All posts tagged: DIY

eye see you.

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Current obsession: making my own confetti! Here’s a quick recipe for a Halloween-inspired mix. Gather: paper in oranges and black – I use 65 lb paper sequins – I chose a variety pack of purple shapes. googly eyes – I also found little bat stickers with googly eyes in my sticker stash. sparkly confetti – Whenever I see these little vials at Target I grab my favorites. This time, gold stars and hexagons. a container for your finished confetti mix – Also Target! twine First, shred your paper using a super magical crafter tool: a cross-cut paper shredder! (Seriously though, I told my Hubby it’s the crafting shredder…) Add sequins, gold sparkle, google eyes…and whatever else you want to add (except glitter – Don’t do it!!). Mix. Make sure all your sequins are separated; they tend to stick to each other. And remove any paper chunks from the mix. Package up the confetti. I made sure some googly eyes made it to the very top of my containers. O_O I added the bat friends to …

flower lockets.

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Springtime in the Bay means a bounty of blooming wildflowers. Here’s an easy project that yields stunning results with craft supplies from your own backyard. My friend and I cohosted this craft for another friend’s birthday and everyone loved it. All you need: lockets pressed flowers glue cotton swabs scissors yarn or ribbon Press the flower petals The step that takes time is the pressing of flowers. I’m not sure if my method of pressing flowers is correct but it works for me. Pull off petals and place them on a sheet of paper. Do not overlap petals. Place another few sheets of paper on top, then stack (heavy) books on top. Check on the petals after a few days and change the paper. After at least one week the petals should be ready for this project. Protip: choose petals that will fit your lockets (or lockets that will fit your petals) if you would rather not cut the petals. Design and glue When it comes to glueing, less is way more. Once you decide …

tassel time.

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Decor idea: felt tassels! I made these tassels similar to how you’d make tissue tassels, but making them with felt creates a sturdier tassel. You can turn these into a garland or use them as a bag accessory. I like them for gift packaging, too. Materials: Felt (a 9in x 12in piece of felt will yield 2-3 tassels) Scissors Hot glue Yarn (2 feet per tassel) Keychains or other hoops Fold felt in half (hot dog or hamburger style). If hamburger way, cut the felt in half; if hot dog way, cut felt into halves or thirds. Then cut fringe starting from the open side towards the fold in 1/4 inch – 1/2 inch increments, leaving about an inch at the fold uncut. Open the felt, then roll and glue to seal. Create a loop around a keychain or other hoop. Secure with yarn. Wrap the yarn around the tassel; cover as much of the tassel as you wish. Then double knot and trim the yarn. Trim the tassel to your liking. Then decorate and …

christmas craft camp.

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Happy day after Christmas! Family crafting has become a regular activity whenever I visit home. Everyone gets in on it, even if it means just sitting in the same room and watching others create. It’s nice to be in the space together. This year, our Christmas weekend crafting schedule included three projects: Wood Bead and Animal Keychains Fuzzy Ball Gift Tags Mini Grapevine Wreaths My niece and nephews had a collection of plastic animal figurines to contribute to the keychain craft — upcycling idea! We painted and drew on wooden beads, attached an eyelet screw onto the animals, and strung the beads onto a lobster clasp. Excited for how these turned out! For the fuzzy ball gift tags, we attached tiny fuzzy balls onto reindeer- and tree-shaped tags using glue dots. My nephew made all of Santa’s reindeer. And lastly, we busted out with the hot glue, mini bottle brush trees, jingle bells, and mini reindeer figurines to decorate mini grapevine wreaths. Up close! Hope you had a crafty holiday weekend, too!

craft crafts and craft beer.

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Earlier this week my coworker buddies and I decided to have a crafty happy hour. We recently spotted Oh Joy’s Pretty Pearl Sweater DIY and were inspired to pearl cabochon all the things! We gathered multicolored flat back pearl cabochons, gem glue, bead tweezers, cotton swabs, toothpicks, scrap paper, and materials to decorate. Twas a beautiful space to create a colorful mess – the bar keeps didn’t seem to mind. We fancied up Christmas stockings, a denim skirt, photo frames, a tiny hat… And I found this old cardigan to bring back to life. I added a collar and a little something to the back. I’m ready for holiday festivities! This was a super fun craft with super fun people, and is a super easy way to renew some items hiding deep in your closet. 🙂 We all agree we need to bedazzle many more things! What would you bedazzle? Share below!

trivet.

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Here’s a super fun last minute handmade and super useful gift idea: a felt ball trivet. West Elm hosted a workshop in store. They partnered with a fair trade organization in Nepal to get their felt balls for the craft. What a lovely color palette! First, we sorted and laid out the felt balls into our preferred 7×7 grid. (Joy’s crafty hands below!) We used this super tough upholstery thread to sew the felt balls together. Working in a zig zag pattern, we first sewed the rows in one direction (i.e., left to right and right to left), and then in the other direction (up and down). Then tied and trimmed off excess thread. The secret is to sew the felt balls at the edges at a diagonal so that the rows and columns stay tightly in place. My trivet making skills will need some work, but I’m off to an ok start (mine is the one on the right). These were much easier to make than I thought; they just take some time. Imagine …

holiyay!

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Had to, had to visit the Brit & co Holiday House this year. What a cutie! The venue is small and homey but packed with tons of colorful fun. At the front and headlining the welcoming committee are the featured local makers. On my visit it was Marley & Alfie and An Astrid Endeavor, super talented ladies with lovingly made goods. I snagged a lucky horseshoe from Marley & Alfie! Ahhh! The coolest! There was hot cocoa for all, free make and takes, and lots of backdrops and decorated nooks for all the photo taking. Everyone got to decorate a postcard and take home shimmer frame. There was a snow globe jar making station and a pom pom station, and for extra credit you can make pom pom earrings or a snowman. I made earrings! There’s a candy wall, a silver corner, a washi tape city, a white texture wall, a tassel /fiber wall, disco ball wall, a colorful geometric shape wall, a gold wall, an ugly sweater room, and a peppermint room – it …