Nature, dinosaurs and wine corks

I like this idea a lot for a cute little artwork on the wall, maybe paint them different color, depending on what matches your space, and let your imagination control, pick something you find beautiful and is easy to get in your neighborhood, some people collect shells.

This may become a stepping stone in your garden, or even a beautiful bowl in your livingroom.

See the post here

I love this ! The tutorial is a little bit to basic though, so if you have any questions please let me know.
I think it'd be easiest to buy a light that has a battery, if you can't hide the cords that you would plug into the walls, if you have a battery powered one, you could hide it behind the canvas.
You can see it here

 This Rock runner is such a beautiful and easy DIY projects if you got flat rocks close to you or someone in your family collected them. They also make a beautiful doormat.

And it might be a fun idea if you got kids to let them color the rocks in different colors and make it a little bit personal.
See how here

Here's an easy one for parties, it makes a fun little summer theme to the party.

And here's one with fresh herbs mixed with water.

Another cozy cork idea, there's no need to throw it away, there's a lot of things that you can use them for, it's important to not throw away the things that can me reused, and specially things like this, it can give such a calming and romantic feeling to a room.

I want these candle sticks ! I loved dinosaurs so much as a kid, and it's just such a personal feel for me, but it's also so easy, bright color spray or paint, and some dollar store toys !

personalize is the key to romance

How easy ? 

These red lips would add a really nice and elegant flavor to a livingroom, diningroom or even the bedroom.

This would also be so romantic over the bed, it's also extremely easy, see the how to here, it's not in english, but the pictures show it really well.

You can of course make this in any size, so I'd make a big headboard with a word like "love" or something that means a lot to the people who sleep in the bed, maybe your names ?

This lamp you can buy here for 22$, and there is a how to on that page also, so maybe some of you DIY geniuses can make your own versions ?
How romantic to go to sleep under the stars every evening.

This I find adorable, you and your partner, you and your kid, or your kids if you got two, can make a heart together. It's really personal and that's what romance and love are all about.

I think this is romantic, rusty and old, maybe I'm just weird like that, but the bed tray is something I must make. This almost screams perfect.

A moss ringbearer pillow, it doesn't have to be a ringbearer pillow, it can be a decoration in your house, a DIY tutorial here, there are so photos though. I'm sorry about that, put please personalize, it makes everything romantic.

Honeycomb

I've been seeing a lot of DIY projects inspired by honeycombs lately, and since it's summer I'd like to show you my favorites ! 

Honeycomb smocking, it's a really easy tutorial, and it doesn't strain your hands as much as many other smocking tutorials do.
See tutorial here
If you have old curtains you'd like to freshen up, this would be a great solution, maybe a scarf.
I see some great ideas bobbling up in my head. 

Honeycomb shelves. These are precious, and you can make as many connect together as you want, have them randomized across the wall or just have one or two. I you've read my blog at all you'll know how much I love driftwood and pallets, so I'd suggest old wood for the part, just make sure it handles pressure, that it's not to old.
See tutorial here

Now, I know this ottoman tub has been given a new life, and it looks amazing, but as for me, I don't know where to get a tub like this, so I saw this as a great idea to recreate the shelves you see above, if you re-size the shelve tutorial you can make an ottoman out of old wood.
There's not a tutorial for this item, but you can buy it here, it's a little pricey, so if you decide to make this yourself hope you'll e-mail me the results, I'd love to see it, my e-mail is guffaakristins@gmail.com.

That's it for today, I'll be posting blogs at least on mondays and thursdays from now on.
And hopefully more. Like my Facebook page to see updates, I always post there when I post a blog.

PVC pipes and books DIY

These ideas are some that I feel that will personalize a bit more the small details in your home, so maybe we'll call it decoration tips part II !
Firstly the PVC pipes;

PVC pipes, there are some awesome things I found out you could do with those, like this candlestick, you could paint them to fit your room or make it stand out, either cold (when everything else is colorful) or vise versa.

Or as flower vases since it's summer, and the "Pretty Vase Collection by Francois Xavier Ballery" is in fact really pretty and a great DIY project !

I know this is a holiday craft, but I see so many possibilities !
Firstly, just as a work of art, in different colors and make some funky shapes out of it, constructions under a shelf or a table. storage for spices in the kitchen, for toothpastes and toothbrushes in the bathroom or to hold the shampoo, and I could go on and on.

Keep your laptop from overheating, and it just looks so cute !

And now to the books;

Personalized Iphone dock, it's so easy to make and it's a wonderful way to personalize your nightstand. Your favorite books or just some pretty covers, it's extremely easy to make like you can see here on Curbly.

This idea is made from a hardcover book, a 5$ lamp from IKEA and a rubber band, so extremely affordable, and with the right book, this can look super cool, if you have many books on a table, like in the picture, and have the "book lamp" in the middle, it can look really good.
See more here

Book planters, how cute is this !
See it here on homedit.

decoration tips

Decorations are important, small, tiny changes in a room can mean a lot, even just one candlestick.
So if your unhappy with a room start by looking at the details, what can you add and what can you take out.
It can make a whole new room for you, without spending almost any money.
And here are some easy, affordable ideas.

 Need new bookends ?
This is such an easy DIY task, and it doesn't cost that much.
you can use all kinds of plastic animals & toys, just find what you like the most.
See the whole tutorial here

Now, this is an easy decorating tip, you can take any picture and print it out, nail by the outlines on a plank of wood, and you could also just nail one nail in the middle, if you don't want a heart, have the nails any color, the wood any color and the string any color! this screams creative ideas for me, how about you ?

I like this idea a lot, you can't always find a flowerpot that works for you or they are too expensive, but this way, you don't need to buy, or make, a flowerpot at all, you just need a little bit of heavy clay mud, or bonsai soil, potting soil, moss and twine, and of course a small plant.
See the how to here

This is a wonderful way to display books in your house, and it's perfect in little kids room, they have a harder time hurting themselves on this then on pointy corners on a shelf.

Like Marisa did on her blog

the full tutorial is here

This idea from apartment therapy is wonderful. It's easy, affordable and looks amazing.
See the tutorial here

And like you may have noticed already, wood done right is one of my favorite DIY.

Recyclable summer

Today I want to bring you some fun and recyclable ideas.

You can make these out of any jars, and it's a wonderful way to make your own glasses, I'd like a tall one for a jam that I love.

This one I have at home, and I've always loved how tall these jars are, and with a little detail in the bottom.
You can buy a cut out mason lid here and save you some trouble because depending on the jar lid, some might be hard to cut out, but you can always take a screw and a hammer and nail in a few holes if you don't need or want a fancy lid in the shape of a flower or something like that.

  This star shaped lid is also fun idea, can be bought here.

These old cans used as yarn stash, the cans are covered with contact paper and glued together, it's easy and eye-catching, it's time to start knitting this summer!
Fun and easy how-to here

Save some money on school supplies next winter and make a notepad out of your kid's favorite cereal.

This is so cool and easy and the kids will love this !
tutorial here

This chandelier is made from plastic bottles.

 And this wonderful decoration, which can also be turned into a chandelier like this one.

These are all such wonderful and inspiring recyclable ideas that I hope you get inspired and make some use of your trash this summer.


I'd like to point out this website: earth911, it has some wonderful ways to reuse your household packaging and waste in a beautiful way, please go to their website and be inspired.

candles and lamps

We don't need candles and lamps here in Iceland over the summer, due to the fact that the sun doesn't really set here. But that means we need a new way to decorate them if we don't want to put them in storage.
So here are some beautiful ideas that you can also do.

Here are sticks used as decoration on some basic glass candle holders, we have a lot of skinny trees here in Iceland so we can go out in the yard and cut some off while trimming. I'd use some bushes also if I could, some sticks with leafs on them, and you can buy spray that protects decorations from catching on fire.
So I'd think it could really brighten it up to have a little green in there.
Get the how to here

I love this, the orange candle is one of the greatest and easiest DIY I've seen, if you eat oranges that is.
It's simple and it got such a lovely summer feeling to it, and it's very cheap.
see the DIY here

Concrete candlesticks, now this I want!
It's so easy and so beautiful, and I need to try this with some textured paper or something like that to get a simple texture on it, just glue it inside of the paper cup before putting the concrete in. Please, if you try this let me know if it works out with thick paper or if you needed something thicker.
See the how to here

Here are some egg candles, same basic idea as the orange one, this is so cute !
how to here

These thread lights look amazing, see the whole how to here.
This is a hybrid candlestick though, because it's recommended not to use a real flame for obvious reasons, but you can buy little LED candles, and I recommend using more than one color if that matches your room colors, it would put a nice little detail to the room.

Here are chandeliers with the same technique.
See how here

If you're looking for something different this might be your solution, I can picture this on the floor in the bedroom or the bathroom to get around without waking people up in the middle of the night.
Use waterproof lights though, no matter where you're going to put it, it's better to be safe than sorry.

See how to here

And of course the doily chandeliers, these are so elegant, and surprisingly easy to make !
See how here 

And there are endless options with this idea, color the doilies in different colors, put them on the screen of your old table lamp, and so on and so on.

I hope some of this inspired you to make your home more personal in the easiest way possible.