How To Make Fairy Kei Accessories

by VioletLeBeaux | Feb 21, 2011 | Craft, Other-Accessory-Tutorials, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial

I’ve been seeing these puffy accessories everywhere lately so I figured I would show you all how easy they are to make 😀 Swimmer and a couple of other brands have them as hair clips, brooches and all kinds of things.

This is how my version turned out:

What you need:

Coat hanger/wire
Fluffy yarn (I think the name of this one was flossy or something)
Glue
Diamantes/small bows/pearls/decorations
Pliers
Tape

Puffy Stars Tutorial

Take apart the coat hanger…

Puffy Stars Tutorial

And use the pliers to make the shapes you want. I did a star and a heart.

Puffy Stars Tutorial

Use a piece of tape to hold the ends together…

Puffy Stars Tutorial

Get some yarn and start wrapping it around…

Puffy Stars Tutorial

Keep wrapping and keep wrapping and keep wrapping… and keep wrapping some more until they are really big and squishy like this:

Puffy Stars Tutorial

Hot glue your decorations on in a completely random way and that’s it…

Puffy Stars Tutorial

You can then add on a brooch pin or something on the back to attach it to yourself and that’s all there is to it ^_^

Puffy Stars Tutorial

You can also make bows in the same style by knitting a square out of this yarn and scrunching the middle of it. Add a little ribbon to hold it in place and you’ve got a very cute accessory!

Hope you enjoyed ^_^

How To Make Pompom Hair Ties Take 2!

by VioletLeBeaux | Feb 20, 2011 | Craft, Hair-Accessory-Tutorials, Tutorial

These pom pom hair ties have been popular for quite a while but (until Daiso recently opened) over here they are very pricey. I made some a while ago out of regular pompoms but when I managed to find some of the actual yarn used for $2 I figured why not make a whole heap more!

This is the original:

These are the ones I made:

The purple/pink/blue one was from Daiso and was $2.80 and the ball of yarn below which could make like 20 hair ties was $2.

Pompom Hair Band Tutorial 2

What you need:

Pompom yarn
Scissors
Elastic

First thing first, cut 3 lengths of yarn with around 20 pompoms each and tie together at the end.

Pompom Hair Band Tutorial 2

Now loosely plait them together in between the pompoms. Basically you want the pompoms themselves to be loose but the yarn between them to be bound together.

Pompom Hair Band Tutorial 2

Something like this…

Pompom Hair Band Tutorial 2

Continue until you reach the end and tie together so it doesn’t come undone.

Pompom Hair Band Tutorial 2

Get your piece of elastic and tie in a loop. The size will depend on how big you want the finished product to be. You could also just use a regular hair tie here if you’ve got one handy.

Pompom Hair Band Tutorial 2

Starting with one end of the yarn tie it in a knot to the elastic around where the join is.

Pompom Hair Band Tutorial 2

Pull the yarn through the elastic like this…

Pompom Hair Band Tutorial 2

The pull it up and through the loop it forms at the top. Almost as if you were tying a knot. Pull tight leaving one cluster of pompoms at the top.

Pompom Hair Band Tutorial 2

This is what you should have…

Pompom Hair Band Tutorial 2

Keep tying with the rest of the yarn making loops and leaving one cluster of pompoms on the outside each time. It’s kind of like you’re doing a blanket stitch like this.

Pompom Hair Band Tutorial 2

When you run out of yarn it should look something like this:

Pompom Hair Band Tutorial 2

Tie off all the random ends and you’re finished!

Pompom Hair Band Tutorial 2

All finished 😀

Pompom Hair Band Tutorial 2

It took me around 20min to make both of them and I think I like them more than the original! What do you guys think?

How To Make A Heart Shaped Pompom

by VioletLeBeaux | Feb 16, 2011 | Craft, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial

Until a week or so ago I had ever even thought of heart shaped pompoms but I saw this at a craft shop and it started my brain working overtime!

Thing is that they wanted $25 for it *_* and after reading the instructions it basically looked like it just made regular pompoms that you then trimmed into a heart shape. Well I can do that at home for free!

P1040240 copy

My result…

Heart Pom Pom Tutorial

There are various ways to make pompoms, when I was a kid we cut 2 cardboard circles and threaded the yarn through. Now that I’m older the novelty of cutting out cardboard circles has worn off so I take the lazy way:

Heart Pom Pom Tutorial

What you need:

Yarn
Scissors/small sharp nail scissors
Something hard which is roughly the diameter you want the finished pompom to be, I used an eyeshadow palette you could just use your fingers.

Start wrapping the yarn around the eyeshadow.

Heart Pom Pom Tutorial

Keep wrapping until you have a decent amount like this:

Heart Pom Pom Tutorial

Slide the yarn off…

Heart Pom Pom Tutorial

Hold it like this…

Heart Pom Pom Tutorial

Use another piece of yarn to tie around the middle tightly or if you want to take the easier way: a thin rubber band. If you want to hang it off something you can leave the piece of yarn long.

Heart Pom Pom Tutorial

Cut all of the loops…

Heart Pom Pom Tutorial

And it will look like this:

Heart Pom Pom Tutorial

Repeat on the other side and you have a basic pompom!

Heart Pom Pom Tutorial

Now it’s time to trim it into a heart! Use you scissors to cut the bottom into a basic point.

Heart Pom Pom Tutorial

Like this…

Heart Pom Pom Tutorial

Then cut a wedge out of the top to make a heart.

Heart Pom Pom Tutorial

Now you’ve got the basic shape it’s time to trim with some small sharp scissors until it’s perfect.

Heart Pom Pom Tutorial

Her you can see I’ve een working on the right side while the left is still long and messy:

Heart Pom Pom Tutorial

And done!

Heart Pom Pom Tutorial

You might want put down a sheet of paper or something to catch all the fluff that you’re cutting off XD

Heart Pom Pom Tutorial

Very cute craft project and once you get in the swing of things they don’t take very long to make 😀

Heart Pom Pom Tutorial

Now to think of where to hang them all!

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Heart Shaped Face Washers Knitting Pattern

by VioletLeBeaux | Feb 15, 2011 | Beauty, Craft, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial

I kind of fell in love with this yarn when I saw it at Lincraft. I have a bad history of buying novelty yarns and then having absolutely nothing to make with them so I banned myself from buying them… but I’m not very good at sticking to buying bans so this made it home with me anyway!

Took me a while to think of what to make (and you know I’ve got almost the whole fricking ball left over after this project anyway so any suggestions are welcome…. anything other than scarves!) but in the end I settled on making heart shaped knitted facewashers as a start.

I used 7mm needles an cast on around 20 stitches.

Knitted Face Washer Tutorial

I knit in garter stitch until I had finished a complete square.

Knitted Face Washer Tutorial

And then cast off leaving around 20cm of extra yarn as a tail.

Knitted Face Washer Tutorial

Now place the square like this with the tail at the top.

Knitted Face Washer Tutorial

Basically we’re going to squish down the point into the centre to form the top of the heart…

Knitted Face Washer Tutorial

So using a needle stitch from the top corner down and bunch it up. Tie off and weave any ends in.

Knitted Face Washer Tutorial

Taadaa hearts!

Knitted Face Washer Tutorial

Give them a wash and they are ready to use ^_^ I use mine to remove make up at the end of the day because it’s so soft and gentle and once dirty, can just be thrown in the wash. Considering the whole ball of yarn cost $5 you could make 1 for each day of the week and never buy cotton pads again. +1 for the environment and much cuter too XD

Quite a few of you guys have written to me asking for a beginners knitting class kind of tutorial. I’m thinking of trying to shoot that soon, is there anything specific you want included? Would you all prefer videos or photos?

Crafting Tutorial Request To Do List

by VioletLeBeaux | Feb 13, 2011 | Craft, Life

I love making lists, unfortunately once I’ve made that list I tend to forget where I put it and so I have lots of lists floating around the place XD

This is my attempt to consolidate all of my crafting to do’s and tutorial requests into one thing I can look at. I now post an updated version of this to my mobile blog every few weeks so I figured I would add it here this once so if you guys have requests for posts or tutorials you could leave them in the comments. I know that when consolidating all these lists together I’ve probably most or missed out on some older requests so just let me know in the comments if you’ve requested something that isn’t on the list and I’ll add it again ^_^

Crafting to do soon:

Red are the ones I’m hoping to get to soon Blue are waiting for a day when I can get out the sewing machine.

Silicone phone case mod
Make pretty cushions (request)
Try beading something 3D like phone charms
Hime nails tutorial
Make a lap protector thingy for driving (request)
Chopstick lanterns
Faux fux bow wrap thingy
Make better laptop bag/cover/thing (request)
iMac cover to avoid dust at night (request)
Cute oven gloves (request)
Tea storage ideas (request)
Sew easy comfy romper
Paper brief case thing (request)
Cuter paper towel holder (request)
Crochet water bottle holder (request)
Claw clip hair bows (request)
Basic Hime Gyaru Dress (request)
Wrist protector for mouse pad (request)
Embroider black beret
Other pom pom hair tie
Sew light box
Learning to knit, the basics (request)
Learning to sew the basics (request)
Blythe snow ball scarf
Snowball tea cozy
Strawberry pompoms
Nautical skirt knitted
Blythe winter coat
Go through entire yarn stash and delegate it to projects.
Other things I’ve forgotten -_-‘

Currently on hold because I need more supplies:

New phone deco
Recycled clip top purse
Deco laptop
Make fly screens. need Magnets
Re-upholster couch in leopard print (or maybe something slightly more tasteful) Need to photoshop the results so I can decide if I like it
Embroider handbag (need more thread from Daiso)
Nail polish stand. (need more boxes)
Cake tissue box cover (need brown felt)
Try making frozen yoghurt

Reader requests for the long term:

This is stuff that I will get to eventually but not right now due to lack of materials, ideas, time, inspiration, whatever. If your request isn’t here that means it’s been lost while I was consolidating all my lists so please send it again!

Blue means it’s half done.

Something to do with crochet table cloths
Redo gradient nail art with solid colours
What to do with ugly green eco bags
What to do with recycled candy wrappers
Home made wedding ring pillow
Making ribbon flowers
Lolita hair accessories
How to host a tea party
How to put together a cute hime outfit with off brand items
How to store bags
What’s in my handbag
How to use a dotting tool
How to store stockings cutely
How to store bracelets
Cute nail cases
How to make rings and hair accessories
How to make the $10 coles dress
What are cute/girly iphone apps?
How to make cute nail art with fimo
How to take nice photos for blogging/photography tips

I feel much more organised now XD Now I’ve just got to set time aside to start tackling it all!

How To Make A Cute Felt Door Stop

by VioletLeBeaux | Feb 11, 2011 | Craft, Other-Tutorials, Storage/Utility-Tutorials, Tutorial

Our bathroom is really poorly designed so there is no way to keep the door to it open, in fact it actually just opens onto the laundry door which was so badly thought through that it can’t physically close all the way either >_< Seeing as the door won’t stay open by itself I decided to make a door stop 😀

What you need:

Felt or fabric or something similar
Scissors
Needle and thread or hot glue gun for quick jobs XD
Rice or something equally heavy to fill it with.

Ugh, felt scraps are so messy, I haaaate them >_<

Cute Door Stop Tutorial

First let’s cut a base. This is the shape you should cut out:

Cute Door Stop Tutorial

Now cut the sides! Below you can see the shapes you need, to make the back ones it’s basically a square with a corner cut off. For the front it’s a square with the top cut into a semi circle. Make sure you leave an extra centimeter on each side for a seam allowance.

Cute Door Stop Tutorial

Now let’s put it together! Start with these piece:

Cute Door Stop Tutorial

Lay them together like this:

Cute Door Stop Tutorial

Stitch (or glue if you’re in a hurry hahaha!) down the left side. Open it up and it looks like this:

Cute Door Stop Tutorial

Repeat on the other side 😀

Cute Door Stop Tutorial

Now join the two flap pieces to form a back seam like this:

Cute Door Stop Tutorial

Now it’s time to make the front ^_^

Cute Door Stop Tutorial

Stitch/glue the front piece around the curve:

Cute Door Stop Tutorial

Turn the whole thing inside out so the seams are like this:

Cute Door Stop Tutorial

Stitch/glue the side until you reach the little corner.

DSC_01Cute Door Stop Tutorial76_01

Leaving a hole in each side stitch/glue the seam at the very top!

Cute Door Stop Tutorial

Now let’s make some ears! Cut a triangle of matching felt and a square of pink.

Cute Door Stop Tutorial

Put them together like this and secure:

Cute Door Stop Tutorial

Fold them up like this and secure:

Cute Door Stop Tutorial

Time to put the ears in 😀 This is roughly the placement you want to use…

Cute Door Stop Tutorial

Fold in the loose edges so the ear is sandwiched between them and stitch/glue!

Cute Door Stop Tutorial

Now using the hole on the other side, fill it with rice!

Cute Door Stop Tutorial

And close up the hole with the second ear sandwiched in!

Cute Door Stop Tutorial

From the back it looks like this:

Now add a cute face and you’re good to go!

Unfortunately ours suffered a slightly gory death as James was getting dressed, lost his balance and accidentally stamped on it. Brains everywhere >_<

Door Stop

I made another one to replace the blue one then fixed him up to live at a less action packed door XD

Door Stop

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Crafting to do soon:

Currently on hold because I need more supplies:

Reader requests for the long term:

Explore…