in my studio | category | do-it-yourself

Jul
12
2013

Freebie #1 – Printable DIY Eid Paper Lantern Template

As promised, this is our first freebie for this Ramadan!

*You may download this printable at the end of post*

Freebie #1 – Printable DIY Eid Mini Triangular Paper Lantern (Template)

In Sha Allah I will be releasing a Party Package and the theme will be focused around ‘CONFETTI‘! Thats right, confetti is all about celebration; and for Muslims, Eid marks one of our biggest celebrations.

Since having kids (and living abroad), I try to make Eid as joyous as it can be. Over the last couple of years, I have made homemade Eid desserts (cupcakes, almond cookies, peanut cookies) and cooked traditional Malaysian Eid Food (rendang, lontong) for our little family- at the time, my first was only a baby/toddler…so I didn’t really bother much with decoration. However, this year will be her 3rd year celebrating Eid (in fact, she turns 3 today Mashallah!). She can cut, paste and gets excited over little things, Alhamdulillah…so I have decided to decorate the house as much as my enery allows me It is definitely a challenge, running a small business whilst having 2 kids under 3 and another on the way In Sha Allah.

And thanks to our Facebook fans who have voted, the winning colour for our Confetti theme will be ‘Lime and Yellow‘. I have also complemented it with a surprise colour; orange – for a bit of fun and to bring it all to life.

So please bookmark this blog and like us on Facebook for more updates throughout the month regarding our free printable party downloads. For the next 3 weeks, I will be giving away printable bunting flags, cupcake toppers, food tags and gift tags and hopefully a few other surprises (if I get the time!)

As much as I enjoyed creating & crafting these paper lanterns, I also hope that these little printables will be of great use to you. May it bring happiness and joy for your Eid celebrations with your loved ones! If you would like us to continue with more freebies in coming Ramadans, please share this blog post on your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest (or any social media)- we’d really appreciate that, thanks folks!

To view last years free printables, please click Printable Eid Card and Printable Straw Flags/Cupcake Toppers.

In the meantime, please enjoy my step by step on how to make a Triangular Paper Lantern. And if you do use our printables, I would looooove to see some photos of it. You are welcome to email them to me or post them on my Facebook page.

These are the materials needed to make this DIY Paper Lantern Eid Project.

You need:

1. This printable template
2. White cardstock (preferably thick)
3. Ruler
4. Cutter (or scissors)
5. Double sided tape (or glue)
6. Hole punch
7. Ribbon or string

1. You will need to download this printable PDF (found at the bottom of this post) and using a colour printer, print as many as you like! This template can be printed on an A4 (8×12″) paper. The constructed size of lantern if printed on the suggested paper will be 17cm/6.6″ long and 8cm/3″ wide.

2. Using a cutter or scissors (I find using a cutter/knife easier), cut out the template carefully. Please cut along the SOLID lines and SCORE/FOLD on dotted lines.

3. Use a hole puncher to make 2 holes, as marked on template.

4. Put a ribbon/string through the holes but do not tie them as yet. Make sure when you insert the string, that it goes in the hole from the top (where the design is printed)

Grab the feeded string and bring it from behind to front (as show above). Make sure each side is equal in length.

5. Score lightly and fold along the dotted lines

Put your double sided tape or glue. I used double sided tape as I found it to be easier when putting it together.

Though, your child will not agree and think glue is fun!

6. Now carefully construct your paper lantern, starting from the top left and make your way across, and then below (clockwise)

This is what underneath should look like. Make sure you do not overlap on the string!

Ta-da!

Now that you have constructed your paper lantern, you may decorate as you wish! I hung them across the arch in our living room just as we enter the house.

Please click the Download button below and you will see a PDF document with 2 pages. Page 1 of 2 is intructions and 2 of 2 is the template.

29 lovely comments
Category: décor, do-it-yourself, eid, eid decorations, eid giveaway, free printables, freebies, in my studio, in my world, ramadan

Jul
10
2013

our annual free Eid printables are back!

Insha’Allah our annual ramadan freebies will be back with a bang! Over the next 4 weeks, we will be releasing free Eid Decoration printables such as gift tags, pennant banners, cupcake toppers, food tags and more!

Last year we released a free printable Eid Card and Cupcake Toppers! So be sure to bookmark this site and check regularly for updates over the month or Ramadan.

1 lovely comment
Category: décor, do-it-yourself, eid, freebies, graphic, in my studio, ramadan, religion

Mar
27
2013

Shaynna Blaze judged my room and I won!

A few weeks ago (thanks for a friend who mentioned it to me), I entered a competition run by The Interiors Addict blog, “Impress Shaynna and win a course at the International Institute of Home Staging worth $500”. Yes, Shaynna Blaze from The Block on channel 9 is judging, who am I kidding?!

So the nature of competitions are… that there will probably be hundreds or thousands of entries and what would the chances of winning be? But this morning as I scrolled down Facebook on my phone in bed, I saw my photo posted by Interiors Addict! I was shocked. Surprised. Happy – 0f course! I’m very happy to announce that I was chosen as the winner for this amazing competition. As part of this win from Interiors Addict, I am posting this makeover on my blog to show you more photos of my toddler room transformation and how you can achieve amazing results with a minimum budget using recycled materials, found objects with lots of research, passion and determination!

This is a typical 60’s house. Very retro, lots of patterns. It can sometimes be a bit overwhelming to the eye. When I was pregnant with my second, I told myself I needed to finish off the spare room. At the time, it was being used as an ironing room, a computer room, a storage room and what not! So when my morning sickness slowly faded away, I got myself together and started planning for this room. My first borns’ room was a very girlish room. This time I wanted something different. I opted for a unisex look incase I was expecting a boy.

The room is a work of art in itself. All decorations are DIY from salvaged items and recycled materials. From the wall art down to the cushion details & baby mobile, all are handmade! It took me a few months to research, gather and create these beautiful items.

This baby mobile was created with paint chip samples. I have a box of them in the shed so all I had to do was cut probably about 30 of them using a heart template I made. These are then sewn using a needle and a thread, attached onto tree branches that I cut off a tree in our backyard. They are finished with a small bead at the end just to give each string-piece some added weight.

What is a room without cushion? They are ridiculously overpriced in stores, $30-$60! I have made these adorable cushions for only a few dollars!

I have most of the fabrics at home so it was just a matter of buying some felt.

The bottom cushion was made from an old granny jumper! I will put some photos up in another post of how I made this cushion. The table was an old IKEA table that I repainted. The timber tray was bought from a second hand store for $3, again repainted in the same colour as the feature wall. The lamp was bought from Salvos (second hand store) for $10, it even has a chip at the bottom, yes, and I love that it has a chip to show imperfection! Another IKEA product which is the rug, RRP is $49 but I got it for $25 from Gumtree :)

This is a digital artwork that I have created and now am selling in my Etsy store.

The picture below is a breakdown of what in the room is second hand and DIY.

Side view of the room. The bed belonged to my sister in law, 15 years ago. My in laws managed to keep it well in their garage. Its now time for my children to benefit from it!

My hand painted ‘bird silhouette’ oversized canvas.

I am absolutely in love with this no 14 chair! Its an original chair (still has the stamp on it!) Its by Thonet and made in Czechoslovakia! I was pretty lucky to have found this chair after months of searching. The owner didn’t know it was an antique, so she was happy to give it away.

2 lovely comments
Category: architecture/interior, baby, bedroom, before + after, décor, do-it-yourself, house 101, in my home, in my studio, nursery

Feb
19
2013

DIY Wall art for living room nook

When the husband wants something, he just has to say the word and then I’ll take care of the rest. This time he wanted an armchair, for more comfort.

I wasn’t exactly sure where else I could put this extra armchair seeing that our living room isn’t a big room, so I had to compromise some things and move around. The photo below was the old living room decor nook, where the floor lamp is. And this is where the new armchair will go.

So when we put the new armchair there and moved the floor lamp to the opposite nook (gotten rid of the magazine rack), the walls behind the armchair looked rather plain. I decided to DIY some art from the stuff we already had and picked up a couple of things from the junk yard. I got this timber tray for $2.50 each.

Above: Sanded timber tray (before)

Below: During the process of painting

The picture below are the 3 DIY wall art.

1- Exsiting Ikea MALMA mirror that I stencil and painted with a quatrefoil design.

2. Junk yard timber tray turned wall art – digital design print.

3. Junk yard timber tray turned wall art – hand painted.

For the quatrefoil mirror, I cut out a stencil and traced it all around the mirror with a pencil.

Then using acrylic paint, painted it with love and care.

Here is a close up of the timber trays, they are painted to make it look a bit rustic

As for art #2, Its a digital design art that I made in illustator and printed it out. I’m also selling it in my Etsy store.

The cushion was purchased online from eBay.

3 lovely comments
Category: architecture/interior, before + after, décor, do-it-yourself, house 101, in my home, in my studio, living/lounge

Oct
29
2012

{before + after} DIY quatrefoil table stencil

This is our revamped side table with a quatrefoil design. Lately I’ve been into contemporary Moroccan latticework patterns. They are absolutely pretty! I’ll show a step by step on how to stencil this table. There are a couple of ways to do it, either paint it with your bare fingers (using a template or use a sticker stencil) I’ll show you the stencil way. First, get yourself an old table. We picked this up from an ad on Gumtree for $15.

I measured the diameter of the table and whipped up the patterns on illustrator. Feel free to download the pattern template here. I made it available in a PDF version so the vector works remain if you wish to resize it.

Then print it out onto sticker paper and using a stanley knife or scissors, carefully cut out the stencil template.

Give the table a good sand thoroughly.

Paint the base colour, I chose a light grey. Give it two coats.

Once dried, apply the sticker stencil. Press to make sure they are no bumps. And finally spray it white, two coats again. Leave it to dry for a day before removing the stencil.