For this week’s DIY project, I was inspired by my downtown fashion conscious and too-cool-to-be-a-hipster hipster friend, Landon. This guy is like half artist, half designer and totally rad. He just may be the perfect man, especially with his newest creation: paint splattered boyfriend trousers.

Designers like Tory Burch and the late, great Alexander McQueen also rocked paint splattered pieces in their collections. For mucho dinero. For those of us on a college or recent-grad budget, these trousers will give you the same designer look without paying $180 (or more!) for a pair of designer digs. (Plus, you get the glory of designing them yourself…and that’s free!)

What You’ll Need

1. An old pair of trousers. If you want to go for a boyfriend slouchy pair (which are inherently more chic), try to steal an old pair from a brother, boyfriend, or random man on the street. OK, maybe not a random man on the street, but I bet you can find a great pair at the Salvation Army….

Tip: The paint splatter look would also look great on jeans!

2. Craft paint: Pick any color you prefer. Try neon colors for a modern city look, pastels for a vintage look, black and white for something a bit more understated, or whatever colors inspire you. You can get these at any craft store like Joann’s or Michael’s.

3. Paintbrush or toothbrush: Use old ones or pick up some new ones up at your local craft store or CVS.

What You’ll Do:

1. Get your inner artist on and go crazy on your trousers. You can splatter paint (for the effect seen above), or use the paintbrushes, toothbrushes, or use your finger-painting skills to decorate the jeans.
Tip: Using old or frayed paint brushes will help spread the paint out evenly so it isn’t too thick.

2. If you wanna distress your pants more (after the paint is dry, of course) grab some sandpaper and rough ‘em up a bit. And if you really want to explore your inner rock star, try adding studs around the pockets for even more designer details!

3. Cuff the hems and slip ‘em on. Pair these with a loose white tee or tank, a blazer, and a sick pair of heels. Then tell everyone how awesome you are… and look. Just try not to be afraid when people try to rip the pants off of you (unless its a hot man, like, say, Chase Crawford… then just go with it).

Wanna see some more DIY projects? Click here and channel your inner artist!

They’re making a statement on necklaces, earrings, bathing suits, purses, and anything else you can imagine. Whether metallic or color, safety pins can add an extra edge and funk to your wardrobe!

I needed inspiration on how to best incorporate this season’s look into my college wardrobe, so I looked to my all time favorite DIY craft heroes, the ladies over at P.S. I Made This, and they did not disappoint!

Here is an inexpensive, easy, and fun way to transform your plain tank-top-and-jeans-typical-college-girl look to runway ready diva. Seriously, it’s so easy you’ll wonder why you didn’t think of this sooner.

What You’ll Need
An old tank (or new!): any color, any style.
I went with black for a sleek look that I’ve been seeing all over the runways.

Safety pins: Get varying sizes in the color you choose. Use gold, silver, or color if you want to make a bold tank. You can pick these up at your local hardware store, craft store and most convenience stores!

What You’ll Do:
1. Grab a bunch of safety pins and start making little pin clusters by hanging multiple little pins off of one larger pin. Make multiple clusters of varying sizes. (You can do all one color, you can mix colors, you can do this however you like!)

2. Now, pin the clusters and other individual pins onto your tank. You can do what I did and pin them in the shape of the neckline of your tank, so they are pinned along the edge of the hemline. Or have fun making your own designs with pins all over your tank. You can even add a little sex appeal by cutting some slits in different parts of the tank, yank on them to open them up a bit and use the safety pins to pull ‘em back together. Hot.

3. Wear your new tank with attitude and enjoy the knowledge that if you do drop it a bit too low, you’ve got plenty of pins on hand to fix that tear in your jeans.

It’s a little circle of love up in here.

Fashion, at it’s core, is all about constant recreation and re-invention. It’s a continuously evolving way to recreate wearable arts & crafts. Yes, many trends are timeless and never go out of style (I see you, Little Black Dress), but most trends are just re-thought styles of the past.

And right now everyone is re-thinking and re-styling 80s trends and glam rock. Neon is everywhere; you can’t go anywhere without seeing leather leggings; embellished boots have made a kick-ass comeback; and my ultimate favorite, embellished Michael Jackson inspired t-shirts, can make any girl feel like a smooth criminal (OK, so not actually a criminal, but they will make you feel pretty bad ass).

And you can make those bad ass shirts all by yourself! Here’s an easy and money-savvy way to rock the MJ inspired look without breaking the bank!

What You’ll Need:

Old plain t-shirt: You probably have an extra shirt lying around. If not, pick up a pack of plain undershirts at Target or any craft store for just a few bucks!
Tip: Use any color and style shirt you want, but white and black are the most MJ-esque and look the best with added embellishments.

Fabric glue: Find this at any craft store. For best results use fabric glue designed especially for gluing gemstones and other embellishments to fabric.
FYI: If you’re a natural born sewer, this project can be also be done by sewing, eliminating the need for fabric glue. But if you’re like me and end up pricking yourself with needles and therefore stay as far away from them as possible, fabric glue will work just fine.

Silver, Black, and Gold Embellishments: These will be for the shoulder area of your t-shirt. Packs of medium/and large rhinestones, chain, beads, sequin appliques, and other silver embellishments will make your shirt rockglamchic.

2 Fabric patches: Pick up 2 small pieces of fabric (in the same color as the shirt color you’ve chosen) from the same craft store you’re already at for everything else. These will be placed on the shoulders, so you’ll want to grab sizes (or cut your fabric to size) according to how big you want you want your embellished piece to be. You will glue (or sew) your embellishments to these pieces of fabric, which will later be sewn onto the shirt.

Shoulder pads: If you dare….

Needle and Thread: Same thread color as your shirt choice.

What You’ll Do:

1. Wash your shirt first. Nobody likes crafting with dirty clothes!

2. Cut your fabric piece to the right size and shape (I recommend having a friend help trace the size of your shoulder), then glue (or sew) your embellishments onto your two fabric patches in any design or pattern that you want, using your fashion glue. Let dry!

3. Sew (or glue if sewing really isn’t your thang) on your now-embellished fabric pieces onto the shoulders of your t-shirt. If you’re daring and want a true 80s silhouette, this is where you also sew those shoulder pads into the inside of the t-shirt.

4. That was easy as 1-2-3… literally. You’re done! Work it, baby! You can dress up your shirt by tucking it into a skirt or pairing it with leggings and heels, or go casual and wear it with jeans.

I adore vintage stuff. Nothing makes me squeal quite like walking into a vintage boutique and running my hands along the delicate lace dresses and feather trimmed hats. The fact that all vintage shops have such adorably cleaver names just endear them to me more (Hello, Again Boutique? Another Man’s Treasure? *squeal!).

Sigh. Too bad they’re all too damn expensive to shop from. Ever since vintage became fashionable, the prices have skyrocketed. Eighty bucks for a blouse? That’s like, eighty times what it sold for in the seventies! When it comes down to it, I’m not willing to pay that much for a brand new shirt, let alone an old, used one. And don’t get me started on Goodwill – trust me, you don’t want to set foot into the one by me. Not only do they lack anything remotely cute, but the place is pretty gross, smells funny and houses some sketchy people. Ever get hit on by creepy homeless men while digging through a barrel of old nighties? No? Well you can take my word for it – it’s not fun.

Anyway, back to my point. In an act of sheer desperation born from an utter lack of cash, I went rifling through the only other place I knew that could possibly cater to my vintage needs: my 78 year old grandmother’s closet. Oh yeah, I went there… and to my surprise, I actually snagged some great finds!

It turns out you can find a lot of great stuff that, while it may not look so hot on your aged grandmother, will look pretty darn fashionable on you. It’s all about how you rock it – add a belt to an oversized dress to make it fit better, hem the skirt if it’s too long. Hell, while you’re at it, turn it into a mini and make your grandma really squirm.

If sharing outfits with your granny is too much for you, dig through her old jewelry box (with permission of course; you wouldn’t want to lose the diamond heirloom passed down for generations at some club). With luck, you might score some awesome costume jewelry: chunky necklaces, cocktail rings, and pearl-encrusted brooches maybe? Have fun with it. I did. And the best part of it all? I didn’t spend a dime.

So go for it, dear readers, and make sure you leave a comment to tell me about your awesome finds! Just do me a favor and stay away from the granny panties (literally)!

[Ever see something you want but don’t have the money to buy? Ever get sick of studying/watching TV and have the urge to get crafty and make things on your own? We know! Us too! We just don’t know where to start, which is why we got some of CollegeCandy’s craftiest writers to share their favorite DIY projects with everyone. So get to your nearest craft store for the essentials and let’s make some fun sh*t.]

In the past few years, ripped jeans have taken over the Abercrombie/American Eagle world and have now moved to high fashion, being featured on recent Alexander Wang and Martin Margiela runways. Since even the biggest fashionistas are now embracing the trend, I figure I might as well jump on the bandwagon.

Imagine my surprise when I went shopping for a pair of ripped jeans only to find that they were priced about $20 more than their unripped counterparts! Now this just seemed wrong to me; I’m getting holey jeans that are bound to fall apart faster, but I’m paying more? It’s a bit backwards if you ask me.

So being a frugal fashionista, I decided to try my hand at making my own ripped jeans! I have a pile of jeans I never wear sitting around from the 5 buck sale at Old Navy or 50% off day at Value Village; I might as well turn them into something useful. Inspired by these grey shorts by Alexander Wang, I began my adventure.

Ingredients:

- One pair of jeans

- A pencil

- A seam-ripper

- Sandpaper (optional)

DIY Recipe:

1. Make sure your jeans are pre-washed or else your rips will be misplaced and may end up exposing more skin than you intended.

2. Try the jeans on and mark where you want the rips with your pencil.

3. Lay the jeans on a flat surface, get your seam-ripper and make a rip over your pencil mark. I find a seam-ripper to work much better than scissors because it encourages fraying (WHICH IS WHAT YOU WANT).

4. Pull out some of the threads around the rip to encourage fraying

5. To make the tears look more “real” you may want to distress around them with sandpaper (thins out the fabric and makes the rip look like a wear hole). You can also distress other parts of the jeans or rip around the pockets and belt loops with the seam ripper to add to the overall distressed look.

6. Toss your pants in the wash. The more you wash ‘em, the more fraying and distressing you will see. You may need to put them through a few cycles before the fraying looks the way you want it to.

And here is my finished product:

So trendy. So chic. And so much cheaper than what those fools at True Religion are charging!

Good luck!