Cutest Bracelet Ever! And I made it myself!

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These are now available in my Etsy shop! Pick from 4 great colors :)

This is a tutorial to make one of the cutest bracelets I have ever seen!  It is surprisingly simple but will impress your friends because it looks really complex!  I made three so far but gave one away to a friend, but below is a photo of the two I kept:

Cute right?  Here is my disclaimer: I did NOT come up with this idea... I found it on Pinterest, here is the link to the original tutorial: http://yellowblackbird.blogspot.com/2011/06/anthropologie-terra-scintilla-bracelet.html.  Her blog has step by step pictures of how to do the tying, I made these before having a blog so I did not do that.  Also she offers a kit for you to buy to make your own bracelet, or for those less ambitious, the opportunity to buy one already made!

But anyways, back to my tutorial :)

I wanted to tell my experience when making the bracelet for those of you who can be crafting challenged, like me.

When I first saw this idea I decided to just get my own supplies, they look like this:

I got the hemp and jewels from Michael's Arts and Crafts Store and the bracelets from Forever 21.  It took me a minute to find the jewels at Michael's, they were actually on a row near the hemp at my store.   You can look for the package shown above, it is on one of the jewelry rows; and don't worry, they can be cut apart with scissors, no real tools needed!  You will also need some sort of strong glue, I used my trusty hot glue gun and that seemed to be sufficient!

After you have purchased your supplies you are ready to begin!

Step 1. Select the bracelet and hemp color you want to use.  The bracelets that I had were all different colors and thicknesses.  I first did a pink bangle with pink hemp (my fav!) and then a yellow bangle with the green hemp.  The one I made for my friend was a dark purple bangle with the light purple hemp... she loved it!

Step 2. Cut the hemp to the suggested length (if you have thicker bangles, like mine, be sure to use a longer string of hemp than what is suggested on the Yellow Blackbird blog).

Step 3. Glue the jewels onto the bangle.  I followed the picture and just used 4 jewels but I think it could work with more!  Try it out!  Here is my hint: keep your desired number of jewels attached together but glue them down one at a time (as opposed to putting a strip of glue and then laying them all down together).  This worked better for me because each jewel got placed more precisely and I could make sure each one was secure.

Step 4. Follow the steps for tying the hemp, it can be tough to get started but once you get going it is really not bad!  My tip for this step is to make sure that you keep the hemp evenly in half when you start, otherwise one string will get too short.  Also, as a note, if you do run out of hemp before the bracelet is covered, have no fear! you can just glue the ends of that string onto the bangle and start a new piece as you did in the beginning!  I had to do this several times, the only thing is that there are more lumps of glue on the inside, which no one really sees anyways!  Another hint is to make sure the "knots" are on the edge or are more to the outside of the bracelet, this is what makes the bracelet cute so you want those to be visible.

Step 5. Glue the ends of your final piece of hemp and cut off any excess.  You can make the "knots" as tight or as loose as you'd like, the style on the original blog is very tight, you don't see any of the bangle.  My "knots" are a little more spaced out, you can see through to the bangle, which in this case I like because I had colorful bangles.  The choice is yours!  No one way is better or worse, it is whatever fits your style!

Well I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and I hope my hints are helpful!  I hope you try this out and post your results, I'd love to see what your style leads you to make!

Happy Crafting :)
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Leave me a comment please :)
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Letter Art - The Craft with Many Uses

Tonight I found myself feeling a little bored and at the same time having that need to craft.  Luckily I discovered something that is easy, quick, and fun!  Letter Art!  After cleaning off my bookshelf recently I found some old books with ideas for letter art designs (you can still buy the same one I have here).  Tonight when I decided to work on a project using letter art, I remembered I needed to make a birthday card for someone whose birthday is in a few days.  This was the perfect way to get me started!  After flipping through all the ideas I settled on a flower design.  Here is my process for creating (I think) a relatively good looking card:

Step 1. Fold paper into your desired card shape, I was boring today and went with white, which turned out not to be such a bad choice since my design was busy.
Step 2. Start drawing in PENCIL!  Feeling brave and just starting with marker, pen, etc? I hope you have extra paper because chances are you'll mess up at some point.  Don't try to replicate the book too hard, you do want it to have that handmade feel a little bit.  Your own spin on things will make your card that much more personal :)
Step 3. Go over the letters (not the flowers) with marker, I chose green since to me the letters are kind of like the stems of the flowers.
Step 4. Color the flowers, I followed the color scheme used in the book today but you could easily change it up to match your style or the recipient's favorite colors.
Step 5. Write a message inside, sign your name, and you're done!  Sometimes I like to write something on the back of the card so the recipient knows it is made with love, such as: made especially for (recipient name) by (your name).

After finishing the birthday card, my need to craft was not yet satisfied, so I found the next design I wanted to try and wrote my name.  I chose the Zebra print and did my name in bubble letters, outlined in black.  Then I used purple and blue colored pencils to decorate the rest of the page.

Here are my results and a picture of the book:

I hope you can have some fun with letter art and maybe even come up with some designs of your own! This was a really simple craft that wasn't too time consuming (although it could be...) and made me feel like a kid again!  Let me know how your designs turn out!

Happy 4th of July!!

Hello again,

Sorry for not posting any crafts yet... I have been really busy with school and getting ready for tomorrow's festivities!  So this isn't exactly a craft but I believe most people who enjoy crafts will enjoy this extremely simple tutorial for... The Perfect Patriotic Look!

Pictured above is my celebration outfit and my patriotic nails!  Want to re-create the look?  Here's how:

Step 1. Go to Target (or any store it seems like) and buy flag shorts!  When I first saw this trend I wasn't a fan, but one day at Target I decided to try these on and I fell in love!  What better way to show love for our country than sporting some stars and stripes?
Step 2. Get a navy blue shirt... easier said than done, believe it or not!  I searched many stores to find a simple, plain, navy blue shirt and my final attempt found me at Hollister... success!
Step 3. Buy and/or look around you house for red, white, and (I like sparkly) blue nail polish.
Step 4. Paint your thumbs blue and then alternate with red and white on the other fingers (hey, I warned you it would be extremely simple!).  If you are in a more adventurous mood you could add a star to your thumb or maybe a few stripes here and there (I have done this previously for other occasions using  some thinly cut labels, but thats a whole other tutorial!).
Step 5. Party it up!  Have a fantastic 4th! Have fun, be proud, be safe!

Until next time :)