D.I.Y. Fun Washi Pencils

Wow, how has the time slipped by? It's been awhile since I posted. The last few weeks have been what I called "Birthday weeks" so I have been busy, do a lot of nothing but eating cake. BUT, I am back! and this time with a super simple d.i.y. to make your office supplies stand out.

I should give you some background, I am a coordinator at work. This means, my office is sometimes seen as the hub of my team. This also means when they need any office supply, they come in to ask me to borrow it. Sometimes I see it back, sometimes not. So, once I started to noticed my pens disappearing, I bought those obnoxious colored duct tape flower pens. So far, they have stayed in my office. I am going to try something similar with pencils.

Okay, you ready for this super hard D.I.Y? What do you need:

•  A pair of scissors
• pencils
• Washi tape 

First things first, grab your tape and put the tape snug against the metal part.

Roll tape out, until it gets the end of the pencil and cut with scissors as close to the end of the pencil as possible.

Carefully push the strip of tape down, so it covers the pencil. My tape didn't fit all the way around, it only took up about half of the pencil diameter, so I need a second strip. Be careful while pushing down to get out any folds, bumps, etc.

Repeated on the second strip.

Make sure there aren't any bumps, folds or awkward line up for the two pieces of tape.

There you have it:

Fun new pencils that hopefully no one will steal :) enjoy!!!!

D.I.Y. Upcycle T-shirt Scarf in under 10 minutes

That's right, I said it. A t-shirt scarf in under 10 minutes. Even the crafting challenged can do this easy project. I made a few for my mom and aunts last Christmas, and they all really liked them. Ignore the bad photos to go along with this post though, we are still getting our house into livable shape AND photographing your own project is a skill I need to work on.

Materials: This is easy!

• good scissors
• a t-shirt. I would recommend the larger the better, this was an X-L I thrifted and washed. I also recommend one without a logo/printed on, that stiffness that usually comes with design/logos make ones of the steps really hard.

So now what do I do? 

Lay the shirt flat, cut the hem off at the bottom and set aside. This project is so easy, you don't even need straight cuts.

Start on the left side of the shirt and cut horizontal strips about 1 inch thick. Again, they do not have to be terribly even. Cut until you reach a pocket/design/or sleeves and discard top half.

It should look like this when you are done. 

Take each strip and pull on them gently. These will make them longer and roll them so make them fit better in your scarf. Make sure to do this to every strip, and pull until it is the length you want. 

Remember that hem from the beginning? Yeah, bring that back and cut it on one side to make one large strip. Bunch all the stretched strips together and at the back tie the hem around the bundle. Just make a simple tie, with a long enough ending that sticks out to end the scarf. Then start wrapping the hem around the bundle. I usually do about 5 wraps.

Then tie the lose end of the hem to the original knot end of the hem sticking up. Cut off excess and tuck strips under the wrap. 

 

 

This is the finish product folded in two. 

Here is it is on me, after a long day, hence the hair. 

Anyway, this project is really simple. The hardest part is the hem wrapping, which once you get it is a breeze. Enjoy making these bad boys for the upcoming cold weather (let's hope! 80 degrees in October is just wrong!)

Back with some burlap

I apologize for the lack of posts from me over the last two weeks, however I have been pretty busy. This happened:

I will post more with the bits and pieces later, and about our awesome honeymoon in Disneyworld, that was so much fun I never wanted to leave and tried to convince Keith and my best friend to become costumed characters down there with me so we could stay there forever.

Anyway, when I got married, I wanted to add some Jenn details (as seen in my last wedding post). So Keith and I found some awesome cobalt blue burlap at Hobby Lobby. One of our colors was that exact blue! So I bought 10 yards of it, with a gift card I received, and we decided to wait to figure out what to do with it. (Note, this is NOT the best course of action, however it was our only real impulse buy for the wedding) We decided to use the burlap under our vases and table numbers at the reception. Then came the problem of how to cut it with the least amount of frayed ends.

So here is a tutorial on how to cut burlap that worked for us: 

 Get your burlap and a nice, sharp pair of scissors. My mom used to be a seamstress, these are her babies. Usually, use a cutting board, however I was too busy watching tv while doing this, so I did it on the floor.

 First step, find a string at the measure you want it. Mine were about 16 inches wide. Pull on that single string with even force, but nothing too hard or you will break the string in half.

Keep going, you might need to use your other hand to guide the string out. But at the end, you want a void, where the string was and that needs to go all the way through. Do you see the void where I removed the string? It should look like that.

 Then cut the burlap in the void where the string is no longer. MAKE SURE you only cut in that line or you will get more fray then you want.

There you have it a clean cut. It wasn't hard, just time consuming when you have to do 19.

And here is the finished product! I think they turned out pretty darn nice. :)

Okay, so I hope this tutorial helps with your burlap needs.