Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Winter Gear

The Dollar Tree has to be one of my favorite stores. I can find super simple things that allow me to be creative and go nuts at the same time. The other day I found these. 
Now, I wear scarfs once in a while, but not very often. Hats? I'm not a hat person. I try. Put them on, walk out of the house, feel silly, and thats the end of my hat. I really don't know what I would even buy a hat, but the matched. They were soft and seemed worthy of my $1.00 bills. The lady at the register seemed to think they were a good deal too and when I told her I was going to embellish them she looked at me like I had 47 heads. I had red fabric in my house from a old Halloween costume and decided to make those nice big fabric flowers I seem to love so much (bc i do them constantly now). So I cut out my circles and made this. 

I was worried at first that the fabric wouldn't curl bc it was cotton but it worked. Though, it did leave the edges black and burned looking. Normally I would hate that but it made the flower look so vintage and it fit perfectly with my color scheme. 




Try not to stare at my fat stomach. I was trying to show you the scarf actually being worn. It's about the crafts people! LOL. 

Sorry. No make up. SHIELD YOURE EYES!


I liked the way the black scarf turned out so I went to Walmart bought teal cotton fabric and decided to do the same thing with the gray hat and scarf. DISASTER. Although the red cotton fabric curled the teal one just burned. No curl just puuuure burn. AWESOME. Now I was sitting there with like 56789 fabric circles in front of me and nothing. So i improvised. I cut some fabric circles in a spiral shape and sewed them like you would in order to make the flowers i made on the washer necklace. These made pom pom shapes is they were pulled tight and flower like shapes if kept loose. Therefore each larger flower is one flower shape and one pom pom shape for the middle. The smaller flowers are loose flower shapes with button centers. Take a look! 

WARNING- I already mentioned I'm not a hat person. These pictures prove it. Please be easy on me. I'm well aware I look ridiculously bad in these pictures. 






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Gift Bags

I hate wrapping presents. I wrap as if I were 5 years old. My gifts look god awful. Naturally, because of that, I'm a bag person.  Well, I found these little gems in the Dollar Tree and thought I might be able to add a personal touch.
Here are the bags. Christmas red

2 for a buck! CANT GO WRONG!

I grabbed white drawing paper and my trusty colored pencils and I went to town.

I drew two, in my opinion, ah-dor-able pictures and cut them out. Then I took red watercolor and painted the background to blend with the bag color. Glued em on the bag and TADA! A cute gift bag to put my Christmas gifts in! Cheap, cute, and easy- exactly how I like it!

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Washer Jewelry

I saw a blog that had some washer jewelry. I'm a big fan of making things out of odd materials so I knew I had to try it. I also added a fabric flower on mine to add my own touch. All I did to make the flower was cut a strip of the teal fabric and sew in and out down one side. Pull it tight and it curls and makes a flower shape. Sewed it close and hot glued the buttons on.
This picture was taken before i decided to add the flower. Not so sure I like how it looks on.

After I added the flower. The final piece.

Flower up close.


After that necklace I had one washer remaining. So I took some paper left from here and E-6000'd it onto the washer. After it dried I coated it with diamond glaze and let dry again. Then, I strung it and added a red bow for a feminine touch. I like this one.



I'm obsessed with this damask pattern!

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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Christmas Ball Wreath

So Ive been seeing all those Christmas ball wreaths and I adore them. I refuse to pay big bucks though so I hit up my local dollar store. $6.00 spent and i was able to get 6 12pks of X-mas balls. For the frame I used a simple wire hanger and bent it into a circle. I strung the balls onto the wire (after hot gluing the tops on the balls) and added a big red bow. WHALA!



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Sunday, November 21, 2010

Painted wood and other older projects

When I was decorating my room I went with a very beachy theme. I live 5 min from the Atlantic after all. So in order to add some flair I painted some signs and decor in super bright colors.


Did this in college, but it goes with the theme of my room. Definitely should have used a ruler. God are those lines messed up looking! Oh well.  The hibiscus flower was drawn by my friend Kim. Isn't it awesome?!

Letters I painted for my wall.

I used this box to hold my perfume in college. As you can tell its been through A LOT. A coconut was lost along the way. Some stickers fell off. This box has seen better days. I'm sure you can imagine what it originally looked like though.

So sad. 



This is one of the latest additions to my room. My friend Catherine painted this and I'm just amazed by her talents. The whole thing is made of tiny dots! LOOK AT THAT SHADING! She could easily sell these for some money. It's amazing, and fits in perfectly!

Stuffed Animals

Back in the 8th grade I took home economics. There, they "taught" us how to sew. For a 14 year old I was alright, but the fact was, i could do it. Why now i am so sewing illiterate is beyond me. Before I lost my skill though I did sew 3 stuffed animals. 2 kind of sucked, and one turned out pretty awesome.

I tried to get pics of all 3 but one is totally M.I.A. My dogs most likely hid it somewhere.
Here are the other two though.

The very first one I made. Bad choice of fabric because it frays. I don't even know what animal it is. It looks well, terrible.

Third one I made. MUCH BETTER. Although, I have no idea why it's rear is up in the air. ha. 

Side view. Check out the detail on the ear. 



Purses

In college I went through a purse craze. Well I'm always in a purse craze, but in college I started making them! I found a random roll of seatbelt in the thrift store and KNEW it was going to be a purse. So i grabbed my glue gun and started weaving and gluing away. I ended up with a clutch bag (kinda Wendy Williams style) and I used a belt I never wore as a accent piece.

I had a fabric wrapped piece of cardboard on the bottom to keep it stiff but it fell out in the drawer and I was being lazy. 

Standing up. 


Back/ Side



After this one I discovered the candy wrapper purse. The idea seemed sooo simple. I didn't have that many candy wrappers though, so I went for magazines- and i made a wristlet instead. I folded and taped (i dont have a laminator) each piece for strength and durability and then i started making chains. Now, technically you then sew the chains  together. As previously stated, Corey CANT sew. Sooooo I attempted, and it came out... poorly. SOOO I taped up the inside (no one can tell) and i poorly sewed on a zipper and I used an old headband for a strap. It looks awesome and no one can tell my tape secrets! 

Front

Close up. You can still see the words and pictures from the magazines

Back




Hope you enjoyed!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

New inspiration

So i went to a craft fair today and bought this for $3.00.

Is it a hair clip? Yes.
 Is it made for a 7 yr old? Yes.
 Am I 23 years old? Yes. 
Did I wear it all day anyway? OF COURSE I DID!

I KNOW i can make this! All it is is a gem (Michaels), a hair clip (Michaels), a piece of ribbon (Michaels), and a flower. Now Michaels carries flowers but NOTHING that looks like that. Not even fabric in that material. Time for some major googling. I know it can't be too hard bc the booth two down from her had the same things, in the same patterns (for $2.00 more). I just gotta figure out where they got em. Anyone know?!

Jewelry LOTS AND LOTS OF IT (Sorry for bad pics)

I went through a phase where a made a poop load of eco-friendly jewelry. Don't ask me why, I just thought it was neat to make things from random finding. Well, it was fun and de-stressing but now i have A TON. So I'm gonna post some examples of everything I made and if you see anything you would like, make me an offer I can't refuse. I'd love to sell some of it and get it out of my house!

Lets start with.... Rings

Jingle bell rings. This is the one product I wont sell because i just havent perfected them yet. They are totally cute, but my sewing needs some major work. 

Button Rings. Everyday buttons from old clothes transformed into funky jewelry. 


How cute are they on your finger!!??? I love these!



BRACELETS:
 
Can tab bracelets. Some are made with ribbon, others beads, others just plain. Using all recycled soda can tabs. The kids, love em!

More clear picture.

Scrabble tile bracelet. Made with glass beads and recycled game pieces. All pieces spell out fun words such as dream or angel. If you want one of these I'll e-mail you what words and colors and what not. Just let me know. Quite a conversation starter! 

Clearer

simple glass bead bracelet. I made these with the children at a local craft show. They really enjoyed it!

Recycled magazine bracelets. You see all these beads made by Ugandian people. Well, I'm not from Uganda but I still make them! If you look closely (probably not in these pics) you can actually still see the words from the magazines. REALLY NEAT!



NECKLACES:


Bottle cap necklaces. I have more of these than I can count. Almost every picture imaginable. Tell me what you want and if I dont have it, I can make it. On your choice of ribbon color. This was my big seller at the craft shows. 
Again
Watch Necklaces. These are actually the inside of watches. The designs are unique and intricate. Stones were added for a feminine touch. Very unique. 
Close up (sorry for the blurriness) 

Front of the watch necklaces are actually the watch faces. So it's pretty from both sides!

These were the first thing to go with the tweens. They are made from backsplash samples. We got out kitchen redone and afterwards had all these metal samples. There here hammered and had a really neat texture and color. So I jazzed em up. I have animal prints and some really neat pics. 
Back of backsplash necklace. Check out the neat texture. 

Scrabble tile necklace. Letter on one side, picture on the other (although i know you can't tell in this pic). Ribbon color of your choice.


EARRINGS (My Favorite):
In order: Scrabble tile earrings (Pic on one side/ letters on the other), glass bead earring, guitar pick earrings, more scrabble tiles, glass bead earrings with  texture, soda can tab earrings (matches bracelet), wire earrings. Let me know if you are interested in any. I have tons of earrings in all different colors and designs. These are the basic designs but the color options are almost endless (especially with the glass bead ones), so if you want something particular let me know. 

A little brighter. I can provide more pics if you are interested in something.




Like I said, this is a blog to show my stuff, but I have so much jewelry I figure if I can sell it, why not!? If you would like to buy something feel free to contact me with an offer. I'm open on the pricing. If not, happy viewing!