Marc Jacobs- Striped Star Hair Clip

Marc by Marc Jacobs- Hair Clip

I think this next tutorial is just plain cool! I loved these Marc by Marc Jacobs Star Hair Clips. Their simplicity but cool color combinations in contrasting stripes really stand out in hair. So, obviously I found a way to make my own. 

I used polymer clay and added rhinestones for extra sparkle. I also made mine on bobby pins so I could stick them anywhere on my hair!

Mine, in various colors.

Below is the full tutorial.

Again, like many of my tutorials, this can be customized to fit your liking. Choose your own colors in your favorite combinations! I also used a cookie cutter to make my star. You can use different shapes to make different styles!

Step 1: Gather materials. Needed are polymer clay, bobby pins, glass rhinestones, a paintbrush, small cookie cutters, clear lacquer, super glue and hot glue. If you have a pasta machine you use to roll clay, this is needed as well. If not, use a rolling pin.

Step 2: Choose 3 colors of your clay, shape into balls. The original Marc clip uses yellow, black and gray. Run these through the pasta machine on the second setting, or just roll thin with your rolling pin. 

Step 3: Cut about 1/4" strips from your sheets. Place these strips side by side and gently rub the edges of the colors together to adhere a bit. You will have one panel of your colored strips. Carefully pick the panel up without separating the strips, and run through the pasta machine again, on the next thinnest setting. Or just roll thinner with your pin. You may need to roll it through a couple of times to make sure the clay sticks really well. Take a separate ball of one of your colors again and roll it through the machine on the first setting. Place your thinner colored stripes panel on top of this plain one, and press down. This makes sure that your cutout will be a little thicker so it won't break!

Step 4: Find a nice place for your cutout, and use your cookie cutter to make the cutout.

Here are pics of a red/orange/purple one I made.

Run this panel through pasta machine....

Place stripes on top of plain panel, cut out.

Step 5: Add rhinestones. Here are my three stars. I added three rhinestones to the top of each, just to give some sparkle. Press the rhinestones down into the clay to secure. If you like yours plain, keep them plain!

Bake these at about 125 degrees for 20 min. You may have to vary this as I use a small toaster oven.

Step 6: Finishing. When these are all baked and cooled. Clear them with the lacquer. Let them dry completely. Squeeze a small line of hot glue on the back, and stick the end of the bobby pin in the glue to secure. Let dry. I have found that the hot glue won't be enough to hold on to the clay. When I first made these, they came off of the hot glue after I wore them once! So I think it's good to superglue them as well. Carefully detach the star from the glue glob and score the clay with a sharp knife or pin to help create texture for glue to hold to. Then, apply superglue to this score mark and re-attach your hot glue/bobby pin glob. Let dry again.

Wear, wear, wear!!

Super-cool and sparkly!

Use to pull hair back...

Decoration on my topknot!

All three!

The trio again

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!

Edge of Urge- super hippie earring +diy

Handmade Edge of Urge-inspired Earring

The Real Edge of Urge Earring

Another Edge of Urge Earring

As seen on celebs like Lucy Hale (in Seventeen Magazine) these Edge of Urge earrings are totally popular right now, with the whole feather craze. So..... of course I had to find out how to make this myself. It seemed pretty simple; a hoop earring with feather, string and charm dangles. What's great about these earrings is that they are totally customizable. Colors, lengths of the dangles, how many dangles, what patterns, what beads, what string etc. are all choices that you can make to come up with a truly original earring, celebrity-style!

Plus, why spend $84 on the real deal when you can make one yourself for basically nothing? All that is needed is some wire, string, beads, paper, charms and feathers. Look below for the full tutorial!

Step 1: Gather materials. You will need wire (I just used a basic craft wire, but if you have sensitive ears use sterling silver because this hoop will be going through your ear. I'd say 18g / 16g wire, some embroidery floss, some hemp or other cool string, feathers, some charms, ribbon ends and some seed beads. I used size 11 seed beads and size 8.

Step 2: Crimp the ribbon ends to the ends of the feathers, making sure you crimp nice and tight so they are secure. I used three feathers, breaking into two groups. Take a piece of your wire, 4" or so, and wrap around the neck of a nail polish bottle to create a nice circular shape. Cut a little past where the ends meet.

Step 3: Make a small loop with the end of a roundnose pliers at one end of the wire. Loop the wire as seen in the middle picture, then bend the loop flat so it follows the curve of the wire (third picture). 

Take the wire with a regular pliers about .5cm from the other end, and bend straight up to form a 90 degree angle. Your loop is complete. 

Step 4: Set the loop aside. Make your first dangle; I deconstructed the embroidery floss into three individual threads, then braided them to a 3" braid. If you want yours to be longer or shorter, braid accordingly. Also, you could use three different color threads for a cool tye-dye look. I added three beads and a charm to the end, then brought my thread ends back up through the beads, and knotted at the top of the beads.

Step 5: Thread the other end of your braided dangle through a crimp, then back again to create a loop. Without crimping yet, add it to the wire loop, pull the thread tighter (but not too tight so it can't move on the loop) and crimp. Cut the ends. Now, this is the time to customize. You can add as many dangles as you want, as many braids, some charm dangles, whatever. I added one more dangle of embroidery floss with 3 size 8 seed beads tied on (this dangle was about 2.5"). I added a crimp to the top and crimped it onto my loop. Then I added my feathers to the other side. Go crazy or keep it simple. It's up to you!

Step 6: Create the signature Edge of Urge Cluster Flock feather. I tried to re-create as best as I could without spending 50 hours trying to get it exact. You can do the same; copy my feather or draw your own! The feather measures 3" long and about 1.25" wide. You will need a piece of wallpaper (you know those scraps you can get at Menard's? That's what I used. If you don't have any, you can use cardstock but they won't be waterproof. Or, you can use a piece of thick fabric. Whatever has the best pattern). I drew my feather on the blank side of the paper, and cut it out. Then, I glued it to the blank side again, and cut it out after it was dry, so it was double-sided. 

Last step; Poke a hole through the top of the feather. Add a jump ring, and attach to your earring. Finished!!! To close your earring, press the bent end of the wire up through the loop you created on the other side. It should easily latch.

The Finished Earring

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

Feather Frenzy; a hip tutorial!

This summer is all about feathers; earrings, necklaces and accessories galore are gilded with these natural trinkets. Celebrities flaunt these airy charms with such ease. This got me to thinking.... being crafty, I'm sure I could make some of my own designer-worthy adornments!

celebrities are feather fanatics!

I also didn't want to just buy a bunch of feathers from a craft store or off the internet. Not only is this not nature (or animal) friendly, it's just so un-original. So, I went on a hunt. If I was going to use an animal product, I was going to make sure it was done with consideration and compassion for the animal; no feather-plucking. It turns out I found two feathers in the grass of my front yard; and they were both perfect sizes for earring-making. 

Enough talking. Here is the 7-step tutorial for my version of celeb-worthy earrings, shown above. :) The trick to these earrings is to only wear them one ear. 

Step 1: Gather materials. You will need some black embroidery floss, a small feather (preferably a found object), one silver earring fishhook, one silver ribbon end, three African tribal beads, two silver crimp beads, and about 3" of small, 2mm chain (differing sizes are ok).

Step 2: Add the ribbon end to the tip of the feather. Fold one side in, snug against the feather tip. Then, bend the other side over, on top of the first side. Squeeze really tight to secure.

Step 3: Add a length of chain to the feather. You can make it as long as you want. I used about 2" of chain.  Then, get your embroidery floss. Thread one bead onto the end of about a 9" piece. Knot the thread (simple overhand) twice near one end, to make sure the bead stays. Then, measure how long you want the longest bead dangle to be. Just eyeball it. Pinch the floss. It should be about as long as the feather.

Step 4: Measure how long your dangle is. Remember that (mine was 3") and add a crimp to the floss. Loop the end that you threaded it through, and thread it through again. Make sure you leave a tiny loop on the outside of the crimp, and crimp shut. The dangle should still be your measured inch long, with a free piece of thread on the other side. 

 

Step 5: Add your other bead to the free end. Knot the thread twice, making this dangle a little shorter than your previous dangle. Cut near the knot to finish. You will have a double dangle!

Step 6: For the last dangle, cut about a 4" piece of thread. This should be the shortest dangle (think about 1"). Add your last bead to one end, and knot twice near the end. Add the last crimp to the other end, and loop as you did before, leaving a small loop out of the crimp. Crimp shut and cut. 

Step 7: Finishing. First, add your smallest dangle. Next, add the chained feather. Lastly, add your long double dangle. Finished! 

the finished earring. chic, yet natural. super-cool.

a second earring i made with another feather.

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