DIY Jewelry Board

In preparation for moving back to Ann Arbor I've been thinking up new interior design ideas for my new apartment. With my growing jewelry collection I've been running out of space in my current jewelry holder so I decided to make my own jewelry hanger that wouldn't only be useful, but decorative! The finished product ends up looking like a piece of art and can be color coordinated to your room.

You'll need:

Cork board
Spray paint (I used white but you can use any color of your choice)
Sharpies (I alternated between black and metallic silver)
Ruler

How to:
I made my chevron print with the aid of a ruler, cause what makes a chevron print successful is straight lines. After making your print, outline the lines with your black sharpie so they will show through the spray print. After your lines are outlined, spray paint your corkboard. Let it dry fully. Once dried, trace over your sharpie lines to make them more apparent. Once your cork board is fully designed, add your thumbtacks in a straight line with the help of a ruler. When done, hang your necklaces, rings, bracelets and enjoy!

DIY Pregame Dress

For a sorority girl like myself, Michigan football Saturdays are about more than just football. Game days in the eyes of most sorority girls are about proving your ability to deck yourself out in Maize and Blue in the cutest way possible. Bows, face tattoos, beads, baseball caps, American Apparel headbands, we've seen it all. Michigan's summer is short lived and my friends and I knew that this very might well be our last opportunity at a nice game day before succumbing to leggings and sweatshirts. We decided to take advantage of the last 70 degree game day by making our own pregame dresses.

These dresses are so easy to make and are fool-proof since they didn't involve any cutting!

You'll need:
An oversized t-shirt of whatever design you'd like your dress to have
(We used an X-L tshirt)

How To:
Pull the collar over your head and under your arms so it looks like your wearing a tube-top. Tie back the sleeves behind you in a double knot and you are good to go!

DIY hair mask

Being back at school my hair takes a bigger beating than normal with all the blow drying and styling. Since I'm not a fan of split ends I've been researching some DIY hair masks to keep my hair healthy and shiny. What I loved about this hair mask was that all the ingredients are made up of common foods that most people keep in their kitchen! This mask is great for hair growth increasing shine and softness.

You'll need:
2 egg yolks
2 tblsp olive oil
1 cup water

How to:
Mix the egg yolks and olive oil together and add the water to dilute it. Massage the mixture into your scalp and hair. Leave the mask in for 15-20 minutes so all the nutrients get absorbed and then rinse it out.

DIY Sugar Scrub

Summer is known for its short jean cutoffs, cute summery dresses, and adorable rompers. What all these outfits have in common is that your legs take center stage. Chlorine and sunscreen have dried my legs out over the summer and they are in dire need of some tlc before school starts. I decided to whip myself up an at home-remedy by making my own exfoliant. What I like about using sugar versus salt as the base in an exfoliator is that sugar is gentler on your skin than salt and helps your skin retain moisture better. Also sugar is a natural source of glycolic acid which thickens the layers of your skin, helping boost firmness.

You'll need:
brown sugar
white sugar
olive oil
vanilla extract (makes your scrub smell yummy!)

How to:
You'll want equal parts brown sugar to white sugar and mix them together. Next add your olive oil and let it trickle down to the bottom before pouring in a little more. After adding your oil, mix the sugar and oil together. To make your scrub delicious add a few drops of vanilla extract for a delicious smelling scrub!

This scrub makes an excellent gift for friends. Put the scrub into cute mason or jam jars and wrap with ribbon and your good to go!

Ombré Nails

This summer has been all about the ombré trend with beach hair and the trend seen all over the runway in summer fashions. I decided to replicate the trend into my manicure after being inspired by my monthly birchbox order.

You'll need:
White nail polish
Any polish of your color

How to:
Get your base color and grab a paper plate or a piece of foil and dab four drops of your base coat onto your work surface. Add drops of the white nail polish to each pile on your work surface increasing the amount of white polish as you go to get a spectrum of colors from light to dark.

Now that you have 4 distinct shades paint your nails from light to dark starting with your pinky finger, but make sure to clean the brush in between coats of varying nails. Add a top coat and dry.

DIY Canvas Artwork

This year is my first year at school having my own room and living in an actual house (freshman year it was the dorms and sophomore year was the sorority house) so I am really excited to be able to decorate it in my own style. I decided to create some artwork of my own in order to give my room some personality. This canvas image was really simple to make and ended up costing less than $10!

You'll need:
a canvas board
mod podge
a sponge brush

a printed image that you would like to have on your canvas

How to:
Cut out your image and secure it to your canvas with mod podge. Wait a minute or two to let your image dry to the canvas. Then coat the entire canvas in mod podge, waiting about 10-15 minutes between coats. I coated mine about three times.

DIY beaded necklace

Tonight while watching the olympics my friend Sarah and I decided to multitask while getting crafty by making some necklaces. This summer has been all about ombre whether its a design on clothes or even in hairstyles (circa Khloe Kardashian)! So we decided to duplicate the trend by making ombre necklaces.




You'll need:

Gold chain with clasp (we used a 16 inch)
Gold wire
Pliers
Beads

First we cut the gold chain in half with the pliers and looped the wire through one end of the broken chain. We then put our beads on the open wire. After loading on all of our beads we loped the other end of the wire to the other end of the chain and secured the wire through the chains loops. The finished product was a beautiful purple ombre beaded gold necklace!

DIY studded jean shorts

The end product

I've been loving the studded jean shorts trend this summer and I decided to try and replicate them myself. The process was pretty easy and I ended up with a pair of cute studded shorts for less than $20!

You'll need:
Jean shorts
Metal studs
Glue Gun
Glue

Chose any pattern that you'll like and glue away!