Tarina Tarantino Skull Hair Clip

This cool skull hair clip is both girly and goth. It features a sparkly skull cabochon (in true Tarina Tarantino style) offset by a silk flower backdrop and gems. It's $38 for the real deal, but we can make ours for pennies.

This kind of clip is very easy and quick to make yourself, and you only need a few "ingredients".

My version is glued onto a hair clip for easy use. You can make it in any color combination you like. I used old gems from a nail art kit, but if you want to be all legit and use Swarovski sparkly flatbacks, go right ahead! It will be even more dazzling.

And, if you're not into skulls, you can use any other cabochon you have laying around; maybe a bigger gem, button, or anything else you can come up with.

Step 1: Gather materials. You need small gems, a hair clip, silk flowers, a cabochon, hot glue and super glue.

Step 2: Glue the smaller flower on top of the bigger one (with hot glue). Glue the skull into the middle (hot glue). Use your super glue to glue on gems around your skull, on the petals. When you are satisfied and the glue has dried, hot glue your skullflower to the hair clip. Allow hot glue to dry, gently peel the hot glue (still attached to flower) off the metal clip, score the metal clip, apply superglue and re-glue that glob of hot glue back to the clip on the superglue. I make a glob because I feel it holds better and sticks better than if you just used superglue by itself. 

Let dry.

How easy was that? 

A good project to do while babysitting or at a party night. Simple enough for kids to do but the results aren't super baby-ish like other projects!

A fun bright accessory!

All photos and instructions copyright Allison Cooling for Quiet Lion Creations.

If you share/use/post this tutorial, please link back to me. It is much appreciated!

Mimco Fabric Flower Barette

Have an old scarf? Don't know what to do with it? Make a Mimco Fabric Flower Barette! This barrette is a perfect accessory for the upcoming spring. Plus, it's a cinch to make. You can even make them in different sizes, depending on what size scarves you have. I used a pretty large one, so it made a really large flower. But it looks great on top of a ponytail!

This post was requested by a blog guest. Thanks, Linda!

Let's get started.

Step 1: Gather materials. Needed is a silk or silk-type scarf (any size will work, just make sure it's a long rectangle, not a square), a hair clip, embroidery floss and hot or tacky glue. I find that hot glue is easier to work with. It dries a lot faster!

Step 2: Find the center of the scarf. Tie a cinch with the embroidery floss (use a couple of feet of floss), nice and tight. Then, tie on your clip and hot glue this knot to hold it in the center of your clip.

Step 3: Start the flower. Flip your scarf over, and bring the floss up once again and tie another knot at the top. Then, with one side of your scarf, make a fold a couple inches long (the size will depend on how big your scarf is) and fold it over towards you. Then, bring your floss on either side under the fold, and tie a tight knot to permanently seal the fold/ruffle. You want to end up with about 3 folds/ruffles on this side, each being a little smaller than the first.

Step 4: Finish ruffles on one side. Make another fold, bring the ends underneath and again tie tight to seal the fold. Repeat once more (leaving about an inch or so of the raw ends) for 3 ruffles. Cut the floss right after the knot. 

Step 5: Cut another length of floss and tie on to the center, coming from underneath and knot at the top right at the knot you made in step 2. Just repeat steps 3-4 for this other side of your scarf. You should end up with something like the picture at the top. As for the raw ends, this is where your hot glue comes in. Roll them in towards the center (with your clip upside down), gluing with small spots of glue as you roll under. Keep rolling until your ends are neatly tucked in and you have a nice flower shape like this. Let your glue fully dry. That's all there is to it!

These look especially good at tops of ponytails, or next to topknots (if they are made with smaller scarves!).

A fashion statement!

If you share/use/post this tutorial, please link back to me. It is much appreciated :)

And Mary's "What's the Story, Winston?" Necklace

The Real Winston

As soon as I saw this necklace online, I KNEW I had to do a tutorial. Swedish designer And Mary's What's the Story Winston? on ModCloth is just so awesome and totally DIY-worthy. Plus, this tutorial literally takes minutes and involves only minimal "ingredients", so there is no excuse for you guys not making one yourself!! 
Here is my "Winston"....

DIY Winston. 

I used a small plastic dog (like for dollhouses, or even maybe a kid's toy) and a scrap of ribbon I had laying around. The real necklace is porcelain; so if you drop it, you are kind of out of luck! My plastic version solves that. Also, on the necklace's website, many people had complaints about the bow unraveling, thus ruining their necklace. For my version, I used both superglue and hot glue (which seems to literally melt the plastic underneath and form a super-tough hold) to prevent this problem. Also, I sealed the ribbon with clear nail polish. No unraveling!

Winston's glamour shot

Let's get started.

Step 1: Gather materials. Needed are pliers, scissors, hot glue and superglue, clear nail polish, gold chain and a jumrping, thin satin ribbon (I used pink to match the real, but you can substitute colors), and a plastic dog figurine (mine was about 1" long and .75" high). The figurine needs to have a good clear neck spot to attach the ribbon to. If you don't have a dog, you can use another animal. Cats, giraffes, horses, what the heck. Just make sure you pick one with a clear neck spot. You can find a lot of these figurines on Amazon: puppies here, cute monkeys here, cute little random animals here, and I am OBSESSED with these little DOMO charms!!!

Step 2: Make the small bow. tie a bow in the center of your ribbon scrap. If you need help making a perfect bow, follow my tutorial here. Once done, drench the back of the knot with superglue, making sure to get around all sides to prevent unraveling. Paint the ends of the ribbon with clear nail polish to prevent fraying as well.

Step 3: Attach the "collar". With another piece of ribbon, take a dab of hot glue and squeeze it onto the back of your dog's neck. Immediately press one end of your ribbon on the glue, and press down to embed in the glue. Take your jumrping and thread it on the ribbon from the free end. Wrap the free end of ribbon around the front of the dog's neck VERY SNUGLY, so that the jumrping stands up and doesn't wobble, and so that the ribbon lays flat and tight against the neck. Wrap till it meets the back of the neck; dab some hot glue on this seam and press again firmly to embed the other end of the ribbon into the glue. Once dry, cut the ribbon as close to the glue as possible. Then, drench this seam with superglue, extending a little to the plastic as well, to really hold this in place. 

Step 4: Your dog should look like pic. 2. Then, take your bow from Step 1. Dab hot glue on the ribbon collar where you want your bow to lay, and press the bow (superglue side in) on the collar, embedding it in the glue. If you want to add superglue to the sides of this as well, you can. I added a very little amount behind the bow but where it meets the collar to keep the front clean but still give extra hold.

Then, attach your chain to this jumpring and wear!

Wasn't that worth it?!

Winston worn.

Winston likes cookies....

Close-up of Winston's behind

If you share/use/post this tutorial, please link back to me. It is much appreciated!

Easy Ettika Bow Bracelet

the spec sheet!

This tutorial is super fast and super easy!

Ettika is a jewelry company popular among celebs and fashionistas alike, and their works have appeared in a ton of fashion magazines as well. This bow bracelet is totally doable for a DIY, and it doesn't require mad skills to make!

This sells for $32 on their site. You can make yours for less than $3. Who needs to know?!

As you can see, I made mine in silver; I wear a lot more silver and I had extra silver chain and findings on hand. They make gold and silver versions, so pick whichever metal you like better.

Step 1: Gather materials. Needed are pliers, a paintbrush, clear lacquer, scissors, polka dot ribbon (Ettika makes green, blue and yellow versions of their bracelet so pick one of those colors), two jump rings, a clasp set, and chain.

My ribbon was about 1cm. wide, but it's ok if the size varies a little, it won't change the look entirely.

Step 2: Make the bow. Take your length of ribbon and make a loop in the center around your first finger (pic 1). Take the ribbon on the bottom, and loop back up around your first finger, over your thumb. Take the ribbon to the back of your first finger (pic. 2). Pinch the first loop you made along with the part we just took over the thumb with your other hand (pic. 3). There should be a small opening at the right to pull that ribbon from pic. 2 thru. Pull to form the bow. The arrows show you which way to pull the ribbon.

You should end up with a bow in the center of your length of ribbon. If the polka dot side is not showing, twist the ribbon to make sure it shows on the front. You don't want the blank side to face front.

Step 3: Finish bow. Take you paintbrush and paint the back of the knot really good with lacquer to "glue" the knot in place. Then, cut the ribbon ends into triangles to create that cute cut look. I cut mine about 2.5cm from the center knot. Then, paint lacquer on the back edges of the ribbon to prevent fraying.

Step 4: Add chain and finish. Measure your wrist to cut the correct amount of chain. The bow will be about 2" long. I needed my bracelet to be 6" long. I needed 4" of chain on each side,  8" of chain total. You need to double the amount of inches of chain you need on each side of the bow because you will be making a loop, and essentially cutting the entire chain length in half by doing so.

Loop these two chain lengths through the loops in the bow. Close the chains by attaching your jump rings.

Add the clasp to the end. Finished!

If you share/use/post this tutorial, please link back to me. It is much appreciated!