i'm always looking for new ideas on how to gift wrap my christmas and holiday presents, especially diy and handmade ideas that involve recycled or upcycled materials. every year, since I fly home for the holidays, all of my gifts get wrapped post-flight while I'm sitting around my parent's house and generally in a very crafty (aka stir-crazy) mood. as a result, my gift wrapping gets very creative and sometimes very bizarre (my gift tags are never directly addressed....they are always from fictitious characters, and figuring out the recipient usually includes some sort of riddle or guessing game). I try to only use things that I find laying around my parent's house to wrap things, but still try to keep things pretty. And over the years, I've come across many online tutorials to help spark my creative wrapping.
generally, my presents are wrapped with the only 2 large scale paper-ish items that I have laying around the house -- kraft paper and tin foil. i'm a kraft paper addict and always have at least 5 rolls on hand. you never know when you're going to need it. tin foil makes unusually sparkly wrapped gifts!
these plastic bag pom poms are genius! this completely fantastic bow is made from.....a regular ole plastic shopper bag that you get from the grocery store (!!) i have a ton of these piling up and this is an excellent way to recycle them. they look amazing (and goes great with kraft paper.).
tie it all together with beautiful red and white bakers twine (above). ........and a few more of my favorite upcycled gift wrapping ideas include this bow tutorial from a magazine page is so, so clever and pretty! (via How About Orange). Jess also makes these mini-bags, made from an envelope and covered it beautiful tape. also one of the most adorable things i've ever seen!
And finally, Ed Emberley has the most ADORABLE website on how to turn your thumbprint into a cute little creature. Design*Sponge steps it up a notch and uses them to make your own tags.
lately i've been on the search for big semi-precious rough stones. i love the bright colors paired with the vintage findings like little brass bars and steel chain. a few of my new items are in the A Common Thread shop! check in soon as i'll be adding a lot more different kinds of stone necklaces and rings!
following an internet cookie trail, i came across this tutorial for a minimalist tote bag that i ADORE. my whole life is carried around in a tote bag every day and I'm constantly in search of one that's as pretty as it is functional. this one is perfect!! Designed by Rene Solkesz, you can find the full tote tutorial over at Design*Sponge. AND, it looks like Rene has a wonderful blog full of inspirational sewing ideas.
this DIY necklace tutorial tells you how to make a necklace with beaded fringe. it's super easy, and you only need a few supplies, which you can pick up at your local craft store, like Michael's.
every year, I try to make almost all of my holiday gifts, or give something handmade by others. handmaking gifts means you have to get an early start, so i'm starting a handmade gift series, featuring some easy tutorials for things you can make yourself to have your gifts ready by the christmas season.
for the first post in the series, i'm making a geometric beaded fringe necklace, perfect for women. read below for the full tutorial, or pick a beaded necklace up from the shop, if making one is not your thing.
Materials:
to start, you’re going to need the following. you can pick everything up at your local craft store, like michaels.
* round nose pliers
* wire cutters
* chain - cut to 28” long (or your preferred length)
* beads — probably 2 colors. or lots. go crazy.
* head pins (little wires with a flat end)
* eye pins (little wires with a loop at the end)
Tutorial:
next, sketch out your design, based on how many beads you can fit onto each head pin. here’s one i did with a simple geometric colorblock triangle design, with 18 beads fitting on each headpin — a total of 7 pins.
next, start adding beads to your head pins.
then, after your beads are on, take your round nose pliers, bend the top of the headpin to a 90 degree angle. (beads aren’t in the photo here, but they would be in your project.)
next, take your round nose pliers, grab the tip of the end of the head pin and rotate in the opposite direction of the bend, forming a loop.
then close the loop all the way so it fits snugly against the base (you don't want it slipping off of your necklace!)
once you finish adding all of your beads, you’ll have a bunch of beaded sticks. now, take an eye pin (the one with a loop on one end already) and start threading them through (horizontally) each of your beaded sticks (vertical ones). make sure to put a bead on the eye pin in between each beaded stick that you have, so that they are space apart appropriately.
now, make a loop at the end of your eye pin, just like you did for the head pins — so that you have a loop at each end of the horizontal pin. now, thread your chain onto each of those loops at either end of the horizontal pin. close the loops tight so the chain doesn’t come off.
that's all! layer it on with other necklaces or wear it all by itself.
check back next week for the next gift guide tutorial.
a while back, i came across a post at How About Orange, and decided to have my go at
creating my own deodorant. maybe this is a weird post, but i absolutely love making this stuff and have been telling everyone about it. there's no scary aluminum, you get to control what goes in the recipe, and it smells LOVELY (kinda like a pie). AND, the best part is that it really and truly works. really well.
this is the original recipe:
* 1/4 cup baking soda
* 1/4 cup arrowroot powder (as a thickening agent)
* 4 tablespoons coconut oil
* 10 drops/shakes grapefruit essential oil
* A tin or jar with lid
however, i made up the first batch and realized my skin is just a tad too sensitive for baking soda….and ended up making other batches that are baking-soda-free and it works just as well. i also ended up adding in a few more than 10 shakes of the grapefruit oil just because it smells so good.
to make it, just mix everything together and store it in a jar or tin, then apply it once daily with your fingers like lotion. its consistency does change based on temperature (becomes more liquid-y in higher temps) so you can store it in the refrigerator to keep it solid. and i was able to pick up all of the ingredients at whole foods. let me know if you decide to try it!
about 85% of my clothes come from thrift stores. which means about 40% of those require some sort of tailoring before i can wear them. most of the time, it's just a simple hem. and i'm usually left with a nice band of fabric. my favorite thing to do with it? double it up and make it into a tie belt (to wear with the skirt or a different one).
here's my latest one made of this gorgeous silk skirt that was really, really long.
i cut 2 strips...each the longest i could get out of the fabric: 39.5" x 9". then i sewed the short ends together to make a REALLY long piece. then folded the whole thing in half lengthwise (right sides together), stitched around the edges (leaving a hole to turn. then turned and stitched the hole closed.
the yardage on this skirt was pretty fantastic, so i was able to get a really, really long belt that i can wear wrapped twice and tied in a knot (kind like an obi belt). or i can wrap it once and tie it in a big floppy bow. the same can be done and worn as a floppy bow scarf.
the other day i stumbled upon a blog post that cited an etsy shop who made....handmade shoes. of all things! shoes are one thing i've never dared to try to make, so i'm completely impressed with anyone who can pull this off. at the time, i'd just ordered a pair of little leather oxfords from aldo, but they didn't fit and i was struggling with the whole hassle of exchanging them....only to stumble upon these shoes. with these handmade shoes being $15 LESS EXPENSIVE than the aldo shoes, and probably better constructed, i promptly returned my shoes and bought a pair of these wonderful goldenponies shoes.
i'm so excited about them! they did take a little while to make their way to me...but when i imagine the hard work the handmade shoe elves had to put into them, it's all worth it. they are super soft leather and are so comfortable! someone even commented on them saying they look like the shoes Baby wore in dirty dancing. that could possibly be the best compliment i've ever received!
