After a near three month hiatus, we’re back and ready to start updating you with fashionable DIY projects! Although we haven’t been updating the blog much over the summer, that doesn’t mean we haven’t upheld the DIY spirit. Here are some of the projects I’ve been working on to decorate our new apartment for the upcoming school year.

I like looking at Urban Outfitters for ideas and inspiration on possible projects. I really liked the idea of this Bird on a Wire Photo Clip and decided that $10 was too much money for 8 clips and one string, so I made my own version.

I looked for bird silhouettes in Google Images and printed out the ones I liked on regular printing paper. I then glued the birds onto thicker paper/card stock to enforce them and cut the birds out using scissors and an X-ACTO knife for the more intricate sections. (You don’t need to buy card stock for this. Just use an old cereal box or thin cardboard from random packaging.) After the shapes were cut, I colored the edges and the surface of the birds with a black felt-tipped marker to make them as dark as possible. Finally, I hot-glued paperclips to their backs to finish the bird clips. The only thing I needed to buy was the black wire, which was cheaper than black string, but you can use whatever you have lying around. I cut the wire to the desired length, wrapped the edges of the wire around thumb tacks, and clipped the birds onto the string. The result: 23 bird clips and 7 feet of possible wire for a total of $1.75.

Urban Outfitters version:

My version:

I opted for larger bird silhouettes, but you can choose the size you want when you print the birds out. Tip: when printing out the birds, you should also flip the image and print those out to vary the direction the birds are facing. 

Another project I did was inspired by Urban Outfitters and their Picture Window. Instead of paying $16 for one picture window that holds 28 photos, I bought a pack of photo sleeves and sewed the edges together with invisible thread, alternating the direction of the photo sleeves. The result is a similar effect, but for a much more reasonable price. I decided to make two strips instead of one long one, but it is up to you how you want to arrange it. 

Urban Outfitters version:

My version:

Last, but not least, I decoupaged some wooden letters, one each for the first letter of our names. I simply used Elmer’s Glue and mixed it with water to make the decoupage paste and tore out pages from magazines that embodied the color that I wanted. I just used my fingers to smear the glue and water mixture onto the letter itself and then over the paper being added on to it, for doing so with a paint brush significantly slowed down the process. Here are the results:

Expect more DIY fashion posts soon. We have a lot of submissions from our followers so you can also expect to see some of those as well. Happy crafting and thank you to all of our followers for sticking with us despite our lack of activity.