DIY: Nail Polish Box

My sister and I have quite the nail polish collection. If I were to guess, probably around 50 to 60 polishes. We have all of our stuff in a reusable bag and a plastic container all sorts of jumbled up....lame sauce! I usually decide as I go when I paint my nails, so that means I paint the base coat and then think "mint polkadots would look so rad with this color!" and as my nails are drying, I'd attempt to find the mint and eventually mess up a nail or two.

This nifty little box solves that issue and makes painting my nails a breeze! The shoe box I used was for flats, so it's narrower than the average shoe box (allows for a maximum of 21 polishes). The average toilet paper roll fits most polishes perfectly. For this project, you'll need a shoe box, 5 or more toilet paper rolls, a glue gun, and scissors (optional: paint). Cool thing about this project is that it will cost you NOTHING! Except patience. I had to wait for my family to go through enough rolls...

D I R E C T I O N S :

1. Paint the insides and outsides of all the toilet paper rolls.
2. Cut the tubes in 1" increments. 1 tube = 4 little rings
3. If you have different size tubes like I did, situate the rings before you glue them in the shoe box. Then glue the bottom of the rings one by one and place them accordingly.
4. Organize your polishes however you'd like, then paint a little swatch of the polish in the corresponding ring. This allows you to put back the polishes in the right ring. 
5. Once you have all the rings filled, you can paint the lid to match the swatches. This way, you don't have to lift each polish to find the right color. 

Done! Wahoo! Time for a manicure :D

TTFN!<3

DIY - Secret Compartment book!

You will need:

• A book
• an exacto knife
• a glue gun
• a glue stick
• felt or a thick fabric
• ruler
• marker

1. open the book about 20 pages in and decide your margins. An easy guide would be to reference your cuts around the text. (ie 1mm away from text)
2. using the exacto knife, carefully cut out pages a few at a time until the pocket is as deep as you'd like it. I applied heavy pressure until I got towards the end. If any of the pages rip (common with older books) use the glue stick to patch things up
3. hold the book as straight as you can and glue the inside with the glue gun. By gluing the inside rather than the outside edges, it looks more believable. Glue on the outside is a dead give away!
4. Measure and cut out a piece of felt using the template described in the video. Glue down the bottom first, then the edges.
5. Take the next four pages or so closest to the compartment and glue them together, and then to the edges of the compartment. 
6. Use the exacto knife to cut out a flap to enter the compartment. Voilá!

Reuse Those Glass bottles for Your Tea! - Quick DIY

'Tis the season for cool refreshing drinks! My personal favorite is Iced Tea. It can get expensive really quick buying cans or even gallons of Arizona or Honest Tea, but tea bags? Not so much. When I do buy bottled tea, I try to stick with glass bottles so I can reuse them with my own tea!

You will need....

• Glass bottles (Honest, Tazo, and Snapple use glass instead of plastic in most cases)
• Your favorite tea
• Your favorite tea fixins

1. Drink the tea you bought at your leisure. sip, ahhhhhh. Remove label from the bottle and wash it out. I find a paste made from baking soda helps remove the sticky goo left behind by the label. 
2. Use the bottle to measure out how much water you want to boil for your tea. In this case I had two bottles to fill, so I used the bottle to transfer water from sink to pot (twice). Then add about half a bottle more since some water will evaporate.
3. Use twice as many tea bags as you would for hot tea. I decided to go for pomegranate green tea today.
4. When your tea has steeped for the appropriate amount of time, stir in your fixins while it's still hot  so things like sugar have a chance to melt into the drink rather than sink to the bottom. I used three teaspoons for this batch.
5. You can wait for the tea to cool down if you'd like, but I usually just pour it right in at this point.
6. Chill in the fridge for a few hours, and enjoy whenever you like!

I find this particularly great for getting ready for school. I make a batch of 5 or 6 bottles sunday night and it's ready to grab and go throughout the week since I'm always on the move. Let me know if you try this out! And what are some of your favorite teas?

TTFN!

-Avé Renée