T-shirt Headband

Today's DIY is a combination of two idea's I saw on the internet.  A 5 strand braided headband with a fabric flower.  They are both super simple, and they look extra cute together.  I made my headband for my (almost) 2 month old niece.  Though you could make it for anyone, just adjust length for head size.  I guessed my niece's head to be about 14 inches in circumference, and it worked out perfectly.  Since your making this out of t-shirt material it will stretch a bit when completed.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

- T-shirt

- Scissors

- Measuring tape

- Chalk

- Needle and thread (make sure your thread matches your t-shirt)

- Hot glue gun and clear glue

- Straight pins

Directions:

- Cut a rectangle out of the t-shirt 24 inches by 9 inches.  Then make a mark with chalk 1.5 inches apart up the length, this just helps to cut a straight line.  If you want to make this for someone with a larger head you will need longer strips.  

- After you make your marks cut strips leaving a two inch band at the top.  When you are finished cut off a strip from one of the ends, so you are left with 5 strips connected by a two inch band.  

- Then pile them on top of each other, and pin at the top.  Sew across the top.

- Tape the top down, and begin braiding.  If you are unsure how to braid a 5 strand braid click here. 

- When you reach the desired length pin the end, and sew the bottom so the braid stays together.  

- Then sew the ends together.  If you have a lot of excess cut off the tails.  

- Cut a piece of t-shirt 4 inches square.  Fold it in half and sew the two sides together.  Then turn it right side out, so the seam is on the inside.  Wrap the piece you just made around the headband with the seam on the outside.  Pin the end's together.  Make sure it's not too loose around the headband, you may need to trim off a bit from the end.  Sew the ends together.  

- Then turn the cover up right side out, and place over the ends.  Sew two small spots to secure into place.  Now you are done with the headband it's self. 

- Use the 6th strip you cut off from your 5 strand braid.  Tape the strip down and twist it.  Then fold it in half and it will twist it's self together.  

- Starting with the loose ends (they will be the center) wrap the piece around on it's self. 

- Hot glue periodically.

- Hot glue the flower onto the headband.  

Here is the cute Annabel wearing her lovely headband!

Hope everyone is having a great Christmas Eve (or whatever holiday you do or don't celebrate)!  Happy DIYing!

That Special Christmas Gift.

Today I am wrapping a special present in a nice keepsake box.  The present I will reveal tomorrow for tomorrow's DIY.  

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

- 4.5 inch box w/lid  (my box dark blue and circular, I got it in a set from Ikea)

- Ribbon (narrow ribbon works better)

- Hot glue gun w/ clear glue stick

- Paper snowflake

- Wrinkle free glue

Directions:

Start with the bottom half of the box.  Pick any place to start if you have a circular box, if it's a square box start in the middle.  You will make a small hot glue dot just under the lip on the inside.  Take a 1/4 inch of the ribbon end and place it face up on top of the glue dot.  Run the ribbon straight down the side, and then make another hot glue dot near the edge of the bottom.  Run the ribbon straight across the bottom, and add another hot glue dot on the opposite side under the ribbon.  Run the ribbon up the other side, and place another hot glue dot just inside the lip.  Place the ribbon over the last hot glue dot, and cut off the ribbon a 1/4 inch down from the top.  Repeat this process on the lid, make sure the ribbon makes with the bottom ribbon's placement.  Repeat the whole process again perpendicular to your first ribbon, so that you make an x across the top and bottom.  

Now you can make a snowflake while the glue dries completely.

Glue snowflake to the top of the box.  I used this great wrinkle free glue pen by Elmer's.  

Place tissue paper in box and present in tissue paper, then cover.  Now you have a beautiful gift wrap for a special small present!

Do you have too many white Christmas lights?

Today's DIY is super simple.  We always seems to have a ton of white strands of Christmas lights.  So this year rather than buying new Christmas lights, I refreshed my white lights.  Hope you enjoy!

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

- White Christmas lights

- Green spray paint

- drop cloth

- rubber or disposable gloves

(if you want lights ANY color)

- Styrofoam cube/block 

Directions:

It's best to do this project outside for best ventilation.  If you are using green spray paint, the first thing you'll want to do is lay down your drop cloth, then your white Christmas lights.  Put on your gloves.  After shaking your spray paint can and removing the cap, start spraying the individual lights.  I suggest testing a couple and then plugging them in to see how they look.  If you'd like a neater look or would like to use a different color, remove your white lights from their plugs, then gently stick them into a styrofoam cube/block.  Then you can spray your lights any color.  You may need to do two coats or turn your lights to get a complete coat on them.  

The color I used is called Jade.

You can see a burnt out light in this photo. Helps give you an idea of how dark the lights look when they are off.  

Here you can compare the white lights and the Jade lights.  I think it came out nicely.  

My cat playing.  Her name is Cricket.  

Magazine Christmas Tree Decoration

       If you haven't been able to tell yet, I'm a big fan of Martha Stewart.  So here we go again, with another great idea brought to you by Martha's team.  It's a decorative Christmas tree made out of an old magazine.  Martha finishes her's off with spraying it down in clear spray adhesive, and then raining some glitter down over it.  I'm not much of a glitter girl, and the tree is just as lovely without it.  I might consider either spraying it a solid fun color, or at least in a clear hard coat, just so it keeps during the off season.  I worry if I don't coat it in something to stiffen it up it could fall apart while packed up.  

Barkers Creek Heirloom Seeds (fantastic magazine, if you garden get a copy!)

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

- Old magazine

- Bone folder (if you want to save your fingers, not necessary) 

Directions:

- Fold each individual page, starting with the first page.  Take the top right corner and bring it down to the seam of the magazine folding the page.  Make sure you are making a sharp point at the top.  Take care not to get sloppy, it's important for each fold to be exact for the tree to turn out properly.  

- Once you've folded every page go back to the beginning, and make the same fold again.  Fold each individual page, and continue to make sure the top point in neat.  

- Now starting with the last page fold the bottom tail up, making a flat bottom.  Tuck the tail into the previous page.  Do this with each sheet.  This is the most tedious part, you will need a bit of patience to make it to the end.  I've been on the edge of my seat watching Glenn Close in Damages, and that has definitely helped keep my fingers moving. 

Hope ya'll enjoyed this as much as I did.  If you aren't completely thrilled when you're done (or you just have a desperate urge to keep working), this is when you would spray the tree with clear spray adhesive, and then coat it in glitter.  Happy DIYing!

Pom-poms and Glitter glue!

      Today I added some glitz to the stocking I made a few days ago.  I thought a pom-pom would look fabulous on the hanger-loop.  And of course I wanted to personalize it with my nieces' name.  That way Santa know's it's her's!  I didn't want to go too overboard, so I left it at that. 

WHAT YOU'LL NEED: 

- Yarn

- Scissors

- Cardboard

- Pencil

- Glitter glue

Directions:

       Use a round cup that is around 3.5 inches in diameter, and trace four circles onto a piece of cardboard.  In the center of two of the circles draw a smaller circle, then draw two lines about 1/4 inch apart coming down from the inner circle to the outer circle.  Cut out all four larger circles.  Now take the two circles you drew the smaller circles on, and cut out the smaller circles including the notch you made in the outer doughnut.  Place one of the doughnuts down with the cut-out facing you.  Cut a piece of yarn about 12 inches long, place the piece of yarn on top of the doughnut going around the inner circles, with the two ends coming down where the notch is.  Then place the other doughnut on top of the first doughnut, sandwiching the yarn in-between. 

                                                                                               

               


       Now start wrapping yarn around both pieces of cardboard.  I started in the center with the end on outside edge coming down the front, then wrapping around the backing.  Continue wrapping to the right, when you reach the end go back over the right, then down the left.  When you reach the bottom of the left side come back up to the center, and end here with the tale on the outside edge.   

      Next place the whole thing down and with one hand hold the piece down, then run the scissors between the two pieces of cardboard at the top edge cutting the yarn.  Once you've cut all the way around tie the 12 in. length of yarn tight, make as many knots as you feel necessary.  Remove the cardboard doughnuts.  

     Take the two cardboard circles you haven't used yet, and sandwich the yarn between the two.  Pin the cardboard in place with your largest needle in the center.  Trim any of the strings that seem too long.  

     Remove the cardboard, and then fluff up the pom-pom.  I used the tail to tie the pom-pom onto the stocking.  

     After all that hard work I played around on a piece of scrap fabric that matched the stocking.  I used my favorite tool - glitter glue, and tested the way the different glitter looked on the fabric, and with the font I used looked.  I picked my favorite look (with some help from my husband and mom), and wrote out Annabel's name on the stocking.  

Christmas Cards become Ornaments!

      Got another great idea from Martha.  As the title suggest I rounded up some old cards and made ornaments.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
- Old cards
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Ruler
- Small piece of heavy card-stock/cardboard
- Bone folder
- Quick clear drying glue
- Small length of baby yarn

Directions:
     Drew circles on the cards with a small cup, and then I cut out the circles (about 1.5 inches across).  You only need 8 circles to make one ornament.  I used four different cards, but it's really up to you!  After you cut out the circles, you'll need to draw equilateral triangles in the center of each circles, each point should touch a side of the circle.  Then you'll want to fold on each line of the circle, making three flaps.

Now you can start constructing your ornament.  Start with two circles and glue two flaps together.  It doesn't matter which flap you start with.  Attache more circles, and inclose your globe.  Before you glue together the final two flaps make a loop at whatever length you'd like the ornament to hang with the baby yarn, and tie a knot in the end.  Drop the knot in between the flaps, secure it in a corner touching four circles, and glue the final flaps in place.

Happy DIYing!!

New life to Christmas wrapping trash!

      I wrapped my presents for Christmas earlier today.  Whenever I wrap presents I always have these useless left over squares.  In past years I've used some to wrap stocking stuffers, but I'm forever left with small irregular squares of wrapping paper.  Actually, when I went to get some boxes and tissue paper I found squares of paper from last year!  This year I finally decided to put them to good use, and turned them into a garland.  

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

left over wrapping paper 

scissors

3/4 in. invisible tape

baby yarn 

clear packing tape

Directions:

- Cut left over wrapping paper 3 1/2 inches by 8 inches.  Feel free to play with the length!

-  Fold the long side in thirds.

-  Wrap the first strip in on it's self, and tape each end down.

-  Now take your first link and a second strip of paper, when you wrap the 2nd paper in on it's self link it through the first link.

-  Now keep linking a strip of paper through your last link attached to the chain.  I liked to create a pattern with my paper strips, but it's really up to you!  Get creative, and most importantly have fun!

-  To separate the years I folded a length of paper inside out, so the white side showed and then wrote 'Merry Christmas 20__'.

-  When I was done I had about 55 links, which equaled about 8 and an half feet.

-  When I hung it I used some baby yarn tided with bowes in the ends and center.  Then I used clear packing tape to attach it to the wall.  If you had more length you could make more swoops.  Or you could use it on your tree even.  You can hang it just about anywhere with a little yarn and clear masking tape!

Have a good night!  Happy DIYing!

Update on Paper Snowflakes

Here are my paper snowflakes in use.  I know I could make my own paper, but I love buying paper every year.  I don't love shopping for Christmas, but I do get a lot of enjoyment out of the wrapping paper that comes with the season.  I wish all year round there were that many varieties of wrapping paper to pick from.  I love to be inspired by all the different print and pattern out there!

 Close up:

I'll be back later today.  Until then Happy DIYing!