DIY: Simple Hook Magnets

This project came about when I kept on looking for the key container, and not only that I kept on complaining that the key container are taking over the dining table. So to save some table space, and to get organized, I had these questions and criteria inside my head? 

•  Where can I put these keys so that I would be able to find it?
•  Keep people inside the house to know where to put them back. 
• Doesn't take table space.
• Organized.
• Must be D.I.Y.
• Cheaper than having to buy myself a wall key holder.
• Won't create holes on the wall.

The solution I got was simple enough, I frequently use the fridge to hang my utility bill papers, so why not create something that made use of that space. It is also visible so, I now know where to find keys, and where to put them back.

So let's start our DIY!

 Materials: 

• Rectangular Magnetic Sheet
• heavy duty double sided tape (omit if the wall hooks you bought came with a sticky strip/tape)
• Wall hook (with a flat backing)
• scissors or blade cutter
• cutting mat
• Ruler (preferably metal ruler if you'll use it with a cutter.

STEP 1 

You need to make sure that you have a fridge or a metal wall to hang this little DIY. 

Let's start. Measure the width (a) and the height (b) of the Flat backed Hook. Take note of the size.

STEP 2 

Use the measurement a x b as a reference when cutting your little rectangle magnets. Cut the magnetic sheet.

STEP 3

If you have:

A. Flat backed hooks with sticky tape/strip;

All you have to do with this kind of hook is you take the other side of the stick strip and glue it to the magnetic sheet. Then you're done.

B. Flat backed hooks without sticky tapes;

This is where you have to use the heavy duty double sided tape, cut a strip enough to glue the hook to the magnetic sheet. Stick the double sided tape to the hook first, then pull the other side of the tape, next glue your magnetic sheet to it. 

Side view of the finished magnetic hook

Then your done. 

You can also use these hook for hanging small kitchen towels. 

Creepy Crawlers!!! Higad Season!: The Aftermath

Alright, it definitely was a bad idea to let the Higad (hairy caterpillars) from walking around my room and letting them stay inside my room and create their wondrous cocoon.

What happened:

I was in a hurry to get a huge bag for my heels (shoes), so I won't have to commute in heels to an event I was part of, which required a lot of walking from the train stations to the event venue.

The bag I choose to bring, actually had a  Higad (hairy caterpillars) cocoon under it. 

I hailed a tricycle* (three wheeled vehicle with a sidecar), put that bag on my lap, & when i got to the train station. My left thigh started to itch, as if little needles were poking my leg as I was walking. I was looking at my bag if it had some needle sticking out of it. There was nothing there, when i looked under the bag the culprit was there, a Higad cocoon. 

I tried using duct tape to remove what was left of the cocoon hair on my thigh, it didn't work. So I bought alcohol spray, to relieve the itchiness and slight tolerable pain. 

I had rashes, on the spot. Some red spots turned into bruises. 

Day after the incident. It still had the rashes, the itchiness and redness. So, I searched the internet for a solution. I found http://www.curelibrary.com/blog/health-notes/cure-for-painful-and-itchy-higad-attack-hairy-caterpillar/ which was fantastic. 

After the failed attempts of looking for a cure this home remedy did the job. Boiled some water, washed the area with water, rubbed salt, and poured vinegar on the spot. Smelled perfectly great! All I need are garlic and shallots to make a Filipino fruit dip or barbeque dip that is. Just kidding. 

Anyway that cure did a great job of relieving the itchiness and redness. My skin is slowly going back to it's normal state. Thank God!!!! :D 

Thank you www.curelibrary.com! 

DIY refillable CD/DVD Book: to keep those Cd & DVD organized

It's DIY time again!

This CD/DVD book came about when I had to organize all my loose file CD. My CD filer was full, so I thought of buying a new one, that was refillable & it wasn't available in the local store, or they were too expensive to buy. 

So my idea bulb went flickering & thought of creating one for myself, with some materials that are just hanging around the house + buying what's available at the mall.

Materials:

1. Old paper, stored in your house with prints. (magazine paper, old kraft paper, stored gift wrap paper, etc.) 

These paper were all used & stored, and now will be reused again for this project.

Kraft paper's former life: Packaging for a T-shirt
Fiber paper's former life: Packaging for bouquet of flowers
Gift wrapping paper's former life: Gift wrapper 

2. Board such as Cardboard, Illustration Board, or  an Old corrugated box.

In this project I used the Corrugated board as the cover for the CD/DVD Book

3. Loose CD/ DVD sleeves

4. Post & screws to hold the book together.

5. Cutter and scissors
6. Hole Puncher
7. Cutting Matt
8. Glue or a Glue stick

Instructions:

1. To start the project, you will need 4 rectangle boards for the cover.

2. Cut 2 rectangles measuring 1.5 cm by 14 cm on  a corrugated board (you can also use illustration board or a thick cardboard) We will call this as the Board A. There's a printable template available at the bottom of the page.

3.  And then cut another 2 rectangles measuring 13 cm by 14 cm on  a corrugated board (you can also use illustration board or a thick cardboard) We will call this as the Board B.

4. After cutting the boards, you will have to cut 2 wrapping paper with the size of 7 3/4 x 7 1/2 inches. This paper will be used to cover the corrugated board.

5. Prepare your Glue stick/ Glue. Apply glue on one side of the board, then stick it to the wrapping/special paper.

6. If you're using liquid glue, spread liquid glue on the board and spread the liquid glue thinly all around the board, to keep the special paper from having wrinkles.

7. Once the board is glued to the paper it should look like this.

 

8. Next, Apply glue on the exposed part of the special paper.

9. Fold the corners pointing to the center of the board.

10. Followed by the flaps, which then will be glued on the board.

 11. (Optional) Cut a 4.5 x 5 inches sticker paper to create a clean finish to the cover.

12. This will serve as the covers of the Cd book.

 13. Punch holes on cover, Board A. Insert the post to front cover, put the loose CD/DVD sleeves on the post, then the back cover. Then you're done.

Enjoy!!!

Board and Wrapper Template 

Creepy Crawlers!!! Higad Season!

It has been raining on and off this June and July. Our front yard has never been so green and abundant with our bougainvilleas growing mad, kamote (sweet potato) vines competing with our green and purple alugabati (malavar spinach). Yes, I do live in the city, & lucky enough we have a small plot of soil to plant some veggies. 

Aside from all the plants growing abundantly with rain comes Higad season as well & this has been the first time that I experienced this while living in Manila. They just crawled everywhere, ate all the green that were in front of them, and even crawled inside my bedroom. I didn't want to step on them. So, I let them be.

Some of them ended up being eaten by ants.

Higad attack at the garden.

So, they crawled and created cocoons on every corner in my room, they're 10 in total and I told myself. "Okay, I'll leave you alone as long as you leave me alone, & let's see what kind of moth you'll become." Having experienced keeping some green caterpillars for my son, I knew that a cocoon normally would turn into a moth, and a chrysalis into a beautiful butterfly.

Not only did it create cocoons on every corner, it also created some on my bed sheet.

Moth on bedsheet.

I saw this moth beside one of the cocoons, I'm assuming that this moth belonged to one of the cocoons.

The little brown hairy Higad turns into this kind of moth. 

As you can see in this photo, one of the cocoons are being attacked by the red ants.

Moth from Higad Cocoon.

DIY & Reuse: Easy Shelf Pen, Tools containers

I just received a whole new space for my Art materials as well as my ever increasing bead collection, to top it all up I also have several office stuff to organize. 

So, given the circumstance that my conscience won't let me spend a lot of money for nice, new and mass produced containers, I had to think of ways to create a container that won't cost me too much, which was also simple in design. 

I chanced upon  a paper tube (its former life was to hold several meters of celluloid wrapper) at one of the local bookstores selling school and office supply & made me think. This is my perfect container!  The local store didn't have a price for it, so they sold it to me for 12 cents or Php5.  

materials: paper tube, metal saw, ruler/tape measure (not shown), pencil or pen.

How to: 1. Choose how deep you would like your container to be, I decided on the length of 5 inches for my shelf. 2.  Measure 5 inches from the tip of the tube & mark it with a line, to know where you're going to cut your first tube. 

3. Using the metal saw, cut the tube to the desired length. (my metal saw was borrowed and you can completely see that it was just made from a construction metal pipe, which they use for building a house)

4. My long tube produced around 10 small ones.

5. After cutting, just put them in the shelf, don't forget to put heavy stoppers on both ends of the smalls tubes so it won't run off. What you can also do is glue them to each other but I like them better unglued so I can easily move them and reuse them as thread/yarn/cord/chain holders. Finally. Put all your pens, pencils, cutter, scissors, bead tubes, etc. on your shelf containers, then you're done. ENJOY! 

Whiteboard Monthly Planner D.I.Y.

I recently bought a whiteboard monthly planner. & as I was so committed to having a planned month and being able to see what's up with each day made me so excited about the whole item.

The only Problem I had with it was:
I noticed after having a few months of having to write/ rewrite all the numbers, that it took a few minutes of my time having to write the dates impeccably on the board, erase & rewrite on the boxes. (I'm into time saving/ time management, so I really have to spend all my time wisely, time is gold as they say)

Solution:
Get a magnetic dates (numbers) so i don't have to write/ rewrite the dates...

To get my magnetic dates my options were these:
1. To shop all day, looking for magnetic numbers....
2. To make/ create magnetic dates for myself (which made sense for me since I love creating and making things handmade)

I took option 2

MATERIALS:

• Sticker Paper
• Scissors
• Cutter
• Cutting mat
• Metal ruler
• Magnetic sheet (bought mine at Gilmore Avenue at Platinum PC shop third floor, Manila Philippines)
• Printer

Template for the numbers: 

My numbers were approximately around 1.25 cm x 1.25 cm square inside a guide square where we will be following as cutting guides.

1. Print this template on a matte sticker paper. 

2. Once printed stick the printed sticker paper on the magnetic sheet. A magnetic sheet has two sides one matte & the other side shiny. Put the printed sticker on the matte side of the magnetic sheet and not on the shiny part of the magnetic sheet. 

3. Start cutting using your cutter or scissors, I prefer using a cutter & a metal ruler to do just that because it creates a cleaner cut. Just follow the lines when cutting to create even squares.

4. Now, all the pieces are cut. You can now start sticking them on the Metal Whiteboard Monthly Planner. 

Enjoy. Saves time in the future, every minute counts. So now you can just stick all those numbers wherever they need to be, & write away with all the necessary to do for your monthly dates.