DIY Painted Feathers I’ve always loved the idea of painting fake feathers, and with festival season underway it seemed like the perfect time to do it. I originally thought of these purely as decorations but then it occurred to me that they’d be a great finishing touch for a festival outfit. This is a great activity to do outside on a warm sunny day, and once you start it’s slightly addicting! What you need: fake feathers, paint (I used acrylic paint), and a paint brush. I got this paint from Utrecht and I love it. I added a little bit of water to the paint before applying to the feathers, and they absorbed the paint almost like watercolor. After the entire feather was covered I added some dots and lines with white paint. Get as creative and colorful as you want with the feathers! I wanted to add in some of the smaller brown feathers to my arrangement, so for those I kept it simple and painted them in colorful ombre shades. Arrange your feathers on a wall as beautiful spring artwork! Photos by Julia & Brigette.
100 Ways to Repurpose Everything (Mega Roundup!) Think this title is a tall order? Well, you’re in for a post of epic eco-tastic proportions. So epic that you may need to give your computer or mobile device an extra moment to load all of our pretty pictures. Seeing as we love to repurpose just about anything under the sun, we’re celebrating Earth Day by serving up 100 of our favorite ways to upcycle, reuse, and transform everyday materials into creative new things to wear, hang on the wall, and give to friends. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61.
Wooden Gems Try This: Wooden Gems Today's tutorial will set you back a couple of bucks and ten minutes, and in the end, you'll have a handful of little gemstones ready for whatever projects your imagination can scheme up. Read on for the easy step-by-step and few ideas for how to put these little beauties to use. MATERIALS: wooden rectangles, pencil, fine tip paint brush, craft paints in colors of your choosing, black, and white ONE: Begin by sketching the facet lines as shown. TWO: Mix up six shades of the color of your choosing using black and white paint. THREE: Use the fine tip brush to carefully paint inside your sketched facet lines. Try out some other colors and use them in all sorts of ways...jewelry, keychains, napkin rings.
Simple Ear Cuff Tutorial What you've all be waiting for... an ear cuff tutorial! I've been making ear cuffs for over a year, but unfortunately haven't had the time to make some of the insanely complicated designs I've dreamed up. This, however, is a very simple ear cuff that takes only a few minutes to master! Ear cuffs (also known as ear clips, cartiliage cuffs, ear vines, and more) are fabulous for people who don't have pierced ears-- or pair them with other earrings for a "double piercing" look. All you need is pliers and some wire (the pictured wires are 20ga blue silver plated copper and 20ga enameled copper in various colors). Begin with 3 inches of wire. Fold at one inch. Fold again, creating a little zigzag. Twist the ends into swirls and pinch the swirls until they touch the center wire. You will need a mandel to form the ear cuff correctly. Push the ends down... The tips of the ends will still be straight. Tada! This brown ear cuff fits both ears. This ear cuff is for the left ear.
DIY Picture Tiles - You Will Never Buy a Photo Frame Again Lately I’ve been having this huge urge to decorate the house. This is big news. I do not decorate. Arguably, one of the reasons why is because I. absolutely. hate. to. buy. mass. produced. decor. Anyway, this extends to photo frames. Nope. Long story short, I discovered this method of transferring my photos cheaply, quickly, and beautifully to something uncommon and unique. Tiles. The only thing that’s not particularly crunchy about this is that it uses Modge Podge or similar (and I’m not sure what’s in Modge Podge). It’s just grainy and doesn’t dry clearly. Boo. BUT, if you can overlook that one minor issue, I think you’ll love this. And it will be glorious. Here’s how you do it. First, you need to go to Home Depot, Lowes, or something like it. (FYI, I found that Lowes prices on tiles were cheaper than Home Depot. I like the stone tiles, because they have texture. So you pick out your tiles in the sizes you want. And then you get home and gather what you need. Cut them out. Go go go! Love me?
Make an Anthropologie-Inspired Bead and Chain Necklace Home » $1 and Free, Accessories, Fashion, Headline, Tutorials, Wearable Crafts 25 April 2011 35,139 views 15 Comments by rhonda When it comes to things I need to destash, costume jewelry is pretty high on the list. I've been given a large quantity of it over the years, and I also keep an eye out for it at yard sales and estate sales. At $38.00 it's actually not too terribly steep compared to most Anthro items, but I'd still rather make my own. Not bad, huh? Project estimate: Beads, on hand or $1 and upChain, on hand or $1 and upFishing line or beading wire/thread, on hand or $1 and upCrimp beads, on handJump rings or split rings, on handJewelry pliers, on handNecklace clasp, on hand Total: Free and up I dug through my costume jewelry and found this great chain with square links that would give a similar effect to the chain in the Anthro necklace. String the chain onto the fishing line through the first chain link, then add a bead.
Popsicle Stick Bracelets So I was looking through my vintage craft book collection and ran across a 1970 Pack O’ Fun magazine. They had instructions on how to take a simple popsicle stick and turn it into a bracelet. I’m always happy to try and take a good idea and run with it. Well, I’m certainly on board for that. The thought of being able to make wood pliable put all kinds of ideas in my head. Are you new to the Sitcom? For this project I used: Popsicle sticks (bought the industrial strength size bag from Walmart because this project might go in future directions)Drinking glass (for forming- use a glass with a top opening that is slightly smaller than you want your bracelet to end up)Emory board or sand paperAcrylic paintStick on jewels (for bling)Mod Podge The instructions in the magazine called for allowing the popsicle sticks to sit in water overnight. I found that I still had to work the wood, warming it with my fingers, to make it pliable enough to fit into the top of the glass without splitting.
How to Crochet 5: Seaming Your Work In this how-to series we could move right on from single crochet to the other stitches (double crochet, half double crochet and triple crochet) but I'm pausing to talk about "seaming" because if you want to make anything other than washcloths or rectangular scarves or afghans (which are all good) you're going to need to seam some pieces together. Seaming is a good skill to have and it can be the difference between a cute sweater looking handmade instead of homemade. I am going to share two different methods. The first is the invisible mattress stitch, which works equally well for knitting or crochet by the way, and the second seaming method uses a single crochet stitch. Click to view the full tutorial. SEAMING WITH THE MATTRESS STITCH: You will need a tapestry needle to do the seaming, which is a large blunt needle and a big eye for threading the yarn. The mattress stitch is so fabulous because it's virtually invisible if you line up the stitches correctly. That is the mattress stitch!
DIY Embellished Friendship Bracelets The weather is warming up and my wrists are feeling rather lonely and bare after hiding under long sleeves all season long. But after digging up last year’s DIY friendship bracelets, I realized they desperately needed sparkly and shiny upgrades. Today we’re showing you three easy ways to embellish your friendship bracelets, making them all grown up . . . To add rhinestones, you’ll need:a chevron friendship bracelet (tutorial found here)5-6” crystal rhinestone chain (last used here)1 yard of embroidery flossan embroidery needlea pair of scissors Thread the needle with embroidery floss and tie the end into a double knot. Stitch the floss between the first two rhinestone links, pushing needle out the middle of the bracelet. Continue stitching between the rhinestone links. Your friendship bracelet is sparkling and finished! To add studs, you’ll need:a chevron friendship bracelet (tutorial found here)5 3/8” brass cone studs (last used here)a pair of small, sharp scissorsa screwdriver
Friendship Bracelets Macraméd friendship bracelets were all the rage when I was growing up in the eighties. All the girls at my school would obsessively make them for one another in a dizzying variety of colors, widths, and patterns. It's amazing, thinking back, that such young girls could make such beautifully intricate accessories. I, of course, tried my hand at making them as well. I would ride my bike down to the five-and-dime store and pick out the most sophisticated color combinations of embroidery floss I could find, but when it came to the actual macramé I never got beyond plain stripes. Fast forward 20 years: Purl Soho started carrying DMC Cotton Embroidery Floss in every conceivable color (including fluorescents! Making friendship bracelets is a surprisingly easy craft, and best of all, in the end you'll have a bunch of cute summer bracelets to give to your pals. Materials Since this is such a free form enterprise the amount of colors of DMC embroidery floss you get is really up to you. Beginning
Neat Ripple Pattern Ahhhhhhhh look at all those hooky ripplesome ripples, aren't they glorious? I love crocheting this pattern, its relatively simple, rhythmic and soothing, but playing with colours in this way is also energising, exciting and a lot of fun. Well to me it is any road. there's something magical and mesmerising about the way the ripple effect makes the colours sing and dance next to each other, and it's a pattern I can see myself coming back to time after time. When I made my first ripple blanket last year (finished in August 2008), I followed a pattern in Jan Eatons book (the Soft Waves pattern), and it has to be said that at first this pattern was not plain sailing. But I persevered and eventually I cracked it. But truthfully I always think crochet patterns look and sound far too complex, more than they actually need to be. So what I've done here for you is to write my own pattern. To start out, you need to crochet your foundation chain. That whole thing is a tr2tog (treble two together)
Paper Bead Tutorial & mad mim - Sewing and other craftiness from Miriam Tribe. One time I was seriously considering buying a pair of sandals because they were offering a free bonus paper bead necklace. I really liked the sandals, but I loved the paper bead necklace. Fast forward to my present phase of jewelry-making. I’ve been haunting Anthropologie’s jewelry page to get ideas for jewelry to make. I came across these dazzling beauties, and did a toe touch from excitement (wouldn’t that be awesome?!) What you’ll need: -magazines, colored paper, tissue paper, toilet paper (ok, maybe not) but really. -Elmer’s glue, Modge podge, and some kind of varnish. -scissors, or a rotary blade, quilting ruler and cutting mat (way faster) -round toothpicks -something to stick your toothpicks in like a styrofoam tray or packing materials, or cardboard box. -a paintbrush Before you start cutting, I’ll say a word about paper choice. Cut your strips: Measure 3/8″ from the bottom edge and mark. Measure 3/4″ away from top edge and mark. Now cut from the very top corner to your bottom mark.
52 Weeks Project Spoon Ring