DIY || #29 || Carrying Around My Mini Sunshine

I know, I know...I'm just as obsessed with florals as I am with polka dots. Forgive me! I couldn't stray away from making this Daisy Floral clutch after walking through Michael's and seeing tons of summer floral bouquets on sale now that fall is approaching. This project is incredibly simple to make, and I was inspired by previous wonderful projects done by Chic Steals and Design Improvised. Definitely check them out for more ideas! There is so much creative flexibility with making a floral clutch so definitely tweak it to your own style and go crazy! See below for the easy step-by-step directions...

What you'll need: plastic flowers (I used daisies and yellow/green hydrangeas), plain clutch bag/purse, hot glue gun and glue sticks, and scissors. 

First, make sure to cut the stems of the flowers so they are very short and can be glued flat onto the bag. Next, place a few hydrangea flowers on the clutch to set a colorful base and then glue them on. Begin gluing daisies directly on top of the hydrangeas, then glue more daisies until you fill the rest of the open spaces on the bag. This particular bag had a long zipper that stuck out on the end, which I didn't like very much, so I simply tucked in the excess zipper and glued it to the inside of the clutch. That's it folks! Hope you like it, and let me know if you try it out yourself! 

DIY Project || #22 || Eco-Friendly Plastiband Charger Decorations

Pardon my slight delay with DIY projects this past week -- it's my senior week before graduation so I've barely had time to even upload pictures from my camera! Alas, here is this week's DIY which was totally inspired by all things summer, sorbet, and fresh. I'm not quite sure what to call it - is it an embellishment, a decoration, a...colorful thingy? Whatever it is, I decided to spruce up my mac chargers using these vibrant plastibands. I saw them by the check out counter at Blick's Art Supplies and Materials in Boston even though I didn't know what to do with them. I can't remember the last time I actually used rubberbands, but given how colorful these are I just had to find a way to put them to (consistent) use. Inspired by all the Washi Tape charger embellishments (though not pleased with the prices of washi tape!), I wanted to mimic that look using summer flavors. It's such a simple project (took me less than 5 minutes from start to finish) and it is completely customizable based on how you want it to look. Also, apparently, these plastibands are latex-free, 3X stronger than rubberbands, and recyclable - making them much healthier to use for both yourself and the environment (at least that's what it says on the package). Here is what I came out with, let me know if you try it too!

Simply unplug the usb cable from your iPad charger and begin sliding on the plastibands. I did each color twice to make the strips appear bigger. Decide on a color pattern and just keep adding bands as you please. The best part about this is that you can always start over, re-do it, change it, and add more colors as often as you like since they are not-permanent and won't leave any sticky residue like with Washi tape. The colors included in the box are red, pink, green, blue, yellow, white, and green. My first color combination was inspired by summer lemons and limes - just use green, yellow, and white. But don't stop there -- make friends and decorate your laptop charger too!

This next color combination was inspired by a flavor I saw in a local Cambridge ice cream parlor called orange berry sherbert. Sweet and fruity! Happy summer decorating!

Friday Faves || #21 || Summer Sorbet Sweetness

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