Plate doodles

This post is gonna be a short one because this project doesnt require much. For the past couple months Ive collected a couple solid color plates from the thrift store and I wanted to add a little something to give them some character. So I took my ceramic paint markers out and started doodling. I'm crazy about geometric shapes so I connected triangles and came up with this design. 

When it comes to designing plates you can either use ceramic paint markers or just ceramic paint. The paint is usually forgiving, so if you mess up you can easily wipe it off and start again.Once you have finished painting/drawing your design, let them dry, then pop the plates into the oven at 300°  fahrenheit for 30 minutes (or according to your ceramic paint instructions).

Let it cool off and then use it for whatever you want. I've placed my hand painted plates on our coffee table to display. 

Hope you enjoy painting.

-Jenn

Succulent parade

 

Here are two ways you can display your lush succulents. These dainty arrangements could be used for your home or you can even give them as a gift; and they do make a lovely gift. Below are quick and easy instructions and photos to recreate this planter. 

You will need: 

-succulents

-stones or pebbles

- a pot or a planter

(I used a tin box that was originally used for holding recipes)

-yarn

(your choice of colors)

-string

-foam 

(I used floral foam because it was the only foam I could find in my house)

-2 skewers or 2 wooden dowels 

First cut your yarn and decide on how much you want to use. I cut 8" for each piece of yarn and of course you can decide on how long or how short you want the pieces to be.

Grab your foam, string, your skewers or dowels. Place your foam next to your planter and measure how long you want the banner to be. Once you figured out measurements place your dowels on each side of the foam. Then take your string and tie it on each end of the dowel ( make sure the string is tight enough).

Once your done with that, take your yarn and start attaching it on your string by doing a larks head knot (<--here are instructions on how to create this knot). Decide on the placement of yarn colors, my placement of yarn was pretty random. 

I used about 18 strands of yarn for my garland.

Take your succulents and replant them into your pot or planter and arrange them to your liking. Once your done replanting your succulents place the stones or pebbles all around the succulents.

Once your done replanting the succulents and you've placed the stones all around, take the garland and push the dowels on opposite ends of the planter, and your all done!

Here is another way to display your succulents, replant them into your cute little teacups! Super duper easy

Kimono cardigans

 I've checked out a couple different kimono cardigans and I wanted to make one for myself. So here is my version of a kimono cardigan. Its honestly super duper easy to make if you know how to utilize a sewing machine. You can probably knock out this piece in less than 30 mins. Its perfect for a light cover up for the summer and you can customize it to your liking.

You will need:

a yard of a light fabric such as polyester or lace

scissors

thread that matches the fabric

sewing machine

sewing pins

trimmings of your choice

measuring stick

1. I went to the fabric store and got a yard of a solid beige pink polyester cloth and a yard of white spotted lace. With the fabric folded, the width was a yard and the length was about 23 inches. Using fabric thats about 23 inches long will give you more of a shorter kimono that hits right under the belly. So you can definitely use more length of fabric if your desired look is more of a longer kimono.

2. Start off by folding the fabric, make sure that the “nice” side of the fabric is facing each other while the backside of the fabric is facing you. Make sure the fabric is folded evenly, where both ends meet up together. Lay the fabric completely flat and find the middle of the fabric. Once you have found the middle, mark a line down right in the middle with pins or a light marker.

3.    Take your scissors and begin to cut the line down the middle of the fabric, ONLY cutting the one layer of fabric. I repeat, ONLY the FIRST layer. Gently cut down the middle all the way to the crease. Once you have reached the crease, you can keep the scissors to the side. That will be about the only major cutting cutting you’ll be doing, wahoooo!

4. Alright here comes the tedious part, you are going to hem each side of the fabric, including the sides of the slit you just cut. Make sure that when your folding the ends, that the flaps are facing you. I usually hem about ½ of an inch everywhere else except the middle slit. For the middle you can hem an inch for both sides of the slit. Once you have ironed all the creases on the sides you can run over to your sewing machine and start sewing.

5. Sorry, I wont be doing a tutorial on how to use a sewing machine with this project, so if you have no clue how to use a sewing machine, dont worry theres hope, thanks to google ;) Using the sewing machine you want hem each side, including both sides of the slit. Once your done hemming each side, you'll be moving onto the last few steps. Your almost done!

6. Just a reminder you are still working with the backside of the fabric facing you, don't turn it over just yet. The next part of this project are the sleeves. Make sure everything is lined up evenly and flat on the surface your working on. Starting with the left or right side of the fabric, measure out 10 inches from the top (where the crease is) down. Once you have measured 10 inches mark it with a pin. Everything below this mark will be sown. So hold your fabric in place with your sewing pins. Repeat the same steps on the other side of the kimono.

7. You will use the sewing machine again to sew a straight line from the 10 inch mark to the end of the fabric. Make sure not to sew anywhere above the mark because those holes will become the sleeves for the kimono.   

8. Once you have created the sleeves, your right and left side should look like the photo above. Guess what you kinda almost done ?! Flip that baby around and tada you got yourself a kimono

9) But wait, if you want to design your kimono with trimmings your not done just yet. You can either place the trimmings around the sleeves, the bottom of the kimono, or the by the sides of the slit. I decided to place the lace trimming in the middle of my polyester kimono. If you want, you can add a few buttons here or there, or for you show stoppers, bedazzle time!

The finished look

Hope this tutorial was inspiring and easy to follow. Happy sewing!

- Jenn 

Stylish photo frame DIY

Currently listening to The general specific by The Band of Horses

These days ive been tacking a lot more projects than usual. Its probably cause most of my projects are simple and don't take much time and effort, but they are still darn good to look at and appreciate.For those you who want to display your photos and other nick-knacks in a stylish manner, i think this project would be perfect for you. It really is a easy project that doesn't require much material and you can probably find most of the supplies in your household. For this tutorial I'm not gonna go into that much depth with the instructions, but Im sure you guys will get the idea, and possibly even expand and get extra creative with this project.

Get a good sized frame that can accommodate the photos you want to display. I used a 12x8 plastic frame, you can either use a wooden frame or plastic. Grab yourself a glue gun, scissors, string, and clothes pins.

Since its February, I wanted to be festive and incorporate hearts in this project. You can find these cute heart clothes pins at Michaels craft store for only a dollar, or you can just use plain tiny clothes pins

Turn the frame backwards and measure out the amount of string you'll need to glue to your frame.

  Try to  make sure you give tension to the string when gluing it onto the frame, and use hot glue on the bottom and top of the string to keep it in place. 

Once the glue has dried you can start hanging the pictures on the string with the clothes pins and space them out to your liking. I used a few of my instagram prints which I purchased a while ago and cutouts. It really is as easy as it sounds. Happy Monday all you lovely people! 

A geometric kind of love

 Valentines is just around the corner, so now is the perfect time to craft up some love. Jumping into this project, I really didn't know how I wanted the end results to look like. I started off with the desired to use heart shapes and triangles and went on from there, piecing everything together. Try it out for yourself!

The supplies your gonna need is: 

• a glossed wood heart (you can purchase it at Micheals or ACMoore. the one i purchased was painted red  ) 
• scissors
• a few of your paint swatches
• modgepodge
• paintbrush
• yarn
• spray paint (its optional)
• fabric glue or hot glue gun

 Grab all the supplies you need and grab color swatches that you think would look well together, take into consideration what color you want the heart to be, and think of a color motif that works for you.

 I wanted to stray away from the typical Valentines day colors and use gold for the heart and a cool color scheme for the triangles. Spray paint both the front and back of your wooden heart.

 This is where the fun part comes in, cut out the paint swatches into different size triangles and  start arranging them together. To be honest with you, this takes a while to piece these geometric shapes together, its quite the puzzle. Use modge podge to paste the triangles to the heart. Once your composed a desiring piece with your triangles,  apply modge podge on top of your design to give it that glossy look.

 Once the modge podge has set and dried, grab your fabric glue or hot gun glue and yarn. Use the yarn to spell out the word "love in cursive". To make it easier you can first write it out on the wood and use that as a guideline. Trace the writing with the glue and immediately place the yarn on top of the glue. I personally rather use fabric glue because its strong and tacky. It doesn't dry as fast as hot glue, so you can take your time. The disadvantage using fabric glue is that it takes forever to completely dry (about 8 hours), but when its dry, its really secure. So after finishing the last letter, measure out how long you want the heart to hang. Take the end of the yarn and glue it to the back of the wooden heart. Make sure the glue is completely dry before you hang it up.

Display your piece of art or even give it as a Valentines gift. You can make this piece as personal as you want. Experiment with different shapes, textures, and you can even use cut out photographs to add to the heart. Really make it your own!

Well to end this post I want to leave you with a video of The Civil Wars singing
"Tip of My Tongue". I had this video on replay and I typed up this tutorial, such a lovely song. Happy Saturday guys

A sleeve stamp

 Currently listening to Phone Call  by Washed out

After finishing a hot cup of morning joe from Starbucks, you eventually toss out the cup along with the coffee sleeve. Well the next time you buy yourself a cup of coffee, you may want to rethink about tossing out that cardboard sleeve. 

A few days ago I took a trip to Starbucks to grab an americano, after downing this cup of goodness, I ripped apart the sleeve out of boredom. Immediately I thought the ridges inside of the sleeve would be a perfect stamp, especially since I'm a sucker for lines and patterns. Tried it out and I loved the results the ridges on the sleeve make. So the next time you grab some coffee, save the sleeve and try it out yourself! Its super duper easy and this stamp would be perfect for other paper projects. I put together a simple tutorial for you guys..

 Take a coffee sleeve and rip the ends apart and decide on what shape you'd want to cut out.

 Once you cut out the shape you desire, glue something on back of the piece to be used as a knob. I used a hot glue gun to glue one of my tiny thread spools on back of the piece, and it worked perfectly. 

Place some ink or paint on a plate and gently place your stamp on the ink. You might want to test the stamp on a piece of paper before you stamp it onto the actual paper you want for the pattern.

There ya have it, easy as can be. The results look pretty awesome, especially if you stamp the pattern on top of each other. Hope you have fun with this tutorial!

DIY Teacup Candle

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO Beautiful Things BY GUNGOR

Since ive been using more candles lately, I thought it would be a neat project to make my own candles for once. I purchased this teacup and saucer at a nearby thrift store a while back, for the astounding price of only 60cents. This tiny orange polka dot teacup has been hidden in the corner of my room for a while now, but I couldn't abandon and veil this perfect set any longer. So I turned this teacup into a candle which smells of sweet vanilla. Anyways this DIY is such an easy and affordable project and its the perfect vintage display

Things you'll need

-tea cups

-wicks

-hot glue gun

-microwavable candle wax

Directions

1) Apply a dab of glue in the middle of the bottom of the cup, then immediately stick the wick on top of the glue

2) Then follow the instructions given with the candle wax about how to melt the wax (you can add a scent to the wax once its liquid form)

3) Pour the wax into the tea cup and make sure the wick is straight up

4) Once you poured the right amount into the teacup, wait until the wax has fully dried

And there you have it, a dainty teacup candle, ENJOY!  

D I Y braided headband

 Currently listening to Photographs&Memories by Jason Reeves

Heres a DIY for a quick and easy braided headband. For this headband I decided to use different types of fabric. Using different material gives the hair piece a more interesting texture and overall look. I scoured my fabric boxes for scraps and decided to use lace, lyrca fabric, and tightly woven fabric. If your decide to use different fabric, I suggest you use at least one fabric that is stretchy, like a tshirt. The strips should be at least 40" long and the width is really up to you. The thinner the strips, the thinner your headband will be. I wouldn’t go thinner than about an inch though, the strands get really hard to work with. 

Gather the fabric pieces together and leave about 8" of the fabric out and secure a knot. To make it easier  to braid the fabric, tape the piece onto something (taped the piece onto my bedpost). You can then begin braiding the fabrics together. 

As your braiding, make sure you leave 8" of the fabric unbraided. Then tie another knot to secure the headband. 

And there you have it, your very own handmade braided headband. 

Not only can you use this for a headband, but also a belt, bag handles, necklace, and a bracelet wrap.

Enjoy!