Well it’s not Summer here but I think I’m a bit tired of Winter so I’m pretending it is >_>
For someone who only ever seems to wear one pair of sunglasses I sure have a lot of them hanging around the house. So on a mission to get rid of the things I didn’t use I decided to give some of the sunglasses a make over and actually start using them!
The end result is pink and green, perfect for a warm Spring day out! Now if only we had some warm days!
Originally the sunglasses were clear and pink. Cute but for some reason I never really wore them.
All it took was a few coats of nail polish!
I got some polish on the lenses because I was a bit careless it it was easy to poke off with a toothpick once dry.
Easy!
Super cute!
It’s inspired me to be a bit more creative and try to dress up my other sunglasses too!
I’m on a roll with my crafting! I’m going to start some new knitting projects this weekend, what are you guys crafting at the moment?
Oh my god… two tutorials in a row? Unheard of recently! To be fair, this is such a self explanatory tutorial it’s more just inspiration really…
I am super picky when it comes to flat shoes. SUPER picky. I spent months trying to find ones to replace the ones Lottie killed.
So eventually I found some but I didn’t think they were quite fancy enough so I took a few minutes and added some extra spikes, and this is how they turned out!
Originally they came like this, the little dots are grey diamontes on top of a lacy cut out. Cute but not over the top enough for me.
That is something easily fixed though.
To do this you will need prong backed spikes. I bought mine on sale at Diva for $1 a pack but you can buy on ebay too. For other ideas what to do with spikes I made a video on making a cute spiked headband too.
Step one… place studs where you want them. I played around with several designs before I settled on one.
Step 2… press studs through the material and fold the backs over. DONE! Seriously.
It can be a little tricky to shove the spikes through without hurting your fingers especially if the shoes are very thick. I found that placing a layer of felt over the spike then using pliers to shove it through worked best for me. The felt protects the shiny finish from the pliers. Easy!
Shortest project ever but it’s one of the ones I’m happiest with because I now love these shoes and have been wearing them so much this week to break them in! Double win 😀
I go through seriously obsessive craft phases. I think you’ll all remember the last cable knitting/crochet one that lasted a good couple of months right? I’m still kind of in that obsession but I had to take a little break after completing some really big projects. In the mean time I decided to try something that I hadn’t done since I was at school: silk painting!
I loooove silk scarves. In fact this craft combines my two favorite things in the world: silk scarves and painting. But I didn’t really have any supplies for it and I didn’t want to spend a bunch of money on something I wasn’t sure would last longer than the obsession stage. So after googling around and looking for different techniques I discovered something fun: alcohol based markers like Sharpies and Copic markers can be used to permanently colour fabric and you can create interesting designs by breaking them down with rubbing alcohol. Did I want to try this? HELL YES!!!
Unfortunately in Australia you can’t buy straight rubbing alcohol (because apparently the government thinks people want to drink it… seriously). You can buy Isocol but it’s not a high enough percentage of alcohol (and super expensive). As it turns out though, alcohol gel hand sanitizer is just high enough for it to work and you can water it down to liquid or use the gel consistency to create a water colour like effect. YAY!
Let’s do a really basic design to start with:
So let’s get started!
You need:
Fabric to paint on. Silk is best but you can use satin, blends, cotton, whatever
Sharpies, copic marker any alcohol based marker. Test it out on scrap first
Hand sanitizer or rubbing alcohol
Water based resist if you want to control where the colours go, more on this in a minute
A frame to hold the fabric tight.
First thing to do is pin your fabric to your frame. You can buy fancy special silk frames but I didn’t want to spend the money so I used some old packing foam and hot glued it into a square shape. Pin the fabric to it so it’s completely taut and the back isn’t touching anything. If the back touches a table/whatever the inks will bleed through any lines you make.
For this design I’m using water based resist to draw lines. Sometimes it’s called Gutta but actual Gutta requires you to dry clean the fabric to remove it later. This one washes out in warm water.
Resist does what it sounds like, the fabric it touches will resist the dye and stay it’s original colour (in this case pink). You can use it to create barriers or several layers for details. In this design I’m using it to make the actual pattern.
Rather than buying actual resist I experimented with a lot of things before I took the plunge including water colour masking fluid and wash out glues. They kind of work but it’s really better to just spend the $6 and buy real resist because it’s SO much easier to work with.
So use the resist to paint on diagonal lines. Make sure you use enough to soak through the fabric.
I wasn’t careful with my application because I thought it would make it look rustic and special etc but you can get some really clean lines if you take the time to do it well.
Wait for the resist to dry completely… or be impatient and use a hairdryer to dry it quickly.
Now break out your markers. I’m using a set of Sharpie knock offs from Bic.
Colour in each square.
You can get fancy and use several colours blended but I just did the basics here.
In itself this is quite a pretty finish but I really wanted to do more water colour stuff so time for hand sanitizer.
Apply it over the entire scarf using a paint brush. You’ll notice the dye trying to run away from the sanitizer as it breaks down so you can create really interesting patterns. Try not to leave it wet for too long or the resist may get wet and not be an effective barrier anymore.
I removed mine from the fame and crumpled it in a ball to dry to create even more interesting shapes.
Allow it to dry then dump it in the sink with some warm water. If you find your markers run in warm water, heat seal your silk with an iron before washing.
Wash thoroughly and you should see all of the silk resist coming out.
Let it dry then iron it flat.
Taadaa! Done!
Some close ups show the patterns in the dyes and the way they blended together.
The resist leaves really clean lines once you get the hang of using it.
Really, this is just the beginning! I am completely in love with this way of painting. I want to buy real supplies now and make amazing silk scarves.
Here are some of the other ones I’ve made so far:
The blue areas were done with Copic markers, they really react heavily to the alcohol and make beautiful patterns.
I did a little random bee one to try a combination of resist and then ink over the top of it:
This one was my biggest project so far but it was on a different fabric type so the results weren’t as impressive as I’d hoped.
I’m going to use this design again though and keep trying!
My favorite piece so far as been this mini one with little flowers. I love using a lot of shading to get great texture.
Now that I’ve played around I can safely say I’ll be doing this for a very long time to come so I’m planning on taking a trip to an actual silk supply store and buying traditional supplies. You guys should give it a try too, it’s really so much fun!
Today’s hairstyle is a big round beehive! After doing the pouf I decided on doing something a little more interesting with the back.
Here’s the text transcript with instructions!
Hello Besties!!!
Today we’ll be doing a big sort of poufy beehive updo kind of thingy!
So let’s get started!
Straightened hair is easier to work with for styles like this.
Separate you hair into two sections.
We’ll be working with the top half for the moment, so just tie the other section away.
Brush the top half foreword and then take a smaller section from the top.
Hairspray and then tease the bajeebus out of it.
Then roll the teased section down into a rough tube.
Pin it to the top of your head and shape with your fingers.
You could also use a rat instead if you don’t like to tease your hair.
Now we are going to take the section in front, hairspray and tease the back of it but not the front.
This way the pouf stays all smooth while still being volumous.
Place it over the top of the teased bit and then pin at the back.
So far it should look like this. Everyone keeping up? GREAT!
Grab a smaller section on the side, hairspray, tease the back and then fold over to pin at the back as well.
Repeat on the other side.
We’re using smaller sections this time rather than two huge sections on either side.
This will give us a more intricate, almost braided look at the end, because you can see each section at the back.
Keep taking smaller sections from the sides until you run out of hair!
When you get to this point you can either braid or fishtail the ends together.
I fishtailed it and it looked pretty messy because I didn’t have a mirror handy while filming this.
Then again, I’ll be covering mine with a bow so this is probably a little redundant…
You can make yours as intricate or plain as you’d like!
Then roll the rest of the hair up into a flat bun or leave it down if you’d prefer.
Mine was too long to do a french twist at the back, so I just rolled it into a bun and lined it to my scalp.
And pin in place!
So this is what the back of mine looks like at this point.
Of course you need hair accessories!
I like to use big flowers at the front and big bows for the back!
Cute!
You can make the braiding more or less obvious depending on your preferences.
Either way, this is a fairly easy hairstyle that looks like it requires a lot more effort than it does!
Thanks so much for watching and I’ll see you next time, bye!
A blog and Youtube channel about a girl and her quest to make everything sparkle. New craft, hair and beauty tutorials every week!
Violet LeBeaux spends most of her time trying to think of ways to make life prettier, posting said ways on her blog and drinking very strong tea. She writes about big hair cute things, girly fashion, beauty finds, sometimes Hime Gyaru fashion (姫ギャル) and crafty tutorials.
She lives with her adorable boyfriend Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Music: Garageband unless otherwise credited
Bonus videos: I had to make an intro for the youtube channel so here it is ^_^
I don’t usually talk about sucky things happening here but this week has been an absolute bust. I haven’t been able to finish anything at all that I started >_<
Between catching a cold while standing on a freezing air field tarmac on a photography job with James, craft projects failing miserably, several friends having major life crisis’s and illnesses, family members being in hospital, Lottie stealing some panadol and spending all day throwing up… it’s just been kind of a sucky 2 weeks.
So instead of spending the night editing and then posting one of the craft tutorials that failed fairly miserably I’m calling today a wash and going to bed early to kick my cold and regroup so I can do better tomorrow!
Sometimes rather than trying to push through crappiness you just need to reset your clock, watch a movie, eat some junk food and wake up for a new day tomorrow!
In lieu of a real post here’s a hair tutorial video I forgot to post last week!
Today we’re doing a style which has a little bit of a retro twist! The deep part with a flicked fringe is really fun and you can dress it up or down.
Written Instructions:
Hello Besties!
Today we’re doing a side swept look with a lot of volume and some retro curls at the front.
But first… Dance break!
Sorry, I watch kpop playlists while I film these and sometimes you just have to dance!
Ok, start with some pre-curled hair. Use your teasing comb to take a section and tease it at the root.
Then give it a blast of hairspray.
After another little dance break, take another section of hair from the other side.
Hairspray.
Then tease that at the root and flip it over to the other side.
Repeat this until you think it looks good.
I flipped over three sections.
Now tease back your fringe and push that over to the side until it looks like you’ve been in some kind of storm!
Very lightly brush the top to smooth over the teasing.
Now leave that side and we’ll come back to it later.
Take the remaining section of hair, pull it backwards and pin it in place with your favourite accessory.
Now back to the other side again.
Very lightly brush your hair so it smoothes but doesn’t kill the volume for the tease.
Now shape the bottom of your fringe into a bit of a was and hairspray in place.
At the end of the wave I’m adding a little curl with my finger and some hairspray.
To accent this wave even further I’m going to add a second curl just behind it facing the other way.
You can add as many curls as you want in as many sizes as you want, just hairspray the bajeezus out of them.
So this is my second curl. Taadaa.
I like how over the top it looks but you can obviously tone this down a bit if that’s your style.
Having these curls makes the side swept look much more obvious as well as fabulous.
Now separate your other curls while you spray to finish everything off.
And you’re done.
It’s cute and a little bit saucy.
Please like, comment, favourite and subscribe if you liked it!
Thanks so much for watching. Bye!~~~~~~~~~~~~
A blog and Youtube channel about a girl and her quest to make everything sparkle. New craft, hair and beauty tutorials every week!
Violet LeBeaux spends most of her time trying to think of ways to make life prettier, posting said ways on her blog and drinking very strong tea. She writes about big hair cute things, girly fashion, beauty finds, sometimes Hime Gyaru fashion (姫ギャル) and crafty tutorials.
She lives with her adorable boyfriend Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.
This time for my weekly youtube tutorial I wanted to try something different and so we have a new series… Violet Sucks at Cooking… But Looks Adorable Doing It!
For the first episode I decided to make my own flavoured sugar cubes in cute little shapes.
Add your sugar to a mixing bowl. The amount you need depends on how many you want to make, I used around 1/4 of a cup to begin with then made another batch.
Grab your flavouring, I chose strawberry.
Add a few drops to the sugar.
Mix it with a spoon thoroughly until it’s completely pink and coated.
It smells SO good.
Add a teaspoon or two of water to the mixture until it turns into a slushee kind of consistancy. You don’t want to dissolve or melt the sugar, just get it a bit damp.
Once the mixture is ready, spoon it into the moulds.
Press the sugar into each shape, make sure it’s smooshed in so there are no air pockets.
You should have something like this:
Now pop them into the oven on the grill setting. You need to keep a close eye on them because we want the water to evaporate but we don’t want the sugar to melt.
While I was waiting I had a puppy cuddle break. I think she was just trying to get to the sugar >_>
If you don’t want to put the sugar into the oven you can just leave them out on the bench over night to dry.
Once they’re all hard and dry just pop them out on to a plate.
Keep in mind that if you don’t have chocolate moulds like this you can just roll the sugar out on to a tray and use cookie cutters or a knife to cut the shapes.
Taadaa!
YAY!! So cute and delicious!
I like to use them with English Breakfast tea, it’s delicious!
Now let’s all rejoice that I didn’t burn the kitchen down 😀
Hope you enjoyed and let me know what I should cook next!
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.
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