I know, I know, MORE friendship bracelets. I can’t stop myself. I am a friendship bracelet making machine. My 9-year old self would be so proud!
If you ‘like’ us on Facebook, you know that I have a much more intricate and elaborate DIY beaded friendship bracelet tutorial I am compiling for you all, but it wasn’t quite ready for today, so this will have to do. We’re changing up the GEM posting schedule starting next week, so I promise that Monday’s post will have that tutorial for you all. In the meantime, I’ve been itching to make some Utility Cord friendship bracelets. Rather than spend over $100 on one of the designer versions I’ve seen around the Interwebs, I whipped up my own in under 20 minutes. Easy peasy.
Materials:
Utility cord
Binder clips
S hook
Scissors
Lighter or matches to burn tips of rope
Directions:
To make the purple and blue bracelets, I tied a Solomon Bar using the video tutorial from Tying It All Together’s YouTube channel. There are tons of beautiful knot tutorials over there. You could really go nuts experimenting with different kinds of cord and knot-tying techniques. To make the bracelet, I used circular binder clips instead of the rings pictured in the video so that I could attach the clips to one another. They serve as the clasp to the bracelet. After tying the full bar, I cut the line and burned the ends with a lighter to secure. Statement bracelets in under 10 minutes and for under $2. Not bad, eh?
To create the yellow S hook bracelet, I simply followed the tutorial from Honestly, WTF?. Easy and inexpensive, as well. I can’t tell you the amount of attention these received when I wore them to work! Far better than dropping $100+ on a trendy piece of jewelry – and impressive to be able to say, hey, I MADE THIS!
Inspired by the polymer clay friendship bracelets stocked in the shop we featured yesterday, I decided to tackle my own Sculpey beaded bracelets. I just can’t get enough of this friendship bracelet craze. I even made one for Sunny.
Materials:
Polymer clay
Dowel or skewer to use for punching hole in clay bead
Baking sheet
Thread
Scissors
Directions:
1. Start by making and baking a batch of polymer clay beads. It’ll take you back to elementary school! Roll up a few tiny balls, punch ‘em through with a skewer, form into desired shape, lay on a baking sheet and cook for 10 minutes at 275 degrees F. Beads ready!
2. Next, using a thread of choice (I found a beading thread at a local craft store), braid the clay beads like we did in the DIY Hex Nut Bracelet Tutorial.
If you follow me on my personal blog, you know that my toddler has been a bit under-the-weather and resistant to any form of sleep this past week. (She hates Tomorrow. True story.) This has left me with little time to myself to conquer such things as this week’s DIY Wednesday.
However, if you read Blog a la Cart, you also know that despite Sunny’s hurt toe, we attended The Clark Art Institute’s Family Day this weekend where there was crafting galore for kids and parents alike. (Thanks to this excursion, I will be attending a scarecrow making workshop in mid-July. I promise to thoroughly document this experience, if for no one else but myself).
Below is one of the very easy crafts that we tackled while at the museum’s family day festivities. I call it: DIY Hemp String Gardening Pot. Clever, I know.
Materials:
Gardening pot
Hemp string
Elmer’s Glue
Q-Tip
Scissors
Directions: This is as straight forward as it looks, which is why it’s a perfect craft for kids. Simply paint a pattern on the pot using a Q-Tip covered in some Elmer’s glue. Then lay the hemp string along the glue markings. Cut the string as needed. Allow glue to dry. Throw in some potting soil and a plant, and voila! You’ve spruced up just a boring ol’ gardening pot.
Sunny and I kept her pot’s design simple as a toddler’s attention span is brief. We wrote her name along the top edge, and then added a heart and simply wrapped some hemp around the center.
First and foremost, HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIMMY! I hope it is filled with lots of warm, salty breezes and time out on the ocean, two of your most favorite things. Oh, and cake WITHOUT the frosting. Because I know how you roll. In fact, let’s just make it a strawberry shortcake, preceded by a slab of steak.
Today’s DIY is a total cop out as I had ZERO to do with its creation besides selecting and purchasing the fabric. I know that I haven’t shared much of the Kids Room Redesign as, quite honestly, that project has been on hold as we made our way through wedding, graduation, and reunion season. Now that that time is behind us, expect more progress on this front!
I had purchased this adorable umbrella fabric nearly two months ago and then promptly handed it off to a far more talented and savvy seamstress than myself; a dear friend who offered to teach me how to sew a cushion cover for the love seat that I had put in the room. The love seat is a family piece that will eventually be Kimmy’s (when she has a home with room for it), so I didn’t want to invest in reupholstering something that was ultimately not mine. Plus, a cushion cover is easy to launder when little ones drool and smear dirty hands and do other unsavory things to the fabric.
After weeks of being stuck with a cushion and pile of fabric in her home, Geraldine took the project upon herself and surprised us with its completion upon our return home from a wedding in western PA. After a 1,000 mile round trip journey, this couldn’t have been a more welcome surprise. It’s positively adorable. And I swear one day I’ll actually sit down and have Geraldine teach me some basic skills with a sewing machine.
For now, I’ll just be grateful to have talented friends in my midst that so graciously take care of such projects on my behalf.
Thanks, Geraldine!
BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
Best of all, it’s perfect for bed time stories and snuggling and will easily accommodate an additional family member in a mere six weeks!
Our mother has a ‘thing’ for padded clothing hangers. Kimmy and I both have a plethora of such hangers in our closets thanks to this, shall we say, interest of hers. This interest was of course extended to my daughter, Sunny, so her closet is also overflowing with pretty padded hangers for her array of adorable toddler dresses. Case in point below.
No, we weren’t exaggerating.
Due to the surplus of t-shirt yarn that I accumulated from this past DIY Wednesday, I thought I’d repurpose some of the less-than-desirable wire hangers that I’ve been amassing from the dry cleaners and give some DIY padded hangers a try. It’s a super simple project, and a nice way to reclaim those flimsy wire hangers and some old tees. I think Mom would approve.
Materials:
Wire hangers
Old T-shirts cut into T-shirt yarn
Directions:
1. Cut the old T-shirt into one long strand of yarn using the directions from this past DIY Wednesday.
2. Starting at the tip of the hanger, cover the tip and wrap around the ends to secure in place.
3. Continue wrapping around all of the wire of the hanger to cover all of the metal.
4. At the end, tuck the strand in on itself, accent with a bow, and there you have it! An easy, pretty addition to your closet!
Photos: Courtesy of Green Eyed Monster®
