Repurposing

I acquired a beautiful pair of clip-on earrings a few years ago. I have been holding on to them looking for the best way to showcase them. Last week I went to Sweet Beads in Lexington before meeting some friends for dinner (we ate at Nourish. Go. It's SO good). While perusing the samples looking for inspiration I saw what I've been waiting for... a beautiful necklace with a bold centerpiece - an old clip-on earring. A lightbulb went off and my head and I have been dying to make my own version of this necklace since.

I poured over the beads today at my local bead store looking for something that would go with these lovely clip-on earrings. I left with two strands of purple pearls and a few purple crystals. I ran straight to my art desk upon entering my apartment and instantly got to work. I kept laying out all these options but nothing seemed right. It then dawned on me to take apart the other earring and use those beads in the necklace. And then it just all came together.

To get the necklace started I removed the clip on the back and bent down the attachment. I strung the wire through the holes in the back and used a crimp bead to keep everything together.

I will definitely be scouring the tag sales this summer for more clip-on earrings!

Heart Craft Day #14: Pancakes

Happy Valentine's Day!! This completes my 14 (well 13 because I skipped yesterday...) days of heart crafts.

This morning I made my Valentine heart shaped pancakes. I looked up some various ways to do this and came up with two: use a heart shaped cookie cutter, pour the batter in and once the pancake starts to cook a little you remove the cookie cutter. The other way is to put the batter in a ziploc bag, cut the tip and freehand draw hearts in the pan. I tried the cookie cutter method and wasn't crazy about it. The cookie cutters got very hot and since I'm impatient I removed the cookie cutter too soon and got a blob. I suggest the ziploc bag method. A lovely way to start off Valentine's Day!

Heart Craft Day #12: Papercraft Gift Boxes

Auntie Steph came by the other day with Valentines for the kids that she had purchased at a craft fair in Connecticut. The kids loved the chocolate inside but I was more interested in the construction of the cute gift boxes. So I deconstructed the pattern and began building some of my own. Let me tell you - it was addicting!

The pattern is a rectangle, with strategic folds and holes punched at the top. I cut out hearts and stamped the initials of my coworkers onto them, and stamped a little message wishing them a Happy Valentines Day. Some ribbon and red fasteners and voila, little valentine boxes to fill with chocolate!

What I love the most about these is the versatility of the pattern - I could imagine them as favors for anything from a baby shower to a wedding, depending on the fanciness of the supplies. Lucky for me I was able to construct these purely from things I already had around the house!

Heart Craft Day #11: Freezer Paper Stencils

If you read this blog (which I'm not sure anyone does) or if you were on the Pumpkin Beer Pub Crawl '09 with us you've seen these t-shirts. Freezer paper stencils are one of the quickest and coolest ways to make a personalized t-shirt. Emma wrote up some great step by step how-to directions in this post.

I decided to make one for my man for Valentine's Day. And seriously... what's better than glitter fabric paint?

Heart Craft Day #10: Wrapping Paper

Now that you've made your special someone something heart shaped and homemade it's time to wrap it up. The gift I bought for my boyfriend will not be making it in time... so I figured I should wrap up the consolation gift in something pretty in hopes he forgets about my gift giving faux pas.

I had some white craft paper and these great new letter stamps (which luckily included a heart stamp) so I went to town. Just be sure to center your designs... I also glued some heart shapes made from cardstock on and a cute bow. The only snag was that the paper is a little see through. I just wrapped the gift in some red tissue and it solved the problem.



(I know technically this should be one of the last posts but all my other crafts are in the drying phase)

Heart Craft Day #9: Felt Coasters

These felt coasters are really simple:

Cut two pieces of 4" x 4" felt and one piece of 3 3/4" x 3 3/4" fabric. Fold one piece of felt in half and cut a heart shape on the folded edge. Layer the fabrics - uncut felt on the bottom, fabric with printed side up next, and the cut piece of felt on top. I embroidered a running stitch around the heart shape and a blanket stitch around the edges. But be creative! (Those are honestly the only two embroidery stitches I know) These can even be stitched on a machine if you are so inclined.

It looks like we'll be snowed in the for the latter part of the day tomorrow so I'm going to be attemping a craft we've featured on our blog but with, of course, a heart twist... and if it comes out as planned I'm going to wrap it up and give it to my special Valentine.

Heart Craft Day #8: Ribbon Belts

To find the length of your belt it's best to measure it around where it would sit on your jeans. Since most jeans sit lower on the waist these days, your belt is going to be bigger than your natural waist measurement. Just wrap the ribbon around and add about 7 - 8" to fold back and go through the d-rings.

I used 7/8" pink solid grosgrain ribbon with 5/8" wide heart printed grosgrain ribbon. I centered the printed ribbon over the solid ribbon and edgestitched both ends down. Giving the ribbon a good press with steam took out all the puckers (stitching ribbon makes it really puckered, ironing it always saves the day). The d-rings should be about 1/4" wider than the ribbon (I used 1 1/4" wide). Thread the ribbon through both d-rings and stitch down. Be sure to double bendback the ribbon so no raw edges are showing. Grosgrain ribbon frays like crazy. Double bendback the other end of the ribbon and stitch down.

You can get as creative (or uncreative) with this as you want. You can use a few layers of different sizes or just one ribbon... one thing I have learned is that it's always best to stitch the ribbon down. The heat adhesive tape or glue just doesn't look as nice and doesn't hold up as well.

Heart Craft Day #7: Cookies

Two of the cutest 3 year olds in the world brought over these delicious heart shaped cookies today. Decorating treats for a loved one on Valentine's Day is probably the most popular DIY gift.

Making cookie cutter sugar cookies requires some serious dedication. There's rolling and cutting and baking and decorating involved. But the end result is so cute it's worth it. And there are so many cookie cutter shapes out there and a wide variety of sprinkles so it's easy to be creative.

As for the sugar cookie recipe my personal favorite is from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook (the one with the red plaid cover which is a MUST have in my mind). Anyone else have a favorite sugar cookie recipe?

Heart Craft Day #6: Heart Pins

This is another easy craft that comes out super cute. After our emergency trip to the craft store we came home with a giant bag of wooden hearts and some tacky glue. I had some acrylic craft paint lying around in pink, red and white. We had a great time painting them (Kira and my mom participated in this craft). Once they dried we put varnish on them to protect them. Once that dried, we glued them together (or just use one) and glued a pinback on. These will make great gifts for a co-worker or family member for Valentine's Day.

Heart Craft Day 5: Inspiration

Ok everyone... I'm flaking on day 5. I participated in the Fashion Senior Review at Lasell College, then drove to CT, and am currently celebrating my Dad's big 6-0.

So I am leaving you today with some inspiration. My mom bought this great (and incredibly unique) yo yo wall hanging from a craft fair. And yes, my mother shares my great love of hearts. I'm pretty sure it's hereditary actually.


I will be taking an emergency trip to the craft store tomorrow and will be back with plenty of projects... I have some good ideas!

Heart Craft Day #4: Beaded Ornaments

I'd like to start off by telling everyone that I experienced my first heart related craft injury on this project. I had my wire curling tool thing on my couch and was moving around excitedly about these ornaments and the edge jabbed into my foot. All for the sake of crafting!

This is another great project to use up some odds and ends lying around the house. Pipe cleaners, wire, leftover beads from a project gone wrong... String them on, bend into heart shape, secure at the point of the heart and attach some lovely trim to hang. I made one with a leftover pipe cleaner and pony beads and another with 20g wire and some sparkly fake crystal beads I had taking up space in my craft nook.

Heart Craft Day 3: PomPom Garland

I always thought this pattern was too cute for words. So I set out to make it last night and it dawned on me that maybe I could just use the heart shapes for something instead of sewing them up and stuffing them. I strung them together using a darning needle and a long piece of yarn. And added some pompoms for good measure. This is a great stash buster idea... I know I have an endless supply of pink and red yarn.

Heart Craft Day 2: Heart Garland

When this popped up on my Google Reader I knew I had to make it. I am lucky enough to have a friend who subscribes to every magazine under the sun and passes the along to me. So I grabbed a stack of old magazine and got to work. I didn't realize how many hearts I punched until I stitched this together. It came out to be about 10 feet long and is now hanging all around my kitchen. I may never take it down!

Heart Craft Day 1: Paper Clip Earrings

Paper clip earrings are a quick and easy way to make a unique piece of jewelry. My local Michaels had a few different sets of paper clips in the dollar section. And since they had heart shapes I of course bought them.

All you need are earring wires and some needle nose pliers and you can make them. Simple and cheap. And very cute.

I heart hearts

I wonder if I can come up with a different heart craft for the next 14 days. Hmm...