Happy Sunday and Free Icons!

Happy Sunday! I have work tonight, but I just published a new section to the blog called "freebies"

Right now there is a set of cute icons to download. 

Hopefully my next week will be a bit more filled with some DIY posts. I've been trying to organize my bathroom cabinets on the cheap but to no avail have I found anything that fits the space on the budget I want to spend.

This could possibly require a trip to the Container Store. Yikes...my wallet goes on a diet every time I enter that store.

Anyhow, you can pick up the new icons by clicking on them.
Enjoy!

DIY Botanical Art Prints with Frames for $13!

I was so thrilled when I found these frames at target, I got all 4 for $13.01(with tax here in CA)

these look similar to the ones I bought. Oh how I wish I had money for that camera I've been after. 

Anywho, I bought eight of them and took them home to start on an art project to fill up the space on my staircase wall.

I ended up searching for a dictionary page that looked old enough/discolored enough to print from my home. I needed something that I wouldn't have to print and then age by hand. I ended up finding this one that sufficed quite nicely:

you can find it here at The Graphics Fairy

I then found these botanical prints online scattered through out the web at a mix of websites. I suggest that you search botanical prints at the graphics fairy while your grabbing the dictionary page, they have some beautiful ones.

Once you have all the images you want to use, open the dictionary page into Photoshop(if you don't have the money for Photoshop then Gimp is an awesome free application I use to use)

Re-size the image to 8.5x11 inches(super important since we want it to be the exact size of our printer paper)

Then copy the image of whatever botanical print you like and paste it on top(it should paste centered on the image already)

After it is opened it should look like this:

Half the work is already done for us, now all you have to do is layer them to get the effect of the flowers printed on top of the paper.

To achieve this effect you select the flowers layer(Layer 2 in my case) Then you click the drop down menu above it that should say "Normal". Scroll down to the effect "Multiply" and click it.

Once you have selected "Multiply" it should look almost transparent on top of the dictionary paper just like the image below.

And the rest is honestly just as easy as the first steps. Just print your new image onto a thick matte photo paper with no margins and it looks lovely inside its frame.

Voila! Beautiful art that is cheap, personal, and fun to make.

Home Management Binder

I've been so busy with work this week, however I have made a bit of time to start on my newest project : the home management binder. So far so good, I just have to fine tune the small kinks and finish the trial run I'm having with it.

Here is the front page and calendar so far


I have been using tips from different blogs on how to organize these home binders, and I know that within time I'll find the best methods for my personal organization style. When that time comes expect a lot of free printable goodies that I'll have fun designing. :]

My calendar page is inspired by Ursula's Calendar (its really so awesome to visually see your schedule this way, and I love how she made her calendar boxes the size to fit post it notes

I also got the Clean House page from Christina's Page, I really recommend staying at her site and flipping through some things, shes got amazing printables that she designs

Anyway its a work in progress and I'm testing it out to see how its working for me. Hopefully soon I'll get some printables up to share

DIY Iphone 5 case

So I am finally feeling a bit better and I decided to post two DIY projects I had tackled since I've been sick.
The first one is my Iphone's new fancy case(sorry for the mirror picture, I really need a new camera)

So in essence its a really easy tutorial, I found the design for my case on this amazing design website I love

Credit: Jones Design Company

To start off I bought an inexpensive clear iphone case like the one here

Then I printed out the designs on a matte photo paper and traced/cut the case's camera hole out

Its super simple to do, and its really cheap for the case itself. I have also taken it into Adobe Photoshop and designed a whole bunch of other cases to cut out. But honestly, that anchor design is just too cute.