DIY Birch Trees Wall Decal

I had tried my first ever DIY wall decal, which was fun to make, but I got bored of it soon.
This one though, turned out very beautiful!! All my guests admire it and are amazed that it was a DIY project. Also, the quality of the end product is so good, you'd be shocked that store-bought wall decals cost so much, while this DIY wall decal is dirt cheap.

All you need is:

• contact paper (bought it from Lowe's)
• colored paper (optional, for leaves) 

Method:

• Paint the wall a color that contrasts well with the color of your contact paper. I painted it dark gray. 
• Keep in mind, colors appear darker when you paint a whole big wall. So I bought the gray a shade lighter than I actually wanted.
• Trace and cut out birch trees with free hand on the contact paper. I know it's common sense, but be mindful that if you draw on the back side of the contact paper, your pattern will be reversed on the wall. It's not a big deal with these trees because there's not much directionality to them. Add some branches here and there.
•  Cut elongated V's cross-section-ally along the edges of the bark.
• Space the trees equally along the wall.Start pasting on the wall from the top. That ways gravity will help you and you won't have to lift the weight of the paper.
• Cut out and paste birds, some flying, some sitting.
• Cut out leaves, in groups of 2 or 3 or 4 or just single ones falling from the branches. 
• Cut leaf shapes out of the colored paper too. Paste colored paper leaves on top of contact paper leaves.
• Place leaves randomly on the branches, and here and there. Be creative!!

On a second thought, you can also choose a very light background paint to give a soothing effect; like something for your bedroom. Like very light blue gray. I think that'll look cool too.

So ya, just be creative and have fun!!!

DIY Jewellery Hanger

Made out of:
1. set of 3 round cardboard boxes bought at Michaels
2. decorative paper
3. left over paint from previous craft projects
4. silver embroidery thread

• Paint the lids of the boxes with your favorite color. Choose a neutral color like light gray in the picture above, because you want you jewellery to stand out. So keep the hanger itself simple by design.

• Decorate the sides of the lids with a decorative paper. You can also do some stenciling here if you don't already have paper at home and are too lazy to go to the store :) (I always try to use stuff that I have left over from previous projects. I call it SMART-crafting!)

• Connect bottom of one lid to the top of another lid with the embroidery thread. To give it extra strength, I cut 3 equal lengths of the thread and braided them. Tie knots on either ends to secure them. 

• I used a aluminum wire on top of the first lid as the hanger. Other options could be decorative ribbons, beaded strings, etc. 

• Adorn it with beautiful earrings and necklaces!!!

Now, I'm a scientist by profession, so I have been taught to report successes as well as failures of my experiments. So here you go..

Successes:
1. can hang it in my closet where rest of the accessories are
2. Since it is dangling freely, the back side is accessible and I can use it for stud earrings and loops too. Jewellery holders that are hung on the wall cannot be used for stud earrings and loops.
3. I haven't done it here, but you could add a fourth lid with a round mirror pasted on it. Wouldn't that be cool?! Try your earrings there and then, no need to go look in another mirror.
4. Can hang necklaces over the lids too.

Flaws:
1. I used the round box itself instead of the lid for the third layer so I could use the extra width to hang necklaces. It didn't work quite as expected because the weight of the necklaces causes it to lose its balance and tilt downwards from the back. So use lids for all the layers. You should be able to hang 1 or 2 necklaces over each lid layer.

I hope you like it, but feel free to leave comments even if you hate it!