So most of you know I have spent the last 10 years living away from my home country of Australia. Christmas this year was my first at home since 2006. It was also my first Christmas in a non-Muslim country (they don’t really go as all-out in Dubai with Christmas as the majority of people aren’t Christian) in 6 years and my first Christmas in a house instead of an apartment in 10 years, naturally my DIY brain went into crafting overdrive.

I wanted to share with you some images of my home made Christmas. Most decorations were hand made and I definitely shy away from red and green which I feel is a stressful colour combination and can often make a stressful Christmas Day more of a headache. It also doesn’t look very chic.

This year was my first cooking and decorating and hosting Christmas. It was very special for me to be back with my mother who has suffered a stroke.

I tried to work with colours my Mum’s house already had in the decor. Colours like gold, grey, beige, light brown and white.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. To my fans and followers from all over the world, thankyou for staying with me for all of these years.

You can check out my Christmas craft tutorials here, here, here and here. 

I hope 2015 rocks your socks off and the glue gun from your hands!

These chic ornaments are nice and large to cover lots of space on the tree (hence having to make less of them) but if you want to make loads of them that’s cool too as they only a few minutes to make.

You will need: embroidery hoops (I chose the small ones), gems or embellishments, scissors, wool, glue gun and sticks. I got all of my supplies from Spotlight.

Start by tying a knot onto one side of the hoop.

Make a star with the wool and then continue to wrap more wool around the configuration.

Glue on your embellishments at random areas on the star.

Create a loop with the wool to hang your ornament.

They look great on table settings as well as on the tree!

Let me know how you go making these and if you do them in different colours.

Americans call this project “Paper Lollies,” I really don’t even know what we’d call these in Australia. They look more like pinwheels to me? Regardless, I think you’ll agree they look great.

These formed another part of my DIY Christmas where I made almost every ornament by hand in my week off from my radio show. They are fast, easy and have a large surface area (which means you can make less of them but still have a fabulous effect).

For this, you will need: A ruler, pen, glue gun and sticks, rhinestones or gems, scissors, a piece of square card (mine is glittery card stock used for scrapbooking from Spotlight).

Cut the card into 4 strips of equal width. I do this by folding the card and using the ruler to make the crease sharp and then cut along the mark with your scissors.

Take 3 of the 4 strips and concertina fold them.

Glue these 3 pieces top to tail using the glue gun.

Glue the strips to form a ring.

Cut the fourth strip in half.

Concertina fold the 2 thinner strips and glue together, now you have 2 rings of differing sizes.

Hold the larger ring flat with an object and glue between the folds, press together until the glue dries. Repeat this with the smaller ring.

Glue the smaller top ring on top of the bottom ring.

Place some glue into the centre of the two wheels and fasten together with your gems for a neat finish.

I turned these into ornaments for my Christmas tree by fastening some looped twine to the back with a square of scrap paper to hold it in place. They look great on the white tree I got for just $34 from Spotlight. You can also add sticks to the back and place them grouped in soil for a garden party. They are not just for Christmas!

Happy DIYing and do let me know if you make these!

 

It’s been so busy, I can’t even tell you! I was so happy to be booked by a lovely lady who wanted to gift her best friend the experience of crafting at her baby shower. I planned to have been doing more of this when I moved home but it’s hard with my job at the radio.

Above: I wore my Gary Bigeni watercolour dress to the shower.

As with the last baby shower I did, we made gorgeous crystal embellished baby’s tops and origami shirts. These shirts (for the impending baby boy) were then hung on string as a garland which will be used in the nursery. Each friend of the mother-to-be even wrote a special message on the back.

Thankyou so much for booking me to the special ladies, you know who you are! You can book me for your next shower at the contact field on the right.

I have been thinking a lot about this blog lately and where I want it to go. I see so many of you on Instagram, adding me daily from Australia and I desperately want to bring the same joy and hype about DIY to this city as I did to Dubai.

After being featured in theAAA section of the West Australian, I was approached by the PR Team of Studio Bomba to present a workshop at one of my favourite spaces, Many 6160.

In addition, participants in this workshop get to be the first in the WORLD to work with my new DIY kit (more on that soon, I don’t want to spoil the surprise). The course will take place on Sunday September 28th at 1:30pm at Many 6160.

I would  LOVE to see as many loyal DIY-ers there as possible and new ones too. You can register now at the Studio Bomba website. For the course fee, you get a kit with enough materials to make not only this super cool neutral-coloured tassel and rhinestone necklace I designed but also a bracelet, using the techniques I will demonstrate in class.

I can’t wait to see you there. The class needs a minimum of 6 to go ahead so sign up now!

If you’re in Perth, Western Australia and want bespoke hand crafted party favours made, high fashion table settings or DIY stations for your baby shower, just contact Simone through the contact field on this site.

I am just astonished at how many great creatives are roaming around Dubai, Singapore and Perth. I met Sangeeta from Paper Couture online when she started following me on Twitter. Later, at one of my DIY workshops, she introduced herself and gave me a whole bunch of free printables which she had designed. I was so impressed that I am still using some of these today.

Sangeeta is a graphic designer/art director by profession, and a self claimed writer! She’s also a busy wife and mother who loves creative print design, interior design, DIY, contemporary dance, fashion, and Dubai.

After having her little girl she realised there was a niche in the market for classy, stylish and fun designs for wedding invites, birthday parties and more.

Like many talented DIY-ers, Sangeeta had been designing all of the above for friends for the past 12 years, so she finally decided to go ahead and offer her services to a wider audience? And voila! Paper Couture was born.
Her work was so gorgeous that when I needed to get tags and stickers for DIYnamicstyle.com, I knew exactly where to go. I finally met Sangeeta on my last trip to Dubai and there she was, heavily pregnant and still dishing out her beloved printables. I love when I see that passion in people.
You can see her tag on my latest bag which is on sale at Neon Pony.
If you want some amazing work for your next party or wedding you can contact Sangeeta below. Even if you are not in Dubai, she can do the design work for you from overseas.

Sangeeta Kumar D’souza

It was a dream of mine when I started this blog to be able to collaborate with cool brands like GAP to come up with cool projects for their events. Their “Made to Love” event in Dubai was exactly what I dreamed of. Noughties RnB played while grown men crafted their own bow ties, I would love to do events like this for the rest of my life.

I devised 3 different quick projects, a 5 minute no-sew bow tie, denim bangle and denim detachable collar. All of these were made from old GAP stock, so it was right inline with this blog also.

Take a look at the video and images:


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