Lolita 52 Challenge: Not really

Hello everyone~! So today's Lolita 52 Challenge topic is Lolitafying things in my everyday life, buuuuuut I generally am more into Fairy Kei than Lolita in general anymore (though I still do love Sweet Lolita and have several OPs and JSKs), so instead I'll be talking about how I cutify things in my everyday life to fit my very specific pastel aesthetic~

#1: Spray Paint
 Soooo, I'm kinda lazy when it comes to painting furniture, but I like to thrift or otherwise rescue unwanted furniture while still having furniture that matches. So to fix that, I spray paint all of my furniture. I did paint a few pieces with regular furniture paint, but I had no idea what I was doing and ran out of paint extremely quickly compared to what I was lead to believe I would need and the particular paint I chose ended up scraping off waaaay too easily (Having a kitty using them as leaping pads didn't help either). So, rather than waste my time and money on painting things that weren't going to stay painted, I decided to just buy a ton of spray paint in various pastel colors and do that instead. And I do have to say, I think all of my shelves and other furniture that I painted this way turned out super cute and way more durable than the ones I tried to paint properly. Plus it's a lot easier for me to decide to change the colors on furniture or frames if all I have to do is lay some newspaper on my porch, put on a mask, and give it several coats over the course of an anime episode or some YouTube videos than all the work that goes into proper painting. (I literally bought and painted a cute little corner cupboard and shelf thing in a few hours one afternoon along with a couple other items earlier in the day. The only time I can't finish a project in an evening or a day is if I run out of the color of paint I need and am too lazy or broke at the moment to get more.)

#2: Stickers!
 So, I have a handful of stickers laying around that I'd never really found a use for, then I realized I could use them to make plain looking, single color items look waaaay cuter and more intricate! Plus it's less expensive than trying to get and attach wooden shapes to make it look like the piece has intricate craftsmanship rather than being rectangles of presswood nailed together. I especially like puffy stickers since they can give an item even more depth than just flat stickers.

#3: Cute and colorful thumbtacks
 So, like many people, I like to get prints and other art and apply them to my walls, so I use cute heart shaped thumbtacks as well as typical ones with colorful plastic heads to pin my artwork up. In addition to the pictures on my walls, I also have a cork board that I keep cute packaging, business cards, tags, and the like on using a fun mix of the thumbtacks I have!

#4: Collages~
 Like with my cork board, I like to turn things into little framed collages to put into spray painted frames. I posted a few pictures of meh ones I'd made previously in another post, but I have one with Pusheen blind box pieces (and another one planned), several with business cards and cute notes from sellers, and some other ones with cute packaging I didn't want to throw away.

#5: Lotsa lil' trinkets
 So one of the the main ways I cutify my apartment is with lots and lots of cute little things (and some bigger cuties). I have plushies invading every room (minus my bathroom because I don't have a place to put them) displayed on shelves, in my display cabinet and TV center, and on my couch. I have anime figures displayed in my living room and bedroom as well as some very nice quality weapon replicas of Sora's keyblade and Link's Hylian shield and Master Sword that a friend gave me. (I also have a little shine to my best girl from Love Live!, Eli Ayase, in my living room.) I have re-ment figures and some little outfits, that fit my Licca doll perfectly and also look super cute on my drawing mannequin, displayed in my kitchen and display cabinet. And I have a pretty phone styled to look like an antique rotary phone that I recently repainted to be pastel along with lots of other miscellaneous trinkets displayed around my apartment on any flat shelf-like surface that is relatively safe from my little kitty cat (who thinks everything is a toy).

#6: Display that merch!
 In a previous post where I talked about how I decorated my room at the time, I mentioned that I like to display my hair accessories on the wall. My collection has since grown a good deal, so instead of the one ribbon hanger thing I now have several, two of which I've made rather recently to hold all of the cute hair accessories and pins that'll fit on them. In addition to those, I have several decorative wall pegs meant for holding clothing or hats that I display my headbows and hair poms and such on so they're all easy to see and add to a coordinate. All of those are in my bedroom, and in addition to those I have a little coat rack and shelf with pegs on it that I display my favorite purses and my BTSSB parasol on for easy access and bragging rights along with some of my Pusheen items.

How do you like to decorate your room or apartment/house to fit with a Lolita aesthetic or your personal aesthetic? Let me know in the comments~

Check out my Insta: @animelolitacouture

A Random Update Had Appeared...

...You use read. It's super effective!

Hello everyone! Pokemon references aside, I have some exciting news for you all! I just started my own Storenvy shop to sell some of my past and current creations on! Feel free to head on over to check it out and maybe buy something if anything there suits your fancy. I'll be adding some other items as time goes on, so be sure to check it out occasionaly or stalk it!

https://animelolitacouture.storenvy.com/

I'm also on Facebook: www.facebook.com/CelesteChoCho

And Twitter: @animlolicouture

Product Reviews: Violle Ville

Hello everyone! So recently I was given the opportunity to review some items from the online store Violle Ville (she can be found on Storenvy or Etsy). I'm going to be going through the whole process, from buying to recieving. Enjoy!

Storefront
 After receiving the offer, I went to check out what all was available for sale in Violle ville's shop. She has a wide variety of items for sale from bags, accessories, plushies, and phone cases. Having just gotten a phone case and having a bit of a spending limit, I decided to purchase some accessories. While the storefront was a little difficult to browse due to Storenvy's annoying feature of showing everything that's out of stock, I had a little trouble finding some items I liked the look of that were still in stock. I eventually settled on the Mini plate of sweets necklace in blue, Hearts and Bows necklace in pink, Marshmallow necklace, and a Mini Alpaca plush.

Shipping
 Shipping was from Israel and took 17 days, about two and a half weeks, to get to me after ordering. Everything shipped out the day after I ordered them and arrived well withing the 2-4 week span predicted for shipping on her website.

Receiving and Packaging
 When the package arrived in the mail, I had to sign for it as it was registered mail. I was a bit worried when I saw the package as it was a fairly weak material and already had a rather large tear in it. Everything inside was alright though as the alpaca plush was in a plastic bag and all of the necklaces were in a little jewelry box wrapped up in bubble wrap with a business card on top.

Front of the package

Back of the package

Detail of the tear (appologies for bluriness)

What was inside!

Products
 So the first and most obvious item in the package was the alpaca plush I'd ordered: an Arupakuso! He's very cute, soft, and cudly. I love his little smile, and he's the perfect hugging size!

Ain't he a little cutie?

Also inside the packaging was the little gift box with bubble wrap and a business card around it. Upon opening the bubble wrap around the gift box, I saw that it was a very cute, dark blue box with a little ribbon and bow detail on it.

Violle ville's business card taped securely to the bubble wrap

Underneath all that bubble wrap!

 Upon opening ther box, I saw that all of the necklaces I'd ordered were safely in there as well as a couple extras included as free gifts! I got a Pastel Purple Heart necklace and a cute little fruit Tart necklace.

Inside the box

All the necklaces lined up!

Hearts and Bows necklace

Mini Plate of Sweets, blue necklace

Marshmallow necklace

Tart necklace

Pastel Purple Heart necklace

All of the necklaces were very cute! The chains and clasps are all good quality and didn't look to be in need of fixing with my pliers. All of the pieces are well made and don't look like they'll be coming apart anytime soon with proper care. I was very happy to see that the parts of the pendants were all glued firmly together as well as to the bails (the loop backings), so I'm not worried about the pieces falling apart. I wore the Heats and Bows and Mini Plate of Sweets necklace together the following day and had no problems with them falling apart, breaking, tangling themselves on my hair, or having the annoying grey marks from the coating coming off like with a lot of inexpensive jewelry nowadays.

Final Thoughts
 I'm super happy with my order from Violle ville! Other than the torn package, everything was great from her comunication to the final products! I would definitely consider ordering from her again in the future and would reccomend Violle ville to anyone looking for some super cute accessories, clothes, or plushies. I'm looking forward to wearing these cute necklaces all the time with Fairy Kei, Decora, and maybe even Sweet Lolita coords!

Check me out on Twitter: @animlolicouture
I've got a Facebook page: facebook.com/CelesteChoCho

How to Make a Uchiwa fan

 Hey everyone! Today I'll be showing you how to make a cute uchiwa fan. You may remember seeing one in a past tutorial I did and my promise to make a tutorial. Took a lot longer than expected due to sorting and editing the pictures I took after the fact. Here's a picture of my first fan:

Materials:

• Cardboard box (a cereal box or pancake mix box will work)
• Attached chopsticks (the ones that are separated won't work)
• Glue (One that dries clear to avoid mistakes showing)
• Scissors (regular ones and fabric scissors depending on your covering material)
• Clips (either binder or clothes ones can work. Wood ones can stick to glue though)
• Compass (the ones for drawing circles)
• Ruler
• Paint, nail polish, or whatever you wish to paint the handle with
• Cloth, paper, a plastic bag, or whatever you wish to have for the cover of your fan
• Ribbon or bias tape to cover the edge
• Decorations (lace, ribbon, rhinestones, charms, etc.)

Let's start off by painting the handle so it has time to dry before we need it. Using paint or a nail polish that goes along with the cover for the fan you're using, paint the chopsticks leaving a bit unpainted at the top so you can hold it while painting (see image below). Let this dry. If you used a matte paint and want the handle to be glossy (recommended to avoid splinters) go over the handle with a clear nail polish after the original paint has dried. Let this dry completely.

Leave room so you don't get paint on yourself!

Yay for creative drying racks!

While the handle is drying, cut along the seam of the cardboard box you're using and open it up (see image below). Determine the size of the box along the shortest part of the front or back of the box. Set your compass to half this measurement and make the largest circle you can.

Now, turn your circle into an oval by shifting the compass over a bit and drawing another curve outside the circle. I recommend using a ruler to make sure the sides are even (see image below).

Cut this out, then place it on the other side of the box. Trace a rough outline using the first oval as a template. cut this rough oval out, then line the other one up with it and cut to match. Once you have the ovals cut out, it's time to start assembling the fan. Start by figuring out how much handle you want showing. I held the handle about where I wanted to hold it when it was done and positioned the cardboard accordingly (see image below). Mark the cardboard at the sides and the top of the handle so you can place it properly later.

Leave a little extra room above  your hand.

Working quickly, spread a thin layer of glue over both cardboard ovals. I used a brush for more even spreading. Place the handle in the outline you marked an spread glue on its other sides. Sandwich the handle between the two cardboard ovals. Place clips on both sides of the handle, on both ends of the oval, and across from the handle to keep everything together. Place clips around the rest of the fan's edge while the glue dries (see image below).

After the glue has dried, remove the clips and do any touch up gluing necessary. Time to cover up the cardboard! Place your fan on top of the material you'll be covering it with and mark an outline slightly bigger than the size of the fan. Cut two of these out and proceed to glue the first side on. Glue it on in sections instead of all at once to make it easier to smooth out the material as you work. Since I used fabric for this fan, I folded over the excess fabric round the edge of the fan. You can skip this step and just trim off the excess if you use an opaque ribbon or trim for the edge of the fan. While waiting for the edge to finish drying, I started playing around with my decorations to determine how I wanted to arrange them (see image below).

Once you decide on the decorations, start gluing them on. If you have multiple layers in one place, glue each layer separately to keep it from getting messed up. Also, be careful when gluing lace and other such fabrics to not let it dry too long or the clip could get glued on too and damage the material when you take it off. Now you're finished!

The finished fan.

You can make all sorts of different sized fans by using larger or smaller boxes. For small fans, use a popsicle stick instead of the chopsticks and cut or break off any excess. Have fun!

My fans thus far.

All pictures were  taken by me unless otherwise noted. Please ask permission if you wish to use them. I'm on Twitter now! @animlolicouture

Decorate a Mini Notebook (Or Any Notebook)

 Please be warned: this article has multiple images and may take a while to load fully for slower connections. I recommend stopping the page from loading once the text is visible and then individually loading the images as you get to them.

A little while back, my mom found some nice little notebooks at a crafts store and offered me one. When I first got it, I saw that it was a very plain little notebook, obviously intended to be decorated. Here's a tutorial on how I decorated my notebook. This can also be done with a full sized notebook as well if you want.

Materials:

• Notebook to decorate
• Colorful/patterned paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• Decorations such as metallic tape or rhinestones

Start by cutting out pieces from the paper that are large enough to cover the notebook covers with a bit of excess on each edge (see image below).

After cutting out the paper, glue it to the covers and trim off the excess. If your notebook is spiral bound like mine, trim the paper as close to the binding as possible, or place the paper close to the binding while gluing it on. Make sure the glue is spread evenly over the notebook surface so you don't have any bumps. I use either the tip of the glue bottle or a cheap plastic paintbrush to spread the glue around. Make sure to wipe off any excess glue before it dries.

This next step is optional for if you use a notebook with a spiral binding. Cut a rectangle of paper big enough to cover the spiral binding and overlap slightly over the paper with the part of the cover with paper on it (see image below).

Glue this in place at the edges where it overlaps. Don't glue too close to the binding since you still want to be able to open the notebook fully and flip the cover under if needed. To cover the seam between the two pieces of paper, I used a strip of metallic tape (see image below right). Make sure to measure out how much tape you'll need before cutting it and add a bit of extra tape to make sure it's not too short. You can always trim off excess tape.

Tape in place.

Measuring out the metallic tape.

 





























































Now you can decorate your notebook however you want! I used some glitter to make a little heart on the front as well as a few rhinestones, but you can do whatever you want. You can also do things like overlapping pieces of paper or even fabric if you have a larger notebook. I would have with mine, but it's so small! I still like how it turned out though. ♥


All pictures were taken by me unless otherwise noted. Please ask me for permission if you wish to use any of them. I'm on Twitter now! @animlolicouture