Tutorial Tuesday Ribbon Belt

During my back to school shopping spree at the thrift store I stumbled across the most adorable dress for my daughter. It is a cute plaid button up dress but it needed something extra - an adorable belt. So I decided to make her one out of some extra ribbon I had laying around. I used 2 inch red ribbon to make the belt and a flower embellishment.

To make the flower you are going to need about 6 inches of ribbon. I then ran a stitch close to one edge using elastic thread. I find that using the elastic thread to gather on thick fabric is easier. Once you are done with the stitch you want to pull either end of the elastic thread to and gather the ribbon until it starts to curl up.


After it is nice and gather you want to wind it around and make it into the shape of a flower.

Then you are going to squish the flower in half and run a stitch close to the end with regular thread. When you are done you can unfold your new flower and hopefully secure flower.

To make the belt I used some more 2 inch ribbon and 2 of D rings. I used my daughters waist to measure the ribbon out.
Next you want to take on end of your ribbon and run it through both D rings. Secure the ribbon with a quick stitch. It would probably look nicer if you fray check your ribbon prior to do this but I was just too lazy.

Now you are ready to add your flower. You can either sew it or be lazy like me and glue gun it close to your D rings. Then you can add a little bling to the center like a button, jewel or a vintage earring which is what I used.

Here is the finished ribbon belt. I think it adds a beautiful finishing touch to my daughters dress and it was super simple to make!

Scrap Fabric Bracelets

I haven't had much time to myself lately, life has just been crazy around here for the past week. I have been itching to work on some craft projects and I was finally able to tonight. My hubby and girls all fell asleep early!
I am working on some big projects that require patience and drying time - both of which are hard for me. I hate to wait so I decided to fill my time with a easy project. I grabbed some silicone bracelets from the $1 section a couple of weeks ago and here is what I decided to make with them.

Scrap Fabric Bracelets

You Need:
Silicone or Plastic Bracelets
Fabric
Glue

Here is a picture of the bracelets I started with. They were not cute but for a dollar I figured I could make something beautiful out of them!
The first thing I did was cut my fabric into long strips. I was not careful about this and my strips were all crazy and uneven which I think made the bracelets look even better. Then I stretched my bracelets out a bit - they were a little tight.

Next I took a strip of fabric and attach it to the bracelet with glue - I used my trusty glue gun.
Then I began to wrap the fabric around the bracelet. I added a dab of glue here and there to make it hold better.
After the bracelet was all wrapped I made a simple wrap flower to go on it (directions are here) but you could add any embellishment you want.
I love my new bracelets and can't wait to wear them! They were simple and quick to make and it made waiting for my other projects to dry so much easier!

I am linking up too:

Valentine Flip Book

I love the cards that we made for my daughter's class but I wanted to make something a little different for family. Since I knew there is no way they would recieve anything before Valentines day ( the downside of living of overseas!) I wanted to make something they could use all year. I came across a cute idea on Color Me Katie. If you have never read her blog you should check it out - she is amazing!

Valentine Flip Book

You will need:
A camera
A printer
paper
ribbon

The first thing I did was a take a picture of my daughter blowing a kiss. This was a little trickier than it sounds. She kept making upset faces and it was a challenge to explain to her that she need to smile and blow a kiss! After a couple dozen tries I finally got a picture we could use.
I uploaded the picture to my computer and then opened my Photoshop Elements. After I edited and cropped the picture I looked through my graphics to find the perfect heart. Then I added the hearts one at a time saving the picture under a different name each time. Now if you don't have Photoshop you can use Picnik online or you could draw the hearts on yourself after you print out the pictures. I wanted to make small flip books so I printed my pictures out at 2.5 X 3.5 which meant I could print them all on one page of paper.
Once the pictures were printed I cut them out and tied a little bit of twine through the pages to hold the pages together.
Now I have a great Valentines gift for family. Whenever they are missing us they can pull it out and get a little love from my daughter!

I am linking up to: