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!

ASOS Bottlecap Ring DIY

From ASOS

Kitschy cute! This ASOS designer bottletop ring is super fun and really easy to make on your own. It's really as simple as painting an old, recycled bottle cap and gluing on a ring blank. Customize the colors and the face for your own unique look!  

Best of all, this only takes THREE STEPS!! Super-quick to make. Make them in all different colors and with different expressions!

DIY version

 Let's get started.

Step 1: Gather materials. Needed are acrylic paints (use white and black for the ASOS look), clear lacquer (or clear nail polish), a paintbrush, an old bottle cap, and a ring blank. You will also need hot glue and super glue.

Step 2: Use the white to paint your bottle cap, sides and all. You need a lot of coats, maybe like 8 or more. Make sure paint is completely dry before applying next coat. When you've got a solid white, draw on your cap with a pencil to outline the features. Then, paint them in with black acrylic. Let dry.

Step 3: Take your hot glue, and make a huge blob in the center of the bottle cap. Attach your ring blank. When the glue is dry, pull the blank away from the bottle cap, making sure the hot glue is still attached. This will make a "mold" of sorts for your ring blank to sit in, and make it fit nicer in the cap. Then, take superglue and smear over the glue glob and re-attach. This will give a nice, stronger hold with your glue. Let dry, then paint over the front with clear lacquer for shine. Let dry.

FINSIHED. Isn't that simple?!

I made a pirate and a girl with eyelashes too!

The trio

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!