Sunday, May 29, 2011

Scrap Box Sunday: Link Party #11

Link Party Highlights:

Thank you to everyone who's been linking up their fantastic projects! Here are the top clicked links from our big 10th Party! There were so many great ideas that I'm going to share a few more projects than usual <3


Wonderful! I love how you put a lace layer over the white silky layer, great idea!

Sooo cute! I love the yo-yos and bird image, gorgeous!

Nice one Suze! The fabrics are so fun! Although, I think we share
a similar approach to sewing - winging it!! ;)

How cool! I would never have thought of doing that to turn
such simple items into a cute gift!

These turned out beautifully Tara! Very cute photos and I
love your choice of beads!

 There were so many great ideas, thanks everyone for sharing them!
Please feel free to grab a Featured Button from here!


Linky party time again..! Can't wait to be inspired by you!

Link up anything that you've made with scraps lying around your craft room! It doesn't have to be fabric scraps, it could be paper, ribbon, food, beads anything! You've got until Thursday! 

Just display H&H's button somewhere on the post or in your sidebar, and link up! Link as many projects as you want, as long as you haven't linked them up here before.







Scrap Box Sunday: Lace Cuff Bracelet

First of all beautiful people, let me apologise for being so late to post today! My lovely man started his new job this week and so we've been getting into a new routine and crafting and blogging has taken a back seat until we get entirely settled.

Still, I do have a project to share with you today! Another Anthropologie inspired one, as I'm afraid I'm too tired to be creative enough to come up with something fully original!! Here's the inspiration, Anthro's $228 (!!!) Lavish Lace Bracelet:

(c) Anthropologie

And here's my "lazy" lace cuff bracelet tutorial, which turned out to be a bit Alice in Wonderland inspired too! Mostly because the lacy fabric I had on hand was a pretty pale blue ;)


What you need:

* Scrap lace fabric
* Jewellery wire
* Hot glue gun
* Optional - other embellishments, I used ribbon and buttons

I didn't end up using the white fabric or embellishments, maybe next time!


What to do:

Cut two long strips of wire. These need to be long enough to make a circle that can slip over the widest part of your hand, so work out how big the widest part of your hand is and then make it another inch or so longer.


Cut three to five short strips of wire. The length of these dictates how long your cuff will be. I'm lazy so I did three strips, but I think you'd get a better outcome with 5 (Anthro used four and their bracelet is a bit boxy). Next time I make one I would try 5.


Take your short wire strips and make a loop at both ends of all of them. For extra durability, I looped it a bit more than I would if I were making a headpin, like this:
 

Slide your long wire piece through the loops at one end of all of your short wire pieces, then twist the ends of the long wire pieces together to make a circle. 


Repeat with the other end of your short wires and your other long wire. It should now look like this (sorry for the completely awful photo):


Adjust the short wires so they're roughly evenly spaced around the circles, and use your hot glue gun to keep them in place. 


Cut a long strip of fabric long enough to wrap around the entire wire frame, allowing about 1 cm extra height so you can fold the top and bottom edges over. Also cut a thin strip of fabric for each short strip of wire you used. 

I ended up cutting the three little strips shown here in half again because they were too wide.


Run hot glue down the inside of your short wire and attach your little fabric strip so that the "open end" faces outwards. The open end will be covered when we wrap the whole frame in fabric. 


Repeat so all of your short wires are covered with fabric.


Run a strip of hot glue down the outside of one of your short strips of wire and attach your long piece of lace fabric. You want to keep the fabric taut through all of this to ensure a nice finish.

When the first short wire strip is attached, run glue down the next fabric strip and roll your bracelet to attach it to the fabric, pulling the fabric taut (but not so tight than the glue unsticks!) Like so:


Repeat for all of your short wire strips, and again for the first wire strip so that the entire bracelet is covered. You should have something like this:


Trim off the end of your long fabric strip, then run glue around the inside of the top and bottom of your bracelet and fold the excess fabric inside the cuff, so that both ends look like this:


Trim off any excess fabric of hot glue gun "spiderwebs" and you should have something vaguely resembling Anthro's $228 bracelet:


You can stop there if you want. I couldn't, I felt the need to embellish:


I just ran some frilly lace around one edge, some plain ribbon around the other, and hot glued a few buttons down the middle. Now it feels like Alice in Wonderland costume jewellery! Perhaps I need to make another one so I have a pair ;) I think this would look pretty cool tucked under a white long-sleeved shirt.

I plan to make another plain one using white embroidered fabric so I will share how that turns out when I get around to it! Hope everyone had a lovely weekend! <3


Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Whip It Up Wednesday: Fabric Covered Boxes

Remember the Flute Board Boxes I made a while back? Well, I covered them in fabric ...


And promptly decided I didn't like it. At ALL! Waaaay too bright, what were we thinking?! I can even say "we" because I took the OH and made him help me choose the fabric!

Anyway, I finally got around to remedying the situation!


Aaaahhh, that's more like it! Now let me show you what I did!

What You Need:
* Covering fabric
* Lining fabric or interfacing
* Stapler
* Scissors
* Mod Podge
* Optional - stencil & paint


What To Do:
We bought the material for the outside of these boxes especially for this, but other than that I only wanted to use things I had on hand. Because it was night time. And getting other stuff meant waiting. And I'm impatient.

So, I actually used two layers of interfacing and one of fabric. I used a dark layer of interfacing first, as the duct tape from the boxes showed through if I only used the white interfacing and fabric. It'll depend on your boxes, fabric and choice of lining what you do.


So, I cut a piece of dark interfacing about 1 inch larger on all sides than the front of the box.


Staple that layer to the front of your box. Pull it nice, flat and taut and staple around the edges. Trim off the excess interfacing at the corners.


Cut a piece of white interfacing the same size as the front of your box and staple it on.


Cut a piece of your outer fabric about the same size as the dark interfacing - 1 inch larger all around than the front of your box. Staple it on, but be sure to only put staples around the edges and on the inside of your box, not on the front where you'll see them!


To make my boxes slide in and out of the bookshelf without the edges of the fabric catching and pulling, I used Mod Podge to seal the edges. I used a paint roller because... I had a roller and I wanted to play with it :P It was fun!!


While that dries, prepare your stencil for painting. Or do what I did, and con the OH into cutting it out for you ;) (Hey, he said he was awesome with the scalpel so I let him prove himself! And yes, he did a good job!)

I found a shape I liked online - it was actually an embroidery photo - turned it into a silhouette, blew it up, printed it on thick cardboard and "let" my man cut out the shape. Thicker card or plastic would work much better, as this got soggy and was hard to hold into place while I painted.


Tape your stencil into place, and use a roller to paint over it.


Let it all dry and you're done! Now you have some lovely padded, fabric covered boxes!



Monday, May 23, 2011

It's Monday! Nappy Bag Advice Please?

My best friend's big sister is expecting!! We lived next door to each other growing up, so they're pretty much family and I'm very excited!!

She's asked me to sew her a nappy bag - a diaper bag I suppose if you're in the U.S. ;) BUT the trick is, this is her first baby and as you guys already know, I don't have any kids of my own yet, so neither of us know what makes a good nappy bag!

Backpack? Tote?
Big? Small? Ginormous?
Zippered? Magnetic closure? Ribbon ties?
A few big pockets? Lots of little pockets? What type of pockets?!
Built in change mat? Removable change mat?

Too many options..! 
This tutorial from Moda Bake Shop looks pretty cool, with some mods probably like a spot for a detachable change mat and a zip closure. I  do love the colours!! ;)



So... Any advice?
What were the most important or useful aspects for you?


Sunday, May 22, 2011

Scrap Box Sunday: Link Party #10

Wow, we're up to Link Party #10, how did that happen?! 
Thank you beautiful people for making it so much fun to host!!


Link Party Highlights:

Thank you everyone who linked up these last couple of weeks, I love checking out your projects! Here are the top clicked links from the last party:

Upcycled Drink Can Pin/Candle Holder from MeiJo's JOY
Such a cool use for an everyday item - this turned out beautifully!

Such a clever idea for successful potted plants using ... nappies!

 There were so many great ideas, thanks everyone for sharing them!
Please feel free to grab a Featured Button from here!


Linky party time! Let's make #10 the biggest yet!!

Link up anything that you've made with scraps lying around your craft room! It doesn't have to be fabric scraps, it could be paper, ribbon, food, beads anything! You've got until Thursday! 

Just display H&H's button somewhere on the post or in your sidebar, and link up! Link as many projects as you want, as long as you haven't linked them up here before.







Scrap Box Sunday: Voucher Book

This isn't really a tutorial, more of an idea, but it's definitely a scrap buster and a great gift!

My mum has always loved having her hair brushed, but I've never been a girly girl and never voluntarily wanted to do it. So, when I was little I used to give mum hair brushing vouchers for presents. Last Christmas, mum requested hair brushing vouchers! So here's the voucher book I made! You can of course make vouchers for anything :D

Please forgive me blurring out mum's name and my signature ;)

I used pearly silver, light teal and gold card stock for these cards, then punched two holes in the side of each and threaded ribbon through to turn the vouchers into a book :D

I printed out the text onto normal white paper and cut each into a neat rectangle, then embellished each card individually!

For the front voucher, I used some pearly scrap book paper behind the voucher text and embellished with a gold cat and curtain sticker. Finally, I attached a key charm with ribbon through it with a dab of glue.


For this one, I cut out the green and blue cats from wrapping paper, used gold stickers for the top and bottom of the voucher, and finished it off with a green ribbon and gold buckle embellishment.


This time I used a section of scrapbook paper trimmed around a pattern I particularly liked, and embellished with gold rose and bubble stickers.


I used the same scrapbook paper as above, but a different section of the pattern, and again embellished with some gold stickers - a border sticker and a 3D heart. I also used some white "lace" sticker on the left side, but it's a bit hard to see.


This time I used some green patterned pearly scrap book paper, and some plain gold wrapping paper which I added texture to using a plastic texture "rubbing" board. Again, embellished with gold stickers ;) You can tell I collect stickers!!


Scrapbook paper cut using my special scissors down the bottom, sort of like "grass" with the gold sky behind it, and embellished with gold stickers again. I think this is my favourite even though it's very simple!


I used that pretty green pearly scrapbook paper again, with ribbon down each edge of it and gold border stickers on the edges of the voucher. I used a few gold 3D heart stickers to finish it off.


So there you have it! I hope that's inspired you to make your own voucher books out of your left over scrapbooking supplies :D


Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Whip It Up Wednesday: Anthro Inspired Violet Post Earrings

Last week I shared my version of Anthro's Tiny Tea Rose Posts, this week is similar but we're doing Violet Post earrings this time! I'm only using materials I have on hand for all of these :)


The Inspiration:

The Knock-Off:

What You Need:
* Polymer clay (Dark blue, green, white)
* Clear seed beads
* Aerosol varnish/glaze
* Toothpick
* Clay cutting blade
* Earring post blanks
* Super glue
* Bead glue
* Oven :D


What To Do:

Blend some white and green to get a nice shade of green (as I explained last week ^_^), and take a hunk of your dark blue. Kneed both colours until malleable.


Cut off portions so that you have ten small balls of blue and  four ovals of green. This is for a pair of earrings :)


Flatten three of the blue balls into circles and arrange them as shown below, then use your toothpick to join the three circles in the middle.


Flatten two more balls of blue and join them gently to the back of your piece, like so:


Repeat to make a second earring piece.

Flatten your green ovals and pinch the ends to make leaf shapes, then gently attach them to the back of your flowers, in the position shown here:


Put these on some baking paper on a tray, and bake according to the instructions on the clay packet.

When the earring pieces have baked and cooled, you could use some black acrylic to highlight the centres of your flowers. I plan to try this next time, but forgot this time! Oops! You can also spray the pieces with varnish or some other kind of glaze to make them nice and shiny. I at least remembered to do this, but forgot to take a photo *facepalm*

When everything is dry, pop a dab of bead glue in the centre of each piece and sprinkle your seed beads into the glue.


I used super glue instead of bead glue without thinking, and ended up with a yucky opaque coating on my beads :( So use bead glue, hot glue or something else! Not super glue XD


Use super glue to attach your earring post blanks to the back of each clay piece.


You're done! Here's the obligatory black and white photo of me showing off my new earrings ;)


Linking up at Sunburnt Cow


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