All posts tagged: tassel

tiny hearts.

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Valentine’s Day is my favorite crating holiday. Here’s a super simple DIY to adorn your home, your love day tree (that should be a thing!), or a gift. Materials: Create tassels to your desired length and thickness (See tassel tutorial for detailed instructions.) Use a non stretchy cord for the hanging string. To attach to the heart, thread the two ends of the hanging string through the heart’s bottom point, front to back. Bring the two strands around to the front and tie a double knot. Use a craft needle to sew the loose hanging string ends into the top of the tassel. Trim excess hanging string. Alternatively, you can simply trim the hanging string, or leave the hanging string as is and allow the strands to blend in with the rest of the tassel. For the top string, cut a 12” piece of non-stretchy cord (can be the same cord you used for the tassel or a more decorative cord like Baker’s twine). Fold the cord in half and loop it onto the top …

fluffy door thing.

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I made a fluffy thing! Ever since my Pom Pom Along last month, I’ve been busy creating lots of poms for a fluffy wall art piece. For this craft I gathered: Tassel and pom pom tool. I use the Loome XL Model tool for most of my tassel and pom pom projects. Alternatively, you can use a sturdy piece of cardboard in the same fashion. Yarn for pom poms. I used 5 rolls of medium weight yarn. How much you’ll need will depend on how many pom poms you want to make, how puffy they will be, and how much surface area you need to cover. A general rule of thumb is to have between 40-60 yards of yarn per pom pom. You can obviously use less/more depending how full you want your pom poms to be. Yarn for tassels . This can be a different yarn. I used hand-dyed yarn that I got on one of my yarn adventures. Again, the amount will vary on how many tassels you want to make and how …

all the poms.

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So, I made a ton of pompoms and tassels with my yarn stash. (Gotta use the yarn to buy more yarn, am I right?) I was thinking of creating some colorful decor for my office cubicle. I started winding pompom donuts in December of last year and every now and them would trim a few. I finally finished! I love all the fluff! And I’m very pleased with the color combo. I ended up making a garland (or panda scarf?) plus a tassel chandelier. Tahdah! Here’s to working through my yarn stash!

bat mobile.

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A Halloween inspired pomtass chandelier! For this project you will need: 2″ ring 8″ hoop Nylon cord 10 paper straws cut into 28 -2 1/2 inch pieces Card stock (1 – 12×12 sheet is plenty) 1-2″ hole punch 1/4″ hole punch Yarn in orange, black, and white Pom pon / tassel tool Black felt Paper scissors Fabric scissors Tray Hot glue Googly eyes Binder clips Prep all the pieces: Cut 28 pieces of straw. Punch 20 card stock circles and punch a 1/4″ hole in the middle of each circle. Make 1 orange pompon for the pumpkin. Cut out a Jack-O-Lantern face; attach with hot glue. Make 4 white tassel ghosts. I opted out of a ghost face, but you can add googly eyes or a felt face with hot glue. Make 4 black pompons for bats. Cut four sets of felt bat wings. Sew on bat wings by attaching to the pompon’s tight center cord. Add googly eyes with hot glue. Cut 4 5-foot strands of cord. Assemble: Fold all cord strands in half. …

only treats.

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Hey, Boo. It’s treat bag time! Here are a couple of ways to dress up your treat bags for Halloween. Materials: Bags (found these at Target) Twine (also Target) Envelopes (found at a Japanese ‘dollar’ store) Card stock (I shop at Scrapbook Expo!) Food picks (found at Daiso) Washi tape (from my stash…) Create a tassel on the bag. Loop the twine at least six times, cut the loops, then place the cut loops around one of the bag handles. Cut another piece of twine and tie the cut loops together to form a tassel. Trim as needed. Style a Halloween note. For the Halloween note, I cut card stock to fit the envelopes. A simple “Boo!” seemed appropriate. Then, I decorated with pumpkin, cat, and ghost food picks and assorted washi tape. Fill with delights! I filled my treat bags with the note, confetti, and chocolates. Really, anything goes. Fill your treat bags with seasonal fruit – like baby apples! Or with some tricks – plastic spiders, anyone? Ready for gifting! Happy almost Halloween! …

summer tote.

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I love tote bags. You could say I have an addiction. These straw totes are perfect for summer beach or farmer’s market going, and when I spotted them at Michaels, I grabbed one. And then I went back grabbed a few more because I thought I could decorate them and use them as gift totes for summer celebrations. Each one got an assortment of poms and tassels. I used some of the yarn I snagged from the last craft swap and my visit to the reuse craft store. Summer means bright colors and I’m loving mixing and matching all of them. Tassels and poms! I filled birthday treat yo’self bags with face masks (also addicted to these!) and yummy snacks. My favorite places to find treats right now: Zipang (a Japanese home goods store) and markets that carry local brands. Ready for summer gallivants! The best part is when my friends are finished with the stuff inside, they can use the bag for anything – even as a gift tote to pass on to another …

tinsel.

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Step right in to Tinsel in Berkeley! I frequently pass by this shop thinking I must go in someday. Someday was last Saturday, finally! Tinsel is known for their vintage trim so I was expecting to see lots of ribbons, tassels, and fun things for decorating. I was correct, but oh, there was so much to look at and my brain went into overdrive as I started to think about all the projects I could make with everything in the store. What an amazing collection of things on spools – fabric ribbons, metal ribbons… They had bottle brush trees (I love these things!) for every occasion. This handy passementerie (art of making elaborate trimmings or edgings) guide needs to be an art print. A wall of passements… If I was a master seamstress I would be ALL OVER these trims. Everything looked so elaborate, detailed, well-made. There were bins of vintage appliques, beads, charms… Spools in all the sizes… My family’s cigar company ;)…plus golden scissors… These flower middles reminded me of my childhood and …

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 …

tassel party!

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The Academy of Handmade Maker Awards Ceremony is just one week away so Danielle and I threw a tassel party! And though we can’t attend in person, we sure did make a lot of tassels to help decorate the celebration — We’ll be there in craft spirit! We used tassel makers from The Loome and colorful twine from Divine Twine. And what’s a tassel party without tassel decor, matching colorful name tags and I’m a Maker pins?! We served treats from Mariposa Baking Co in Berkeley. And look, even our scraps containers were cute. So many tassels…and so many uses for tassels! A big thanks to Modern Mouse for hosting us and to my partner in maker event scheming, Danielle! I’d also like to thank the Academy. 😉