Crafty jewelry: Make a Fabric Covered Gem Necklace

Lately, fabric seems to be making its way into necklaces, earrings, bracelets – all kinds of accessories. I love that it can add an entirely different textureand look to a piece of jewelry. For this DIY, I incorporated fabric from a thrifted skirt with some plastic décor gems and chain to create a one of a kind necklace. Totally customizable and really easy to make!

Supplies:
- Plastic lightweight decorating gems*
- Scrap fabric (mine was 40 inches x 4 inches)**
- Thick chain
- Scissors
- Jewelry pliers
- Hot glue gun (optional)

*I used 7 gems. These can be found in the home décor section, and are usually used to fill vases.
**Make sure your fabric is thin, lightweight, and not too thick!

1. Tie a knot at one end, making sure there’s about an inch of fabric left above the knot. Place a gem in the tube that has formed. Make sure the fabric wraps around the entire gem, and tie another knot.

2. Insert another gem, and tie another knot.

3. Keep going! Again, make sure there’s about an inch left after the last knot.

4. Cut a slit in the fabric at each of the ends.

5. Tie onto the chain. Repeat at the other end. If you would like, use a little hot glue to further secure the knots.

jewelry making

Source: weheartthis.com

Hair accessories: Tea Time Rose Hair Pin tutorial

  
 Hair accessories:  Tea Time Rose Hair Pin tutorial



I love this hair pin, so sweet.

Fit for tea time, no?

Or maybe stopping to smell the flowers…

or the blue spruces…whatever suits your fancy.

One things for sure, it will surely upgrade any ponytail.
You have no doubt seen these everywhere, they are so easy to make.  I can’t believe it took me so long to whip one up.  And so so inexpensive!  I used silk because I wanted it to have a “going to church”  or “meeting the Queen”  look, but since I only needed a little strip it still only cost me $2 for the fabric, and that gave me four hairpins.  I bought the feathers in a little bag at the craft store along with the clips, each really inexpensive.  Shall we get started?  Yes let’s…

Rose and Feather Hair Clip Tutorial

Supplies:

• fabric at least 25 inches long and 1½ inches wide for one flower
• feathers
• hair clip,
• hot glue gun

The bigger flowers I made were made with 32″ x  1½” pieces of silk, but for the smaller flower that my little one is using I used a 24 inch long piece.

Start by folding the strip of fabric in half.  For the flower shown I folded the shiny side in.  Then tie a knot at the end.  Then glue the end over to the side with the hot glue gun.

Now run a thin strip of glue around one side.

Working fast, twist the strip and pull around the hot glue.  You can do it as loose or as tight as you want.  I did mine pretty loose.  Now just continue around the circle, working on a about 1 inch at a time. When you reach the last inch, just fold it under to the bottom and glue.

Now we have a rose.  If you notice, I let my twists get a little bigger as I went.

From a piece of scrap fabric cut a circle just smaller than the flower then drizzle hot glue on the back…

And press the piece on.

Depending on what hair clip you decide to use, you may need to add a little fabric.  For this kind, I would.  Just cut out a piece of scrap fabric the same size as the clip wrapped around.

Using hot glue, open the clip and glue the fabric to the inside…

turn over and add more glue then fold fabric over, and then again to get the little piece covered on top.

It should look like this.  I trimmed up my edges a bit.

Now take a feather and glue to the underside.

Then glue on your clip with the pointed end facing the feather.  Hold it for a minute to set.

Now your finished!  So easy.

And so cute!
Source: @themotherhuddle.com

Crafty jewelry: The Thimble Necklace Tutorial

Crafty jewelry: The Thimble Necklace Tutorial 

I've been thinking about this project for a very long time. Today it was sticky with heat and humidity and in the middle of  trying to get my house clean, I just dropped everything and did it. I absolutely love it. I love it so much, that I want to show you how to make it.

Supplies:
Sewing Pins in with the color heads you like
Metal Thimble
Coordinating threads. (my thread came from the edge of some fraying fabric I adore.)
Hot Glue Gun
Tiny Drill bit and Drill

Step One:
Drill a small whole directly below the lip of the thimble. Watch your fingers and go slow!

Step Two:
Fill the thimble 1/4 of the way with hot glue. Let the glue cool slightly and start placing your pins however you wish. I'm very much into pink right now, so most of my pink pins were towards the front. You need to work quickly to get them placed how you like them as the glue will cool quickly. Adding little bits of glue at a time, move your pins around until you are satisfied. Be careful not to hold onto the thimble as it will get very hot as you squeeze in more and more glue.

Step Three:
When your thimble is 3/4 of the way full, ball your threads and place them into the glue. You can use an extra pin to arrange the threads and make sure they are attached to the glue.

Step Four:
If you would like to attach your thimble charm to a chain you will need to place a ring in the hole you drilled. I opted to attach mine to a length of colored hemp with a simple loop through the hole.

Step Five:
Wear it with pride!

  If you don't want to make one yourself because of the heat and humidity at your house you can buy one here
http://www.etsy.com/listing/46867034/thimble-and-pin-charm

Source: thewindandthesail.blogspot.com

Crafty jewelry: Recycling lace to make earrings

Dolce & Gabbana‘s Spring ’11 collection undoubtedly furthered our already fanatical obsession with lace. Honestly, how dreamy is the collection?! We thought we’d make good use of some vintage lace trim we had laying around and turn them into earrings similar to the ones we saw on the runway. And thanks to some tips from a DIY previously featured on Poppytalk, making lace earrings proved be a cinch!

 Crafty jewelry: Recycling lace to make earrings

You’ll need:
- lace trim or a lace doily
- Elmer’s multi-purpose glue
- a pair of ear wires
- a bowl or measuring cup
- a pair of pliers
- a pair of scissors

Mix equal parts glue to water in a bowl. Cut your shapes from your lace trim or doily, making sure both pieces are symmetrical. (Click images to enlarge)

Submerge the cut shapes into the glue mixture. Using the side of the bowl, squeeze out as much excess liquid as possible. Lay the pieces down on a flat non stick surface. After a few hours of drying, attach stiffened lace onto ear wires using pliers.

I haven’t stopped wearing mine since and can’t wait to make more. Hooray for lace!

Source: honestlywtf.com

Crafty jewelry: beaded accessories, jewelry making

  

Crafty jewelry: beaded accessories

Gift presents for kids: Making Cute Hair Clips + Tutorial

Gift presents for kids: Making Cute Hair Clips + Tutorial
Kids craft ideas

I had so much fun making these cute and easy hair clips after finding several great tutorials (1,2,3,4,5). These are ideal for babies, but fun for older kids and adults, too!

I experimented with three different types of ribbon materials. The top three use self-adhesive paper-crafting ribbon from Joann’s, and the last two use regular ribbon secured with Fabric Fusion adhesive (I don’t know where our glue gun is, nor do I ever use it, although it would probably be handy here). The purple one and green gingham one in the center are wrapped with textured tape from Making Memories and were the fastest and easiest to make. I found instructions on this tutorial for making the bow on the white one. To embellish the green gingham clip, I glued on a white button and used the flower heads off of two brads for the ends. (Note: be extra cautious with this kind because of the possible choking hazard).

Postscript: I noticed that one of the tutorials linked above is not available right now because the author is doing some site work, so I’ve decided to do a quick version below. I am using the textured tape here, but you can also use craft adhesive or a glue gun to hold regular ribbon in place.

1. Materials needed: Metal single prong hair clip (I got my box from Sally Beauty Supply), about a 7″ length of ribbon, and adhesive. The lighter is for sealing the ribbon ends, if needed, to keep the edges from fraying.

2.Pinch the clip open and lay your ribbon beginning on the inside bottom, being careful to keep it on straight.

3. Wrap the ribbon around and adhere it along the bottom of the clip, making a nice crease at the tip.

4.Push the ribbon into the gap behind the pinching ends to cover the back.

5. Continue to wrap the ribbon up and over the top.

6. Bring the ribbon over the top tip (again making a nice crease here) and adhere it to the inside top of the clip.

7. Add embellishments, if you’d like.

Source: thepaperseed.com

Gift presents for summer: Felt Bow Tutorial

 

Here's a quick and easy way to make a cute bow.  No sewing machine required.  I like to make these to match the giggler's outfits.  

Cut two felt rectangles in the same size.  You can choose how big or small you want them.  Then cut a skinny rectangle for the middle.  It just has to be long enough to fit around the bow.

You just need enough space to get a clip through.  I sewed mine tighter than it shows in the picture.

 Here's one that I sewed around the edges.  

What do you think?

Source: thelittlegiggler.blogspot.com