Knotted suede bracelets

I don't usually like to wear bracelets. I have skinny little wrists, so I can never seem to find one that fits just right. The bracelet usually ends up dangling loosely from my wrist as I write, and my handwriting already looks like a 3rd grade boy's, so I don't really need something that might make it even worse.

Despite my reservations, I was browsing the craft section recently on a trip to Wally World, and I spotted some suede cording that was just screaming to be made into bracelets. I'm in love with all of the pretty friendship bracelets and layering bracelets I've been seeing everywhere, so I grabbed some cording and beads and came up with these great knotted bracelets that get even ME to love wearing multiple bracelets all the time.

First to determine the length you need, wrap the cording loosely around your wrist. You need a length that is a little over 4 times your wrist size (it may seem big, but you'll be folding the cord in half and making lots of knots so if you're in doubt, make it too long so you have more to work with.) I have skinny little wrists, and my total length was 36 inches.

If you have small beads, you may want to snip the ends of your cording to make it easier to thread your beads on. Next, fold your cord in half and tie an overhand knot at the end to make a loop for the closure. Finally, thread your first bead on and tie a knot a little bit below the bead. Thread another bead on the side opposite where you strung the first bead and tie another knot. Repeat. Tie a knot at the end of the bracelet to finish.

Now you have a pretty knotted bracelet! You can buy all sorts of different colored suede cording and beads. I made a black and tan one, they go with everything :)

 

Layer them or wear one by itself, they're cute either way!

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Wire wrapped gemstone tutorial

As I mentioned yesterday, we just got back from a relaxing vacation to Asheville, NC. While we were there, we also visited the town of Chimney Rock, which happens to have some of the cutest shops with killer deals, including these amazing new moccasins that I've been trying to wear with every outfit I own. One of my favorite parts was gem mining, where we got a big bucket full of sand and gems that we sifted through to find our treasures. We were total tourists, but it was a blast. Especially when we came back with bags full of these:

Of course, I couldn't just let these pretty gems just sit around, so I thought I'd show you a quick tutorial on how to turn rough (uncut, unpolished) gems into great little charms for necklaces or bracelets. Please keep in mind that I've never done this before and I'm sure there's a much better technique, but it worked for me! Also, this works best with gems that have rough edges to catch the beading wire on.

Supplies:

• Rough gems
• 20 gauge (or more) beading wire
• Round nose pliers
• Wire cutters
• Jump ring
• Jewelry glue (optional)

Start by placing the end of the silver beading wire on the middle of the back of your gem. Begin carefully and slowly wrapping the wire around your gem, making sure to overlap the end of your beading wire. Once you feel like you've secured the gem properly, cut the end of your wire roughly 1 1/2 inches from your gem with wire cutters. Twist your wire up through your last row, and use your round nose pliers to create a loop. Snip extra. Finish by adding a jump ring. If you want to be extra careful, dab a few drops of jewelry glue where the wire meets the gemstone.

You could leave your charm by itself, or add other embellishments like feathers or beads. Have fun turning your treasures into jewelry!

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Mother's Day idea: DIY photo canvas

Mother's Day is coming up this weekend, and I have 0 Mother's Day projects for you. A big, whopping 0. Probably because all I want for Mother's Day is to be served breakfast in bed while I sit around all day watching DVR'd shows and my husband cares for my angelic children and fetches me anything I want.

That's all.

Just kidding, while I know my husband is going to let me relax as much as possible, I realize that I have 2 kids under the age of 4 whose main goal in life is to destroy everything of value, and that means both parents are on Child Watch 24/7. 15 minutes of silence means that somebody probably found the Closet of Forbidden Toys (yes we have one of those) and is currently decorating the hallway with markers. In fact, just 5 minutes ago as I was writing this post I caught my son sucking on the rubber tip from one our door stops. On the plus side, he's probably immune to most sicknesses with all the stuff he's put in his mouth.
 
Even though I'm off the hook, I still wanted to make something for my Mom and Mother-in-Law for Mother's Day. Luckily, Pinterest came through for me again with this awesome idea for a DIY canvas at Sarah's Never Ending Projects. Her brilliant tutorial teaches you how you can make your own photo canvas using your printer, tissue paper and Mod Podge - perfect for Mother's Day.

I got out my supplies while the kids were running around the house like maniacs and whipped this baby out under 30 minutes (minus drying time.)

 

I used an 8x10 canvas, which left enough room to overlap the canvas on the side with the tissue paper so it looks more like the real deal. I'm super happy with the project, it really looks like I bought it online - minus the couple of spots I rubbed the tissue paper off accidentally. The colors came out a little funky, but that was my printer's fault. I probably should have played with the color a little more before printing. Oh, and if you're wondering why I didn't make one of BOTH of my kids, it's because my son can't sit still for 1 minute so I can get a decent picture of him.

So Mom or MIL if you're reading this, I didn't get you breakfast in bed, but I did get you a picture of one of my angelic children minus the destruction. And if any of your are looking for a great project for Mother's Day, I definitely suggest making a DIY Canvas. I'll be making many more of these for my house once I can get Connor to sit still one of these days.

No-sew framed fabric honeycomb

In my continuous (and extremely slow) effort to re-do my craft room, I wanted to make another picture to keep my Bee Inspired print company :) This is a really quick, no-sew project that is perfect for getting rid of those pesky scraps you may have sitting around. It's also really great for showcasing some of your favorite fabrics that you can't bring yourself to make into a piece of clothing that your child will grow out of in 2 days.

If you're not into the whole honeycomb thing, try different shapes! Triangles? Circles? Heck, go crazy with some octagons. Whatever floats your boat.

Supplies:

• A bunch of scrap fabric
• Interfacing, like Heat N Bond
• Burlap
• Picture frame
• Iron

Step 1: Iron on your interfacing.

First, decide how big you want your hexagons to be. This will determine how much of your fabric you'll need. My picture frame size was 11x13 1/2, so I decided on 4 rows of hexagons for a total of 16 hexagons that were 2 1/2 inches tall and 3 inches wide. I cut 6 each from 2 different colors and 4 from another. The white fabric was used to accent, and I cut 6 smaller hexagons that were 1 3/4"x2" each.

Follow the instructions on the back of your interfacing to iron some interfacing to the back of your fabrics.

Step 2: Cut your hexagons out.

You should now have several strips of fabric with interfacing on the back of them.

To get your hexagon shape, Google or find some clipart of a hexagon and use Word to size it to whatever size you need. Cut out and trace the hexagon to the paper backing of your interfacing. Cut out your shapes, and remove the paper backing.

Step 3: Attach your shapes on the burlap.

Cut out a piece of burlap big enough for your frame. Be sure to cut it a tiny bit larger than needed, I cut mine a little too small so you can see the frame a little on the bottom.

Arrange your hexagons on the burlap until you're happy with the placement.

With a hot iron, carefully iron on your large hexagons first by lifting and placing the iron on a couple hexagons at a time (no dragging the iron across). After your large hexagons have been ironed on, layer your smaller accent hexagons on top and iron those on in the same way.

Now, just insert your finished piece in your frame and hang!

Enjoy your art!

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Balloon wreath

Of all the things I made for my daughter's Up!-themed birthday party, the balloon wreath is the very first thing I did. Since a major part of the movie Up! is centered around balloons, I knew I had to make a balloon wreath for the front door to set the theme. I got the inspiration for the wreath from this one on How Does She? I put my own spin on it, and this is what I came up with!

Supplies:

• Styrofoam wreath form
• Crepe paper
• Balloons
• Greening pins (u-shaped pins found in the flower arranging section)
• Embroidery floss
• Hot glue

First, wrap your wreath form in crepe paper, gluing at the ends with hot glue. If you want to use something sturdier, wrap your wreath form in fabric. I went the easy route, but crepe paper is fragile so you have to watch out for tears as you wrap.

Next, take your greening pins and a balloon and stick them to your wreath form. You want to push the greening pin in around the middle of the balloon to secure. Make sure your balloons are close together so they hide the greening pins.

Repeat this process to make a cluster of balloons. To finish, wrap some embroidery floss around the wreath and glue at the ends.

And now you have a cute balloon wreath, perfect for an Up! birthday...or any birthday party really.

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Chevron jewelry organizer

My jewelry situation is a sad mess. All of my necklaces are tangled in one giant knot (both from being clumped together and from little hands playing with them). I've been keeping all of my jewelry in an old, standing jewelry case in my bedroom, and I'm tired of looking at that big, clunky thing in the corner of my room everyday. I wanted to make something that would keep all of my jewelry organized, but look cute at the same time. Can you guess what I used?

A bulletin board! (OK, maybe it wasn't that difficult to guess...)

I originally wanted to buy a bunch of mismatched drawer pulls and drill them into my wall, but when I found this bulletin board for $6, I immediately knew what I wanted to do

To make your own chevron jewelry holder, here's what you need:

Supplies:

• Bulletin Board
• Spray paint or acrylic paint - 2 colors
• Clear sealant
• Foam brush
• Nails
• Double fold bias tape
• Vinyl or contact paper for the stencil
• Masking tape

Step 1: Paint your bulletin board.

First, you'll need to paint your bulletin board white. It may take a few coats to cover it completely, but make sure you have good coverage, especially over the wood frame. You'll want to paint the cork board too. Spray paint would probably be best, but it was night time and I was impatient, so I used acrylic paint instead.

Step 2: Apply your stencil.

Now, you'll need to apply your chevron stencil. I used my Silhouette to cut out a chevron design and apply it to my board, but if you don't have a craft cutter, just Google "chevron" images and then trace the pattern onto the paper backing of your contact paper, cut out, and stick to your bulletin board.

Step 3: Apply your second color. 

Next, put tape around the wooden edges of your bulletin board, right up to the cork so that when you apply your other color of paint, none gets on the wood border. Apply your second coat of paint and let dry. You will probably need several coats of your second color as well.
 

After your paint has dried, peel off your masking tape. As you can tell from my picture below, some of my turquoise paint leaked into my white areas. I just took a small brush and touched everything up until it looked good.

Here's what it should look like when you finish painting!

Step 4: Add nails and bias tape to hold your jewelry.

Finally, I used a ruler to evenly space my nails. I simply used a hammer to gently hammer them in without pushing them completely through the cork. From there, I just hang my necklaces on the nails.

To hold my earrings and bracelets, I folded the ends of a piece of bais tape under and hot glued them. I then placed the looped ends over a couple of nails, that's it! The earrings I just hook onto the bias tape and for the bracelets, I string them onto the bias tape and when I want one, I just take slip the end off the nail and choose the one I want.

This project turned out better than I could have hoped. I'm so glad to have a functional, pretty new jewelry organizer.

I won't even pretend that this is half of my jewelry. I might need to make myself a couple of these...

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DIY hurricane vase

You can see details for my entire Christmas mantel HERE

Isn't the Dollar Store a wonderful place? It's full of tons of cheap goodies just waiting to be improved on.

Plus, I can walk in there and buy a whole basket of stuff without making a dent in my budget. You just have to get a little creative sometimes.

Take these vases and martini glasses for example. Pretty blah. But with a little glue and spray paint, they make a great addition to my holiday mantel!


Supplies:

• Vase (found at the Dollar Store)
• Martini glass (found at the Dollar Store)
• Krylon metallic spray paint
• E600 adhesive
• Filler

Step 1: Spray paint your martini glasses.

In a well-ventilated area (outdoors preferably) apply several coats of metallic paint to your martini glasses.

Make sure you actually pay attention to directions and don't spray too close or turn your glass over before the paint is drying or you'll end up with some drippage like I did...oops.

Step 2: Apply your adhesive.

After you've been a good girl and followed the drying rules for the spray paint, apply some of your adhesive to the bottom of your vase and glue to the bottom of your martini glass, making the part of the martini glass where you would drink from the base of your hurricane vase. Hopefully I didn't confuse you too much there.

Let your glue dry, and how you have some adorable hurricane vases!

Fill with any filler you like (I chose a pack of assorted small Christmas ornaments) and decorate away! I also decided to tie some ribbon on mine to make them even more festive.

These make great decorations year-round.

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"Let it Snow" framed wall art

You can see details for my entire Christmas mantel HERE

I got a couple of pictures from a friend for free, but it wasn't the pictures I was interested in, it was the frames. (Though I'm sure you'll agree the pictures are just lovely ;) I had a vision for some cute framed wall art for Christmas, so I got to work dismantling them.

Supplies:

• Frame
• Spray paint
• Contact paper
• Foam snowflake
• Ribbon
• Tape or hot glue

First I removed the glass and backing and laid the frame out in the yard for several of coats of white spray paint. On a side note, if it's windy outside, just say no to spray painting. Just don't. Step away.

After the frame was painted, I used my Silhouette to cut out "let it snw" from white contact paper (and yes, I know I'm missing the 'o', you'll see where that went next!) If you don't have a craft cutter, just use Word to create your wording and then trace it onto the back of some contact paper (make sure you flip your letters!) and cut out. After cutting, I just peeled the backing off and stuck the letters to the wall.

For the O, I wanted to substitute a snowflake and hang it from ribbon, so I used a foam snowflake that I bought in a pack Wal-Mart and some red sparkly ribbon. I just cut the ribbon long enough to hang from the top of the frame down to the wording and used tape to attach it.
  

Then I put it all together!

It really makes a great focal point for my Christmas mantel. I can't wait to come up with some ideas to reuse my frame after Christmas is over!

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