Pinterest DIY Fringe Scarf

So I've not been feeling well lately, which has been a blast, and so was looking for something fun to do while chilling in bed today. And recently, as I mentioned in my last post, I discovered Pinterest, where I've been carefully pinning different things I want to try! And today I knocked one off the list - booyah! So here we go! You need an old t-shirt (could be really fun with a multicoloured fun pattern... this orange one I had, and love, has an expanding hole) and a good pair of scissors (I used fabric scissors).

Then, start cutting!

First, start by cutting off the top of the shirt - lose the sleeves & neck.

First cut!

Ta da!

Then, from the bottom, start cutting strips to make the fringe.

I felt very 80s doing this part hahaha

This used to be a t-shirt!

Neat, eh?

Okay, then pull a few of the fringes - I thought this was a weird step until I did it and it actually makes the fringes...I dunno...just better. hahaha So do it!

Pulling! 

Then I tied a few knots, some at the very ends, some in the middles, some part way between.... I didn't tie them all, but a few throughout.

Knotting!

And then, voila!  This is a horrid picture - I'm lounging in my bed taking my own torso shot hahaha - but you get the idea.

Ta da!

If you DON'T get the idea, see the original, with her instructions here:

http://www.lakelandlocal.com/2011/08/diy-fringe-scarf/

So, if you're like me and hanging on to your favourites full of holes, turn them into fabulous scarves and make it even MORE favourites!

Happy crafting, folks! :-) 

DIY Batman T-Shirt

I'm SO EXCITED to share today's craft with you! I saw the idea on Pinterest originally the other day aaand have been flipping out GIDDY waiting to do it myself. hahaha 'Cause I'm an uber nerd like that. And I used cardstock, so it totally falls under my paper-crafting expertise area! ;-)

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN BATMAN T-SHIRT! BOOyah!!

What you need:

• a solid-colour t-shirt (white won't work, silly!) - I got ours at Wal-Mart for $4-$9 (I think Mr. Man's was the pricey one - oy!)
• a spray bottle of bleach (STRAIGHT bleach; don't dilute it)
• the Batman sign (which you have to cut out, so scissors, of course)
• and if you're cooler than me maybe some spray-adhesive to help hold the paper to the shirt while you work...especially if it's as windy for you as it was for me!

So I was GOING to draw the symbol and cut it out, 'cause I totally mastered that skill at Hallowe'en when I carved a Batman pumpkin (it was awesome, if I do say so myself...and I totally do!) but wanted to just verify something aaaaand realized in the Googling that I could just print the thing off and save myself the angst of the drawing.... duh!

I got the Batman image from Google search: "how to draw batman symbol" which brought up the image from http://www.dragoart.com/tuts/3751/1/1/how-to-draw-batman-logo.htm  You can get this logo pasted into a PDF for printing here)

Then, obviously I think, I cut it out. I should have used my craft scissors, but being lazy and the weather ridICulously hot today (aiding my laziness take over) so I just used the kitchen scissors. O:-)

Did you know when you cut shapes, especially round ones, that it works best to move the paper and NOT the scissors?  Try it next time you're cutting out a circle; just hold the scissors steady and move the paper along the line you're cutting. It's the secret to a lump-free round cut!

Batman's all cut out and ready to go!

Then I went outside and laid my shirt out flat, and put the paper pieces down on the shirt.

Placed on the t-shirt.

ALMOST READY!

....then I pulled the greatest face EVER...

Dang it! There was quite the gust of wind... I think this is why the original suggested using spray adhesive to help hold her letters on... silly short-cutting!

Then the spraying began!  The idea is to spritz above the shirt and let the bleach sort of float down onto the shirt.

Waiting for it to dry a little before moving it...see how much lighter the shirt is already?

Next shirt!

Spray up above the shirt and let it fall down

like this!

Then remove the paper and voila!!

Ta da!  ...except you can see on the bottom right where I slightly didn't spray UP and got a wee bit under the paper... O:-)

 Because I sprayed our shirts SO much (to make the symbol stand out oodles) I sprayed the backs, too.  A bit lighter, though, 'cause I wasn't screening anything on that side. Just so it wasn't funny looking. 

The coolest family of Batman shirts EVAH! SO excited to wear these!

Once they're dry you're supposed to be able to wear them and go...but I don't like my clothes reeking of bleach, so I ran them quickly through a short wash first.

Isn't that GREAT?! I'm SO IN LOVE! And, obviously, you can do ANYTHING! The pin that I got this from was of the kids' names on the shirt and the blogger had tried a cross that she then added jewels to - it was very pretty!  The sky is the limit, folks! Make yourself something fabulous!

I'm going to go watch Batman.

Meal Planner

I know, I know. Neither papercrafting or jewellery today. But as I was pondering what to write about I ALSO happened to be working on my meal plan/grocery list, and I realized, DUH, I had something to share. :-) I mean, when I saw the idea for the first time I thought it was GREAT, so hopefully someone out there will agree with me and find it useful, too!

I have some friends who are far too artistic and one day saw a post on Facebook from their company, Ollibird, about a meal planner. Well, I happen to have a degree in kinesiology and am studying to be a bona fide health care professional, so I LOVE all things health-related, and to me, meal planning fits in that category.

So I clicked on their link to see what was up.

Sheer genius. I LOVE it. And then I started surfing around and found other design options for the same thing - a beautifully designed weekly menu planner you print out and pop into a frame, then write on with an erasable marker.

I can't tell you how much I love these, and how WONDERFULLY the fun, bright colours will go in my kitchen!!

Buuuut...even at a measly $10, with neither my hubs or I working right now (BOO to layoffs!), I couldn't justify spending the money, even though I was looking at this for myself and a friend as a Christmas present. (I TOTALLY will purchase one as soon as I have a job - I LOVE LOVE LOVE the colours of the 'bright & mod' planner! SO FUN!)

So...I made my own!

It's not NEARLY as fun and fancy - I don't have any of the mad skillz the Ollibird group do, but I can click and drag shapes in Google Docs like a superstar; here's what I came up with:

I then bustled my butt over to WalMart, where I found some fabulous black frames for like, a buck, and grabbed a black "lumocolor" marker (you know the kinds your profs use on overheads in lectures?).

Voila!

I currently have two weeks' dinners planned out on it - necessary when relying on outside assistance for groceries, OY! - and LOVE that each day instead of trying to rack my brain to answer "what should I make for dinner" all I have to do is glance over at my meal planner and get started. It's wonderful!

Feel free to download my amateur version, above, but definitely look at the fun options Ollibird has to offer - they are only $10 (USD) and you can print them as many times as you like! AND they're way prettier than my perfectly adequate copy.

Happy Thursday, everyone, and get your meals organized! It's FABULOUS!

Cluster Necklaces

Hi, folks!

Holy geeze, it's MARCH! Crazy, eh? I don't know about where you are, but where I am we are having the most fabulously MILD winter EVER. I've missed being able to make a snowman with my kiddo this year, but I will take more winters like this over snowmen ANYTIME! :-)

With spring inching closer and closer I find myself turning ever so slightly away from my vast collection of scarves (I LOVE scarves) and back towards my increasingly fabulous jewellery stash! (I'm not going to lie, being able to make my own and having a small sellable inventory means I am NEVER at a loss for the perfect piece to complement whatever whim I'm having; it's accessorizing bliss. hahaha)

Here is one of my most FAVOURITE styles of necklaces to make and wear. It's an easy step up from the last how-to I shared with you, and goes with just about everything.

This particlar project was done for my darling dear friend who turned 14 last week. I chose purple as it has been her most absolute FAVOURITE colour since Justin Bieber came on the scene, and, honestly, it's a fabulous colour to work with. :-D

So, here's what you need:

• chain
• a whack-load of beads, charms, whatever you're adding to your cluster
• wire - I like to use 22-guage for this, because it's so easy to work with, but occasionally I use a chain that is so fine the 22 is too thick to fit through, so I'll use 24 gauge - I don't really recommend going thinner than that for this, but that's just me. I use 26 gauge for wrapping/weaving, not really for attaching. Anyway.
• wire cutters
• round-nosed pliers
• needle-nosed pliers

You're going to start the same way you started before, cutting a piece of wire long enough to go through your first bead but giving enough room to work on either side.  I'd say give yourself at least the bead's length plus 1 1/2 inches so you have lots of wiggle room, at least while you're learning. :-)

Then, this is a bit different - grab the wire with your round nosed pliers at the very end.

Then, turn the end of the wire up so it wraps around the pliers - you're making a little loop at the bottom that's going to be holding the bead on the wire. (If your bead has a big hole, make the loop bigger to accommodate it.  Generally this loop can be VERY tiny, and the smaller it is the stronger it will be.)

I like to bend my wire back a little so the loop is sort of 'centred' at the bottom instead of off-kilter, but it TOTALLY doesn't matter.  When I'm done, it looks like this!

Then, pop on the bead!  Sometimes when I do a cluster I like to use a nice big bead at the bottom and then build my cluster up above that - that's what I did here, so I have this giant purple agate going on the bottom.

This next part should look familiar - you're going to grasp the wire at the top and do the fabulous twist we learned before!

Grasp the wire above the bead with the round-nosed pliers

Bend the wire away from you over the pliers

Move the pliers in the bend from the side to the top

Bend the wire BACK over the pliers, and continue around to make a loop. Before closing the loop slip the wire through the end link of your chain.

Finish your loop by wrapping the end of the wire around the bottom of the loop above your bead 2-3 times.

Trim the tail off the wire.

Voila! The first bead of your cluster is attached!!  Then, all you do, is the same thing over and over with different beads. SO EASY!

I like to make most of my clusters pretty full, so I keep adding beads and charms until it's packed. This one used agate, amethyst, sparkly Chinese crystals, a tiny Swarovski crystal, glass beads, glass pearls, silver plated beads & charms...  Then I slip a jump ring or a slip ring on the top of the cluster, cut the excess chain off, and then put the NECKLACE chain through the ring and make it as long as I want - usually cluster necklaces I like to be nice and long so they sit slightly lower than the bust (which is why they don't work very well with scarves and winter bundles! BRING ON SPRING! hahaha)

And this was the finished product!  Isn't it gorgeous? (Even if I do gush about my own work...I love this one!)

For my bud's birthday I used a pin to shorten the chain and attached it to Scentsy buddy Ribbert (she has a thing for frogs, and a frog that smells like baked apple pie...let's just say this was a winner of a gift! hahaha BOOyah!)

Cute, right? I KNOW! hahaha

And that, my friends, is my big secret about how I make my most favourite pieces! 

Happy crafting! 

Framed Pages

Hi, everyone!

Sorry I'm posting a little tardy today - I'm in the middle of a FABULOUS paint job in my kitchen (it looks AMAZING) and haven't been near the computer to blog....but enough of that because I am here now! (I don't hear cheering....trying not to take that personally.... sob)

So, YES, I'm currently up to my eyeballs in paint and NOT so crafty at the moment, but with Valentine's coming up and my head on gifting - even though my hubs and I don't really recognize or care about Valentine's Day (I'm having a hard time shifting back into 'celebrating' it for my four-year-old! Whoops!) - I thought I'd show you some of my favourite ever gifts that will perhaps give you some ideas, if not for Valentine's Day then for some other special event in the future!!

I LOVE to give framed scrapbook pages.

What says "I love you" better than a personalized, handmade, BEAUTIFUL gift that the receiver can personalize even more by adding their favourite photo(s) than a gorgeously papercrafted piece of artwork for her home??

Here are a few I've done over the years:

This one was for my cousin's baby shower. She was expecting wee baby Emma to debut shortly thereafter!

A friend at church had a darling little girl after starting their family with two boys! Don't you just love the name: Shorleigh?

A wedding present for a girlfriend.  I LOVE this one. It was so simple but came out so wonderfully (in my very biased opinion)

This is a horrid photo, sorry, but I made this one for my parents for Christmas a year or so ago.  I LOVE this one in the large frame.  It's hanging in their family room. :-)

Aaaand....this one wasn't a gift. This is on the wall in my living room. hahaha But I LOVE it...which is why it's on the wall.

All you need is a killer scrapbook page, a 12X12 frame - Michaels, Ikea, www.feelingscrappy.com has some beautiful frames for a mere $15!!

So next event you have, try thinking INSIDE the box (I know, that was pretty bad. I couldn't help myself!) and prepare for some serious WOW.

I'll finish painting my kitchen and then get back into crafty stuff. Promise!  Cheers for now!

'Cheater' Scrapbooking

I've been trying to think of all of my favourite crafting things what to share with you today, and realized I haven't probably bragged nearly enough to the world about this fabulous tool I use when I want to get a bunch of pictures dealt with in a hurry.

May I introduce you to Studio J.

I love it. It's an online-based design software (from Close To My Heart) that allows you, without any purchase or committment, go in and play with your photos and scrapbook designs. AND if you DO want to use it to actually enhance your scrapbooking, you pay per printing - no expensive software to save up for or installation to fumble through - it's EASY EASY EASY.  I can literally do an entire two-page scrapbook layout in 5 minutes.

Like this one:

Or this one:

I use it to supplement the papercrafted scrapbooking I do, so like, my daughter's first-year scrapbook is a combination of what I spent hours labouring over, and then what LOOKS like I spent hours labouring over, but took no time at all.

Like this:

One day I was sick I spent on the couch and did I think 15 layouts in a few hours. It was great!  And another project I've been chipping away at is getting my 400+ wedding photos all "scrapbooked." I dunno, what do you think?  (You can click on them each to make them bigger and see the super cool techniques you can do!)

I love it because I take LOTS of pictures, and then all my digital photos end up dumped on a computer somewhere in the house and never get looked at! But if I take a little bit of time each month I can get my photos scrapbooked, and out in my living room so that we and our visiting family can enjoy flipping through them all. It's FABULOUS.

Anyway, sorry it's not a technique, or a here's-how-to-do-this post today - promise I'll do one of those next time I'm posting. But this is one of my FAVOURITE things and therefore, you absolutely had to know about it! hahaha  'Cause you know, I'm full of self-importance like that! hahaha

Watch this fabulous how-to video that takes you from start to finish of a beautiful two-page layout in just over 7 minutes (and that's with instruction time!)

 and then access Studio J here* to create your free account and get started! Because why take all those pictures to never share them with anyone??

(Yes, I'm a freaky scrapbook lady.  Yes I am okay with that about myself. hahaha JOIN me! It's FUN!)

That's all for now! Cheers!


*if you're in the States or somewhere else outside of Canada and have trouble using the above link to access Studio J try this, and please leave a comment to let me know! I've never tried it from somewhere else before! You can absolutely use it, just may need a consultant in your country to help you out. Maybe. :-)