Soothe Winter Skin with this Homemade Sugar Scrub Winter skin has been an issue for me, for as long as I can remember. All summer long I swim, garden and hike around in the Southern California sun. Occasionally I will leave my skin outdoors for too long, turning it bright pink (never the deep, creamy brown my mom and sister have) but it always bounces right back to my soft, milk-white and freckly skin. In the winter months however, my skin completely dries out on me. Winter is when my skin should love me! This year, I’m fighting back against winter skin with a homemade sugar scrub. This scrub not only feels amazing, it also smells amazing, is so cheap to put together, and it requires only FIVE ingredients. White sugar Whole Vanilla Beans Olive Oil (Or Mineral Oil) Almond Extract (Or Vanilla extract, mint extract, lavender essential oil- Whatever you’ve got handy!) I started this project by putting some white sugar in a jar with two vanilla beans, and leaving it alone for a few days. Next, choose a container for your homemade scrub.
Crafts/DIY: Heart Envelopes Valentine's Day craft part deux. Last time, I shared with you some crafty heart origami for letters. Then I posted a couple of links where you can print some free gift wrappers straight to your printer. Now, here's a quick and easy tutorial on creating an envelope from a heart. Lovely Wire Knot Ring Tutorial You can make this lovely ring (or a version of this design) yourself, using just some basic tools, wire and a lip balm! Yes, in this tutorial I am going to demonstrate that just basic beginner tools and a wire from Michael’s can go a long way! Wouldn’t this ring make a great present?? For the purpose of this tutorial I am going to be using the very basic, cheap tools that are available almost everywhere. PLEASE excuse the state of my nails in these pictures.. First thing to do is to cut a piece of wire. Next, wrap your wire around the tube of your lip balm. Cut of the extra bits, if any. Now bend the wire coming from your left to aim away from the ring and then bend again to aim it slightly upwards, as shown on pictures below. With your round nose pliers form a little ‘almost loop’, wire crossing above itself on the top side of the ring but not actually touching. Now you are going to put the other size of the ring (the wire from the other side) through the loop that you almost created.
DIY Bobby Pins This year, I'd really like to stay on top of birthday gifts. It seems like I'm always making a last-minute run to the toy store on the way to the birthday party. Not this year. I'm going to stay ahead of the game by making birthday gifts ahead of time so they're ready to go well before the party arrives. Step 2: Cut circles of fabric to fit the button form. Step 3: Cover the buttons according to package directions. Step 4: Using needle-nose pliers, gently remove the shanks from the buttons. Step 5: Use a small amount of glue to to adhere the buttons to the bobby pins. (Tip: The glue expands as it dries, so take it easy on the glue.) All done. Do you like covering things with fabric? ***UPDATE*** I've received a lot of specific questions about this project.
DIY Geometric Diamond Necklace Hi there, sorry for the missed post yesterday! It's been a long day of studying for exams. Anyway, today I'd like to share a little DIY project I made over the weekend. You need: - a chain necklace and a jumpring - a paintbrush and paint (No paint? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. I hope you will enjoy making your own geometric diamond necklace, in any colors you fancy! Circle Zip Earbud Pouch Tutorial - Dog Under My Desk I use a little zippered pouch to carry around my earbuds since they are the fancy microphone ones and I don’t want them to break or get tangled. Some of you have commented that you are looking for some small, simple gift ideas. This is definitely simple to make, and a little more fun than the typical rectangular zippered pouch! I can see these as the perfect gift for teenage cousins or nieces or girlfriends or even teacher gifts. Fun, quick, and cute! It doesn’t take very much fabric so you could even use scraps! UPDATE: I have completely re-written this tutorial with twice as many bright, clear photos and more detailed instructions and it is available as a pattern in my pattern shop. First, download the pattern template HERE. Cut from main fabric: 1 circle 2 half circles 1 tab Cut from lining fabric: 1 circle 2 half circles Cut from batting (or medium weight interfacing, if you prefer): 1 circle 2 half circles You will also need a 1″ wide nylon 5″ or longer zipper. Time to sew!
Lava Lamps -Summer Fun- - S.L. Smith Photography I found a fun, cheap, and easy project in Family Fun magazine about making Lava Lamps with things you already have in your house. You will need 3 empty water bottles ( I don't normally buy this kind of water, but they make pretty lava lamps with the lids on), food coloring, vegetable oil, and alka seltzer. Fill each bottle a little more than half with oil: Then fill the rest of the way with water. Now add 10 drops of food coloring: Break your Alka Seltzer into 4 pieces: and drop them in one piece at a time. and watch the magic happen... over...and over...and over again. We had so much fun with these.
DIY- Anthropologie "Perched Harmonies" Necklace Ready for another tutorial? What a pretty necklace. Not a pretty price! Make your own $68-looking Anthropologie designer necklace at home for barely no money at all. Get out your pliers; let's make some jewelry! Step 1: Gather materials. I used just plain glass rounds, as the Anthropologie necklace uses faceted gemstone beads. Step 2: Make the wire pendant. Time to hammer. When it looks slightly flatter, hammer the ends extra hard to sort of "push" the wire outwards, flattening it a lot. Step 3: Make the holes. Step 4: Add your beads to the pendant. If you don't care about it looking the exact same or don't have the exact colors of the beads (some of my colors were slightly different hues), then just go with what you want. Start wrapping the beads onto the pendant. Here are some close-ups so you can see the weaving technique. Step 5: Add your jump rings to the holes in the pendant. You are finished! If you share/use/post this tutorial, please link back to me.
Headband I have seen so many great tutorials about fusing plastic bags together, and making a tote bag out of recycled plastic is way up there on my massively long crafting to-do list. Because I am tentative about these things I decided to make something small first. I need to get comfortable with the technique and familiarize myself with what the resulting "fabric" will be like before I haul off on a tote bag! So I made a little flower, which turned into a headband slider, which I really like. It's soft and flexible and up close you can't tell at all that it is from a grocery bag. I followed this tutorial to fuse the bags together, then I used a couple of different Sizzix dies to punch the flowers. The plastic fabric is really fun to work with, I can't wait to make more.
DIY Lace Earrings Dolce & Gabbana‘s Spring ’11 collection undoubtedly furthered our already fanatical obsession with lace. Honestly, how dreamy is the collection?! We thought we’d make good use of some vintage lace trim we had laying around and turn them into earrings similar to the ones we saw on the runway. And thanks to some tips from a DIY previously featured on Poppytalk, making lace earrings proved be a cinch! Mix equal parts glue to water in a bowl. Submerge the cut shapes into the glue mixture. I haven’t stopped wearing mine since and can’t wait to make more. (top image from Vogue.com, rest of images by Honestly…WTF)