calender using paint chips to create an easy dry erase board to organize dates and my monthly schedule. I am participating in a secret Santa exchange and in addition one of my best friends is transferring after this semester. Both of them are very much type A personalities who LOVE organization and creativity, so whats not better than revamping my previous calender?

Things you need: 

• Scrap booking paper
• Frame (I bought mine from salvo and spray painted them!)
• Card stock or paper to use as background of the calender itself
• Screwdriver or flat tool to help you pry open the calender

For my DIY Calender 2.0: I wanted to make more of a weekly calender but with the addition of a space for a to do list/notes of important activities! You are free to cut the scrap booking paper to however you see fit and however you want to style your calender. Make sure to not forgot to write labels for each space though!

For the DIY Dry Erase Board: This project is honestly even simpler than the calender because you can just use one large sheet of paper! However be weary - depending on the dimensions of your calender you may run into the problem of your whole sheet being unable to fit. Simple solution - mix papers! Cut different shapes to position the paper in a slight collage way to not just fill up space but section off your white board.

With the holiday season here, do not let your budget ruin you from creating fantastic gifts for your family and friends!

DIY Marble Mason Jar

With Christmas fast approaching and minimal college student budget, my brain has been flowing with different ideas for presents that do not break the budget. In my sorority we have a secret santa "sis" activity where we get one of our sisters and give her 5 small gifts for 5 days and 1 big gift the sixth day. I wanted to give things that were cute, artsy yet useful! This mason jar craft can be perfect for storing  hairbands in your bathroom, pens on your desk or just having on display in your dorm. 

The post I found my inspiration was this post on gluing marbles to a soup can. Its a bit different, and with the soup can its a different feel but I really wanted to keep inside the jar clean and use this beautiful pack of flat marbles I got on black Friday! 

Things you need:

• Mason Jar
• Marbles (the flat stone kind)
• Hot Glue Gun

First make sure you clean your jar. Nobody wants a gross looking jar! Next start from the bottom of the jar and glue a line of marbles. You may not be able to squeeze a perfect line in every time but do not sweat it. As long as the jar looks filled, no one will notice one marble not in line with the bottom row. After you finish gluing all the way to right before the rim of the jar, go through and make sure you have no hot glue strings and you are done! Now you have a beautiful new jar to gift or display in the home.