DIY: Tips and tricks for the creative minds among us

If you know me a little by now, you know that I not only try to be creative in my work, but that I also love to be creative in the kitchen or with DIY projects, sometimes with, sometimes without the children .

In this blog I would like to share some tips and tricks for your own creative projects!

When I was little, I loved crafting, even though I may not have been good at it at first. When I was about 9 years old, I was allowed to participate in craft courses around here. I've done all kinds of things: I loved melting beads, and I also decorated Styrofoam figures with sequins for a long time. I always loved making Christmas cards from tea bags. Actually, I did all kinds of things, and I still find it great fun.

Creativity kind of runs in the family. My grandmother could draw and paint beautifully, and even in the retirement home she made beautiful cuddly toys and participated in all kinds of craft clubs. My aunt, my mother's sister, is a great painter, and her daughter makes the most beautiful necklaces from gemstones. My mother always says she is not creative, but she was very good at coloring at school and has a good sense of color. I also remember that she sometimes came along to the craft classes, and we would make cards together.

Nowadays I get a lot of inspiration from Pinterest and Instagram. Sometimes I look for specific examples on Pinterest, and I like to follow on Instagram @socelebrate and @liefsvancindy. Saskia of @socelebrate has been popping up in my reels a lot lately. Thanks to her I painted Action mushrooms, made pumpkins from rope, and used her nice napkin rings as inspiration.

The webshop @liefsvancindy I have been following for about six months now. Nicole took over the store, and she has some really fantastic stuff. I'm especially a fan of the DIY rings, window stickers and the themed craft kits. For example, I bought a package for the Sinterklaas period.

What I like most is combining everything. I get ideas from Saskia, I buy stuff at Liefs van Cindy, and I supplement it with finds from Action, Wibra and So Low.

And of course I sometimes come up with something myself ;-) We were recently at IKEA, and there I saw a nice little pine cabinet, the MOPPE. Perfect for my eldest son, because he likes to keep his craft supplies, but his little brother sometimes wants to run away with them. So this cabinet was ideal. Once home we fixed it up together, and he is very proud of it. He especially enjoys doing it together.

Like I said, I love the DIY rings from Liefs van Cindy. You can decorate these rings yourself. In the spring I had the summer variant bought them and supplemented them with Mother's Day gifts and items from Action and Wibra. For example, I bought letters and numbers at Action, and magnets at Wibra. Now I use the ring as a kind of calendar. I have now transformed the summer version into an autumn version, because I adjust the decoration in the living room per season, and autumn is really my favorite. 

Recently I also made pumpkins from rope. They may not have turned out as beautifully as those of Saskia, but I still liked them enough to put them here and there among the autumn decorations, together with the painted mushrooms.

Last Friday I made four fall style napkin rings, one for each of us. And I'm still working on finishing Halloween diamond painting LED lights with my eldest son.

Do you want to see what it will look like? Then follow me on Instagram at @hello_daphne_nl and you will see when it is finished!