Tutorial time! Recycled tee bag !

The simplest version of these bags is great for smaller tees, or the more light-weight kind of girl-tees – just turn the bottom of the shirt into a drawstring and tie it closed!  As you can see, even with a not huge tee, this will still leave a significant hole in the bottom of your bag, but for purposes like grocery shopping, this size hole shouldn’t really matter…

But to make smaller holes, just make more than one of them!  Here’s a bag bottom with 2 holes:

And now for the actual tutorial – for this one, with the step-by-step, I will be making the bottom with 3 holes.  So, start with a t-shirt that you don’t wear anymore, or a fun one you found at a thrift store.  Besides a tee, you’ll also need scissors and a safety pin.  That’s it!

Cut the sleeves off, but try to make a somewhat straight line, and go in a bit from the seam – these lines will be the sides of your straps:

Cut some strips from those sleeve pieces – about half an inch wide, the length of one time around a sleeve is good, and as many strips as the number of holes you’ll be making in your bag bottom. (I’ve made bags with 1, 2, and 3 holes, but I haven’t tried more than that.)  Pull the ends of the strips to stretch them out and make them curl in:

Cut the neck out to become your bag’s opening – the way you cut this can depend on your tee’s picture (if there is a picture), and also the shape you want your bag.  Just make sure you cut a big enough opening to fit things through, for a functional bag:

You could make it rounded, V-shaped, or squared like this one:

Now the top/straps part is done, time for the bottom.  Snip slits in the hem part of the tee bottom – as many slits as you want holes.  3 slits, below, is for 3 holes, for a single hole, like the yellow one at the top, just cut one slit, and for 2 holes, snip 2 slits.  The slits should be equally spaced from each other, but the spacing doesn’t need to be exact – I just eyeballed my slit placement, no measuring:

Now stick a safety pin through the end of one of those strips you made, and start running it through the hem, through one of the slits:

Run it through to the next slit (or all the way around and back to the beginning, if you’re making a single hole) and pull the cord so it’s centered-ish:

Tie the hole closed as tightly as you can, and tie a tight knot:

Now repeat those steps for the remaining sections, one slit to the next, tie tightly.  This is after the second hole is closed:

For an ultra sturdy bag bottom, tie one cord strand from one hole together with one strand from the hole next to it, tightly, and repeat for each strand (as many of these knots as the number of holes you have; ignore this step if you’re making a single hole), so that the holes are all tied to each other.

Now, you can choose whether you want the t-shirt cord ties hanging down at the bottom, or hidden on the inside.  To hide them inside, bring them through the center, then tie bows on the inside so they don’t fall back through.  Or, tie bows on the outside if you prefer (or you could just cut the cords short and skip the bows):

My finished Sonic bag!

The 1-hole version of this project takes more like 5 minutes, but the more holes you have, the longer it takes (by a few minutes) – it’s my favorite kind of project: 100% recycled materials (in this case, just the tee and nothing else!), minimal tools, quick+easy, and a super useful finished product!

you can also just sew along the bottom seam instead of the draw string but i don't think it looks as cool. :)  Happy recycling!

Tissue pom poms

It was love at first sight when I saw these amazing paper flowers! 

I've wanted to make them for quite a while, but needed them for absolutely NO reason. That is, until this week for my boyfriends sisters 21st birthday party!  My plan is to hang them at varying heights from a piece of string and various colours. I hope it turns out as beautiful as it seems in my head! 

I used 10 sheets of 18 x 26 inch tissue paper...just the target brand.


Fold accordion style, with about 1 1/2 inch folds. Crease with each fold.


Fold a piece of floral wire in half and slip over center...twist. Trim the ends of the tissue into rounded or pointy shapes or even raggered...I chose round.

Separate layers, pulling away from center one at a time.

This part was somewhat difficult, and required a gentle hand...tissue paper is very delicate and tears easily! 

 Just fluff and puff until you get the look you're going for.


You can hang these by tying a length of clear thread or ribbon to the floral wire.

Lovely!

Strawberry Milk Macarons with Cookie Dough Buttercream

• 100g aged egg whites (you can use fresh eggs too, just make sure they are room temperature. I always use fresh these days, and zap it in the microwave on defrost for 10 seconds)
• 110g almond meal, at room temperature and well sifted
• 150g icing sugar
• 50g Strawberry Nesquik
• 50g caster sugar
• Optional: 1 tsp powdered egg whites (available from The Essential Ingredient), helps to stabilise egg whites but is not necessary

• For the buttercream:
• 115g (1 stick) butter, at room temperature (I used slightly salted butter)
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup sifted icing sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1/2 pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup mini dark chocolate chips (or very finely chopped dark chocolate, I pulsed mine through the food processor to break it up)

Prepare the macarons; Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Place icing sugar and strawberry nesquik in food processor and pulse for a minute to remove any lumps. Stir in almond meal and pulse for about 30 seconds to combine. Place in a large mixing bowl and set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and egg white powder in a medium mixing bowl until the egg white powder dissolves and it reaches soft peaks. With the mixer on high speed, gradually add sugar (and then add food colouring) and beat until it reaches stiff peaks.

Add meringue and to your dry mixture and mix, quickly at first to break down the bubbles in the egg white (you really want to beat all the large bubbles out of the mixture, be rough!), then mix carefully as the dry mixture becomes incorporated and it starts to become shiny again. Take care not to overmix, the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after about 30 seconds. Place in a piping bag and pipe rounds of about 3.5cm diameter on baking sheets. Tap baking sheets carefully and firmly on the benchtop a couple times to remove any large bubbles.

Leave to dry for about half an hour to an hour, so that when you press the surface of one gently it does not break. This will help prevent any cracking and help the feet to form on the macs. Preheat your oven to 140-150°C (285-300°C), depending on your oven. Place on top of an overturned roasting tray or another baking sheet if your sheets are not professional grade, for better heat distribution. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of your shells. Carefully test if the base of the shell is ready by gently lifting one and if it's still soft and sticking to the baking paper, then it needs to bake for a few minutes longer.

 Remove from the oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes, then gently remove from the sheet and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Prepare the icing, beat together the butter and brown sugar a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on high until creamy. With the mixer on low, gradually add sifted icing sugar, then increase speed and beat until combined. Beat in the flour and salt on low until just combined. With the mixer still on low, beat in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended. Fold in mini chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Sandwich macaron shells with a generous amount of buttercream, I used about a tablespoon or so for each. Refrigerate overnight in an airtight container to allow the flavour to mature.

ENJOY :)

DIY storybook paper roses

You’re going to love today’s DIY project so much that you’re going to want to start tearing pages out from old books tonight! Remember the storybook roses in Shanna + Richard’s wedding? Sweet, right? Floral designer, Cathy Brim of Bloom Floral Design created the elegant branch bouquets seen in their ceremony using Valerie Lloyd’s paper roses design, and now we’re jumping-out-of-the-pages excited that Valerie is sharing her DIY secrets with you!

Craft Supplies:
Paper
Grosgrain Ribbon, ½ Width cut to 4 inch lengths
16 Gauge Wire cut to 15 inch lengths
Glue Gun
Glue Sticks (low temp)
Scissors
Wire Cutters

Step 1: Gather materials. If you are using vintage books or sheet music as your paper source make sure it is still flexible enough to curl with your fingers. The wire can be found at the hardware store, and is sometimes called “black wire” or “annealed coil wire.” Be sure you are using low temp hot glue because you’ll be able to feel it right through the paper petals as you work.

Step 2: Cutting. You will need to stockpile at least 5 different sizes of petals ranging from about ¾ inch wide to 3 inches wide. I cut freehand, and avoid templates, so that each petal is a unique and organic shape. Think of the shapes as little church windows or arches. Some can be pointy, and some can be rounded. For each flower you will need at least 4 of each size. Make more than you need.

Step 3: Shaping. I really feel that this is the most important step to create natural and soft looking flowers. Roll the edges of each petal, and pinch the base slightly. Each one can be done a little differently to give the petals character and roundness. I shape all of my petals before I even begin gluing anything.

Step 4: Rolling the center. You need to cut out one more shape for each flower, and this is for the coiled center of the rose. This shape should be about 2 ½ inches long with a rounded tip. Roll it up into a tube to create its shape. Unroll it and run a bead of hot glue along the inside and re-roll it around the end of your wire. Another dot of glue will hold it in place.

Step 5: Attaching petals. Begin with your smallest petals. Use a single dot of glue, about ¼ inch from the bottom of the petal to attach it to the stem. Your next petal should overlap the first. Continue adding small petals, rotating the stem as you go, always slightly overlapping the last petal you attached. This is where your artistry will come in as you continue to rotate and build. As you begin adding larger petals pinch the bases, as they are much wider. By pinching at the bases you will be rounding out the rose, and creating space between layers.

Step 6: Finishing. The sepals will be made of ribbon, which will also cover your final seams and create a nice polished look. Each rose needs two – 4 inch lengths of ribbon. Wrap them around the stem and secure to the undersides of the petals. Cut a ‘V’ into each end of the ribbons to finish.

How awesome is Valerie? We’re crazy about her flowers and can’t wait to hear how many of you start on this project this weekend. For those of you (don’t be shy) that would rather leave it to the pro, Valerie also sells the loose roses in her shop, and can even create a custom bouquet to fit your wedding!

hand stitching

One of my favorite crafts is hand stitching-- it's fun, addictive, expressive and relaxing :) Over the next few weeks, I'm going to share easy ways to make your own patterns for hand stitching along with some tips and ideas :)

These are some samples of my past projects-- I like to draw patterns freehand and use my handwriting. However, sometimes I adapt clipart type images to make a more complicated pattern, like the sewing machine or I just stitch the outline of an image I love, like the Goonies "Hey You Guys" silhouette :) I use a Back Stitch for all my hand stitching because it's very versatile and I like the look but you can use any combination of stitches for your projects... there's lots of fun ones!

Today, we're going to start with handwriting & transferring your pattern :)

You will Need:

- Card-stock or Thick Paper (I cut a piece of 6x8" card-stock & folded it in half to create a greeting card)

- Needle & Scissors

- Embroidery Thread

- Scrap Paper & Pen

- Thumbtack or Piercing Tool

1> On a scrap paper, write your word at least 10 times. When writing your word, size the font to be at least 2 inches tall at it's highest points, 3 inches is even better for your first project. Pick the best version and cut it out with space around the word.

2> To create your template, use a tack or piercing tool to poke tiny holes along the word.

- As you poke the holes, follow the lines of your word as your guide. 

- Space the holes about 1/4 inch apart. At the tighter curves (like the tops of my h), put the holes a little closer together so that the stitches take the curve & don't look jagged.

- When you reach a crossover on the word (like the first loop on my h), poke the hole right where the two lines overlap/intersect, this will help the stitched version look it's best.

* Protect the surface under your paper with a self healing mat or phonebook.

When stitching onto paper, gently tape the template onto your cardstock before piercing the holes-- then poke the holes through both layers. You can also reuse the word template in the future (or set-up the template in 2 stages) by re-poking holes with your project paper below.

If you are transferring a template onto fabric, you will need to mark your fabric rather than pierce it.

- After poking the holes in your template (step 2 above), secure your pattern onto the fabric with tape or a straight pin.

- Then, with the fabric on a firm surface, use a pen to poke a dot onto the fabric through each hole in the template.

* Test the pen on a corner of the fabric before applying your template, just incase the ink bleeds a lot.

* No need to worry about a special pen or disappearing ink, your pen dots will be hidden by the stitches along the way.

* When choosing everyday fabric to stitch on, I suggest linen, muslin & thick cottons. It is easiest to stitch on fabrics where you can distinguish the horizontal and vertical 'grain' of the fabric.

3> From the back of your project, secure your first stitch with my #1 Stitching Technique.

4> Begin stitching your word using the Back Stitch method (a continuous straight stitch with no gaps).

- Stitch the same path/flow as you do when writing the word (do not jump ahead in your pattern. ie. cross your t's after the base of the letter).

- The poked holes are the perfect guide for your stitches and make it easy to see the next step. Refer back to your template to see the big picture when you are at a crossroads.

- Pull each stitch evenly to create a smooth look in your project but be gentle with your paper, if you pull too hard or rapidly-- it will tear.

- If you tear your paper: undo your last two stitches, tape the torn paper on the back with a tiny piece of masking tape. Press the papers torn edges onto the mask tape and carry on (it will hardly show once the stitches cover it).

5> Attach any embellishments if you'd like. I like using buttons to dot the i's & j's sometimes :)

6> To complete your project, tie it off on the back, see #1 Stitching Technique.

* If you run out of thread as you're stitching, use step #6 to end the remainder. Then, use Step #3 to start the next thread.

You are done! The more you practice, the more your handwritten stitching will look like your actual handwriting :) Try different fonts too, it's lots of fun! xo