Handbag Charms – Quick Crafts

A random craft today, I’ve been making handbag charms!

I really love the one I have from Amaranth Opulent on the right and I wanted some different ones to put on all of my bags!VioletLeBeauxP1060331_17242

When I do stuff like this I pretty much just grab everything together out of my craft area and move them around until I can find things that match. It’s very scientific 😉

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I made this one a while ago and then added a Bergamot charm to it recently too.

It looks pretty cute on the bag!

+10 awesome points if you can guess where the charm came from!

Jimmy’s Healthy(ish) Oven Baked Donut Recipe

It’s time for another one of Jimmy’s guest posts!!! Neat! Oh, and we’re making baked donuts. OMGKJDNKJDCNKD!!!!!! YES!!! YESYESYES!!!!!!!

 

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So every 6 months or so I go on a bit of a health kick. It’s usually brought on when I’m going through photos and I’m like, where am I in all these photos? I only see that guy who looks like he could be my twin from a planet inhabited entirely by edible couches that are both delicious and majorly comfortableOHMYGODTHATSME. This will not stand. So I go to the closet, pull the secret lever, go through the secret passage way, solve the skeletons riddle, past the pit of dispair and find my running shoes. Dust them off, freak out a little because a spider crawled out and nearly touched me, back through the pit, get stuck talking to the skeletons wife (who is a major chatterbox btw, but she brought me a pie so what can I do?) back up the secret passage and through the closet. Then I pop on the shoes, look out the window and chicken out because it looks a little like rain. But you know, I play some wii fit tennis and stuff. IT TOTALLY COUNTS! It has “fit” in the title of the game!!! Then the next day I look for rain, but it’s a beautiful day outside. Stupid sun. Not even a swarm of bees on the horizon. I manage to drag myself down to the street and the little green crossing man lights up with a hint of mockery, as if to say pfft, good luck…and that’s what gets me going. I’LL SHOW YOU CROSSY MAN! I burst into run, get about three steps and twist my ankle.Me: oowowowowoww, Violet, I hurted my self…

Violet: Did you remeber to stretch first?

Me: Stretch? What am I, a woman!?!

Violet: You get no sympathy. And you get to make me dinner.

I sometimes manage to actually run every now and then, and when I do I try my best to eat right, but I still love baking. So before I bake anything this conversation takes place:

Me: Are people actually going to eat these if I make them or am I going to end up eating all of them again?

Everybody else: Oh sure, we’ll eat them, sound delicious.

*Jimmy makes cupcakes*

Me: Cupcakes are ready!

*half a week later*

Me: Nobody is eating any cupcakes!!!!

Violet: Oh yeah, I’ll have one tomorrow

Me: Liar!

Cupcakes: Pssst, Jimmy, eat me and my buddies!

Me: You go to hell cupcakes!!! You go to hell and die in a fire!!

Cupcakes: But we’re delicious!

Me: Oh. Ok.

Violet: Who ate all the cupcakes!?!?!

Mrs. Skeleton: I can make a pie!

Everyone: NO THANK YOU!!!!

And now we come full circle. I needed something that I could bake, would taste delicious but would still be healthy-ish if/when I end up eating them all. These donuts only have something like 300KJ each and since the daily recommended kj intake is around 8500, you can eat 28 of these bad boys a day!!!

Ingredients:

  • 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk at room temperature (I can never find buttermilk so I use regular milk with a little bit of lemon juice, but mix them separately so the milk doesn’t curdle.)
  • 2 eggs at room temperature
  • 50g of room temp butter (if you are really eating healthy then you can sub this with 2 tbsp apple sauce or light margarine)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup blueberries
Ingredients! Assemble!

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Combine all your dry ingredients in a sifter and…sift them?

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Just make sure that they all mix together well.

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add all the wet ingredients except for the lemon juice

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Give everything a good stir, THEN stir in a few quick splashes of lemon juice

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At this point I poured some of the mixture into a lightly greased donut pan because Violet likes plain donuts, but I like blueberries, so I made 6 plain and 6 blueberry. I have also made mixed berry and mixed berry with cream cheese which was really nice.

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Finding a donut pan can be difficult, we luckily came across this one at K-Mart for $9, but if you can’t find one try looking for a mini Bundt Cake pan, they are a little more common since you don’t usually bake donuts.

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Never having made donuts before, I had no idea how much batter to put in each little thingy. As it turns out filling it to the brim was too much and mine came out as some kind of donut-cupcake hybrid that I called cupnuts. Because that sounds hilarious.

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On the other side they look normal-ish. Really it’s a brilliant system because since the middle has a divit but not a hole you can put a filling like custard or jam or something there!

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Unfortunately I forgot to take any photos of the icing process, but here’s the recipe!

  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tbsp whole milk
  • A little cream cheese if you like, but again that’s going to add to the Kj count =(
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
It makes quite a bit of icing, so if you want to make less you can just keep adding a little milk to an icing sugar/vanilla extract mixture at a time and stir so that it’s liquidy but will still dry with a shell over the top when left out on the counter.

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Dip the donuts into the mixture and rotate as you pull it out to get a smooth finish, then decorate with your favorite toppings!

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These ones look a little…deflated. That’s because I forgot to add butter I think. I forgot to add something somewhere along the way and they came out really chewy.

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These are great for parties where you can set up a make-your-own donut bar!

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I’m so awesome at this being healthy thing. What do you guys think?

How To Make A Decorative Wire Bird Cage

Today’s craft is a wire bird cage. I haven’t been able to log in to Pinterest the last few weeks without seeing someone’s version of this. It seems to have seeped into my brain because now I can’t think about anything other than making different types of bird cages and finding different uses for them!

Now that I’ve made one I want to experiment with painting them different colours, doing different sizes and using different gauges of wire for different more ornate designs.

Most of the ones I’ve seen require soldering of some sort which I wasn’t prepared to do so I made mine using 2 gauges of wire, a large for the main parts and a thin jewellery wire for the joins.

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You can pretty much see how it’s made without needing a tutorial but I’m already here… and I’ve already got all these photos… so let’s just do it anyway ;)You need:

  • Thick-ish wire for the main structure
  • Thin-ish wire for the joins
  • Wire cutters
  • Pliers for bending everything (my sore fingers really advise you to use pliers)
  • Something to get a perfect circle shape from, I used a bottle of Bio Oil
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Start by making a circle of thick wire and use a some small wire to wrap the ends securely. If you’re worried about how sharp they are you can wrap further around to cover edges or even completely around the circle for an interesting finish.

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Make two of these.

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Now make 3 curved pieces which have long legs, these will be the tall parts of the cage. They don’t need to be perfect because you’re going to be bending them a lot to perfect the shape. Make sure to cut the legs quite long so you have room to bend and loop the ends. More is better than less!

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Put them together like this and tie the tops of all of them together with the thin wire to keep them steady while you work. You can make this more decorative later.

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Slide the first loop where you want the half way point of the cage to be.

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And then slide the bottom on too.

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Don’t worry if it won’t stay up for now, we’ll fix it a bit later.

Bend the legs out so they sit evenly.

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Once I was sure it was even I added a decorative loop at the top to make it a bit more secure and to prevent everything from sliding around.

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Now bend the ends of the legs into loops so they hook around the bottom circle. Once you’re done you can slide the half way circle back up and bend the inside wires so they are bowed out. Their curve will hold the circle in place. If you find this isn’t secure enough you can add some more small gauge wire loops to hold it in place.

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All finished! You could make mini ones for jewellery or larger ones as decorative house hold things. This one is an odd size so it’s a little bit pointless XD

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I’m thinking of making some big ones to hang off our roof next. Maybe a cluster of them painted pink or white would look really pretty with candles inside!

 

Hemming a Chiffon Scarf

I love scarves. Not much more to be said, I love pretty much all scarves no matter what they’re made of but I love silk and chiffon scarves the most!

I had some chiffon left over from a skirt that I was going to make but gave up on so I decided to turn it into a scarf instead. This is a quick tutorial on how to roll the edges of silk/chiffon.

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This is the skirt I was making.how-to-hand-roll-a-scarf662

I snipped it up and cut it into a rectangle. It’s very important to cut straight so it’s easier to roll.

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So start at one corner.

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Tie your thread in the corner.

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Fold the hem over once around 2mm. You can make it smaller if you are confident in your sewing skills.

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Fold it over a second time so the raw edge is completely incased inside.

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Hold it in place between your fingers like this.

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There are several stitches you can use here to keep it in place. I’ve done a basic whip stitch to show you how far apart the stitches should be. Usually with this kind of stitch you would move the needle inside the seam so the thread is completely hidden.

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When you stitch you should make sure to only take tiny pieces from the main piece of fabric so the thread doesn’t show through everywhere.

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Continue stitching all the way down until you reach the corner.

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When you get there you should stitch to just before the end and fold the next side in the same way. If you roll them together tightly the corner will form a nice triangular split like this.

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Keep going until you reach the start again.

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Go enjoy your new scarf 😀

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Hope it was useful and thanks for reading!

Spring Sidebun Braid – Hairstyle Tutorial

Simple hair style tutorial for a braid that goes around the back and into a big side bun. You will need basic braiding knowledge for this one. .
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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.

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Music: Garageband unless otherwise credited

Spring Sidebun Braid – Hairstyle Instructions
Today I’ll be showing you how I do a fun braided style perfect for Spring.
Basic braiding knowledge is required for this one.
Start by brushing your hair over to one side.
Pull the top half into a section on the side and side it off for the moment.
Begin braiding towards the back from just above one ear.
Continue braiding taking small sections of hair from above and below the braid as you go.
Use only the loose hair and be careful not to get tangled in the top half.
Once you get to the back, it can get a bit tangly if you have very long hair.
If you need to, take a break every few goes and brush out the ends.
I’ll link to some basic braiding videos in the description in case you need to learn.
Continue braiding right around to the other ear and make sure to stay very low on the head.
When you reach the ear, plait the rest of the way down to the end.
Tie the remaining hair up in a ponytail just above your ear.
Scrunch the ponytail up to get a bun and pin it in place.
You might find this easier if you curl the hair first.
Hairspray is also helpful
Lastly, wrap the plait around the bun and pin it in place.
Hairspray in place if needed.
All finished!
I really like this style for Spring and Summer.
I hope this was a useful video, please checkout the blog post linked in the description for more information and photo tutorials.
Thanks so much for watching!
Bye!

Make A Simple Hanging Ball Decoration

Ridiculously simple decorations for holidays with absolute minimum effort? CHECK.

I wish we had more space in the apartment, it looks cluttered enough as it is without more decorations but I couldn’t help trying to do something anyway, so I made a couple of hanging puff balls. Of course I then realised I had no where to hang them and scrapped the project XD Forward thinking is not my strong point!

You need:

  • Tissue paper
  • Scissors
  • Yarn or string

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Place a heap of sheets of tissue paper on top of each other and cut into a square. Fold down the middle like an accordion so it forms a bow.VioletLeBeaux-Hanging-Decoration_6103_9309

Tie a long piece of yarn around the middle.

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Fluff it all out into a ball and if you want to make it a bit more interesting tear the edges of the paper. You can also do this with recycled wrapping paper from gifts to make it colourful and more interesting 😀

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Hang it up and put some wanky vintage filter on you’re camera and you’re pretty much set 😀 I actually think it would look much cooler if you had about 50 of them hanging in rows from the ceiling but we don’t have anything to hang them off so I’m off to think of something more suitable 😉

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