DIY TISSUE PAPER GARLAND

If you've been following my blog, you probably know I have a slight obsession with pinterest.

Over my winter break, I decided to attempt a few DIY projects, one of them being this streamer garland inspired by the

Confetti System

. I first heard about the Confetti System a couple of years ago when I was browing Stumbleupon. I was blown away by their creative projects and thought about how cool it would be to have one of their pieces in my room.

Then, a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon (so punny) 

this DIY

.

You can use the above link...I pretty much followed the original poster's directions, but have some tips of my own, which I will outline below.

I am absolutely in love with the finished product, but be warned...this project takes about 4 hours for a 1.5-yard garland, so if you are impatient, this might not be the best for you. That being said, I highly encourage you to try this regardless of your craftiness/level of patience.

I promise, you won't be disappointed.

You will want to obtain some twine and different colors of 20"x30" tissue paper. I bought my twine from OSH, and my tissue paper (in baby blue, light pink, dark pink, and metallic gold) from the Container Store. Another optional (but highly recommended) item is "Command" hooks, which are the perfect way to hang your masterpiece without damaging your walls and whatnot.

1. Take a piece of tissue paper and fold it once lengthwise, then twice widthwise. Cut the folded (vertical) sides so the only folded sections are at the top of the now-four, folded in half width-wise, pieces of tissue.

2. Line up the four sections of tissue; starting from the bottom, cut thin strips up the paper, leaving a 2" uncut section at the top. Repeat this step with each color you want you use. (I would suggest coming up with a pattern - for example, my patterns was gold, dark pink, light pink, light blue, so I would repeat step two with 1 sheet of tissue in each color to start with).

3. Unfold each section of tissue, then roll the tissue, making sure the fringe does not get tangled.

4. Starting from the middle of each rolled section of tissue, twist the tissue until the entire uncut portion in the middle is twisted. Create a loop with the twisted tissue and use Tacky Glue to fasten the loop. Repeat this with all of your first-batch sections of tissue.

5. Cut a 2-yard length of twine and start threading the loops through, tying them on to secure. I left about a 3/4" gap between each of the pieces, but you can definitely adjust that to whatever you please.

6. In the previous step, I said to cut a 2-yard length of twine, but you can make your garland however long you want. I used a total of 3 sheets of each color of tissue, and 2 yards of twine for my project, so hopefully that helps you determine how much of each material you need.

To fasten your garland to a wall, place two Command strips on the wall, then tie the remaining twine at each end of the garland (you can tie on additional twine if you don't have enough at the ends) onto the hook part. And you're done :)

I love these colors I used, but I also bought a light green as well a cream color, and am also on the hunt for metallic silver tissue paper (they didn't have any in stock when I went), so I will probably making another one of these in the near future.

Good luck, and may your room/home/living spaces be forever Anthro/Confetti System-inspired.

HOMEMADE CANDLES - DIY

I think I'm on an accelerated path into my middle-age years.

I've taken a recent interest in DIY projects, but I think Pinterest might be responsible for a lot of that...

My most recent undertaking: homemade candles.

I'm just going to come out right now and say that I used to be a candle-hater. If you told me to walk into a Yankee Candle store two years ago, or asked me if it would be okay to light a gingerbread candle in the house, I would have said "no."

This all changed once I got to college, when candles became a bit of a necessity to cloak the unpleasant odors that come along with dorm living. Between my roommates and I, we have have a collection of four or five candles, one of which is heated (

on one of these

) at all times.

Too often, candle scents are overpowering, and after 30 minutes, I feel like I'm going to 1) pass out, 2) throw up, or 3) both. With DIY projects though, you have some creative freedom. Head's up: I made these candles over winter break, which explains the Christmas tree...and the Christmas-inspired candle decorations...

These candles are very easy to make, and it's nice to make a bunch so you always have a go-to gift option. Everyone likes homemade gifts, just as long as they're well-made.

I used

this tutorial

and just used some holiday scents in place of the coconut oil scent suggested in the original post. I didn't use an entire bottle of fragrance per pound of wax, as I like my candle scents on the mild side, but you would probably be okay adding an entire bottle, as my candles could have been a bit "scent-ier."

Though I've posted the link to the tutorial I used, I'll just go over the general steps:

You will need some heat-safe containers (I bought mine from the Container Store), candle fragrance oil of your choosing (I got one each of Peppermint, Pine Tree, and Cranberry from

here

), soy wax flakes (available for purchase

here

), a candle-making pitcher (available

here

), and wax wire clips (

here

). To decorate the candles, I used oil-based paint sharpies in metallic gold and silver, as well as plain black. After that, the instructions are very straight-forward.

Enjoy your candles, and may your living space always smell wonderful, and NOT like a college dorm.