precious sister

DIY: BIRDIE MOBILE

Happy Thursday everyone. I have a gorgeous little project for you today. Remember the beginning of the month, when I told you about those two drift wood branches I was going to use for a project? Well, this is that project ๐Ÿ™‚ I used them for a very cute birdie mobile in pastel colors. Not many materials is needed and anyone can make one of these.

birdie_mobile

You’ll need these materials:

2 x branches (the ones I used were about 30-35 cm long)
sewing thread
sewing needle
metal wire
scissor
laminator (or use really sturdy carton, if your printer can handle it)
thick A4 paper
prints A4 (download here)

BIRDIE PRINT HERE

birdie_mobile

 

1. Print out the pattern on one side, flip and print the pattern w. birdie tracing on the other side. Make one sheet of each color. Laminate the sheets. This will make your mobile a bit more sturdy and last longer. If you donโ€™t have a laminator, then use thick carton for the prints. Just remember that your printer needs to be able to handle the carton you use.

birdie_mobile

2. Cut out all the little birdies.

birdie_mobile

3. Use needle and thread. Create five strings of birdies by attaching the birdies to each other with thread between them. Make the distance about 10-15 cm.

birdie_mobile

4. Take your branches and place them in a X. Secure them to each by winding wire around the intersection. Make sure the branches are pretty level when you hold them up; otherwise the whole mobile will be crooked. Now make a small loop from a piece of wire and attach it to the intersection.

birdie_mobile

5. Attach all the strings of birdies to your branches, one on each arm and one in the middle. Hang your mobile and enjoy your finished project.

birdie_mobile

birdie_mobile

Happy project! See you tomorrow.

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GARDEN TIPS: HERB WAGON

Fresh herbs are probably the most delicious ingredient you can add to your food, especially if you can go out and pick them in your garden. As you might have read, I only have a small balcony herb garden, but Sussi has this gorgeous garden and she came up with this awesome idea for a herb garden.

herbwagon

She had this old broken flower wagon, which was just standing there, screaming for a purpose. So she filled it with dirt, planted all kinds of herbs, arranged some broken terracotta pots and a few branches, and made it into a beautiful and functional raised bed garden. It doesn’t only look good and decorative, but you can actually wheel it away too.

herbwagon

This is an easy idea to copy; any wagon like thing can be used for this – small or large will do – the fun part is that it doesn’t take much time to create something useful that looks great with this idea. And we just love when those two things go hand in hand ๐Ÿ™‚

herbwagon

herbwagon

herbwagon

 

Happy gardening!

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SUPER CUTE DIY HOSTESS GIFT

Today we have this super easy and adorable DIY hostess gift for you. Every woman likes to receive flowers, but this little cutie has a slight twist. We have gorgeously wrapped a herb plant, instead of the usual flower, in hessian and added a cute tag.

hostessgift

 

The really cool idea about this is that the hessian actually works as a pretty flowerpot. You attain this by putting the herb pot into a plastic bag before you wrap it up. This way it will still hold water.

hostessgift

 

hostessgift

hostessgift

NOTE: The size of the hessian will depend on your size of herb plant. You can get an approximate size, by looking at the first ‘how to’ picture.

Save the ‘how to’ picture below, to have a quick and easy wrapping technique handy or maybe pin it to one of your craft and DIY boards.

hostessgift

Have a great weekend.

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FUTURE OF PRECIOUS SISTER

Dear readers. First I wanna say thank you for all your comments and messages. It has been heart warming.

Precious Sister was a project my dear sister and I launched together a couple of years back and due to her not being with us anymore, I have decided not to work on this site any further. I will keep this site open in memory of my precious sister, Sussi. This was a very special project of ours, we had a lot of ideas and visions of what to make of this little beauty.

I have disabled commenting on the site, but feel free to contact me using the contact form if you have any questions regarding our projects or just wanna say hi.

I personally have chosen to focus on my photography. I’m in the process of building my new site www.house3003.com and blog, where I hope to include some smaller graphical project and how to’s. You are very welcome to stop by.

Thank you for all your love & support for Precious Sister.

Annika

DIY: MAKE CHALKBOARD CLOCK FROM POT LID

I have so much fun stuff going on today. I’m going to do a photo shoot at my sister’s house, which I’m really excited about. Then I’m eagerly awaiting new books from Amazon that will be arriving today. I just love getting inspiration in the mail. Last but not least, I have this great project to share with you; a chalkboard clock made from a pot lid.

chalkboardclock

This is probably one of the most fun and awesome projects I have made in a long time. You see I’m so excited about this project and the result, that I just can’t get my hands down ๐Ÿ™‚ And I’ll tell why this was such a great project. First; turning something old into something new makes me feel really creative. Second; the cost of making this clock was next to nothing and it was easy to make. Third; you can give this clock your own personal touch and design. Or maybe let your kids decorate it. Last, but not less important. It looks super trendy and gorgeous. Chalkboard paint and beautiful type goes so well together.

chalkboardclock

You’ll need these materials:

– pot lid (drill hole for clockwork, if it’s not already there)
– chalkboard paint
– clock movement + hands
– white acrylic paint
– design of your choice (or use my design)
– chalk
– spray lacquer (spray lacquer for coal drawings works fine)

chalkboardclock

 

PRINT CLOCK DESIGN HERE

FOLLOW THE STEPS IN THE PICTURE BELOW TO MAKE THE CLOCK:

chalkboardclock

I hope you have as much fun with this project as I did.
Please let me know if you have any questions.

 

GORGEOUS PACKAGING

I love beautiful packaging and especially the kind I can keep and reuse as decoration or storage. Sometimes when I go shopping I catch myself wanting to buy products just for the packaging, not really needing the product at all. I like to follow thedieline.com, a package design website. They feature talented designers and you can find links to their work. A great place for graphic design inspiration. /Annika

packaging

{images via thedieline.com}

packaging

{images via thedieline.com}

1. Packaging design for The Hairy Bikers Designed by Here

2. Packaging design for Queen Mary Tea Designed by Niedermeier Design

3. Re-design of Folgers coffee Designed by Noah Love

4. Packaging design for Moomah Designed by Apartmentone

5. Packaging design for Flour Pot Bakery Designed by Sara Nicely

6. Packaging design for Vi Novell wine. Designed by Atipus