Archives for June 2012

Macrame Bracelets

I have been showing you all kinds of bracelets lately, since I am obsessed with stacking them on my arm.  This is what we ended up with after a recently girls craft day.  We got the inspiration from Honestly WTF’s DIY macrame bracelet tutorial.  We didn’t have the chinese knotting cord they referenced, so we just used hemp for the dark blue bracelet, and waxed cotton knotting cord from Joann’s.

Macrame Bracelets

DIY Macrame Bracelets

This is a great girl’s night craft.  Once you get the hang of macrame knotting, they work up quickly.  The embellishment options are endless.  I am sure you will be seeing more variations of these around here!

Paula Deen Mason Jar Idea

As a lover of coffee, vanilla and mason jars, I would be giddy to receive this homemade vanilla coffee syrup. Paula Deen shares the recipe and mason jar dispenser tutorial for this coffee lovers treasure that takes about 15 minutes to make. Yet another reason to hoard those jars!

50+ Recycled Glass Bottle Projects to Make

50+ Glass Bottle Projects
From soda to wine to juice to Frappuccino, glass bottles are abundant. This week’s 50+ will get your wheels spinning on creative ways to upcycle all that glass. Enjoy!!



Leather & Thread Easy Bracelets

Leather Bracelet DIY

These lovely leather & thread bracelets from Trinkets in Bloom are on my shortlist  for girls craft night.  With my patriotic mood that is infiltrating all of my recent projects, I may just need to make one of these bad boys in red, white and blue.  Whatever the color combo, these work up quickly and easily.

Tutorial:  DIY Leather Friendship Bracelets

Thrifty Thursday is Retiring


There are several reasons I have decided to stop hosting Thrifty Thursday.  I have been considering it for awhile now.  I started it when my blog was really young, and have met some wonderful, creative women over the last 80 weeks.  Let’s be honest, there really are a ton of these things.  Are we truly intermingling and forming relationships, or just one time visits and impersonal comments?  Is this one different than host of others?

I will continue to feature great projects, and fill the space with what speaks to me.  I appreciate all of you who participated.  Thank you for being here and sharing.  I am grateful to have your time.

Shirts to Bracelets

T-shirt Bracelets

Summer is the perfect time for these upcycled shirt bracelets I spied at Lana Red.  You may have noticed there is a lot of DIY bracelet and T-shirt love going on here at SBLC.  That is because these are quick, eco friendly crafts, and I am scouring for inspiration to come up with a craft project for upcoming girls night.  These braided bracelets are top in the running.  Go see the detailed tutorial at Lana Red, at the above link.

In case you missed it:

Guest Post: Wine Bottle Upcycle

DIY Upcycle Bottles to VasesI was so excited I was contacted by Jessi Snow.  She wanted to know if she could share this cute wine bottle upcycle here at SBLC.  It is like she knew what this week’s 50+ round-up theme.  Now you do too!  Her project is as great as her timing.  Take it away Jessi…

 

We drink a whole lot of beverages out of glass bottles in our house. We’re wine with dinner kind of people, I love Perrier and let’s be honest – glass bottles are just so much prettier. I’ve always been really good about bringing our empties to the local recycling depot, and every once in a while I would put one to use as an impromptu home for a flower or two, but it wasn’t until recently that I decided to try upcycling them into something I would really use. We recently moved into a new house and I had a whole lot more surface area to decorate, so I decided to create some pretty vases out of empty glass bottles to help spice up some space. Here is how I did it!

Supplies:

  • Empty glass bottles – any kind will do!
  • Rubbing alcohol
  • Quick dry spray-paint – a primer and your color of choice
  • Acrylic paint (for letters and pictures)
  • Small paintbrush (for letters)

Steps:

  • The day before I planned to actually paint the bottles I collected up a handful of and gave them a good soak in warm soapy water before scraping off the labels. If you have trouble removing the labels, pour a bit of rubbing alcohol directly on them and allow it to soak in for a few minutes before trying again.
  • I let the bottles dry for a full 24 hours – you don’t need to wait this long, especially if you have a bottle drying rack, but I wanted to be sure all the moisture was gone from the inside of the bottle before I got to work.
  • Once they were dry inside and out began by priming the outside of each bottle with a quick-dry white spray-paint primer. This step isn’t really necessary but a lot of my bottles were green and I wanted to be sure that the color wouldn’t show through on the ones I wanted to paint white. It also gives the paint a better surface to adhere to and reduces the chances that the paint will chip off.
  • Next I liberally sprayed the colors I had chosen onto each bottle – I went with navy and white for this first batch to match the bedspread in my spare bedroom. I applied a couple coats to make sure everything was even and because I used quick-dry spray-paint I didn’t have to wait long before the second round which was great!
  • Once the bottles were dry to the touch I started painting on the writing. I had chosen a handful of quotes ahead of time and put two on each bottle – one on each side – so that I could change things up if I wanted to.
  • I let the bottles sit outside in a warm, dry spot for a couple hours before bringing them in and putting them to good use!

 

 

Wine Bottle Upcycle
Suggestions:

  • I realized pretty quickly that I wasn’t blessed with steady painters hands – those letters were tough work! If you’re anything like me, you might want to consider using stickers or stencils to give your bottles a more polished look.
  • I sprayed the outside of my bottles but you don’t have to go this route. You can also spray the inside instead to maintain the glass look while adding a pop of color.
  • Work outside! No matter how hard you try, spray paint has a tendency to go everywhere. I’d definitely recommend tackling this project somewhere rogue paint splatters won’t be an issue.

Some projects look a whole lot easier than they actually are, but I can assure you that this isn’t one of them! The second half of the process (aka. the fun stuff) took me less than 45 minutes and was as easy as pie. If you’re looking for a quick way to brighten up a room or a sweet little gift for a friend, these are definitely the way to go. Thanks so much to Johnnie for the opportunity to come share my tutorial with you guys today, I can’t wait to get some new ideas on how to upcycle glass bottles from a couple of you too!

Jessi is a crafter with a big thing for DIY. When she isn’t dreaming up a new project, she spends her time trying to encourage others to embrace the do-it-yourselfer lifestyle as a Community Coordinator at PartSelect.com.

Gold Tube Arm Party

DIY Bracelet

When I saw these gold tube bracelets from Honestly WTF, I squealed.  I have ordered the gold tube beads & they can’t get here quick enough.  Head over there for the awesome photo step by step.  While you are there, look around at the other amazing bracelet tutorials!

DIY: Polymer Clay Necklace Inspired by Anthropologie

Polymer Clay Bead Necklace Tutorial

If you have never used polymer clay, this is a great project to get your feet wet.  I love the stuff, and was inspired recently to create these necklaces by the popular Anthropologie ball beaded piece.  I added my own twist of ombre color gradation and bead size gradation.  I also went for a simple chain instead of a ribbon. The pearl finish was accomplished in one easy step that glazes creates the pearl effect, using Mod Podge Pearlized Glaze.

Polymer clay is a perfect medium to create reproducible color gradient beads.  You will see in the tutorial, I just rolled out white and blue (or corral for that version) to the same thickness in my pasta machine.  Then I used a cookie cutter to cut 5 triangles of the main color for the central bead.  The two adjacent beads are a mix of 3 main color and one white triangle.  The next is lighter and smaller still, using 2 triangles of main color and 1 of white.  You can use any recipe you want, just keep track of it, especially if you are making more than one of the bead in that size and color.  This will make more sense when you see pics!

Polymer Clay Gumball Necklace

Supplies:

Pasta machine

Baby wipes (clean hands between handling different colors of clay)

Polymer clay in color and white (I used Fimo Soft)

Cookie cutter

Tile or baking tray

Dremel or other drill

Drill press or rice bags

Mod Podge Pearl Glaze or finish of choice

toothpicks and Styrofoam

Antiqued gold metal chain or cording of choice

Tutorial:

Polymer Clay Necklace Tutorial

For drilling, hold beads steady vice or bags of rice.  Wear protective eye gear!

Anthro Inspired Polymer Clay Necklace

Polymer Clay Ombre Bracelet DIY

Grab some clay and create your own gumball ombre jewelry!

Easy Patriotic Bleach Tee

Stencil T-shirts with Bleach

I have wanted to try stenciling on old T-shirts with bleach for awhile now.  It is so simple, and quick.  All I did was cut stars and words from contact paper using my Sizzix.  I placed them on the shirts where I wanted, made sure they were adhered well, put a trash bag inside the t-shirt to protect the back from bleach, and sprayed with a spray mister filled with bleach.  The effect was obvious in 1-2 minutes.

Stencil T-shirts with Bleach

Make sure you do this in a well ventilated area, preferably outside, and wear gloves and protective eye wear.

Stencil T-shirts with Bleach

You will love this project.  The customizations options are unlimited!

Stencil T-shirts with Bleach

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