Shrinky Dink Jewelry on Brit+Co.

Remember this DIY from a while back? Well, I decided to pull out the shrinky dinks again and try my hand at a few more accessories...This is such an easy way to make custom pieces on the cheap. Head on over to Brit + Co to check out my post and get some inspiration for pieces of your own!

Since I last posted we've made the move to New York City! Taylor and I are finally starting to feel fully settled into our new apartment in Brooklyn and falling quickly in love with the city...I can't wait to share some little bits and pieces of  our new home and life with you all. Of course, I'm getting a spurt of creative energy and desire to get back to blogging right before things get crazy again -- I start my Masters of Social Work on Thursday, and life is going to get busy quickly!...but I'm so excited to pursue something I'm so passionate about. I'm thinking this is going to be a pretty great time in my life :)

I'm Still Alive! // Batik Constellation Wall Art DIY on Brit+Co.

Hello hello my friends! You may have noticed that I took a bit of a hiatus from blogging...if you're still around after a month of radio silence, you're the best! I've been crazy busy with getting things together to move across the country and spending quality time with friends before I leave. This big move will be over in two weeks and I'm looking forward to having the summer to do all sorts of projects and post more frequently! There is also another reason for my absence...I recently got hired by Brit+Co as a freelance DIYer and I'm so excited to be contributing to their site! My first project for them was a fun piece of wall art using a dying method called batik...head on over to their site for the full post!

A Cocktail Shaker for All You Mason Jar Lovers

The number of jars floating around our house is a little ridiculous. We have them in every size, design and shape. And of course we had to buy the blue ones when they started making them again. Our one male housemate doesn't get the obsession at all and I think he secretly tries to sneak a few of them into the recycling bin every so often...hah! We use them as cups, vases, pen holders, make up organizers, traveling mugs...you name it. A while back I saw these mason jar cocktail shakers and thought, I could make that! Taylor's birthday gifts this year were mostly alcohol themed - he's recently gotten into whiskey, so I got him some whisky and fancy drink making ingredients. I decided to make him a shaker to go along with it. Here's how I did it...

To do this you will need a 32 oz mason jar and one extra lid (just the flat part, not the collar). You can find packages of just these at most stores that sell mason jars. One lid will be for shaking and the other will be for pouring. I decided to cover the shaking lid with some chalkboard tape I had on hand, so we can write fun little messages on it. If you can find some food safe paint that will stick to metal, it could be fun to paint the lids as well. Get creative!

To make the pouring lid you will need a nail, a hammer (or a drill), and super coarse sandpaper (or a metal file would probably work better). Poke one hole at the top, and a bunch of holes on the bottom (see picture). The underside of the lid will be a bit dangerous at this point...I pounded the spikes down with a hammer and sanded it a bit to prevent any cocktail making injuries (it's serious business, guys). That's it! Now go make some drinks. And, uh, remember to drink responsibly, kids ;)

DIY Tassel Necklace

Ever since I did this tassel pillow project, I've had a bag of leftover tassels and embroidery thread waiting to be used. My roommate Sydney has this gorgeous tassel necklace that I often contemplate stealing...the other day we realized that it would be super easy to recreate and was the perfect use for those leftover tassels. This project took me about 20 minutes and cost a few bucks...and I'm so happy with how it turned out!

Here's what you'll need:
Embroidery thread in a few different colors
Scissors
Chain and closure - You will need a pretty long strand. I think I ended up getting 6 feet and could have used more. (I used a ball chain since this is what was used in Sydney's necklace - I think this type of chain definitely looks best)

Start by measuring out your loops. I did four loops but but I think if I had enough chain I would have done one or two more (and possibly made the whole necklace a little longer). Experiment around and see what you like best. Just make sure you can get the whole thing over your head since you won't be able to use the closure. Once you have arranged your loops add your closure to the two ends of the chain while still holding onto your loops so you don't lose them.

Now take a little piece of tape and wrap it around all of the chain where the closure is so that your loops stay in place. Take a foot long piece of embroidery thread and cover up the area with the piece of tape by tying knots around it like you would for this type of friendship bracelet. Basically the chain will serve as the threads in the center and you will just use the embroidery thread to tie knots. Make sense? (If not, you could also just cover up the closure by wrapping a little piece of fabric around the area and securing it with fabric glue.)

Now you can start making your tassels. Take a look at this tutorial if you're not sure how to make them. For these ones I used about 6 strands of thread for each tassel. I wanted them to be small enough that they wouldn't be overwhelming. Before you tie a thread around the tassels to secure them, fold them around the chain so they are secured. I put one tassel on each loop of chain. Once you've secured all the tassels, you're done!

Do you have any projects you've done involving tassels? I still have quite a few left! I would love to hear any ideas :) Hope everyone had a great weekend! xx

DIY Gold Heart Headband

I've had the materials for this DIY headband sitting around for ages, but not being able to work outside due to cold weather has made me reluctant to pull out the glitter...it always somehow ends up in my bed (It's true what they say: glitter is the herpes of craft supplies). BUT, I decided Valentine's day would be the perfect time to suck it up and do this project...Because what's better than a gold, glittery, heart shaped accessory to wear on February 14th? (Well, maybe a red, glittery headband, but I'll leave that one up to you).

Here's what you will need: sheets of felt, glitter, glue/some sort of adhesive (the less gooey the better), a needle & thread to match your felt (or a sewing machine), elastic, clear spray paint, and scissors.

If you would like to skip a step and avoid drying time/lots of mess you can do what I did and use felt sheets that have adhesive already on one side. If you do this, you may not want to use a sewing machine because it gets the needle a little sticky. But hand sewing it was super quick and easy.

First, cut out a bunch of hearts. Use a piece of string (or whatever you have lying around) to measure how long your strand of hearts needs to be to wrap most of the way around your head and line the hearts up along it as you cut (mine goes from just below the tops of my ears).

Next, sew your hearts together. If you are using a sewing machine, I would probably pin the hearts to a strip of fabric and sew one line horizontally across all of the hearts, and then cut off the visible fabric. If you are hand sewing, just use a couple of small stitches to attach each of your hearts, like I did with mine. When you are done, sew on your elastic. Measure the headband on your head to figure out how long you will need it to be.

Now, glitter-ize your hearts. If you have adhesive felt, take off the backing papers (carefully) one at a time, and pour on the glitter. Press down a little on the glitter to make sure it really sticks before you shake it off.

Last, spray the hearts with a few coats of clear spray paint. This will stop the glitter from getting all over everything (glittery hair isn't cute...it just looks like dandruff. So this is essential!).

That's it! Enjoy your new super cute, super cheap accessory. If you'd rather avoid all the sewing, you could just attach a glitter heart to a hair clip for a more subtle accessory :)

A Book of Love // Valentine's Day Inspiration

Here's a fun little gift idea for someone special on Valentine's Day! This is actually something that I do for Taylor each year on our anniversary, but it also works for Valentine's Day (or any other special day for that matter). This project is pretty cheesy but, hey, you knew what you were getting into when you clicked on a post about Valentine's Day ;)

Each year I put together a little book that tells the story of that year...I write about any special things (or mundane things that were still meaningful) that happened and create pictures to go with each page. Then, each page has a song that goes with it - either a song that goes with whatever I wrote, or a song that was meaningful to us during that time. Taylor and I are the kind of people who remember exactly what we were listening to during certain events, so it's fun to have little mixes that remind us of each year of our relationship. I usually burn the mix for him and create a little pocket for it in the back of each book. If music isn't so much your thing, think of something that is meaningful to you and your special someone and see if there is a way to incorporate that into your book...maybe you're long distance and write a lot of letters - create little pockets for copies of special letters...maybe you bond over books - include your favorite passages...get creative!

Thoughtful and homemade is always better than store bought, right? What do you like to do for your Valentine?

Hope your week has been wonderful! xx

Snail Mail, Pt. 2

Happyhappy Friday, friends! Boy, am I glad the weekend is here. Today seemed to drag on forever...half the kiddos at work are sick and crabby so things in the classroom were a bit crazy. Crossing my fingers the constant hand washing and sanitizing paid off! I am so ready for a night out with friends, followed by a couple days of nothing but rest and relaxation :)

Today I thought I'd share a couple quick and easy cards I made. If you're not at all punctual like me, I figured you might still be putting together thank you cards from the holidays, and could probably use a little inspiration! Or maybe you made a New Years Resolution to write more letters (hey, remember when I said I would do that?...Hah!). Either way, here ya go! You can see my last Snail Mail post right here.

Card making is one of my favorite crafts...I used to make these crazy elaborate cards for birthdays/valentines day/christmas/etc, but in recent years I haven't really had time. I'd love to start doing it again, but for now I'll stick with these simple (but sweet) card ideas.

This one is probably my favorite (mostly because I'm a little obsessed with gold glitter these days) and it took me about a minute to make last night. To make the glitter part look sort of like imperfect brush strokes, I used the corner of a new-ish glue stick to make the lines, and then poured the glitter over. I had to fix up a couple spots with a little more glue. Then I used my favorite letter stamps to write a little French thank you.

 I made this one a while ago to send to a friend who moved away, but you could also make a thank you card this way. Put some sticker letters on your card, dip a dry brush in paint, test it out a couple of times until you get a stroke you like, and then paint lightly over the letters. Let the paint try and then peel the letters off!

This one is super simple. It's just a piece of cardboard with tissue paper triangles glued on.

This is another card that could be made into a thank you card. I used sticker letters to write hello in a bunch of different ways, and then put neon washi tape around the edges of the card.

Have a great weekend :)

Floating Walnut Candles

Happy New Year, friends! Sorry about the unplanned blogging hiatus...I'm back on the East Coast for the holidays and have been busy with family time and a fun weekend trip to NYC (more on that later!). I had all sorts of holiday projects and recipes planned for you and started to get stressed about getting them done and then quickly realized that getting stressed isn't the point of blogging! So, I just let it go, let my computer die and hardly opened it over the holidays. It was nice to unplug. Anyway, now I am back! This is one of those DIYs I planned on sharing before the holidays, but I figured I could share now anyway since these sweet little candles are fun for any time of year.

My mom's side of the family has a tradition of lighting these candles together during the holidays...I was talking to my parents and we actually couldn't remember which day we typically do it on (oops!). I think the tradition was originally to do it on the Winter Solstice, but last year we did it on New Years Eve since that was when we were all together. Everyone takes a turn lighting a candle and putting it in a bowl of water as they say their wish/dream for the New Year or something they are thankful for. Of course, if you aren't into such sappy traditions, these are also nice to just have as decorations :) They make a beautiful center piece.

To make these you will need:
Walnuts (or other nuts with large enough shells)
Wax (you can just melt down old candles)
Wick (make sure the ones you get are compatible with your wax!)
A bobby pin
A can
A saucepan

First, you will need to crack your nuts and clean out the halves. This proved to be quite difficult for me as the nuts we had were pretty hard to crack without turning the whole thing into crumbs. We used a variety of nutcrackers, knives, files and pliers to get it done. After we got the hang of it, it didn't take too long. I've also heard roasting them for a little while can help.

Next, cut your wick to the appropriate size. Use the bobby pin to set the wick up in the middle of the nut shell. Now, you're going to create a makeshift double boiler. Fill a saucepan with water and bring it to a boil. Cut up the wax into little pieces and put it in the can. Now, put the can in the hot water so the wax melts. Once the wax has melted, pour a tiny dot of wax onto your working surface and set your shell on it, so the wax holds it upright. Once the shell is secured in place, carefully fill the shell with wax, making sure not to let it overflow. Let the wax harden, and you're done! If you don't want to make candles you can also make cute little boats by sticking a toothpick with a colorful paper sail into the wax!

Gift Wrapping Idea: A Paper Flower!

Happy Monday, friends! Hope you all had a great start to your week - I am finally starting to feel better and Winter Break is in sight so I'm pretty excited :) Here is a little project I did to dress up the gift I got for our Secret Santa gift swap at work. Last year I made lots of little tags like this to put on all of my gifts, so I will hopefully be back later this week with a couple more ideas for you!

To make the flower, first cut out five petals (make sure they are wider at the top like the ones below). Next, make the little ripples in each of the petals - I used the end of one of my smallest makeup brushes (while you are doing this start heating up your hot glue gun!). Skewers also work well (better, actually). It helps if you have two. Put one on each side of the paper and shape the petal around the skewers. It's confusing at first, but you'll figure it out! Next, cut a slit at the bottom of the petal, and overlap the two sides so your petal becomes 3D...glue it together with a little dot of hot glue! (Look at the picture and it will all make sense). Now, glue each of the petals together.

To create the middle of the flower, cut two small circles. One should be a bit bigger than the other. Cut the edges of each of them like I did in the picture above. Then use your fingers to curl the edges in. Glue them to the middle of your flower (little one on top of bigger one). Cut out a couple of leaves and glue them to the bottom of the flower.

For this one I created a band of white paper to wrap around my present, and glued the flower to this and used it as my label. In the past I have also made smaller flowers and cut out little labels to attach them to. It's up to you!

Do you have any creative ways you like to embellish your presents? Or do you like to keep it simple? Today I just wrapped a present in craft paper and tied it up with neon string - sometimes simple is great too. I love coming up with different ways to wrap presents, so I'm excited to finish wrapping everything once I get to my parent's house for Christmas!

Twinkle Light Christmas Tree

Raise your hand if there is a dead tomato/basil/blueberry plant freezing in your yard! Mine has a nice little plant cemetery going...The other day as I was admiring my collection of plant skeletons, I realized that the cages that used to hold up my plants were the perfect shape to use for a Christmas tree craft project! I have been brainstorming ways to create a tree/something that could stand in for a real Christmas tree for our house. There isn't a lot of room in this itsy bitsy house, and none of us will actually be home for Christmas, so it just didn't make sense to get a tree...but I still wanted something that felt festive and cozy. 

To make this little tree light I started by attaching lights to the cage vertically, securing them with washi tape as I went. This fills in the gaps so you can wrap the next string of lights around the cage horizontally. Mess around with the lights until you like they way they are distributed. Just make sure all plugs are in the back. Next, attach decorations! We don't have any tree decorations so I just made some gold and white stars and taped them to the cage. That's it! My house mate just came home with pine scented cleaning supplies and we may or may not be considering spraying the tree with them to trick our senses into thinking it's real...

I'm excited to curl up on the couch next to our little tree and watch Christmas movies this weekend :) It's not quite a real tree, but it'll do! (it case you're wondering, the tree is about 3 ft tall)

Embroidery Hoop Wall Art

Evening, friends! I finally made it home to PDX late last night after a long, eventful day of travel. Today has been quiet and relaxing. I stole my boyfriend's softest sweater, made a hot cup of tea and did work in bed all day! Oh, and I may have plugged in the twinkle lights and listened to a little Otis Redding Christmas Pandora channel...

Here is a little DIY I finished today that I have been meaning to do for a long time...filling this embroidery hoop has been one failed DIY after another. After using transfer paper to print a photo on fabric didn't work, I resorted to just washi taping a little feather in the middle of the hoop and calling it a day. Today that feather inspired me to try something else!

To do this I used a regular ink pad (since I won't be washing it or anything), a feather (needs to be one that isn't too fluffy - I cut mine down a little so there wasn't too much fluff and it was a shape I liked), letter stamps, white fabric, and of course the embroidery hoop.

I carefully stamped on the phrase I wanted. Then I used this tutorial to print the feather below the writing. I used a wine cork instead of a roller since I didn't have one, and it worked just fine!

I'm really happy with the way it turned out - I love that the stamp letters are a little bit imperfect. If you don't have letter stamps, you could also hand write a short phrase using a paint pen, or you could just do a feather! I'm excited to try a few more projects using my newly learned skill of feather printing :) 

Hope you're having a great Sunday! xx

Gold Chain Headband DIY

This DIY is inspired by a chain headband I saw a while back in Urban Outfitters. It is super easy and cheap to make, and you can customize it any way you like...You could make it thinner, thicker, braid it, add in silver/brass/copper chain or bright string or different styles of chains...so many options! I think that this simple gold one will be great to wear around the holidays. Also, I discovered that this headband makes a cute necklace! I would just wear it with my hair down to hide the elastic in the back a bit.

All you will need is a few inches of thin elastic, a needle and thread, two large jump rings and a bunch of chain (I think I used a couple little packages of chains. You might be able to find some cheaper chains in bulk online). Measure your head to decide how long you need to make the chains. Leave a couple of inches in the back for the elastic. Cut the elastic to be a little shorter than the space you left (that way it will be tight enough). Cut your chains to your desired length, trying to keep them all the same length as much as possible. Remember, if you plan on braiding your chains, you need to take into account the shortening that will occur. Attach the chains to a jump ring on either end. Now, take your elastic, loop it through each of the rings and sew it in place. That's it!

Due to a lack of sunlight, or a tri pod, or a functioning camera remote, or someone to help me take pictures I struggled majorly to get a good picture of this...the one that shows best how this headband looks on ended up being a mirror picture I took in my room...oh well!