Hey all, today I'm launching something that I have been wanting to do for quite some time, and I would encourage you to join in!
This is the My Beautiful Backyard project, and it is a community art project inspired by the landscape and people in our homes. Whether it be through painting, drawing, writing, photography, sculpture, etc. the beauty of our backyard is seen through what we create.
This is an effort to step outside and appreciate what is in our own backyard.
You can submit your own artwork here and celebrate the beauty of your own backyard!
Today I'm bringing you a super fun diy that is really easy to do and costs virtually no money. It's the diy twig bracelet, and it's an awesome way to combine the great outdoors with more modern, metallic feelings.
First and foremost, there is a list of materials you will need:
1. Twig of considerable length, preferably wet from the rain (It has to go around your wrist at least once and will need to be formed into a circular shape.)
2. Metal tube beads (I got mine at Michael's for about $3. Just make sure the holes are thick enough for the twig to be able to go through.)
3. Box cutter or exacto knife
4. Hot glue gun or super glue (Super glue will work better, but I didn't have any on hand so I used a glue gun.)
step one; measure your wrist.
This is a pretty straightforward step. Make sure you'll be able to get the bracelet on and off easily. You should gently mold the twig into the rounded shape that you desire, as it is easily breakable at this stage.. Then cut the twig at the appropriate length.
step two; whittle ends.
Trim down both ends of the twig so that they fit nice and comfortably in the bead. Each end should take up half the space in the bead, so that when you glue everything together, both sides will be attached securely.
step three; glue together.
Take one whittled end of the twig, put hot glue/super glue on the end, and slide it into the bead. Seal it with a little bit of glue. Allow it to dry, and then do the same thing do the other end.
And there you go! You have a beautiful twig bracelet that all your friends will be jealous of. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
Have a great day!
This is one of my favorite diys ever, and I'm so excited to be able to share it with you guys! I made this laptop sleeve specifically for college, to keep my laptop protected while I'm running around in between classes. There are also a lot of variations to this diy, so you can really pick and choose what you want to make a totally unique laptop sleeve!
Materials: fabric, cotton lining (they use them in quilts) (the lining is just for extra cushioning), buttons, scissors, as wells as a needle and thread and a sewing machine.
Oh and you'll also need extra materials like motivation music and some liquid energy to get you through the night.
Step one: Cut out shapes
You will need four pieces of fabric and four pieces of lining total. Just trace your laptop on the fabric (leave about an inch to an inch and a half extra fabric around the edges) so that the fabric is slightly larger than the laptop. I chose to use three different fabrics: two green for the front and front inside of the sleeve, and white for the back outside and light green for the back inside.
Step two: quilt pieces
Okay, it's not really quilting, but what you do next is you take two pieces of fabric and two pieces of lining, and lay the lining in the middle of the fabric, like a sandwich. Make sure the fabric is right side out, so that when you flip your "sandwich" you see the right side of both pieces of fabric.
Then you'll go to the sewing machine and attach everything together. I chose a zigzag line to sort of mimic actual quilting, and just sewed rows along the fabric. Don't worry about back-stitching; the ends will end up getting sewed over in the next step.
Once you finish one "sandwich," just do the same thing to the remaining fabric and lining.
Step three: piece together
Next you will lay the two sandwiches together, the sides that you want to be the outside touching each other (so the wrong sides are currently on the outside). Then you will stitch the bag together, sewing along the perimeter of three of the four sides, like so:
Step four: hem
Now that you've sewn the bag together, it's time to hem! With the last side that is going to be the mouth of the bag, you'll fold over the edges and sew them together. (Make sure you don't accidentally sew the mouth closed!) (Alternatively you can hand-stitch this part to avoid stitching on the outside of the laptop sleeve by not having the needle go through the outside piece of fabric, but I'm not too particular--or patient--for that so I just used the sewing machine).
You will hem all the way around the edge. Then you can reach into your bag and pull it right side out! Isn't it so pretty?
Step five: straps
You could really do anything you want with this step. My original idea was to make the sleeve be more like an envelope, but since I didn't have enough fabric I just added straps. Making an envelope would be very easy (probably easier than straps, actually). You just make one of the sandwiches longer in step one (two pieces of fabric and two pieces of lining) to create an envelope shape.
I'll show you how to make straps though. :) Just cut out your desired length of straps that you want (we will hem them, so shoot for a little bigger than what you want), and hem up the edges (fold the edge so that you see a little bit of the right side of the fabric and sew), so that you will have a nice clean line that won't fray.
(Alternatively with the straps, you can cut two pieces, put the right sides together, sew both long edges and one short edge together, turn the fabric right side out, and hand stitch the last end for a cleaner look.)
Step six: add buttons!
It's no mystery that I love buttons. So of course this project had to include them. For your straps, Mark the length of the button on your strap with a pencil (your line can be vertical or horizontal, depending on the size of your button and/or strap). After you cut along the line, make sure that the hole is big enough so that the button will go through, but small enough so that it can stay in place.
Then you'll have to hem the edges of the button hole. ^^ Those were the settings on my sewing machine that I used (I just experimented on a scrap piece of fabric until I liked something). Basically you want the needle to stretch from left to right a lot and not move forward very much, so that you get a nice, thick line. The trick is to go slow on this part, and make sure you don't accidentally sew the hole closed.
Then on the front of your bag, you'll sew on the buttons and then button them to the straps. On the back of your bag, you'll attach the other end of the strap with a decorative button.
Step seven: touch ups
Your laptop sleeve is almost done! I noticed that there was a lot of cotton lining showing so I trimmed up the edges to get rid of any extra material. You'll want to cut at an angle towards the inside of your bag so that no cotton lining (or very little) will show. (If you don't want any showing, when you are first making the sandwich, you can leave the lining out, put the right sides of the fabric together, sew three sides, turn it right side out, stuff the lining in, and hand-stitch the last side so that, again, it will look even cleaner than what I did.)
And now you're all done! Here's what my laptop sleeve ended up looking like:
I really really love my laptop sleeve and I cannot wait to carry it around campus in the fall. The kids will think I'm so cool, haha! I'm even thinking of adding some pockets to the inside, so if you guys want me to I could make another diy for that! (And if you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments or send me an email at introvertsintroduction@hotmail.com) Hope you enjoy!
You read that right! I've got a simple diy project to share with you today. I find myself wearing this hair comb all the time. It's perfect for pinning those baby hairs up and still staying cute.
All you'll need is a comb and some ribbon or yarn, as well as a hot glue gun. The comb was leftover from one of my many high school productions (it still smells a bit like hairspray and stage lights). Previously I had used some fuzzy yarn, the cool kind that changes color, but I didn't quite like the colors it had so I decided to go with some fun ribbon! You can use as many or as few colors as you like. For this tutorial I'll use three, but know that if you only use one color, you'll only need one string of it tied to your comb.
Step one: tie string. Skipping the first notch (aka hole) of your comb, tie the various colors on the second, third, and fourth notch.
Step two: weave. You're going to be working backwards for just a bit. You'll weave the blue string (on the second notch) on the first notch, the white string (on the third notch) on the third notch, and so on. Then after that it's time to move forward.
It reminds me a lot of making friendship bracelets, where you bring the strings that you're not currently weaving off to the side. Continue to do this until you reach the end of your comb.
Step three: tie and glue. Just tie the string together (I suggest tying the blue to the white and then the white to the green, so that all three colors are secure), and then reinforce with hot glue. (You can also hot glue the beginning if you notice the string is a little loose.)
And there you have it! A beautiful new hair accessory I guarantee you'll be wearing non-stop.
Let me know if you have any questions.
