Baby Shower Gifts for Girls! Homemade Headbands!

I should have put this with my previous post! I also made these cute little headbands for my unborn niece!
I was in such a hurry to get out the door that my picture quality suffered a little bit, but you can get the general idea.

I didn't make this hat, but the flower is made out of an old shirt. I cute out about 8 circles the size of the bottom of a soup can, and 1 circle slightly smaller for the center. I folded all the circles in fourths except the smallest one, glued them onto a small piece of felt. I hot glued the center to the top and then glued a button on top. I attached an alligator hair clip to the bottom of the felt piece and secured it in place with a ribbon to hide the hot glue. Then I stuck it onto this cute t, which I did not make because I am not that talented.

 The two headband pictured above are made out of baby tights measured about 13 inches long. Headbands are great for headbands because they are so stretchy! The can go from newborn to about 6 months! I hot glued the ends together and wrapped a small piece around the glued spot to protect baby's head. The flowers are made out of various size circles cut from satin and polyester with the edges slightly burned to prevent fraying. I also added a little tulle and ribbon. The centerpieces are decorative brads and a chevron pattern bottle cap.

 The headband pictured above and below are different types of stretch lace. Above flower above is made the same way as the other two above it and the bow below is made out of  felt. I didn't measure it. I just cut a piece the length of the rectangle felt squares, folded the two ends into the center and hot glued. Then I put a dab of glue in the center and squeezed the center together. Then I tied  a ribbon around the center, because I wanted it to be pinched together tighter. Then I cut another little strip to wrap around the center of the bow and hot glued that in place. I glued that onto the lace and put another small piece of felt on the bottom to protect baby's head from any rough glue. Find a bow tie tutorial here and here.
 It really is easier than it sounds!

 Happy crafting!
xoxo,
Amy

DIY Felt Headbands and Velcro Flowers!

I think I log a lot of bathroom hours . . .hold on, it's not what you think . . . I am the mama to three little girls (and one sweet little boy) so with four heads of female hair to do every morning, we log a lot of bathroom hours. See, I told ya, it wasn't what you thought:)
Because I have so many little girls, I have a fondness for hair accessories. Like these:

Brown Paper Packages is one of the lovely blogs I follow (and you should too) and she did a post about these headbands and I wanted to try my hand at them because I thought: no.1 they looked cute and no. two they looked easy! Mine are slightly different from hers however and I'll show you what I mean below.

I didn't want to use an elastic headband for my 8 and 6 year old so I opted for a soft plastic headband instead. I buy a special kind on line that don't cause any pain behind the ears so my kids actually don't mind headbands.

I attached the the soft part of the Velcro in one one spot only on the felt bow but put the tougher side of the Velcro in multiple places on the headband. The felt sticks to Velcro pretty good so I felt like I didn't need to attach both pieces of Velcro at every point on the headband.

I then proceed to attach the felt bows with sticky back Velcro. I added a little hot glue for added hold. The reason I did this is because I already have a drawer full of headbands and really didn't want to add more to it. The idea for me was to simply make the felt bow interchangeable.

The other difference is that I simply used craft felt because it is what I had on hand and haven't the foggiest idea where to get better felt. It would most likely require a trip to a larger town:)

Thank you Kierste, from Brown Paper Packages, for shring your cuteness!

I applied the same idea of interchangeable hair pieces when my third baby girl was born a little over a year ago. I didn't want to have millions of elastic headbands cluttering a drawer so I used the circle sticky back Velro again adding a little hot glue for extra hold.

That way I just had to change out the flowers to match outfits and when her head grew, I only had to replace one elastic headband.

Front of the flower:

Back of the flower!

Happy Crafting!
XOXO,
Amy

DIY Hair Clip Display and Two Layer Skirt

Look at those pretty flowers growing in the garden! Okay not really . . . my garden is almost dead:)

For weeks I have been trying to come up with a creative way to display the hair accessories and headbands that I make. I think I must have received my initial inspiration from my cousin-in-law, Heidi over at Honeybearlane.com. She made a beautiful centerpiece out of small tree branches. Then I saw someone at "What Women Want" with a tree branch display that earrings were hung from. And this is what I got . . . (I do have some better pictures at the bottom:) It was hard to take a picture in my usual spot because it was so windy today!)

This project is so easy and I think when I am done using it at The Festival of Tress Boutique, I will put it in my girls' bedroom to display their hair clips on. You can so do this. It is way easy.


I cut some branches from m y pomegranate tree, stripped the leaves and spray painted them white. After they dried, I simply put them in a large glass vase. I have some extra Styrofoam squares and I think I might try this again using them as a base.

I was pleasantly surprised that my head bands actually hooked on to the branches. I thought I would just be able to use my clips, but the headbands worked too!

Next . . .

I love to make special occasions special with fun clothes for my kiddos. I have been trying really hard to make cute skirts and it seems like I am always trying out new ideas and styles in an attempt to find the easiest way to sew. I used my tutorial for the two layer skirt that I posted earlier to create the black satin bottom layer. For the shimmery overlay I actually burned the edges like you do when you are making flowers because I wanted that kind of a look. (plus, I was so sick of trying to hem this particular fabric). Then I used a gathering stitch for the top layer and sewed it to the satin layer upside down with a regular stitch. Then I folded it back over (so that it was laying the right way) and stitched it again. You can see that I made it lay and sewed it in a way that revealed the black satin underneath.

I made this skirt so that the flower embellishment was interchangeable. I took a flower hair clip that I had already made and added the pin onto the back of it. This way the skirt would be perfect for "black and orange day" (their semi Halloween celebration) at school and also for School Spirit Friday . . .

which is black, green and white.

Anyway . . . you get the idea!

Happy Crafting!

xoxo, Amy

Monday Night SpotLight

For the first time ever, I was able to go to the "What Women Want" Boutique held in St. George, Utah. It was a great way to celebrate my birthday. What a fun even that turned out to be! You name it and it was there. There was one little boutique that I fell head over heels in love with . . . Miss Plunkett Vintage Trimmings.

This booth not only had some of the cutest items, but the had, by far, the best presentation. They really knew how to stage a booth!

They sold belts, bracelets, necklaces, headbands and hair accessories. The coolest thing about this particular boutique is that you get to build your own accessory. Everything is interchangeable. You start with the clip and have the option to add feathers, Russian netting, multiple flowers and a beautiful vintage inspired. centerpiece. I bought this little beauty for $12.50.

Since I make hair accessories, I was greatly inspired. I am getting ready for our little town's big event called "The Festival of Trees." It will take place November 9-12 and will have booths, entertainment and food. It is a great way to get into the Holiday spirit.

This little beauty below is of my own creation. I like it just fine and it sells for $5. Thank you to Miss Plunkett for the inspiration.

Go check out Miss Plunkett Vintage Trimmings and see if you fall in love like I did!

Happy Crafting!

xoxo, Amy

DIY Corker Hair ribbons

Wanna make these cute little things??? They are so easy to do!

I actually learned how to do these fun little ribbons from my sister in law Shanni (Thanks Shannon!) These are so fun to make and the best thing is, now you can have a ribbon custom made to match your little girl's outfit . . . or better yet to get into the spirit of a holiday.

I wanted to make a black and orange corker so here we go!

You will nee gross grain ribbon, I used orange and black, dowels (Walmart craft section), wooden clothespins, aerosol hairspray and a cookie sheet. Preheat your oven to 250 degrees

Begin by wrapping your ribbon around the dowel. Secure in place with clothes pin. Wrap ribbon around until you get to the end of dowel and secure other side with clothespin as well.

Spray with hairspray . . .

Repeat until you have 5 of each color. It is okay to use different size dowels. When you are done, place on cookie sheet (mine is kinda dirty- huh. Don't worry, if I use it for food I cover it with foil first) and cook for 25 minutes on 250.

Unwrap . . .

They should look like this . . .

Cut corkers in half (this make a large corker hair clip- for smaller corkers, cut in half and then in half again) and arrange them together, making sure you alternate colors in a pleasing pattern, separate in the middle, you can use clothespins to help you . . .

Tie a ribbon of matching color (I used an orange corker) tightly in the center.

Remove clothespins and fluff. I hot glued mine onto a hair clip. You could attach yours to a clip, a headband, a hat . . . whatevers:)

You can make them any size and any color.

Fun, fun!

Now, I just have to make one more to keep sisterly peace in the family:)

Have fun! Happy Crafting!

xoxo, Amy