DIY "enamel" dots

When I shared my WCS May gallery layout I said that I would post a short DIY post on how I made those "enamel" dots. So, here it is!

There are a lot of companies making enamel dots these days and I do use them frequently in both pages and cards. They can be a little pricey and I haven´t found a good place to get them near me. So that (and the fact that I love DIY`s) made me search out how to make my own. 

As a crafter I have all sorts of materials at home. For this DIY I used different kinds of plastic beads. Both Hama beads and larger beads that my daughter made necklaces´ of when she was younger. As I was going to bake them in the oven, I laid them out on a sheet of baking paper and set the oven to 170 degrees Celcius (around 340 degrees Farenheit). 

After baking them for about 25 minutes, this is what I got. The different beads bake at different times I found. The Hama beads baked the fastest and shaped nicely. Yet, the more color they had the better they came out. You see the aqua one? That one just melted to a flat bead, but the black one was perfect. 

I decided to just put the ones not finished yet back in the oven until they melted enough for me. That would be anything from 10-20 minutes more. 

Here are the Hama beads to the right and larger plastic beads to the left. The left ones are so yummy since they are see through and has lucious colors and these are the ones I used on the layout above. 

I am no expert obviously, but I found it fun to experiment and I have already used several of these in different projects!

Have fun, don´t burn your fingers and open up a window! 

From Pin to Reality | Washi banner

Finally a new From pin to reality post! These posts are my attempt to actually do something of all those pins I pin over at Pinterest.

Link to pin.

I have been wanting to make these banners forever. Washi tape is such a good product to have at home since it is so versatile. For my banner I also used these free printable banner letters that I matted on black cardstock for more effect. 

It fits right in with all the other black and white wall art above our bed!

If you´d like to see more of these posts, just click here! 

Guest designer: The Green Hyena: cards

Here are the cards I made with the kit from The Green Hyena! I had a few birthday cards I needed to make, and these tag/pockets were perfect!

I sometimes align my letterstickers on a ruler so that I know it will all fit.

For the punched out butterflies I actually used the left over paper from the Phrase Cards pad. 

And I also made a more boyish card using the black card and colorful dot brads from the kit. That neon green tag was from my stash that I finally found a use for!

Happy Weekend!

Moodboard Inspiration | February projects

Here is the post I did with the moodboard in the beginning of the month! 

And here are the projects I did with inspiration from the moodboard.

I made super simple Valentine´s day card for our friends and family this year inspired by the moodboard. 

Garlands and watercolor were also on the moodboard and in this project I used both!

The filler card I did for Valentine´s day.

And the geometric heart banner.

These are the projects I did with inspiration from February´s moodboard!

On to the next month!

Super easy baby gift using a...

My nephew turned one last week and I anted to make a gift for him that he could use every day. I had this plain photo album with pockets for 2 4x6" photos on each page. I made the cover using a sheet of papperned paper. Previous to this I had taken of the cover to the album, so that the whole thing was just the pockets. 

I then went to my photo archives and found good headshot photos of our family (his grandmothers, cousins and others). Just printed them out and slipped them in the pockets.

Ok, so the very last thing I did so that he could indeed use it without ruining it was to sew a straight stitch with my sewing machine along the border of each side. This will prevent the photos sliding out, but also water or drool from coming in :)

Super easy and usable baby gift!

Valentine`s Day prep | Geometric heart banner

I love Valentine´s Day! I love it so much. As previous years, I have prepared a few things already so I could share them with you! First I made these heart banners. I love that they are a bit modern with the geometric cut outs.

This is the how-to!

First I sketched a heart on cardstock and just made it a bit less rounded so that it would have straight edges. I used that as my template to cut out the ones in patterned paper.
I have a ruler with like 10 different geometric shapes, so I simply layed the ruler over each heart and traced them on there. Then I used my craft knife to cut them all out. I am sure a few of you have digital cutting machines that can do this so much easier, but I don´t :) So I go about it in the good old way!

At first I thought that I would like it like that, but then I decided it needed some backing. So I just adhered the heart to some black cardstock and made sure I cut the edges so that a bit of the black paper shows. Now, this ofcourse meant I needed to cut the shapes once again. No problmen! I did all this infront of the TV one night!

I had so much fun, so I went ahead and made a few more, but in red and pinks. I backed those with white cardstock, because I thought it looked best.

So there you have it, the first of my Valentine´s Day decorations for this year!

Ps. Click here to see past Valentine´s Day projects!

From Pin to reality | Chrochet wreath

It has been a while since my last From Pin to reality post, but I see a few ones coming now that I can start sharing my Holiday crafts!

Link to pin

I have had versions of this craft pinned before, but haven´t done anything before. 

I had a small styrofoam wreath at home that I had wrapped in string before, so I just took that of and started to chrochet my new one. I used the double chrochet stitch, but if you are more comfortable with a single stitch that works just aswell! That is why this is a craft you can do as a beginner too!

I worked my rows one by one until it reached about 45 cm. During my work I sized and measured so that everything would fit.

Then I started to sew the piece around the wreath. You can work bulky, but I tried to make sure it was overlapped so that it wouldn´t show to much on the front side. For this I used a big yarn needle.

As you can see it is a little bulky on the back, but not so much it wouldn´t hang ok.

The ends were sewn overlapping aswell.

I then added a few stitches with red yarn mimicing red berries and then I crochet a red ribbon.

Ho ho ho ;)

Holiday crafts

I do buy some gifts for others, but I always make some of my gifts, just because I love to! I also always craft something new each year for the Holidays. I am almost done with alot of projects and I have plans to start posting a few here in a week or so. Some will come a little later in December because they will be post on the WCS blog first. 

If you would like to see more of my past December ideas you can click here! 

Crafting | Positive quotes

Last week me and my new love volunteered at a local youth club at church. We had been asked by the leaders to lead a craft. I thought long and hard and then came up with the easiest craft ever :) 

I cut out "canvases" drom old cardboard boxes and asked the kids to find the letters to different positive quotes. They went to work right away and the best thing was the conversations that happened during the lettersearching! 

These are just a few that I brought as examples. They make me super happy and now they hang by the hallway mirror as reminders during the day!

Happy Friday!

From pin to reality | Halloween banner

Finally I have a new From pin to reality post!

 

 

Link to pin!

 

I wanted to make a simple Halloween banner and went on a search for a template. I found this simple free download and used the template to make this banner.

 

 

Instead of just making the banner with the pumpkin and bat I used on of my thrifted old books and used pages for a background. 

It fits in just right in our hallway!

This ofcourse involves a bit of fussy cutting, so this might be something for an older child. But if an adult cut the shapes a child could easily glue them to the background and embellish it!

 

From Pin to reality | String wall art

Here is another craft we worked on together! So much fun!

I won´t include a pin to this since I have pinned so many with this, I didn´t want to just pick one! 

We used a old shelf we had laying around and used a saw to cut it to a square size. He did that and sanded it a bit while I was at work. 

We used the only black paint we had home at the moment; chalkboard paint :) It required only one coat and dried superfast!

I folded a paper in half and drew a large heart. This way it will be even on both sides.

Then he wanted to hammer all the tiny nails all around. 

And I wired white embroidery floss on the nails while watching TV :)

Another quick and simple craft!