DIY: Marble Notebook

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It's now August, and officially back-to-school season. *screams*

Maybe you're like me, and you're kindasortaabsolutely dreading the upcoming academic year. Or maybe you're as cool as an ice-cube. Either way, it doesn't hurt to go back to school in style! Here is an easy DIY for a chic marble notebook you'll love taking notes in.

You will need:

• marble contact paper (also known as PVC)
• black duct tape
• a plain notebook of your choice
• a cutting mat
• scissors
• a ruler
• a cutting blade

Let's begin!

1. Take a strip of duct tape and trim it to 3cm wide, the length being the length of your notebook. What I did was tape the strip to my cutting mat and followed the guides on it when cutting.

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2. Cover the spine of your notebook with the duct tape. I eyeballed the position of the duct tape to make sure both front and back were somewhat equal. 

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3. Cut out a piece of marble paper that is bigger than your notebook (I'd say about a 1.5cm margin but you don't have to do this too accurately). The purpose of doing so is that the edges will be folded in after to give your notebook a clean finish. When cutting, ensure that at least one of the longer sides is absolutely straight. 

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4. Peel off the backing paper from the side on which you will start sticking to the notebook. Line up the straight edge to the edge of the duct tape. As you peel and stick the of the rest of the paper, use a ruler to push out all the air bubbles.

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5. Fold the excess marble paper up, so it is hidden behind the cover.

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6. Repeat steps 3-5 on the back of the notebook and you are finished!

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It's safe to say that I am in love with this notebook! It's simple, yet classy, and it makes for a great present. Not only can this notebook be used at school, but it also serves as a stylish addition to your desk or workplace.

That is all from me today! Before I sign off, here's a little something I found in the deep waters of Pinterest to fight off those first day/back-to-school jitters:

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Have a lovely day! x

Get Back On Track

This post was inspired by Sprinkle of Glitter's 'Motivational Monday' posts. Admittedly, recently I've been feeling down. I've been struck with writer's block, I'm scared to film videos, and truthfully I've been wasting a lot of time. As a pick-me-up, I took to Pinterest to find quotes and posters to remind myself not to stress out so much. Here are a few of my favourite ones.

*disclaimer* all photos are from Pinterest; I don't own any of them

I think this can be applied to any scary situation in life, when we think we're not ready to do anything in fear of messing up and making mistakes. That fear will most likely stick to us, even if we don't feel it, so its best to just go out and get what we want.

This one spoke out to be in particular. I think that at the back of my brain, I'm worrying about the coming school year. I am someone who unnecessarily stresses out about these things: exams, tests, homework. These wise words from Hagrid really help me stop and release the bad vibes. Maybe it's magic doing its work...

This quote reminded me of one of ||Superwoman||'s latest videos '5 Things You Do That Make You Unhappy'. One of the points was comparing yourself to others. I'm someone who does this, and it really isn't the best thing to think about. Lilly said something along the lines of "Don't compare other people's highlights to your blooper reel". It helped me put things into perspective and not get so worried over comparing myself to others. 

Hopefully I'll be back soon with more posts and videos!

I'll see you soon x

Chinese New Year

First off, happy Chinese New Near to anyone out there that celebrates it! I hope you had a wonderful time with friends and family.

This year I really enjoyed CNY. We met up with all these friends and relatives of which I haven't seen in quite a while. I had so much food: lo-bak go (萝卜糕), lian-go (年糕), countless plates of dim-sum...

However I did notice a change within me this CNY. Firstly, I completely ignored the Chinese candy box (攒盒) this year. Normally I'm always surrounding it, trying to get hold of the best candies before my sisters do, but this year it was merely a centrepiece on the table. Secondly, I had a strange feeling throughout the week. I spent a lot of time reading and not really joining in with the festivities. I guess this is what people would call 'growing up' and it inevitably happens, but I was not ready for that! Nonetheless, I had fun.

CNY kicked off on Thursday 19th this year, but before that was the period of which the CNY flower markets (花市) opened. The flower markets sell all sorts of things, from flowers and plants to stuffed toys and balloons. People all over HK visit them and they are usually packed, especially at night. There are several scattered around Hong Kong but the one I visited with my friends was the market in Victoria Park.

Thank you to my friend Brittany for helping me take some of the photos!

I was looking back at my old posts and realised that I stopped ending my posts with an inspirational/motivational poster. I would like to pick that up again because it spreads around positive vibes!

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This is something I constantly try to remind myself to do. I freak out when I've got a whole list of things to do, and it makes me feel like I'll never finish in time. It turns out that I just need to take a breath, and then go deal with whatever's bugging me. 

The start of a new Chinese year! I hope you have a nice day and I'll see you next week!

DIY: Watercolour Jewellery Dish

Hello there!

Today I have a DIY jewellery dish for you that I have been seeing constantly on Pinterest. The watercolour design makes for a great display piece on where you can organise random bits and bobs. It is not at all hard to make so let's get straight into it!

You will need:
1. nail polishes of your colour choice
2. small white dishes/plates
3. a bowl big enough to put your dish/plate into*
4. paper towels and kebab sticks for cleanup during the making process

I used purple polish for the actual DIY

*sidenote - you will be dropping nail polish into this so make sure it's not a bowl that you use for eating!

1. Fill your bowl 3/4 way with water. Ensure that your dish is clean and has no residue.

2. Place a drop of nail polish into the water, and wait for the drop to spread out and expand. You can speed it up by blowing at the polish drop.

3. Once you have your desired spread-out-ness (totally did not make that phrase up ;-)), dip your dish into the nail polish layer and take it out of the water with a scooping motion. How this all works is that you are making the layer of polish cling to your dish, creating a pretty watercolour effect.

4. Wait for a few minutes for the polish to set, then you can repeat the step above as many times as you want to get the look you desire. This is when you can switch up the colours and layer the polishes. To get rid of the remaining polish on the surface of the water, if any, use a kebab stick to sweep it out.

5. Let your dish dry and set for at least 5 hours. If there are parts of the design that you aren't satisfied with, use nail polish remover to remove it (as you can see from above there are some dots of teal which I removed later). Spray a clear coat after everything is dry.

I love how the nail polish spreads; it creates a wonderfully unique watercolour design. You can use your dish for anything: jewellery, daily essentials, those darn bobby pins and hair ties that keep running away on their own! These jewellery dishes make a great birthday present for a friend, or something for you to keep and display. 

Tomorrow is back to school for me from winter break, and I have to say I'm slightly nervous. I am almost certain that when I get back, my brain will be mush and I won't be able to remember anything. Ahhh, the joys of being a teenager!

That's all for today and I'll see you next week xx

DIY: Collage Phone Case

Hey guys :)

First off, the past few weeks I have been crazy-busy with science revision. I did the end-of-year assessent a few days ago and now I feel FREE.

But tomorrow I have a Chinese exam. Whyyyyy.

Secondly, happy Father's Day to all dads out there! I would like to thank my dad for being supportive of everything that I do, and I love him very much! Unfortunately he wasn't here today to celebrate with us as he's on a business trip, but I send my love♡

Anyways, I have not done a DIY in almost two months! Today I have a DIY collage phone case, inspired by my many hours of procrastination on tumblr. I have been obsessively going through my dashboard, clicking through hashtags, reblogging, the usual jist on tumblr :)

Let's get started!

You will need:
1. Microsoft Word (or any other program where you can arrange photos)
2. pictures of your choice
3. a clear phone case
4. a cutter and cutting mat
5. a pencil and ruler

1. Firstly, you've got to find the pictures you want for your collage. You can use any: personal pics of you and your friends or family, photography, patterns... I like to search up 'grunge', 'vintage', 'indie' and 'girly' on tumblr; they usually give me the best results. You can check out my tumblr for inspo http://icygirl79.tumblr.com/ ;) Check out We Heart It and Pinterest, they have cool pics on them too. Remember to choose pics with a higher resolution or when you print them out they'll be super pixelated. 

2. Start up Microsoft Word or your choice of program and open up a blank page. You'll want to change the size of the page to fit your phone. I have a iPhone 5S so I made my page 6.4 cm by 12.9 cm. If you have a different device, measure your device's length and width, then add a few millimeters to both numbers, just to give yourself some room when you start cutting. 

3. Print it out and you'll be ready to start.

4. There are several ways in which you can get the shape that you need. One, you can directly trace your device onto the collage. The second way is only if your case came with a paper structure in the shape of your device. In my case (no pun intended!) it did, so I used that to trace.

5. So you've got the shape done. Next you'll have to cut the camera hole. With your case, line the collage up to the appropriate place and trace the hole. Use a cutter to cut it out. 

6. Fit the collage into the case and you're done!

This DIY is definitely my favourite out of all the other ones I've done! I love how you can customize all the pictures. I made another collage and a few other designs with a single larger image.

If you choose to recreate this, I would absolutely love to see it! You can instagram it and tag me @icygirl79, tweet me @icygirl79, or message me on tumblr (link is above) :)

Hope you've enjoyed today's post! That's all for today, have a good day/night!

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