Imprinted Easter Eggs Every Easter, as long as I can remember, my Grandma dyed the prettiest leaf and floral imprinted Easter eggs! They were so natural and lovely, but produced with nothing more than an easily concocted natural dyestock and little bits of flora. We lost my Grandma last year and for the first time, Jaydin and I recreated her dye with spanish onion skins, water and a few tablespoons of vinegar. We also purchased a few pair of cheap panty hose and elastic hair bands. We first skinned about 10 spanish onions and placed the skins into a medium sauce pan along with about 4.5 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of white vinegar. We placed our leaf and/or flower petals onto the raw eggs and wrapped them tightly in a small piece of nylon securing both ends with elastic pony tails. We placed all of our eggs into the dye pot and hard boiled them by bringing the pot to a very light simmer on medium heat and lowering the temperature to low then covering them for about 12 minutes.
Ribbon Cupcake These are so fun and easy to make! Tools: A glue gun Scissors (or a ribbon cutter) Materials: Aligator Clip 7/8" Ribbon (cupcake base) 3/8" Ribbon (frosting) small red button (cherry) skinny ribbon (cherry stem, decoration for cake base) Step 1: Cover The Clip Use 3/8" Ribbon in the color of your choosing (it's best to use the same color as your cupcake base) Starting on the inside upper part of the clip, glue the ribbon on and continue up onto the top of the clip, around the part of the clip that you pinch to open, and then to the bottom. Step 2: The Cupcake Base Cut a 2 1/2" piece of the 7/8" ribbon. Using scissors, cut straight across the top of the cupcake base. Cut another piece of the 7/8" ribbon about 2" in length. Step 3: The Frosting! Just like with a real cupcake, the frosting is the best part! I secured it to the right and looped back to left, where I began to bring the loops upward and back to the center. Step 4: Decorating your Cupcake I also made a cherry. Some other suggestions:
Ribbon Princess These are so much easier to make than they appear! Read on for the full tutorial! Cinderella Note: To keep things quick and simple I will be referring to the ribbon widths as "super skinny," "thin," and "wide." I feel like you know what I mean instantly when I say that, as opposed to giving actual widths. You'll Need: thin yellowish gold ribbon thin baby blue ribbon thin cream ribbon thin white ribbon hair clippies (or a headband, magnet, clothespin... whatever) hot glue gun and glue scissors (or heated ribbon knife <--- AMAZING!) Lighter to keep ends from fraying. Head and Hair Start with a thin cream colored ribbon for her head. 1. 5. 9. Body and Dress 1. 5. Insert the bottom of the dress into the chest loop and secure with glue. When attaching to a clip, consider how the clip will be placed into the hair. These are wicked fun to make and you can get really creative with it!
'3D' Photo I know you are invited to at least one wedding this summer. Bring your camera. This is a neat way to present a special wedding picture. It's an old paper trick call a tunnel card. I like to frame it in a shadow box and give it to the married couple. You might even get away with not having to buy one of those expensive items on their gift registry. Materials: 4 copies of a photo that has a fore, middle and background. shadowbox frame mat 2 pieces of cardstock glue stick Tools: scissors In this sample, the frame and mat are 8" x 10". Leave one photo as is. Glue the pleated card stock to the back of the mat. You should have a photo that looks like this one. Mod Podge I have seen many tutorials on making your own version of Mod Podge that I just had to try it myself. For those of you that don't know what Mod Podge is: It's a glue that is normally used for decoupaging, but a lot of crafters also use it for pretty much everything else, because it attaches on almost every surface giving a sheer finish.The down part of Mod Podge is, is that it's kinda expensive. It's not as expensive to not make me buy it, but for some projects I could use a cheaper version. There are a lot of discussions going around saying that the homemade version is not the same thing as the 'real deal'. This being sad, I still needed a cheap glue that's similar to Mod Podge for my smaller projects. And to finish it of, I made a fun label and gave it my own name;) Want to know how to make my homemade podge? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. All done! Images by lana
Color Glue I was rummaging through my makeup bag and came up with a large pile of cosmetics that I need to throw out. But I told the trash can not to display the "Welcome" sign to my stuff just yet. We've got some blah to TADA! Blah: Powders like eye shadow, foundation & blush. You can only keep them for two years. Pry them out of the compact and pound them into a fine powder. Add the powder to a half-filled bottle of glue. One color per bottle. Mix thoroughly using a skewer. Make sure the color reaches the bottom of the bottle. TADA! My custom colors inspired me to make some animal-print note cards. I used the brown paint for this giraffe print. The black paint for my zebra print. Let this dry overnight. Ooops, looks like I didn't grind the powder that well. But I quite like the 3-D effect and grainy texture! Using glue gives an embossed look and the glitter in the eye shadow adds some sparkle! Imagine what else you can do with pink blush and electric blue eye shadow!
Series 7 - Ornament-ED Finale: Heart House Ornament I have been feeling some feelings lately. Like, feelings of well-being. Like, spontaneous-breaking-into-song-and-general-wonderfulness-type feelings. Before I Begin: I made two versions of this ornament. Tutorial ♥ Heart House Ornament You will need: Old greeting cards or tissue box (but I strongly recommend old greeting cards)Pair of scissorsExacto knifeCraft glueClothespins (for clamping)Pretty stringTwo wooden beads (I stole these from The Boy's stash. 2. 3. 4. 5. Don't look now, but the cute heart house is complete and ready to hang! It reminds me of a itsy garden gazebo or merry-go-round, hee hee. On that note, it is time to bid a fond farewell to this little series... Have a happy weekend.
Paper Star Lantern Tutorial Buon lunedì a tutti!! Iniziamo la settimana con un bel DIY dedicato alla Pasqua! Tra mille possibilità di decorare le uova, io ho scelto di fare dei coniglietti, da usare per vivacizzare la tavola e far giocare i bambini, o anche come segnaposto. Questo post ha avuto una gestazione un po' lunga e piena di imprevisti... Happy Monday everyone! Ma come vedete, almeno oggi sembra andare tutto bene!!!!! But as you can see, at least today everything seems to be going well!!!!! Vi serve: tempera acrilica rossa, cartoncini panna e rosa, pennarello nero indelebile, matita, pennello, gomma, colla stick, forbici, bicchieri di carta, colla vinilica. You will need: red acrylic paint, cardboards cream and pink, permanent black marker, pencil, brush, eraser, glue stick, scissors, paper cups, PVA glue. Il vostro coniglietto è pronto! Your bunny is ready! Vi suggerisco anche un semplice giochino da fare con i bambini!
Making stickers out of recycled paper Making stickers out of recycled paper October 25th, 2011 I recently discovered this great tutorial by Amanda Wood on how to make lovely stickers from recycled paper. You will need: For the glue: 6 tbsp white vinegar 4 packages of unflavoured gelatin 1 tbsp flavouring such as peppermint, lemon or vanilla extract For the stickers: foam paint brush security envelopes or other papers from the recycling bin (enough glue for about 20 envelopes) paper punch (I used a 2″ scalloped circle punch in the picture) sponge for moistening stickers First of all you need to make the glue, so bring the vinegar to boil in a small pan. If you don’t want to go to all the hassle of making glue, you could always use ‘lick n stick’ glue – it’s the stuff I use for my recycled envelopes and you can get it here. To make the stickers, take apart your chosen envelopes and open them up flat. Next you get creative with paper punches – you can use whatever size or shaped punches you like.
altered bottle lace top