DIY: Leather Clutch Bag (for £3, maadness)

So every DIY post I do, I've vowed to do for less than a fiver! And that is what I shall do.

So if you're all about saving the pennies, then this not only will help, but will give you somewhere to put them too!

I've been loving basic-simple items recently, and the beautiful DIY projects from Love Aesthetics (a truly beautiful blog) are really inspiring me to get creative. Have a look at a few of her amaazing ideas:

Metallic Leather Clutch Bag

Leather/Clear Envelope Clutch

Ferrero Rochet Box- revamped (I want to make one into a box-clutch)

Along with this beaaautie of a bag from Zara's basics range.

So I found a nice large piece of black leather in a charity shop whilst I was working in Walton on Thames for  £2!! So naturally I had to think up something interesting to do with it & I decided to make myself a clutch bag, and here's how!

You'll need:

* To save money, I bought this naff make-up bag for £1 from Poundland & took the zip off, because zips bought from craft shops can be a bit pricey! And it meant I had a template to work with!!

Using chalk, draw around your template, or mark out an area big enough on the back of your fabric, leaving a 1cm edge to sew the seam. Then cut the fabric, following the lines you've drawn.

Fold the fabric in half so that the inside of the bag is on the outside (Hopefully this does make sense!)

Pin the fabric where you want to sew the seam. Make sure the line is nice & straight, as this is your guideline.

 If you have a sewing machine, this will take you 5 minutes. But if like me, you try to avoid the things like the plague then a needle & thread will do fine! 

Next, pinch each corner and turn the bag inside out, so it's the right way!

Once you've done this & flipped it the right way, you'll need to attach the zip! This was the hardest part I found, mainly because I ran out of black thread & impatiently swapped to a red wine coloured one! But managed to hide it thankfully. 

Once you've sewn one side of the zip on, it should look like this! Do the same on the other side, stitching the seam about half the way in on the zip itself.

So once you've done that, and neatened it all up a bit, it should look something like this! You could spend a bit more on a nicer zip if you wanted, a chunky metal one would be nice too. And you can use any fabric you want, I just liked the simplicity of black leather. And now I've got a bag to match my watch, as they were both made from the same piece of leather (:

There you have it, £3! BARGAAAIN

*Apologies for the inconsistent lighting, I made this over the course of a few days at Lil's house as well as mine.

Have you got any interesting DIY ideas you've done? Or anything you'd like me to do perhaps?

You can even challenge me if you like, to make something, but to keep it under a fiver!

DIY: Marble Effect Nails!

 You will need

• various coloured pretty nail polishes
• white nail polish
• a mug of room temperature water (preferably not in your mums best china)
• cotton buds
• nail varnish remover
• a cocktail stick or sewing needle

Okay prepare for it to be veryy messy! You'll need to do each of these steps quite quickly so that the nail varnish doesn't dry in the water. And don't give up too quickly, it may take a few tries before you get it!

So start by painting each of your nails white. This leaves a nice background base colour for the marble effect & it does look better.

Get your mug of room temperature water & hold the brush above it, allowing a drop of nail varnish to fall in. This should spread out across the water. Inside each colour, add another drop until it starts to look like this. Do this about 5 or 6 times!

Next, using the cocktail stick/sewing needle/other pointy apparatus, carefully swirl the drops to make a pattern. Keep it simple, and remember don't rush, but be quite quick as it will dry!

If it dries to much it won't swirl very well & might look like this. If so, dont worry, get your finger in there & if it doesnt work, try again. To clear the mug & start a new finger, use the cotton bud to gather it all to the edge & it will lift out easily.

(Haven't got a picture for the next part, but once you've made your swirly, marble effect in the water, rest your finger nail upside-down over the pattern, slightly submerged in the water & lightly blow at the excess (to make it dry|). Take your finger out and allow it to dry. Do all 10 nails, allowing enough time for them all to dry.

It should look something like this....

Next is the clean-up operation. Once you've done the above steps to all your nails, and allowed them enough time to dry, you need to wipe the nail polish off of your fingers. Do this using cotton wool pads/tissue and cotton buds coated with nail varnish remover. The cotton buds are especially effective at cleaning around the nail, so that you don't take any of the design off the nail! 

And here's the finished product! Comment if you have any questions or anything. Go here if you wanna watch a video that breaks it down a bit slower!

I was actually meant to have this post up a few days ago, but works been hectic & I've been out & about with friends and the chap :) But I'm on top of things, and been brainstorming for the blog & scouting magazines and shops n' stuff for inspiration. So there's plenty of posts comin' your way!

P.S Thanks Mevans for helping me out with this one :) utter babe.

Fash Without Cash! DIY: Studded shirt for a fiver!

You'll need some studs. These were 99p from Ebay, you can find them here. 

I was a bit safe with the collar, but if you order a couple or packets & have alot of
 patience, you could stud the whole collar!

My stud-buddy Lil doing her shirt.

The studs are quite easy to push into the fabric, as the prongs are fairly sharp
('scuse the shoddy nail polish). Then use scissors to push the prongs inwards on the other side!

Tres Jolie! I was well chuffed with this DIY, because I'd never studded anything before.
Took just over an hour, and cost me £5.99. I used about 70 studs on this one!

 So here's my first proper blog post! Still getting used to everything though, so be patient with me. Expect me to be posting quite regularly though. I've been trying out quite a lot of DIY 'post worthy creativeness lately, and I'm getting all excited for Autumn/Winter because I'm seeing lots of beautiful things to blog about.

In'abit xx