Customised sunglasses

Hello!

It's been a while. I can't believe the amazing summer we've been having in London so far - I hope it lasts!

 

On a summery note, I absolutely love these Tommy Hilfiger retro pastel sunglasses, they epitomise summer for me - such light, fun, care-free colours (similar to a Fab ice lolly) while of course, being super practical!

I have loads of pairs of sunglasses at home - some nice, some fake designer, some free with magazines - so I couldn't really justify buying another pair. Instead I set about transforming a plain black pair with the simple and wonderful thing that is nail varnish.

I created a guide for a straight line by covering up the bits I didn't want to paint with sellotape:

...and the attacked the top half of the glasses with a light icey blue nail varnish:

Once that was dry, I painted the inside of the frame with a contrasting bright coraly orange:

Et voila, as easy as painting your nails!

Chest of Drawer Handles

This has been the sad front of the chest of drawers we rescued from freecycle nearly a couple of years ago, sanded down, and left handle-less after I successfully rusted all the orignal brass drawer pulls...eeek.

I had spotted the idea of using an old belt as handles so scouted some used leather belts on ebay for a couple of pounds each.

I cut them into identical lengthed strips and made holes where I wanted the nuts and bolts to go once the strips were positioned in a bent handle shape on the drawers: 

Using these industrial "machine screws" I attached the leather handles to the drawers through the original handle screw holes and tightened the nights on the inside of the drawers:

Handles at last!

Carpe Diem fabric painted jumper

I spotted this cute jumper in Banana Republic a few weeks ago, but only thought about recreating my own version when I rediscovered an old Gap jumper I had at the back of the wardrobe, which hadn't been worn for a while, and it made sense to spruce it up and give it a new lease of life taking inspiration from the Banana Republic one.

I bought some Dylon fabric paint pots in black and white, thinking I could use the white for a design on a navy Gap jumper I have in the same style, and so went with the black for the orange jumper.

I also bought some "iron-on" wax paper (similar to greaseproof paper but waxed on one side) to use as my template.

Using the Banana Republic logo as a guide, I drew my own version of the text straight onto the non-waxed side of the paper:

I then cut out the letters (making sure I left a little paper link to the insides of the D, a, p etc). This would have been much less fiddly with a sharp pen knife!

Next, I ironed the wax paper (wax side down) onto the jumper:

Using a foam stencil brush (found on ebay) I dabbed several layers of the fabric paint onto the jumper, and following the paint's instructions I ironed over the paint between each layer:

And with a little suspense and teasing of the paper off the jumper when the last layer of paint was thoroughly dry, this was the final result:

Woohoo!

Cork plant markers

For these handy little herb markers you all need is:

Some unidentified herbs

Corks

Kebab sticks or other skewery instrument

Permanent pen

 

Glittered Converse

I love Converse trainers. I live in them. But my old black pair are getting a little tired, so I decided to give them a new lease of life by attacking them with some slightly watered-down PVA glue, and glitter...

...after removing the laces and covering the rubber sole and toe-cap with sellotape...

When the first layer of glitter and glue was thoroughly dry I did a second layer...

...and when that was dry, I did one final coat of PVA and water mix and left them to dry with the following result...

Jazzy!