I like bargin craft shopping and when I see things of sale I have a habit of buying them and thinking about what I can actually do with them later. Thats happened when a local bead store closed down around 6 months ago and most of the things in store were $1. The owner was super nice and once he found out I liked pink he kept grabbing pink things from around the store and giving them to me for free XD
And that’s how I got a ridiculous number of these things which apparently go on earrings…
But let’s face it, how many of those am I ever going to actually use?? Not many. So this is what I did with some of them!
What you need:
Weird round things. Or something you can substitute!
Glue Gun
Paint in white and yellow
Cardboard
Magnets or bluetac
PVA glue
Pliers
So let’s make some daisies! Place the petals like this:
Hot glue them together…
Make a whole heap of the flowers 😀
Paint them whatever colour you like. I decided to go with traditional white/yellow daisies. I needed a couple of coats of acrylic paint to get a decent finish.
Keep coating them until they are the colour you want.
This is what you should have:
Now cut out a cardboard circle big enough to cover all of the middle gap and paint it yellow.
Make one for every flower…
Should be around this size:
Now with some of the other circle thingies use the pliers to remove the little round part on the end so it’s a complete circle.
Paint them with a base coat too:
Then yellow over the top ^_^ I used sponge to apply the paint so it gave them more texture.
Now after everything is dry hot glue the cardboard to one side and the yellow ring to the other side.
Now to make them nice and shiny 😀 PVA glue to the rescue!
Give the whole thing a going over the the glue and let it dry.
After they are dry you should glue the magnets to the back. I decided to use mine for fridge magnets but you could easily just blue tac them to walls or windows 😀 Reminds me of a teenage girl’s room in the 90’s, just add “Girl Power” poster XD
And there you have it! Pretty decorations made with something I thought I would have no freaking use for XD
What’s the oddest thing you guys have made into a craft project?
The lovely Retro Jet Girl sent me this fan a while ago just in time for Summer… unfortunately Summer doesn’t seem to be happening here in Aus this year *_* This year on Boxing Day instead of the traditional Australian shorts and singlet (not that I would actually wear that) I was decked out in a jumper, scarf and beret! Some places here even apparently had snow, which is just insane for the middle of Summer here! So anyway… The fan was really beautiful and I wanted to personalise it a bit. I’ve done this before with a fan last year which has since died a long drawn out death in my handbag:
This is what it started out like ^_^
What I used:
UV nail polish
Embroidery thread
Scissors
Beads
First thing I did was pull apart the bottom with scissors so it came apart like this…
Then using pink UV nail polish I painted every second one of the wooden pole thingies. I did two coats and let it dry ^_^
Then using the embroidery thread I slotted it all back together…
I put a bead on the thread too:
Then pulled the thread back the other way again and aded another bead:
Pull it all very tightly and tie it off.
On the ends of the thread I added a couple of other little beads.
Done! Very quick and easy to do and adds an extra point of interest. Also because I used UV polish it changes colour when I’m in out the sun! Very cool 😀
You could easily go further by adding jewels to the outside part or a small row of lace along the top but I thought I would go the slightly more subtle route this time XD What do you think?
It was requested a little while ago that I make a tutorial on how to make a felt case for an iphone or ipad touch. I made one of these for a Christmas present so it seemed like a good chance to show you what I did ^_^
These could be used for phone or little bags, hell make it bigger and you could use it as an evening handbag ^_^
To what you need:
Felt
Scissors
Needle and thread
Pearls
So get whatever you’re making a case for, in this case an iPhone, and use it as a measuring guide on your felt.
Fold the bottom up to make a casing:
Fold the top down so it hangs as far as you want the closure to go…
Trim the edges so there is around 2cm overhang on each side to allow for the seams.
Using a blanket stitch, go up the sides to secure the bottom flap :
Now blanket stitch the first 1cm of the top flap. This is just to form a base that the pearls will attach to while keeping the shape of the bag when it’s held by the strap.
Now let’s make a big flower for the front. Cut out a bunch of petals like this in varying sizes…
Starting with the biggest petals, pleat them a couple of times in the middle and then stitch through to hold it in place.
Repeat for all of them and you get something like this…
Now let’s start putting it all together! Stitch the first row of petals into a circle. I used 3 large and 3 medium:
Continue with another layer of less petals. You should place them so their points sit between the points of the layer beneath ^_^
Keep adding layers until you run out of petals!
Finish it by stitching a big pearl in the middle to hide the ugly parts. I only had blue felt at the time but it would be really pretty if you used a gradient of different colours for the petals.
Ok so let’s put it all together!
Stitch the flower on to the flap of the bag. I added a green leaf too.
You can hide the stitches with another piece of felt or a dedication to whoever you’re giving it to ^_^ When it’s opened up it looks like this:
Lastly stitch a string of pearls at the top to use as a strap. You can clip cute cell phone straps there or use it to clip into your handbag so you never have to search for your phone again ^_^
There you have it! These make really cute presents for people and you can customise them with different decorations on the flaps to match the person ^_^
Again not a new idea but one that I tend to pull out every year when I need to make cards. To be honest I don’t like cards, I’m no good at writing them XD But sometimes they are necessary! So I make my own. Over the years I’ve done watercolour paintings for people to suit their tastes and put them on the front but this year I just don’t have time for something like that. Also it was kind of sad seeing people throw away things I’d spend hours painting XD
What you need:
Paper or cardboard to make the card
Paint
Paper doilies or lace
Glue
Fold your paper in half to make a card shape…
Get your doily and your paint together. You can use a paint brush if you want but I happened to have one of these paint pens with the squishy foam tips, so I used that.
Find where you want to put you design, I decided to put it right in the middle. Then hold it in place with a finger and start painting.
Keep going gently around the edge.
When you’re finished, remove the doily and you’ve got a pretty pattern!
Then you can re-use the painted doily on as many cards as you want and lastly stick it down onto it’s own card so nothing is wasted.
You can change colours, placement or anything to make them personal. You can also used pretty much anything you want to make the stamp like pieces of lace or pretty stamped tulle. It’s a very fun way to spend a couple of hours and at the end you should have a whole lot of pretty custom cards ^_^
Do you guys like getting cards? Do you keep cards that you’re given?
This is a ridiculously old idea that I’m sure has been featured on every home renovation show ever but oh well XD We live in a rented apartment so we’re not allowed to hang things on the walls but I really like wall decorations and ways to make our apartment a little less plain ^_^
So this is one of the solutions I came up with and it took a grand total of 10 minutes to do.
You need:
Pretty paper
Pretty photo frame, I got mine at a thrift store for $5
Some kind of decoration for the middle, I’m using a bow
Lace to match
Glue gun (I’m sure no one is surprised by this XD)
Remove the glass from the frame, cut out a piece of the paper using the glass as a size guide.
Glue your decoration in the middle. I used a bow from a headband that was broken and useless.
Put it all in the frame. Because my bow was thick I couldn’t fit the glass in anymore but it doesn’t really matter. The glass is not needed.
Lastly! To continue the black theme from inside the frame glue some matching lace around the outside. Done!
Super super super quick and very effective!
The best part is it’s completely customizable depending on the kind of colour scheme you’re going with in your home. This frame also had a stand on the back so no nails in the walls either XD
Oh my gosh these little felt crafts are getting around aren’t they? The lovely Retro Jet Girl was out shopping a little while ago, found some and sent me a care package! Now I have 3 more of these little guys to show you 😀 Thank you so much Retro Jet Girl! I’ll show you all the lovely care package items she sent me tomorrow in snapshots!
Obviously again I can’t take any credit for making this tutorial because I was just following their instructions. Full credit goes to the original company but I took photos while I was making it because I thought you might find it interesting anyway ^_^ You can find most of the materials around the house and you can easily substitute anything you like.
I find crafts like these really relaxing to do while watching a movie or unwinding before bed time.
So the first one I made was the cupcake!
Cute packaging as per usual though it doesn’t really look like any cupcake I’ve ever eaten XD
What you need:
Small brown circle of felt
Strip of brown felt
Needle and thread
Stuffing
Large white circle of felt
4 rounded triangles of yellow felt for icing
Seed beads
2 small circles of cardboard
1 large circle of cardboard
I started with the brown pieces and blanket stitched them together to form a tube…
Like this:
Next I took both small cardboard circles and 1/2 of the stuffing and sandwiched together. I shoved it into the tube and left it for later.
I took the yellow triangles and stacked them. I then sewed down the center from top to bottom.
… and flared them out. The instructions said I should leave like this but the felt kept springing back into place so I needed to stitch the sides together.
Last for this part I added a pearl on top.
I deviated from the instructions because this seemed easier. To make the top of the cupcake I took the icing and stitched to the middle of the white circle.
Then I randomly stitched beads around like sprinkles.
Flipping it over I used a running stitch around the outside.
I filled it with stuffing and the large cardboard piece…
And pulled the thread tight so it would form a kind of ball.
Taadaa…
Last thing to be done was stitching the top of the cupcake to the base. Tie everything off and you’re done 😀
I am getting quite the collection of these little guys! I am thinking that I should make some kind of gigantic monster cake hair band with them 😀
They are originally meant to be magnets but what would you guys use them for?
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.
By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information
The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.
