by VioletLeBeaux | Aug 12, 2010 | Hair, Hair-Tutorials, Hime Gyaru, Tutorial
As promised here is a tutorial on how to do the big poufy curly style up-do thingy that I’ve been wearing a lot lately ^_^
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Apologies for how tired I look in these photos, I really wasn’t feeling well but I wanted to get the tutorial finished for you guys >_< I’ve been quite stressed lately so I haven’t been sleeping much!So what you need:
- Bobby pins
- Hair straightener/curler/hot rollers
- Heat protector spray
- Decorations eg. Bow and hair flowers
- Brush
- Hair Spray
First thing’s first, pin your fringe to the side to keep it out of the way.
Brush out your remaining hair so there are no knots.
Apply heat protector spray. Very important step so you don’t damage your hair at all ^_^
Heat up your straightener or whatever you are planning to use to curl your hair. |
Btw I’m wearing my new blue lenses from E-Circlelens.netin these photos, the full review is coming soon but I’m excited because I haven’t used blue ones before 😀
So anyway! Curl the bottom 1/3rd of your hair. You don’t need to make the the curls perfectly even or very good because they are all going to get mushed up anyway.
Like this is fine:
Continue until you’ve done all of your hair like this…
Add a little bit of hair spray:
Get all of your bobby pins ready so you can easily access them.
Lightly tease/back comb the front section of your hair at the roots. You don’t need to tease very much at all.
Flip your head upside down! Gently brush the back section of your hair up and forward. Don’t brush the curly ends!
Grab the hair loosely in one hand like you are making a pony tail.
Twist it clockwise once.
Using your other hand grab the ends of one side of the curls. Scrunch upwards to your head.
As you bring it to your head continue to grab hair around it. Once you actually reach the base of the twisted big, grab hold of it.
Turn your head up the right way again and you should have something like this…
See how it’s long on one side and shorter on the side that I did the grabby thing on? Now it’s time for pins!
Start by pinning around the twist. Don’t just slide pins in, slide them half way then twist and push them in the other direction, this is how you get them to stay in really well!
Pin it enough to keep it in place by itself:
Now tidy it up with more pins ^_^ You can create the bubbly waved effect by adding a pin every 5cm or so across the top of your head. This is basically using the curls you made earlier and forcing them into place.
If you’ve curled it well, you shouldn’t have to do too much work, the curls naturally want to sit like this. The back looks like this:
Now time for decoration… I added a big bow!
And I used a bunch of flower pins too 😀 I just put them randomly all over the place, you can use them to add to the bubbliness on top too because when you add them close to the scalp you will squish the puffier bits down.
It’s also a good time to touch up any of the major curls ^_^
Un-clip your fringe and give it a quick go over to ^_^
Extra hair spray!
And you’re all finished 😀
This is a really versatile hair style, you can change it completely just by scrunching the hair up in a different position. In this next photo I had it all on one side rather than a couple of curls hanging down, it just depends on your technique. You probably won’t be able to get it to look exactly the same twice but having it slightly different every time is kind of fun XD
Hope that was easy to follow and you enjoyed it, let me know if you have any questions!
by VioletLeBeaux | Aug 9, 2010 | Craft, Hair-Accessory-Tutorials, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial
Continuing the series of tutorials on making basic bows today I’ll show you how you can make the perfect bow out of ribbon.
This is what the finished product will look like:
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You need:
- Ribbon
- Scissors
- Needle and thread
- Lighter
Firstly decide how big you want your bow to be by mocking it up with you ribbon.
Cut the length you decide on and make sure to add 2cm extra for seam allowance. Use your lighter to lightly melt the edges of the ribbon so they don’t fray. BE VERY CAREFUL YOU DON’T BURN YOURSELF.
Fold your ribbon like this with the edges overlapping in the middle…
Use you needle and thread to running stitch from the bottom to top. Make sure to tie it in a knot in the beginning so it doesn’t pull through
Now pull the thread and your bow will fold up on itself. Tie your thread off securely.
Now to add the bottom tail, measure how long you want it by folding like this:
Again knot the thread and running stitch up the folded tail like this:
Pull the thread tight and tie it off:
Sew the tail behind the bow part ^_^
Cut another piece of ribbon that is long enough to wrap around the middle of the bow plus 1cm. Fold the sides of the ribbon like this and seal the edges with the lighter.
Wrap the piece around the middle of your bow.
Stitch it in place ^_^
Cut the tails into what ever shape you like, I prefer them with “v”‘s cut out. Seal the ends with the lighter again and you’re finished! You can experiment with all different ribbons, I like to add a darker colour on top like this one:
Simple and very quick to make! You can add a bobby pin or brooch back or whatever to the back to attach it to hair/clothes or anything you like. Hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial! |
by VioletLeBeaux | Aug 8, 2010 | Craft, Shoe-Tutorials, Tutorial
Morning everyone! After talking about it for quite a while Valerie and I have decided to make Sneaker Sunday a fortnightly thing (every second week for the Americans reading 😉 ) We decided to post about it less so we have more time to come up with awesome tutorials and fun things for you guys!
Let’s make this…
From this:
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Pretty cute right?Well what you need is this:
- Plain canvas shoes. Mine were $10 from Target
- Permanent markers, I’m using Sharpies and Copics. Copic markers aren’t permanent but I only have 2 Sharpies so I’ll just avoid puddles in these sneakers XD
So you need to find something that inspires you for the design. I’m using a piece of sticky leopard fabric from The Sticker Monster.
So first thing’s first, take the laces out 😀
Practice drawing your design on a piece of paper before you do it on the shoes.
I’m doing leopard print so I started by drawing the inside blobs in light purple.
Make sure to make them odd sizes, if they are all completely even it will look very unnatural. Pastel pink and purple leopard print is of course very natural 😉
Add in a pink background around the blobs.
Then add a dark purple border around the blobs. The border should be broken up and rough. Like this:
Finished the back part 😀 Now the front. I decided to draw a swirly ribbon that ends in a heart. You should draw your picture in the lightest colour you have, I used light pink for the heart and light purple for the ribbon.
I then outlined in a darker pink/purple.
Lastly I added shading with a very dark colour. Shadows are very important in giving simple designs like this depth ^_^
I found a white paint pen laying around so I used it to add a couple of highlights. to the ribbon. I also added some small dots around the ribbon.
And you’re done!
Nice and simple and it doesn’t take long at all!
Close up:
I am quite pleased with the end result! I also love the idea that for $10 I can have sneakers that look like anything that I can pull out of my imagination 😀
Time to take them for a spin!
I hope you are all having an awesome Sneaker Sunday and if you want to see what Valerie did with her sneakers just head over to her blog and check it out! |
by VioletLeBeaux | Aug 4, 2010 | Craft, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial
A lot of people have been asking me questions about blogging lately, I’m planning something quite large to help you all if you’re starting your own blogs but as a little taste today I’m going to show you how to create a really easy backdrop to make your photos cuter 😀
Having nice photos doesn’t have to depend on a fancy camera there are lots of little things you can do to make your photos cute even if you don’t have a great camera. One very cheap easy example is making a cute backdrop to take them on~
What you need:
- Cardboard
- Pretty paper/fabric
- Iron + ironing board
- Glue/tape
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I am using the paper that came on a bunch of flowers I was given. Very pretty and very durable since one side is covered in waxy-ness.Because it’s all wrinkled I decided to iron it. This is important otherwise your photos will have crinkles all over it! If you are ironing paper you should always use the lowest setting.
Get your large piece of cardboard and cut it to be around 1 inch shorter on each side than your paper.
Now fold one side of the paper over the edge of the cardboard and start gluing/taping it in place.
When you get to the corner fold it neatly on an angle.
Continue on all of the sides until you’re finished.
You get something like this…
Make two of them! The reason you should make two is so you can have one flat on the ground and one propped up at a right angle behind the item you’re photographing. This way when you take your photo you will have a nice consistent back drop no matter what angle you choose.
Now you just need to test it out 😀 Taadaa!
If you have any questions you would like answered just pop them in the comments and I’ll do my best to help 🙂
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by VioletLeBeaux | Aug 2, 2010 | Craft, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial
So yesterday we were going to post you all a Sneaker Sunday tutorial on doing something very awesome with plain white sneakers but due to unexpected technical problems it will have to wait until next week. Sorry!
To make up for though it I’ve got a week of really cool posts coming up though and I’m planning to update my shop very soon with new deco items and make some other changes to the site to make it easier to find older tutorials etc 🙂
While Celeste was in Singapore recently she picked me up some goodies! One of the things was this little craft kit on how to make a little strawberry tart thingy.
Obviously 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 as I took photos while I was making it I though you might find it interesting anyway ^_^ You can find most of the materials around the house and you can easily substitute anything you like.
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It will end up like this:
What you need:
- 3 circles of felt, light brown, dark brown and pink
- 1 semi circle of felt, red
- 1 rectangle of red/brown felt
- Green felt for the top of the strawberry
- Matching thread
- Stuffing
- 2 circles of cardboard the same size you want the base of your tart to be.
Start with the squishy pink inside. Get your thread and using a running stitch go around the outside of the circle a couple of mm from the edge. Don’t tie it off.
Pull the thread so it all crimps up.
Shove stuffing inside.
Add one of your cardboard pieces on top.
Pull tight as you can so it looks like this… Then tie it off and put it to the side.
Now let’s make the chocolate shell thingy. Get your two brown circles and thread.
Sew them in the same way as the pink part.
Put the other cardboard circle in the middle to act as a base.
Pull the thread tight so it comes up around the cardboard like this and tie it off.
Put the pink thingy inside. You can glue it if you want or stitch in place.
Now get your redish brown rectangle.
Roll it into a tube.
Using a dark brown thread you should tie it at one end and then spiral down to the other. Tie it off and hide the ends inside.
Strawberry time!
Stitch little white lines in the pattern shown below…
Fold the felt in half and then sew from the point to the top using a blanket stitch.
Flip it inside out.
Stuff that strawberry!
Running stitch around the top and pull it tight to close it off.
Cut out a little green leaf part and stitch it on top. I personally think the strawberry looks a little skinny and sickly so if I was to make it again I would probably go with 3/4 of a circle instead of 1/2 of one. Also I think I would use a different shape for the leaves so they sit down in a cuter way.
Stick it all together either with glue or thread and you’re finished.
This little yummy treat can be added to a different base depending on what you want it to be in the end. The pack included a magnet but I’m thinking I might want to put it on a hair accessory ^_^ |
Tomorrow I have a very special post (hopefully)… I’m only going to give you one clue though… I’m going to take you on a trip somewhere very special 😀
by VioletLeBeaux | Jul 30, 2010 | Craft, Other-Accessory-Tutorials, Tutorial
The first shout out in this knitted fingerless gloves tutorial has to go to Vintage Grrl, without her I wouldn’t have been able to make this because she hand spun the yarn for it!
How freaking cool is that? Please go visit her blog because she is truly a very skilled and talented lady.
I was so happy when this arrived at my door!
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Look at the lovely colours, it reminds me of yummy candy 😀
This is what it looked like after I balled it. I couldn’t ask for a more “me” colour!
And this is what I made out of half of it… a pair of very frilly fingerless gloves 😀 I searched Ravelry for patterns but I couldn’t settle on something that I really liked so I took a very basic lace stitch and made a standard fingerless glove with ruffles ^_^
Now I’m going to try and show you how I made them. Please be kind because this is the first knitting/crochet pattern I’ve ever written so it may make no sense at all. I’m more of a visual person so I prefer to just knit and see if it looks right rather than following patterns to the letter but you girls keep asking for patterns so here goes nothing! |
Row 1: Cast on 44 stitches. (please adjust the number according to the size of your wrist and hand) Row 2: *Knit 2, purl 2* repeat until end of row. Repeat for rows 3-13. Row 14: *Knit 2, K2tog* repeat until end of row. Row 15: K1, *K2tog, YO* repeat until 2nd last stitch, K1. Repeat for rows 16-30. Row 31: Cast off 14 stitches. K1, *K2tog, YO* repeat until 2nd last stitch, K1. Row 32-42: K1, *K2tog, YO* repeat until 2nd last stitch, K1. Row 43: Cast off.
You should end up with something vaguely similar to this:
Now fold the left side in half, this will form the finger holes. Fold the right side in half too to make the thumb. Sew together.
You have something like this…
Make a second one. Also make sure you try them on to make sure they fit!
Now let’s crochet some ruffles. I used a very simple stitch to do this…
Single crochet in the first stitch, chain 2, 2xdouble crochet in the same stitch, single crochet in the next stitch etc. Repeat until you’ve gone all the way around the finger and thumb.
You have something like this…
Now you should sew a stitch between each finger. This is optional but I prefer it ^_^
Add some ruffles to the bottom ribbing. This time I just did 3 double crochet into each stitch.
Taaadaaa! And there you have it. Cute lacy fingerless gloves ^_^
Phew! I’m all tired from trying to remember how I made the gloves, next time I have to take more photos while I’m actually doing it and write it down as I go XD Now go have a look at Vintage Grrl‘s beautiful yarn! Thank you for giving me such awesome yarn to make knitted fingerless gloves!
Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a list of all of my downloadable tutorials? OMG so convenient! I know right?