Halloween - How to make a Lara Croft | Tomb Raider Gun holster!

So I decided to be tomb raider for Halloween  I used to own one of her PC games when I was young and I just simply love her outfit! Plus, I believe Halloween costumes are better made than bought! :) (most of the time that is haha). In this case all you need is some black shorts or beige ones. Top it up with a teal top or brown or black, really depends on what color of shorts you'll be wearing! Top it off with some leather gloves and combat boots and you are set.

I say, if you're wearing Black shorts, go for teal shirt or even better army green shirt. However if you're going for Brown or beige shorts, stay away from brown shirts and go for a shirt or a teal one!

Now let's get down to business! It was super difficult for me to find gun holsters for this outfit. After all, what is Tomb Raider without her two guns and holsters! 

I tried going to a military supply store and yes they did have holsters HOWEVER, they were pretty big on my leg and they were $30 per leg holster and that was the cheapest one they had. Knowing that i will be only using these holsters once which is this halloween and the fact i would l need to holsters i thought it would be better to do it myself!

This is what you'll need to make two holsters(most basic ones atleast):

1- Card board
2- Pleather
3- Glue/ hot glue gun/ stitching glue - anything that'll hold the stuff together. I used stitching glue and it worked perfectly!!
4- Swivel Clasps (4 of them to be precise)
5-Nylon straps
6- Scissors

(You'll be able to find most of these in Walmart if not try a Craft store)
How-to:

1- I used the toy gun to see how far will it go into the holster and then marked it! That way I can cut out the excess cardboard.

2- Fold the Card board around the toy gun and mark the "edges" of the holster on the inside. I basically wanted to have a "rectangular"holster soit'll be easier for you to mark both card boards so you can end up having two holsters with the same shape. YES , it does make a difference haha.

3- Cover the card board with some Pleather! Measure how much excess you'll have and cut it off

4- Glue everything! Use Que tips to clean any mess. At somepoint i used bobbi pins to hold the pleather in its place till it's dried up! :)
Depending on what glue you're using, you might have to wait a while before moving to the next step. Make sure everything is in place!

5- Create holes in your holster to put the straps through them!

6- You can glue the swivel clasp and the straps orstitch them together. I was honestly too tired and in a hurry so i stapled them together haha

You're done!

The Holster should look something like this

P.s , one things I didn't do which you might want to consider doing is creating a fifth hole at the top (where the toy gun will go in) and put a velcro strap there. This way you can hook the gun holster to your belt, it will fit better and most probably look better! So this literately is the most basic holster you can make. On a side note, instead of buying 2 Gun holsters for $30 each i made these two for less than $20 and I think they look amazing :)

How to Remove those Nail Stains!

Nothing is more embaressing than stained nails. If you're paint your nails very often or maybe just left your nailpolish on your nails for too long, you will end up with yellow stains on your nails! Instead of double damaging your nails and painting over them; you can try the following:

Peroxide:
Just use some Hydrogen peroxide to whiten your nails! Mix one part peroxide with three parts water and soak your nails in the solution for 10 minutes. Use some hand lotion once you're done because peroxide will dehydrate your nails. Use an old toothbrush to brush your nails.

Lemon Juice:
We use it to brighten the tips of our nails,why not use it to brighten those yellow nails? Just dab few drops of lemon juice on your stained nails and let it set for several minutes. Buff the surface with a dry washcloth.


For future reference; always wear base coat on your nails! That way you'll avoid future discoloration.


P.S You can use some vitamin E to keep your nails and hands moisturized too. It'll do your nails better than just a regular lotion.

DIY : Nail polish & Vaseline

You'll need:

• Vaseline
• a Brush
• cotton swab 

Dab the brush in Vaseline & then apply it on the skin around your nails. Mistakes can be wiped off using the cotton swab when mistakes are made! Plus the Vaseline will soften your cuticles. Two in one.

How To: Remove Gelish!

I decided to make a tutorial about how to remove Gelish Nailpolish! Its pretty easy, perhaps not so quick but it could be because i did one hand at a time haha.

You'll need:

• Cotton Balls
• Acetone Nailpolish Remover
• Nail File
• Foil strips cut 5 cm by 3cm
• Orange Stick
• Nourishing nail oil Or Any kind of treatment for your nails as they will need it! I decided to use -Essie Feed me " intense hydration treatment" 

Step 1 - Roughen the surface of the nails with a file . This will break the seal on the top coat and will allow the Acetone Nailpolish Remover to penerate.

Step 2 - Apply Cotton soaked in Acetone Nailpolish Remover on your nails

Step 3 - Wrap your finger with foil & make sure to tighten the foil to make sure that the Nailpolish remover is always in contact with Gelish

Step 4 - Wait for 15 Minutes

Step 5 - Remove one foil & scrap surface of the nail with the wooden stick/orange stick. Repeat for all nails

N.B  If you find that you still have some uneven surfaces on your nail from the Gelish, just put back the foil you used the first time, soak your nail for few minutes and repeat the scraping stepStep 6 - File nail LIGHTLY, to remove any excess polish

Step 7 - Apply nourishing Nail oil or any other Treatment you can use. I used Essie - Feed me treatment

& Voila! You're done

Hash brown Omelette patties

So these are one of my favorites! They're super easy to make and they're tasty! 

You'll need:
Two Medium pieces of potatoes
Parsely
Two/Three eggs
Pepper
Salt
Cinnamon

Step 1- Wash the potatoes and then peel them ( you can choose not to peel them since you'll be grating them anyway but i like to peel). Next step is to Grate the potatoes using a coarse grater.

Step 2- In another bowl, Crack the eggs and whisk! I added few drops of vanilla extras

Step 3- Chop parsley finely or however you like to. I was in a rush so I just cut off the parsley leaves and threw them in a bowl along with the grates potatoes and I added one tsp of salt & pepper, half tsp of cinnamon ( the more cinnamon you add the sweeter it'll turn out)

Step 4- Mix Mix mix, then add the eggs!
Step 5- Butter up the pan & fry those babies!


And you're done!! If you use two medium sized potatoes you should end up with around 4 Pieces of this HashBrown/Omelette patty

Bonne Apetite