Coloring inside the lines

Right now at Kohl's you can buy these great graphic owl tees to color. They come with a set of 4 markers and are super fun for anyone!!

Normally I don't advertise a specific brand or product, but these are pretty cool. I spent a couple of hours this week coloring most of mine so that I could wear it to a birthday party for an-almost-teen-girl in my family. She is super easy to shop for since she loves owls. I actually bought myself the shirt first and then went back for another one for her.

I used the 4 colors that came with it and I also used the crayola fabric markers to give me some more color choices. If you end up trying this out, be sure to put a piece of cardboard between the two layers of the t-shirt when you are coloring it so the colors don't bleed through to the back. This would be super fun to get for a whole group of girls...a youth group or girl scout troop, they could all have matching shirts that would reflect their personality. They had additional styles besides the owl, it was just my favorite!

Happy birthday, kiddo!! Glad you like your shirt! I can't wait to see what you do with it!

DIY Sunday - It's all about ruffles.

Hello friends :)

It's Sunday and I am very happy to present another DIY for you:

I have tons of flats and most of them are... boring seems to be the right word. So I thought I should decorate a pair of my flats in a romantic way. With ruffles! (and how doesn't LOVE ruffles?)

So here we go:

You will need a shoe

and some fabric as well as a pair of scissors and your sewing machine, of course!

First, cut a strap off the fabric. It should be a long strap because we want to turn it into ruffles and this will make it more short. (mine is 1 m long)

Using a loose stitch, sew along the strap.

- twice!!!!

That's what it will look like then. :)

You will now have 4 straps of your thread. Take the 2 front straps and... PULL! :)

Like this.

With a little bit patience, you will have ruffles in the end.

Now, just sew them to your shoe.

And your shoe will be one of a kind!

Hope you enjoyed this cute tutorial?!

Loves,

Katja

Rainy days

It has been raining for 2 days here in the Netherlands. At some places there has fallen as much rain as usually in a month! Altough the rain can do a lot of damage, it's also very beautiful and inspiring! I made a little collection of pictures that i like and that makes me smile :) All pictures were found at weheartit! Next week i will do a DIY, where we are going to fold boats. So go and get that folding paper out of the cupboard or another place where you have stashed it :)

See ya next week!

XO. Vera

green crafting: recycled books

Last two weeks was my summer vacation. I tried a no Internet policy and spend my time crafting and reading. I succeeded in the crafting and reading part. The best that I can say is that I have no more book reader's block! That is a big thing. For a year I just could not put myself towards reading, not even a children's book! Which is very strange for me, because I am a big fan of reading. Anyways, I managed to finish one book and start another during my vacation. And I am loving it once again.
(Did you somewhere expect a but, well, here it comes:) But I did not quite succeed in the no Interet thing. The first week went by with just two or three times checking my e-mail, but the second week I was my old Internet-addict-self again. Sorry. But there are too many great blogs out there! And so much inspiration!
With my freshly lifted book readers block, I stumbled upon this great idea for the recycling of books: the living garden of knowledge in Métis, Quebec. It is made with 40000 books, in the middle of a forest.

This inspired me to search for more great things made with recycled books. I mostly found prints and paintings on old book pages, like this one from owlstudio on Etsy:

And this faery tale one on an old dictonary page by DreameryStudio on Etsy:

Garlands are always a great thing to make with recycled paper, like this lovely garland made from an old book by bibliocide on Etsy. (You should really check out this shop if you like the recycled book/paper theme!)

But what amazed me most during my search on Etsy where the sculpures, especially this one by Kenjio:

And the best recycling idea is this last one: vintage playing blocks combined with pictures from cowboys out of an old book. This makes a great toy! These 77 cowboy blocks are hand-recycled by ownbackyard on Etsy.


Happy crafting!
Love, Inkie

Are you inspired? Please show us your creations at our Flickr group.

Do you want more green crafting? Check out my posts about recycled sweater pillows, recycled maps and recycled paper crafts.

Back to School

I'm back to school this week and I made a fun little pencil cup for my classroom.

This would make a great teacher's gift.

I'm not going to make an official 'DIY' because I know I saw this idea somewhere....I've been looking all week for the official link to the site where I saw this idea but I can't remember where I saw it originally. (If you know the original source, please post a link in the comments, thanks in advance!)

The original idea I saw used ribbon cut to the a length to fit around a cleaned up tin can. I just used making tape...layed the colored pencils in a row on the table, on the tape, in rainbow order and then wrapped the whole chain of pencils on the tape around the cup and hot glued the pencils to the can, creating a fun little colorful storage holder for my desk supplies.

Another idea from PB Teen is a really cute accessory cup, its all white....it would be cool to use office/school supplies to make all sorts of accessories....and paint them white.  You could make a similar one or order one of theirs if you don't feel like making one yourself.

Hope you have a great week if you are back at school like I am!! I would love to see your classroom if you are a teacher, leave a link in the comments.

Sunday DIY - Headband.

Happy Sunday everyone!

It's DIY-day, so here's a new craft project for you:



For this cute hair accessory, you will need:



felt in 3 different colours, a hairband, scissors, sewing needle, thread, a button.



First, cut 3 circles in different sizes from every colour of felt you chose.



Put them on each other



and with the button in the middle, sew together.



Now, carve the layers of felt.



Like this!



And then, sew the felt piece to your hairband.

Guess what?! You're done! :D



Hope you are having a great crafty Sunday and maybe this tutorial inspired you to create some cute hair accessory?!

Loves,

Katja

PS: Do you have any wishes for DIYs in the future?! Let me/us know!!!!

DIY -restyle your empty bottles or jars-

Wowie i just saw that we've have 100 followers!! Maybe time for a little blog party soon?!

I have a lot of empty bottles from juices or jars that were filled with food. Usually we through them away in special glass containers, but before i through them away i always look if they can be used as a little vase. I keep the pretty shaped ones and although i like them just the way they are, it's also nice to give them some color from time to time! And this is how we are going to do this today...

DIY -restyle your empty bottles or jars-

Step 1 supplies

You will need:

-an empty bottle or jar

- some pretty papers

-buttons (medium or big)

- scrapbook flowers in different colors

-raffia, yarn, lace

-double sided tape

-siccors

Step 2

I used pretty Japanese paper that i usually

use for origami. See if your paper fits the

bottle. If not cut the piece off that you don't need.

Step 3

Use your doublesided tape and secure it

on the back of the paper, like this. Take

step 4

You can choose to do your bottle

half with paper or all round.

If you want to make it all round,

you can do that at once if your paper

is big enough or in 2 parts (like i did).

Make sure that they are at the same

height, by starting were you've

ended.

Step 5

Make a little flower just for decoration.

I used a piece of lace that i normally use for

making necklaces :) Pull it through the flower

and then the button. Confirm it on the bottle

were you like and make a knot.

Step 6

You're done!

If you want to use it as a vase,

be careful when you put water in it!!

It's still paper and it would be a pitty

if it got wet ;)

Did i inspire you enough to make one of your own?

XO. Vera

Nerd Alert: Video Game Themed Party

Hey everyone!! I would love to share some photos with you from a recent surprise birthday party.

The theme was: Video games....so we HAD to decorate the entire house with Super Mario images that we made, arts and crafts style.

I showed up the night before the party with a few images printed off the internet, some construction paper, sharpies and some tape and glue and everyone pitched in to make the night a success.

A work in progress!

Making some coins.....clink, clink, clink, clink, clink, clink, clink, clink!

A few boo diddlies. ;-)

Goombas.

Vines for the green walls in the bedroom.

Mario!

The night of the party, Brannon was truly surprised and everyone had fun with simple costumes. It was SUPER hot so simple was good. Here are a few of my friends that came dressed as 'Pong,' an old Atari game. Black t-shirts and white duct tape!

My favorite costume, Shaina with a packman suit!

I'm a SIM, with Shaina!!

Solid snake.....???? I think.....

And the birthday boy as Billy Bullet!

To make my SIMS 'costume', I glued two craft cones together (styrofoam would probably work better, it would be lighter) and painted it bright green. Then I stuck a coat hanger up in the cones and wrapped it around a plastic headband. I wrapped the wire in black electrical tape and then covered it in black ribbon so that it would look a little better. Also, I attached the ribbon with some fabric glue. Super easy and I could take it on and off pretty easily.

I also made some yummy Atari Joystick Controller brownies instead of a cake. You can see pictures and read more about them on my blog, click here!