Flower Hairpiece Tutorial

One of the great things about this project is that it has a lot of room for creativity and experimentation without necessitating any fore-knowledge.  If you know how to wield some scissors and a glue gun, you are already on your way to creating flower hairpieces.  It's a great way to play with colors and use a variety of different materials.

You'll need:

1. Fake Flowers- the ones I used are made of thick paper (I got them from AC Moore)

2. Glue gun

3. Alligator hair clips

4. Scissors

5. Felt

6. Odds and ends (Sequins, sharpies, a matchless earring, and tulle.  In other pieces I have used buttons and ribbon.)

Cut a piece of felt as your anchor for the flowers.  I have found that a kidney shape works well.  The anchor should be 3-4 inches long and 1-2 inches at the widest point.  These are of course just suggestions, if you want to make more of a statement go BIGGER!

Choose flowers that go well together and arrange them on top of the felt anchor.  Do your best to cover all of the felt.  Try to layer the flowers on top of each other to create depth.  Place sequins and buttons over the flowers, until you are reasonably pleased with the result.  I find that it isn't necessary to reach perfection before gluing.  It's often easier to place one or two flowers, and work around them.

I started gluing on the largest side of the kidney shape, with one two layered flowers, and moved to the other side, gluing a few flowers at a time.

To create some height, I used tulle.  I wanted to replace the height usually achieved with feathers with a more animal friendly alternative.  To create the tulle accent, cut out a circle of tulle, about 4 inches across.  Cut a pie piece out of the circle that is 1-2 inches around the "crust."  With the remaining circle fold the tulle accordion style, flattening out the fan shape.  Put a dot of glue on the tulle underneath the flower petals, then press the "handle" of the fan into the glue.  Spread the fan out, and glue the edges down on the felt, underneath the petals.

I placed glue dots on the tulle fan, and after they dried, colored the glue dots with a sharpie.  An alternative is to glue sequins or beads on the tulle fan.  You can also glue a ribbon bow as an accent.  After placing the finishing touches on the hairpiece flip it over.

Place a stripe of glue on the back side of the hairpiece, and stick the alligator clip down on it.

Carefully open the clip, being careful not to unstick the bottom.  Put another stripe of glue, and place a piece of felt in between the two sides of the clip.  Let the clip close, after the glue dries trim around the edges of the new piece of felt.

When you put the hairpiece up to your head, you will notice that one side sticks up because of the hinge.  To fix this, place a bit of glue near the hinge, and carefully bend the felt around the clip.  Hold this in place for a few seconds until it dries to make the clip rounded.

You now have a beautiful cruelty-free hairpiece.  Enjoy, and add a little pizzazz to your next outfit!

Ecofriendly Giftwrapping

As far as I'm concerned, the way a gift is presented is half the beauty of giving or receiving a package.  In past years, I've done traditional wrapping paper with bows and ribbons, but this year I wanted to do something different.  I wanted to use materials I already had instead of buying new rolls of expensive paper.  

I used old, brown paper grocery bags as the wrapping paper.  The plain paper is a great background for beautiful embellishments.  I made delicate tissue paper and fabric rosettes with silver glitter centers -   they were super easy and look gorgeous against the brown paper. 

Instructions:

To make your rosettes, you will need:

Fabric scissors

Tissue paper

Fabric Scraps (tulle and lace would look lovely too)

Glue Gun

Glitter or small beads

Step 1:  Cut small (1-2 inch) circles from the fabric and tissue paper. 

Step 2:  Place a small drop of glue in the center of a tissue paper and pinch the circle together to create folds.

Step 3:  Layer 3-4 circles on top of one another, pinching each one to create folds and gluing it to the next.  

Step 4:  Place a small drop of Elmer's glue in the middle of the flower.  Shake on some glitter, or glue a small bead in the center.

You're done!  Glue or tape flowers to your packages.

Happy crafting!.love.Rachel

Handmade Laundry Detergent

I hate buying laundry detergent because it's incredibly expensive, especially if you get the good stuff without the nasty ingredients and fragrances.  I've been playing around with the idea of making my own detergent, and I finally took the plunge.  It's actually quite simply and amazingly cost effective.  There are only three ingredients - Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda, Borax, and soap.  I used my own unscented cold process soap I made back in January.  Even if you have to buy the soap, your total cost could be around $8, and this makes a lot of detergent: I would estimate about 100 loads.  Plus, you'll have tons of washing soda and borax left over for your next batch.

Ingredients:  

1 cup Arm&Hammer Washing Soda $2.50/3.9 lbs

1 cup Borax $3/4.75 lbs

2 cups Cold Process Soap* $2.50/~4.5oz

1 tsp Essential oil or fragrance oil (optional)

*When choosing your cold process soap, make sure it's vegan and doesn't contain tallow or lard.  You don't need conditioning oils, so look instead for cleansing oils like coconut oil and palm kernel oil.  

Step 1:  Grate your cold process soap.  I used the medium grade so that the soap didn't get stuck in the tinier grates.

Go ahead and use up the whole bar.  You should have approximately 2 packed cups - if the measurement varies a little bit, that's okay.

Step 2:  Add the curly, grated soap bits of soap to a food processor.  

I don't think this step is completely necessary, but it will ensure that the soap dissolves easily in your washing machine.  It does turn the soap into smaller bits that mix better with your other ingredients.  I also added a bit of the washing soda so that the soap wouldn't stick together as it was getting shredded.

Step 3:  Mix your 2 cups soap bits with 1 cup of A&H Super Washing Soda and 1 cup Borax.  If you would like to add fragrance, add 1 tsp essential oil or fragrance oil by droplets to the mixture.  I recommend mixing in a large, lidded container.  I used a 1 gallon container with a snap top.  All you have to do is shake it to mix.  If you don't have something similar, you can always stir the ingredients in a large bowl. 

Step 4:  You're done! Use 2-3 tablespoons per load.  I've also heard you can use vinegar in the rinse cycle as a fabric softener, but I've never tried it.  Let me know how your detergent works, if you have a different recipe, or if you've got other laundry tips to share : )  Enjoy!

Rachel

craft in history--subversive embroidery

Subversive craft is all the rage right now. In order to keep a safe distance from our grandparent's generation new trendy crafters use irony to differentiate themselves. I would argue that to a large degree this is because we craft in a different context and for different reasons. Today's crafters have a diy attitude not out of necessity but instead to claim something we feel has been lost and also to provide an alternative to what the mainstream commercial world has to offer.

 not necessarily "subversive," but these are certainly not your grandmother's embroideries!

Click here to take a closer look

Although it may not look as subversive as the embroidery of today, the embroidery by Mary Queen of Scots in the 16th was far more subversive than any embroidery that I have seen.  Mary Stuart was queen of the Scots while her cousin, the infamous Elizabeth the great was queen of the English.  As in all the stories of royalty there were a number of power grabs going on between the two monarchs.  The "stuff you missed in history class" podcast mentioned that had Mary and Elizabeth not both been women they would have been married to one another in order to consolidate power, and prevent the continuous grabs for power.  The subversive embroidery comes into play when Mary's husband, an Englishman named Lord Darnley mysteriously dies in an explosion.  Mary is suspected of being involved in the assassination, and after marrying one of the murderers (under duress) looks even more guilty to the Scottish people.  The couple is imprisoned in Scotland.  Mary escapes to England, where she hopes her cousin Elizabeth with protect her.  Elizabeth instead imprisons her for her supposed crime.  Elizabeth fears Mary's claims to the English throne.  Elizabeth is the offspring of Henry VII's second marriage which many, especially Catholics claim to be illegitimate.

During her time in prison Mary had little to do but work on her embroidery.  The pieces look to be innocent enough often featuring animals.  However, there is said to be hidden symbolism in the embroideries, representing the life and times of Mary.  The symbolic embroidery that I heard about was was the one named "A Catte," but there are a number of other interesting pieces detailed here.

photo from http://www.marie-stuart.co.uk/embroidery.htm

I love how in this age you could pretty much spell things however you wanted.  I think it gives writing a little personality (darn you Webster).  Mary's embroidered tapestry shoes a cat playing with a mouse.  The ginger colored cat is meant to represent Elizabeth, who still, as in her day is recognized for her ginger colored hair, while poor trapped Mary is meant to be represented by the mouse.  She is implying that Elizabeth is simply playing with her by allowing her to stay alive.

What strikes me about this piece of embroidery is that it was done at the time.  It was not done after the fact to be an historical reference, instead Mary was putting her feelings down on cloth.  Whether Mary was conveying what she really felt or trying to get a message to the outside world, Mary's embroidery certainly made a statement.

After a number of plots to get Mary on the throne were uncovered, Mary was sentenced for treason.  Elizabeth signed an edict for Mary's death, and she was executed in 1587.

Here's where I got my info.  Check them out for more on these royals:

http://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/marystuart.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_Queen_of_Scots
http://www.marie-stuart.co.uk/embroidery.htm
http://history.howstuffworks.com/european-history/mary-queen-of-scots.htm

fat crayon tutorial

 My sister Rachel made these cute crayons for our nephew Jackson.  He'll have to wait a little while to use them, he's only 3 almost 4 months old right now.  I'm so excited to see what he'll draw with them in just a short time!

She was nice enough to make a little tutorial for the blog, and send me these awesome pics.  Enjoy!

Materials: 

Newspaper

Old crayons in a variety of colors

Glitter (optional)

Silicone baking mold (oven safe)

Heat gun or double boiler (I don’t recommend the microwave.  It takes way too long to heat up the crayons, and you don’t have as much control over combining your colors).

1.       These crayons are perfect for little hands; however, due to the extreme temperatures needed to melt wax, I don’t suggest letting little hands help you out when you make these crayons.  Heat guns get incredibly hot, so it’s best to keep children far away from them.  

2.       Lay out a newspaper over your work service.   

Choose a mold for your crayons.  The younger your intended user, the bigger your rebatched fat crayons need to be.  Choose big molds for very young children, and smaller molds for older children.   

The absolute best molds are those trendy silicone molds than you can bend.  You can get them really hot, but they don’t hold the heat for long (which means no burned fingers).  It’s also really easy to pop out the finished crayons when they are ready.  You can often find them in the Target dollar bins (as ice cube trays), and I know they carry a wide selection at Michael’s.       

3.       Amass a collection of old, broken, yucky crayons.
We certainly have plenty of these from our childhood; an entire pink bucket full.  We loved our crayons!

4.       Separate the crayons into color-coordinated groups.  Each group will make one fat crayon.  I chose to do the primary (red, blue, and yellow) and secondary (purple, orange, green) colors, plus brown.  Make sure you include a variety of shades in each group.  For example, in my group of red, I included brick red, red, pale pink, maroon, and fuchsia.  This will give you pretty swirls when you melt the crayons down.         

5.       Peel a skinny vertical strip of paper off the length of each crayon, then remove the whole sheet of paper in one fell swoop. 
Can't you tell Rachel's an English teacher?  "One fell swoop," so beautifully descriptive!


6.       The number of crayons you need for each rebatched fat crayon will vary.  My molds were approximately 1 inch deep and 2 inches wide.  I used 10-12 crayons for each mold.

7.       Chose a couple of darker shades in one of your groups.  Place them in the bottom of your mold, aim your heat gun at them, and fire.  Use a low setting, and do not touch the mold, it can get hot.  

Once they are melted, throw in the lighter shade.  Try not to mix the colors too much because you want a pretty swirly pattern.  To make sure I did this, I held the lighter crayon in my hand and aimed the heat gun at just the end.  That way the crayon dripped softly into the mold.  

* If you do it this way, make sure to keep a safe distance between your hand and the blast of heat.  Heat guns WILL burn you!*   

Once both colors are in the mold, they will mix naturally, but you can use a toothpick to swirl them as well.    

8.       Cool.

9.       When the rebatched crayons have hardened, use your heat gun to melt the topmost layer of the wax.  Throw in a couple more crayons in different shades and melt.  Feel free to throw in different colors of glitter into the hot wax.  You can also add white, silver, or gold to your color groups.  
 
10.   Cool.  Repeat process until mold is full.

11.   When your rebatched crayons are completely cool, pop them out of the mold and you’re done!

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial for today.  Rachel said that it involved quite a bit of trial and error involving microwaves and including multiple fire alarms!  We hope this tutorial will make creating your own crayons easy for you without all the drama.  Time to make beautiful crayons of your own!