reuse, recycle

These are some crafts i made the other night. The bracelet you can make following these steps. The earrings were made with seashells I painted with fingernail polish (we’ll see how that works out) and then I hot glued them to an old pair of studs.

:)

DIY Shell Earrings

This is yet another one of those “hot-glue-this-to-this” projects, but we can’t complain: they’re practically fail proof!

All you need is your selected shells, earring backs, and a hot glue gun.

I used these shell beads (if you could drop by my ask and let me know their name I would be most appreciative) which I got off of some shoes a long long time ago. At first I attempted to use a pair of earrings i never wear anymore, but it basically just didn’t work, so I used some blanks.

All I had to do was hot glue the shells to the backs, and badda boom:

I love the creamy color; I feel like these will go with just about anything.

Faux Studded Bracelet

Basically you can follow the Honestly WTF directions here, but I used a thicker leather band from a thrifted purse and embroidery thread of the same color, so it looks as if it has studs! Instead of using a hex nut for the connector, I just left the ball chain clasp and the other end of the ball chain exposed. This gives it more of a seamless look. It does twist, not too sure why but I like it c:

Journal

I know a journal is kind of a “duh” DIY. I thought this was fun though, and I plan to keep at it.

This idea came about when I realized I had a bunch of paper junk (fortune cookies, neat pictures, movie ticket stubs, old notes, doodles, photo strips, cards, other paper memorabilia) that I had no idea what to do with. So I decided to compile all of that junk into a journal. It’s also helpful just to write things down, like nagging thoughts, song lyrics or quotes, songs that cheer me up, sweet/encouraging things people tell me, and the like. It has been a helpful motivator, although a journal might seem unlikely. And who doesnt want to declutter in an artsy way?

the front page has a poem i wrote from a magazine article, flowers punched from a card my sister made me, a quote someone wrote down for me 3 years ago that for whatever reason i have held on to, art from the cover of our local newspaper, a paint card, fortune cookies with notes about the fortunes they held

100 Ways to Transform a Tee Shirt: 12

For this, you will need a t shirt, scissors and a hot glue gun. I used this tank, just because I love the texture. I’m pretty sure it would work for a t, so I’m including it in the 100 ways :)

1. Cut your shirt in half, and then cut the top off, so you have 2 loops. If your shirt isnt fitted like mine, you might want to make one of your loops smaller by cutting it open, trimming some off, and tying it back into a loop.
2. When you cut the top off, make sure you leave enough to cut a strip from, about 10 inches by 1-2 inches. Put your loops together in your desired fashion.
3. Although the strip part is optional, I hot glued it down, wrapped it, and hot glued it again, to secure the two loops together.
4. Done!~

DIY Newspaper Box

I don’t have a how to, but i just made this cute heart box using a storebought box from like hobby lobby, the cover of a local newspaper, and some ribbon.

I kept the newspaper because of the adorable owl design, and finally it came to me how to use it! I simply put the lid on the paper, traced where I wanted it, but gave it lots of room for error, pleated the edges down, trimmed them, and hot glued it. the edge looked awful as you can imagine, so I was kind of worried, but then the thought occurred to me: ribbons make nice, clean edges. hot glued that puppy on, and now it’s where i store my hot glue gun & sticks.

:)