Valentine's Day Window/Mirror Clings

Today, I will be showing you how to make more window clings, but this time Valentine's Day themed. To see my fall window clings blog post, click here. 

It is basically the same thing, but you draw different designs. 

You will need clear vinyl that you can buy from Walmart at the sewing area cutting counter, and a bunch of colorful sharpies from anywhere. 

Just freehand a drawing of whatever shapes you want onto the vinyl, (I did hearts, arrows, a ring, and flower), then cut it out! If necessary, you can print out a picture and put it under the clear vinyl to trace, or draw it on a piece of paper first, then trace your design.

That's all to it! It should stick on its own, but you can put a squirt of water on the window so it will stay better. The only thing is, that could make your window streaky if done consistently. Have fun with this craft!!!!

This picture is taken of the mirror ^

10 Minute Headbands

Hello to all! Today, I will be showing you how to make an easy headband in under 10 minutes, because as like all of you know, I have like zero free time during the school year. 

All you will need is a roll of ribbon ( mine is 5/8 inch thick), a piece of elastic the same thickness, and a sewing machine, and the sewing necessities such as pins, thread, and fabric scissors. If you want a blog post just on basic materials you should have in your craft closet, be sure to leave it Ina comment.

Ok, now on to the crafting. Cut the ribbon the size of your head and then some. I added on probably 3 or 4 inches, but I ended up cutting some off. I cut the elastic like 3.5 inches. All in all, the ribbon was about 25 inches for my head. Now I overlapped the two ends just a bit so they would stay together, and pinned it there with the middle of the elastic. Now, take the two ends on each side and stretch it as far as it can possibly go, then pin it to the ribbon there. Do that on both sides. Make sure it fits the way you like it to and is tight enough, but be careful of the pins while trying it on.

Now take the elastic part and put it into the sewing machine, sewing down the center of the ribbon and elastic on top of each other. While sewing, pull the elastic, stretching it as far out as possible, so after you sew, it AND the ribbon together should scrunch back up. Sew like that all the way down the elastic part and don't forget to backstitch at the beginning and the end. 

That's pretty much to it. We sew it with the elastic so when you wear it, it is tight against your head. Also, if you want to, you can make a cute embellishment on it, or add a bow or flower, but I didn't have time today due to school etc, so it'll have to wait ;( best of luck to you all! <3 -Alivia

Flipflops

Today I will show you how to make flipflops like I made my sister for Christmas. 

Before you start, you'll need a roll of shelf liner (has to feel like rubber or a yoga mat etc), a BUNCH of hot glue sticks and a hot glue gun, like 1/8 of a yard of stretchy fabric, like swimsuit dance material, or stretch knit like I used, scissors and an Xacto knife, a pair of flipflops to trace, a marker, optional painters tape, and a bunch of time!

To begin, trace your shoes onto the contact paper. If you don't want to get marker onto your shoes, put painters tape around the perimeter of the shoes and trace them. You will want to do this at least three times, because the more layers you trace, the stronger your shoes will be. Now, cut all of the pieces out. This is drastically important, because if they are uneven, it will look so bad. That's why I reccomend using an Xacto knife. 

Once they are all cut out, take one for the left foot and one for the right foot and cut 2 slits for the part in between the toes. Put your foot on the shoe, and cut a slit in between your big toe and 2nd toe, then cut another slit a little bit above that. Now, cut the fabric pretty thin, probably like an inch or two wide and pull it half way in one hole and out the other so both ends are on the same side. Now hot glue all of the layers together, with the one with the fabric on top. When you get to gluing the center, pull the ends of the fabric tight underneath the top layer and cut the ends of the fabric so it doesn't bulk it up. Glue the top layer down over it. Once all of the shoes are glued, use even more hot glue to add little grips onto the bottom by gluing waves onto it. 

That's all for today! And even if you don't like the shoes, they'd be perfect beach or shower shoes! 

Cross Stitch

Again, I am continuing putting up various Christmas gifts, so today, I will be showing you how to cross stitch, like a phrase or picture that I made for my mom. 

So before you begin, you will need embroidery floss in all the colors you'll be using (each one is about less than a dollar), an embroidery hoop, cross stitch fabric, and a needle. Also, it is very helpful and pretty much necessary unless you've done this like a million times to have a pattern. I just found mine on Pinterest. 

To start, put your fabric in your hoop by unscrewing the outside hoop, and put it on top of the fabric, with the other hoop on the bottom. Stretch out the top hoop over the inside hoop, sandwiching the fabric, then screw the hoop tighter to secure it. Now open your thread. It is 6 strings together, but you only need like 2 at a time, so cut off a long string, then pull the 2 to seperate it from the other 4 while holding both sides. Now thread it through your needle, and knot one end by wrapping it around one finger three times, then rubbing it off and pull tight. 

On to the cross stitching. For those brand new beginners, the cloth is made up of squares. There are holes in each corner of each square. What you do is start on the bottom side of the fabric, and go in one of the holes (bottom left corner of a square), and out the top right square making a diagonal line. Then go up into the bottom right corner and down into the top left corner. That is completing an X. Every cross stitch design is made up of X's. To make lines, just make a bunch of diagonal lines on top of eachother, then go back down and cross all of them at the same time. Here's where the patterns come into play. If you have a cross stitch pattern to follow, it shows you what holes to put the needle in to create your desired shape. Here are the ones I used. 

If you run out of string (which you will many times) just tie it off, then cut off another piece and start again by knotting the end etc.. Only thing to know is that it takes 4 EVER!!! I couldn't find the one I made my mom, but here's a picture of one my mom made so you could see what cross stitching looks like.

Guitar Picks

As some of you may know, I've made a ton of crafts during the Christmas season, but due to the fact that they were presents, I was unable to share them with you all. So... My sister proposed an idea that I  post all of them in January. So here I am, with Catch Up January! (If any of you have ideas for a better name, comment!) 

Today's craft is what I made for both of my brothers. Guitar Picks. It cost like $7 from buying the pack of CDs but everything else I had at home. And with the one pack of CDs, you really could make millions of guitar picks, and burn a bunch of CDs. Plus if you have a CD at home, you could use it and not even spend a nickel ;)

Aside from CDs, you'll need strong scissors, sandpaper, a washable marker, acrylic paints and a paintbrush, and optionally but highly recommended, a guitar pick to trace. If you don't have one, simply print out a scaled image, cut it out, then trace it.

Ok, now to the making. Trace your guitar pick or template straight onto the CD. Don't use the clear disc protector, because it is not thick enough. Use the washable marker so that after you cut it out, you won't see the lines. I didn't know this, so I used a sharpie, but it is so visible. Once it is all traced, use a strong pair of scissors to cut the CD. I didn't think it would work, but it did! It only cracked once, so be sure to hold the disc straight while you are cutting it, and to go slow. You can cut multiple all on one CD. After they are cut out, sand the edges with sandpaper to smooth everything out. If necessary, wash the guitar picks to get the marker off. And finally paint it. Remember to only paint in one direction, and do multiple coats, and finish it with mod podge. I painted the ones I made, but I don't currently have a photo of them finished. I'll have to add that later.

Happy new year and have fun trying out your guitar picks!