I made a lot of phone straps as gifts this year, I like to have a supply of gifts already made which can be given at occasions which I don’t have time to prepare for or are unexpected.
The kind of straps are great for Lolita or Hime Gyaru friends and they are so easy to make!
You just need some pretty random lace/ribbon/flowers/felt/glue/pretty things.
So grab all of your pretty materials in one place.Arrange them together how you’d like, I prefer to have one main piece of interest, a couple of smaller things and then ribbon and lace dangling down.So this is going to be the main part…
And then dangling ribbons and lace behind it…
Glue the pieces together one by one.
Then the ribbons on the back.
Add a little metal link to the back so you can attach it to a strap later and cover all of the back with a piece of felt.
And that’s all there is to it!
Pretty phone/bag/whatever strap for a girl who likes pretty things and it look all of around 10 minutes to make.
This is a fantastic way to use up old things from your craft stash too so it’s win/win!
Nice and simple craft today! I’ve been playing around with paperclay a lot and I’m even going to try to make my own paperclay sometime soon I think.
The thing that I always go back to when I can’t think of anything else to make with clay/sculpy/hard icing is basic roses.
So this is the way I make them ^_^
Start by rolling a heap of small clay balls in various sizes. You want small ones for the middle and large ones for the outer petals.Use a finger to smoosh the edge of one of the balls.It should form a thin side and a thicker rounded edge which will end up being the round part of the petal.
Repeat with all of the petals so they are ready to work with. If you want you can dip your finger in water and smooth down any cracks in the edges but I prefer to leave them or even exaggerate them as it creates a really interesting effect.
To for the rose, start with a small petal and roll it between your fingers like this:
Roll the bottom of the petal together a little harder so it forms a stem:
Now add a slightly bigger petal and roll it around the other side so it encases the edge of the first petal.
Add another petal so it’s edge is in the middle of the second petal. As you go, roll the petals with a little bit more force at the bottom so the clay squishes together between your fingers to form a stem. Be careful not to disturb the petals when you do it though.
Continue adding petals this way going around the flower in a circular pattern starting the edge of each petal 1/3rd of the way across the previous petal.
Just keep going until you think you’ve got a good size and let it all dry!
If you want you can clean up the stem and roll it a bit more evenly, I generally cut it of so the flower sits flat in whatever craft I’m doing.
Do you guys have something you automatically make? I seem to just make these on auto pilot whenever I get clay in my hands XD
Quick update on the Bergamot store, it is happening just slowly! I’m waiting for quotes from a couple of companies which might be able to solve the postal issues I’ve had and I’m also looking at professional production. So don’t worry I’m still working on it!
This tutorial is probably not something which is useful for me in the middle of a hot Summer here in Aus but I think the majority of you guys are in Winter now and I was making presents for overseas friends so here’s a Winter tutorial in the middle of my Summer… if that makes sense!
This is my little Bergamot pocket warmer ^_^
You need:
Polar fleece
Lace
Needle and thread
Embroider thread (optional)
Lace
Rice or something similar to put inside.
Gather all of your materials together and sketch out the shape of Bergamot’s head onto the polar fleece.
Basically it’s an oval with two ears on the side, don’t cut between the ears.
Cut out two pieces in this shape. Of course you could make them any shape you want… I just have a serious Bergamot obsession!
Put the two pieces good sides together and use the needle and thread to blanket stitch around the outside, stop when you have 2cm gap.
Flip the whole thing inside out. through the hole.
You should have something like this…
Fill the head with some rice. You don’t need more than a handful, just enough so it’s not flat.
Stitch the hole shut completely. I also stitched across the ears and up between them so they look more like ears.
To make it a bit more Bergamot-ish I added a little lace bow and then her V as a nose. I completely forgot the hearts in the ears >_< I’m planning to make a whole lot more of these so hearts next time haha!
So there you go! Perfect for Winter, just make sure you don’t use anything meltable/flammable in the construction then pop it in the microwave for 10 seconds to warm up. Keep it in your pocket in winter or make two and pop them in your slippers 😀 Now if only I could come up with one of these that was cooling, it’s sooooooo hot right now ;_;
Someone want to come to my house and pour ice all over me? Or bring a snow machine and turn my apartment into a winter wonderland? Yes please!
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Food Friday will be back next week once I get some more ingredients for baking 😀
So until then I thought I would show you how I made some fun little Bergamot shaped magnets out of paperclay! Paperclay is such a fun and challenging medium, even after playing around with it for so long I still find it hard to get it to do what I want, I think that’s half the fun though!
There’s a video of this coming too soon ^_^
You need:
Paperclay (I’m going to try out a recipe I found to make my own next time, tutorial on that to come!)
Magnet
Hot glue
Watercolour paint
This is the paperclay I’m using, it’s from Tokuya.
I like how fluffy and tearable it is.
Start by making a ball for the body, it should be around 2cm wide. Press it so it sits slightly flat.
Press your thumb into the top to make an indent.
You should get something like this…
It helps to do all of this on a flat surface that you can easily peel it off later. You might want to put some cling wrap down to make it easier later.
Now make two long slightly flat sausages for the ears and place them down here…
Press the ends down again with your thumb.
Make a nice big slightly oval shape for the face and lay it over the top of the body/ears. The head should fit easily in the indents you already made. You should add a tiny bit of water to the indents so the head sticks down.
Let’s make some arms and legs! Make two little balls and squish them into ovals, smoosh the ends with your thumb again and using some water, stick them to the sides of the body in this area:
And do the same with two smaller balls on the front of the body. With the legs done you should have something like this:
If you find any cracks or odd things out of place just dip your finger in a little water and smooth over them.
Also add a little bow to the front near the ears. Wait for the front to dry a little bit and flip Bergamot over. Now smooth all of the back joins with a wet finger so it’s really well stuck together.
Leave it to dry completely and then hot glue a magnet to the back.
The last thing to do is paint on some details. I used watercolour paint because it was on hand already and soaked into the clay easily. You could also use a marker or pen.
Bergamot has little hearts in her ears, big black eyes, blushing cheeks, little mouth and a V on her foot.
And that’s it! Little Bergamot magnets to live on your fridge 😀 These are so much quicker to make than actual Bergamots so I want to make some other animals now as gifts!
These are the easiest Christmas baubles in the universe. So easy in fact that I made them on Christmas Eve because it was our first day off.
You need:
Cheap baubles, I got mine in a pack of 30 for $5
Puff paint
A gel pen to draft designs
Use a gel pen to draw the outline of your design on the baubles. This step is optional but I didn’t want to ruin any before I got the hang of working with the puff paint.
Pipe on your design… DONE.
Leave them to dry overnight, I used an ice cube tray and some egg cups to make sure they didn’t roll over during the night. It’s easier to actually paint them if you use egg cups as stands too because I can’t tell you how many I screwed up accidentally dropping them and smooshing puff paint everywhere. Luckily if it’s still wet you can just wipe it off and start again.
Greeting card season so I’m going to do some more ideas this year 😀 I did some last year too so take a look at this post for a lace doily version. This one is how I make a bunch of mini cards with a basic design that I can personalise later.
So what you need:
Paper
Hot glue gun
Paint
Scissors
Sharpie
Some plastic hard surface you can glue to
nail file or plastic wrap
So first step is thinking of a decent design. I wasn’t feeling too creative so I just wrote love with some hearts. You need to write it onto the surface you’re going to stamp with, I’m using some random plastic container. The design needs to be backwards for the stamp to print the right way so I wrote it right way around on the wrong side and then flipped it over so I had a guide on where to lay down the glue.
So flipping it over you create the design using the glue gun to draw it. Where you draw will end up raised so the paint sticks to it and forms a stamp.
Now here’s the tricky part glue guns don’t tend to leave a uniform stream so some parts might be taller and bumpier that others. If it’s not even then your stamping will come out icky and patchy.
So the two options I thought of to prevent this was waiting for the glue to dry and then using a nail file to smooth it all out or putting plastic wrap over it while it’s still pliable and pressing into a flat surface. The second is harder to do because the glue dries quickly but it would provide a lot more even results and probably would be less effort than using a nail file like I did. If you’re going to do a lot of them then I would suggest taking time to get the design right.
Either way once you have your design finished paint over the top of the plastic.
And stamp it on to the paper.
Taadaa very childlike but a nice way to have something personal without taking a huge amount of time doing it. You could make it much more intricate or do something cute like your name. If you didn’t mind waiting for it to dry you could also use PVA glue for the design so it evened out and provided a completely smooth print image.
Cut out the paper into a card shape, fold in half and you’re finished. I like the stamp a bunch of these as thank you cards and then personalise each one with some mini drawings before I send them. I usually draw little faces in the hearts or O ^_^
So there’s one idea and more on the way. I’m pretty much making everyone’s presents this year so lots to share ^_^
Illustrator. Strong tea, knitting, watercolours, and making a video game called Moonlight in Garland. Living with her adorable husband Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.
