DIY: Easy Party Decorations

Hear hear hear! The party season's here! This post should've probably come sooner, but apparently I work on rocket principles. I do love this time of the year though. Granted, some of us in India do have to work even now, but the festive cheer is hard to miss.

Those of you who are last-minute'rs like me (if that's a word) and haven't booked yourself for New Year's parties yet, here's a quick and easy DIY to get your parties started at home!

What You Need:

• A sheet of glitter paper
• Craft glue or Fevicol
• Crochet Yarn
• Scissors
• A Bangle
• A pen

Step 1: 

Turn the glitter paper over and start drawing circles of desired size. I didn't have a compass or punch handy, so I got the bangle instead. 

Step 2:

Cut out the circles as per the marked lines

Step 3:

Fold the cut circles into half and cut along the folds

Step 4:

Turn over the semicircle and put a line of craft glue slightly below the top. Remember, for any shape, always put the glue above the centre of the shape to maintain balance when hung. Leave about 25 cms of yarn and glue to shape to the yarn. 

Continue gluing the cut out shapes at regular intervals, about 4 fingers width. Leave about 25 cms of yarn at the end. Don't worry about it not being absolutely perfect - adds to the charm :) 

For this, I used a spare yarn that matched the walls - it added kind of a floating shapes effect. However, you can of course use any color of your liking - perhaps neon?

Step 5:

Display and enjoy :)

 Happy New Year people -  Here's to welcoming 2014!

DIY: Ankle Strap Shoes

There's something about ankle strap shoes that is so elegant and classy. A pair of good ankle strap shoes are pretty much enough to go from casual to party usually!

Unfortunately, the ones in the Indian market that fall in *my* budget usually appear like this:

Monster shoes

Okay, maybe not entirely like that :)

Nevertheless, the drool-worthy are priced like this:

Jimmy Choo, $2095

I also usually go for shoes that have a low to medium heel (save extra special occasions!), which are hard to come by as it is.

Here's what you do to get them for *almost* free!

What you need:

• A pair of unwanted shoes, preferably pumps
• Craft knife
• A pair of scissors
• Glue (I used Fevicol)
• Gold glitter dots (optional)
• Unwanted/lone earrings (optional)
• An old eyeliner/lipliner
• Jewelry making jump rings, as required.
• 2 Lobster clasps

I used a pair of small-heeled shoes that made up a previous not-too-successful DIY project:

As you can see, the shoe is a little misshapen at the edges and basically looked strange on :)

Step 1: Take your show and using the craft knife, start by cutting the sides of the shoe off. Make sure you cut the two sides as single length-wise pieces.

Step 2: Now take the eye liner and mark where you want the front strap to come on the shoe using two parallel straight lines 1 inch apart. Also mark the length and width of the back support of the shoe. This will hold up the ankle strap. Cut the leather of the shoe according to the marked lines. 

At this point, your shoe will probably look like this:

Don't worry about the unfinished edges - we'll get to them later!

Cut both the shoes identical to each other.

Step 3: Take the side cut-outs and measure around the diameter of your ankle. Cut out 2 strips of the measured length, also about an inch wide.

Step 4: Due to the low back of my shoe, the ankle strap was sitting a lot lower on my leg than I would have liked. This is where the old earrings come into picture. You can use chains, Swarovski stones or anything that catches your fancy to improvise on the ankle strap height!

Put in a jump ring through the back support of the shoes and attach the earring to the jump ring. 

Step 5: Attach the other side of the earring to one side of the ankle strap with a jump ring. On the other side of the ankle strap, attach the lobster clasp with a jump ring.

Check to see if the ankle strap closes perfectly over your ankles :)

Step 6: On the unfinished edges, run a line of glue or Fevicol and drop pinch-fulls of gold glitter all along the way!

Leave to dry overnight.

The final output looks like this:

Enjoy your new ankle strap shoes :)

Product Review: Maybelline Orange Fix Nail Enamel 214

I'm not much of a I-must-have-nail-polish-on-ALWAYS! kind of person - I prefer more or less the clean and natural look. But when I do decide on it, I tend to gravitate towards the reds, pinks and oranges. 

Which is why this was a natural don't-have-to-think-about-it buy:

Now when I bought this bottle *without reading the shade name* thinking its Coral due to its appearance, and logic failed me to the point when the color on my nails started turning Orange!

Turns out the shade's name is Orange Fix , so perhaps the Orange nails were not such a big surprise:

All in all, the color matched exactly the one in the bottle and as the name promised, at least in the beginning. After about an hour, the color got slightly darker, but looked great nonetheless!

Great buy for Rs 75!

DIY: Fancy Crocs

I ordered this pair of Crocs Women's ABS Flip Flops - meant for casual occasions.

I wore them around the house for a couple of hours before getting an itch to do something on them. I mean look at the clean black straps calling out to be colored!

An hour later:

Look how they finished!

What you need to do this:

• Pair of old (or new) flip flops
• Paint pens and markers
• Sequins 
• Anything else you like !
• Glue

They look great on :) Sorry about the bad pics btw :/