Thursday, October 17, 2013

Guest Post: DIY Sugar Skull Shoes


Earlier this week I shared that Allison from Dream A Little Bigger and I were doing post swaps.  On Monday I visited her blog and showed how I made these cute and colorful perler bead bracelets.  Surprise!  Today Allison's over here, presenting this super cool sugar skull shoe tutorial.  With Halloween and Dia de los Muertos coming up, this craft is a great one to do.   It'll certainly get you into the spooky spirit!




Sugar Skull Sneakers Tutorial by DreamALittleBigger.com Hello! My name is Allison and I'm a crafty cat lady that blogs over at Dream a Little Bigger. Crafting and creating is what I love to do and I'm so happy that I'm able to share that with all the sweet readers at Pink Stripey Socks! I'm a huge fan of Leslie and I'm so excited to be guesting here today! I've kind of sort of got this huge thing for shoes. Not fancy or designer shoes or anything but shoes I've made up and crafted on. It's a pretty big deal and so far I've made almost 60 DIY shoe tutorials. Don't believe me? Check this gallery 
out.


Tuesday, October 15, 2013

DIY Flower Crown Tutorial

Lately hubby's had to do quite a bit of traveling for work.  (Boo!)  Chuck and I try to hold down the fort during the weekdays, but it's just not the same and we miss him terribly.  So we're always glad when the weekend finally rolls around and we get to have fun as a family.

This weekend we're hoping to visit a nearby Rennaisance Faire.  Fingers crossed that on Saturday we'll be watching jousting knights, chomping on large turkey legs, and seeing lots of people in lovely costumes (my favorite part.) 

This will be Chuck's second Rennaisance Faire. (You can see our previous faire adventure here.)  And like last time, I wanted to make a floral crown to wear there.  Last year I crapted a floral crown out of plastic bags but this year I used leftover flowers from my crystallized flower experiment.

There are tons of tutorials and videos out there showing how to make floral crowns, but I followed this one from Kimmie of Sugar and Dots because it was really easy and straight forward.



Materials:
  • felt that's the same color as your hair
  • fake flowers
  • hair elastic
  • glue gun
  • scissors

Directions:

1.  Remove the flower heads and leaves off the stems.  Cut off the green plastic bit off the back of your flower so you'll have a flatter surface to glue onto the felt.  But be careful not to cut the green bit completely off or your flowers will just come apart.

2.  Cut out two similar sized strands of felt. 

3.  Hot glue your leaves onto one strand of felt.  Then, hot glue your flowers on.  (I glued on the larger flowers first and then added the smaller flowers.)

4.  Cut your second strand of felt into smaller rectangles.

5.  Hot glue your flower felt band onto your elastic head band.  To make sure that the elastic stays put, glue on your smaller felt rectangles on top of the elastic.  Your elastic band should now stay put because it's sandwiched between felt. 

6.  Optional:  I've worn this headband now a couple of times and noticed that the felt on both ends of the headband is starting to peel away from the elastic band.  To help ensure that they stay in place, you could always just pull out a needle and thread and add a couple of stitches on each side.

And that's all it takes to make this floral crown.

Happy crafting!

Monday, October 14, 2013

Post Swap: Fish and Fruit Perler Bead Bracelet

Hi everyone!  Happy Monday!

Guess what?  Today I've got on my happy pants...
and I'm doing my happy pants dance.  

Why?  Well, I'm excited because this week Allison from Dream A Little Bigger and I have a special surprise for you.  Surprise!  We're doing post swaps!  I've had a blog crush on Allison's blog for awhile because she makes uber cool crafts like this zombie string art pumpkin, these neon crochet pot scrubbers, and this pair of rhinestone sneakers

(Go ahead, click on those links.  I can wait. )

Today I'll be over at Allison's blog sharing one of my crafts.  Then, later on this week Allison will be over here to share one of her amazing crafts.

So, head on over to Allison's blog today and see how I made these two perler bead bracelets. 

Friday, October 11, 2013

10 Adorable DIY Slippers

It's finally getting cold here in Jersey.  And boy, oh boy, I'm so glad the cooler weather is finally here.  I love me some sunshine, but I've been chomping at the bit to pull out the jackets, socks, and boots.  (Somehow it just didn't feel like fall when I was still in shorts and flip flops.)

Has the colder weather has got you thinking about warm nights by the fire place, pink onsie pajamas, and cocoa too? Why not throw in a fun DIY slipper project where you get to make something cute and cozy?

 
Rawr.  These slippers that I embellished are the cat's meow. (Hardy har har.)  Check out BuzzFeed to see directions on how to make these and nine other super cute slippers.  (I'm personally very excited to try making slippers out of old sweaters.  I feel some ugly Christmas sweater slippers coming on....)

Happy crafting!


Thursday, October 10, 2013

Two Toddler approved Fall Crafts

Even though I really enjoy crafting, sometimes it takes a bit of persuasion to get Chuck to join in.  Currently he's much more into playing with toy cars than crafting with mom.  Go figure! :)  But I'm a persistent bugger, so I keep encouraging him to make stuff with me.

So far several of my craft plans flopped, but here are two crafts that Chuck actually participated in. (Hooray!) 

1.  Paper Bag Pumpkins:


Materials:
  • Lunch bags
  • Tissue paper squares
  • Glue stick
  • Marker 
  • Googly eyes (optional)
  • Pipe Cleaner
  • Newspaper

Directions:
  1. Glue your tissue paper squares onto your lunch bag.
  2. Add a face
  3. Crumple up newspapers and stick them into your bag.
  4. Use a pipe cleaner to seal up the bag.

And here are some pumpkins made during our toddler craft time:




2.  Contact Paper Leaves
 
Materials:
  •  Leaves
  • Contact paper
  • Scissors
  • Tape
  • Tissue paper (optional)

Directions:

  1. Place leaves in a heavy book to flatten them.
  2. Tape down contact paper, sticky side up.
  3. Stick leaves and tissue paper squares onto your contact paper.
  4. Place a piece of contact paper(sticky side down) on top of your first piece of contact paper.
  5. Trim the edges and tape your leaves onto a window.


Have a great weekend!