The Beat That My Heart Skipped – A blog dedicated to daily design inspirations. By Rohini Wahi.

I’ll have to start with a confession: I don’t like doilies. There, I said it.  I’ve never seen the point of them, they remind me of dusty houses and an old lady who used to try and teach me maths when I was at school. And yet! I came across this inspired tutorial from Rachel Denbow on her brilliant blog Smile and Wave which got me thinking about doilies in a new, and much more favourable light. Rachel’s kindly agreed to share her tutorial with us, in which she turns a pile of old doilies into an adorable cushion.

In other DIY news this week, I have taken possession of a huge box of incredible craft materials. My mum’s friend Diana and her own mum had collected these bits and pieces over the years and has so generously donated them to the cause! Just look at some of these treasures, even the boxes are beautiful vintage designs. Now I’m sure there were some doilies in here somewhere…

Cat x

Smile and Wave’s DIY Doily Cushion

STEP 1

Gather some doilies you picked up at your local flea market, on eBay, or your grandma’s and arrange them like so. You’ll also need two pieces of fabric 1/2″ larger on both sides than your pillow form, a needle, embroidery thread, sewing machine, and scissors. I used a 14″ square pillow form so I knew I needed to cover at least that much territory with my doilies. I made sure I didn’t have many gaps in between by overlapping edges. Once I was happy with my layout…
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Did you spot Nikole Herriot’s adorable cloud cookies last week? Yes? I did too, and it got me thinking – just what if I could make cloud shaped cookies just like hers…? And so I did, except mine aren’t nearly as pretty, they are rather rugged around the edges, but hey, it was a first attempt – and actually easier than I would have thought.

And of course now I’ve learnt the do’s and don’ts of making home made cookie cutters, I can pass this wisdom on so you won’t make the same mistakes…

You will need:

Copper ribbon [this is used as a draft excluder so you can buy it from most DIY shops]
Secateurs /tin snips
A pair of pliers
String
Pencil and paper
Superglue
Clamps/butterfly clips

Step one: Design You need to draw out your design onto paper. I started off very ambitious, thinking I could make a frog shaped cookie. I now know I was deluded – the copper is quite hard to shape, and small details are going to be lost – so try to think of shapes that are bulky without too many long, thin protrusions.
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This week I’ve solved a niggling problem that has been bothering me for ages, with this super-simple DIY. I have a whole collection of candles in my bathroom, but whenever I want to run a relaxing bath I find myself spending a good while rummaging around for a lighter or matches. The problem is that I never like to keep one spare around the place because I think they look so messy. So, I’ve decided to make my own matchbox instead, using a pretty hexagonal tin that one of my candles originally came in. This is so simple, but looks great, and it’ll only take you a few minutes to do…

You will need…

A tin
A Box of Matches
Printed paper to decorate
Glue
Ribbon [optional]

Step 1
Wash out your tin out so that the match tips don’t get coated in wax  – use hot soapy water. Dry it thoroughly.

Step 2
Cut out a piece of patterned paper (I used a square of origami paper) to the right shape to cover the label of the tin.

Step 4
Use spray glue to stick the paper over the label.

Step 5
Measure the ribbon and attach in place using a little glue.

Step 6
Cut the striking strips off your box of matches.

Step 7
Stick both strips to the inside of the lid.

Voila!

I’m really excited to introduce a very special guest contributor this week – Ashley Campbell, creator of the blog Under the Sycamore. Ashley is an incredible photographer and is also a photography teacher, and crafter, to name just a few of her talents.

If you are wondering where blog’s whimsical name comes from, in Ashley’s own words:

‘Under its large leaves is where we laugh, play, create, eat, rest, dream and live. It is where I watch little ones go from being swaddled on a blanket to wrestling in the grass. Under its shade is where I find time to get my hands messy making something and feeling the most me. It is also where we rest on blankets and stare into the clouds while learning a bit more about each other. In decades to come my mind will travel back to the lives we lived under its branches and I will be grateful for all the memories captured.’

Ashley has agreed to share with us a really neat project with which you can make your own wire frame lampshade out of little more than a basket… Over to you Ashley. – Cat

Ashley Campbell’s DIY Basket Lampshade

I love the wire look light fittings that are popular in shops like Anthropologie at the moment, and decided to buy a spool of wire and have a go at forming one for my kitchen…which didn’t end up working so well for me. In the midst of trying to decide how to get the wire to work I found myself rocking my daughter in her room. As we rocked I looked down and noticed the black wire basket holding her toys.  Bingo!
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Instead of our usual DIY this week, I thought I’d share a series of easy projects that I’m dying to make using the current craze sweeping the interiors world – Japanese Washi tape.

Washi tape is essentially masking tape turned on it’s head by the clever Japanese and now produced in an array of wonderful patterns and colours, they can be layered up, written on and torn – you can use them to decorate anything!

You can buy these in the UK  from Present and Correct, at Pretty Tape on Etsy and from a huge selection at Happy Tape which ships from the US but is such a worthwhile addition to your stationary stash!

I love this sweet entertaining idea below – plain coloured washi tape within a colour scheme is simply folded intermittently around string to create a striking alternative bunting effect. They are also used as the tops of tiny flags at place settings.
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