When my old friend told me her daughter decided she wanted a mermaid themed birthday party I.WAS.THRILLED!!!! Mermaids are one of my all-time favorite things, and I have a giant pin-up mermaid tat on my right side that may as well be a self-portrait, so needless to say I was super stoked that she reached out to me to help put some fun things together for her little girl's big day! I was told her favorite colors are bright pink, purple, and blue - so basically this little girl is my spirit animal because those colors are my jam along with mermaid as crafting so I was so happy to be involved in her special day! It was basically like being asked to make my inner child's dreams come true, and it doesn't really get better than that!

First order of business was a mermaid crown - obviously. 

For this craft, you will need:
- Headband/Headpiece
- Seashells (various)
- Paint
- Glitter
- Hot Glue/Super Glue

1. Make the Base of the Crown
As far as the support/base of the crown went, I had two legit options just lying around the house (because as a crafter you pick up a ton of fun things to play with), so I had a headband with teeth which is great because it will stay on her head while running around, but I needed to find a way to build the shells "up" like a crown, which is the shape that the long-toothed plastic crown head-piece offered. So basically I needed to find a way to combine the two to get the share that I wanted.

In the end, I was able to remove the long teeth from the crown head-piece and attach it to the top of the headband using hot-glue. which worked perfectly. ​

2. Establish the Design for Your Crown
Now that I had my shape set and ready to go, I went through my shell collection and made a design that worked with the shape of the crown I had made. I wanted to use a variety of shell sizes and types to make it layered and amazing, and in the end I was able to play around and find something that I liked.

PSA -Please ignore all the pieces of paper on the floor in the background, I was making paper flowers earlier and didn't vaccuum until all crafting for the day was done... #notsorry

3. Paint/Decorate Shells
Using her favorite colors and gold to make them pop, I painted each shell the desired color. When they were dry, I used glitter paint (sometimes also mixed with normal glitter for an extra shine) as a second coat to make sure the crown sparkled and shined like a real princess crown rightfully should.

4. Glue Shells into Place on the Crown
I used hot-glue because I love it and tend to have good luck with it and placement is important to me on this project so I like that it dried quickly. I know not everyone is a fan of hot glue, but you can use any type of glue you like, E600, etc., just make sure it's strong enough to keep everything together.

5. Final Touches
As you can imagine, the back of this piece was not cute, and as it sticks straight up when you put it on, the not-cute parts were totally visible, so I cut up some felt and used it as a backing on the crown to hide the ugliness. 

I can not tell you how happy I am with how this piece came out, and I can't wait to see how the birthday girl reacts when she sees this fabulousness! 

Some days, I just need to create something, but I need to do it quickly because I'm busy and have a million things to do. Now, I have come to realize that I feel better in general when I make time to be creative so it's important to me to prioritize creativeness in my self-care regimen, so I tend to have a few ideas spinning in my head at any given time that would be both time effective for my current/given schedule, but would also help me clear my head and use the left side of my brain.

As a lover of the stage and someone who has made several appearances on them, I have always been drawn to the comedy/tragedy mask image that has come to be synonymous with theater, and have used this image in the past when creating things for mutual drama loving friends, and I figured it was time I made something similar for myself, but as I often come back to this theme, I wanted something I could recreate often and quickly. This way, 1) I can sell the finished product on my Etsy store, and more than 1 for a greater profit, and 2) I can recreate this image quickly and easily on pretty much anything I wanted as it is a theme I seem to come back to often.

For This Craft, You Will Need:
-Printed Image or (idea of image to create)
-Tracing Paper
-Pencil
-Erasure
-Tape (scotch tape or painters tape)
-Quality Paper
-Colored Pencils (as desired)
​- Pens (as desired)

1. Find Desired Image, and Create a Reusable Stencil From it Using Tracing Paper
You can google search for images that you like, or you can draw a design yourself, either way it doesn't really matter. Once you have decided on your image/design, trace/draw the image on a piece of tracing paper, making the lines thick with 'lead' from your pencil so the lines are easily transferred later. Once that has been completed, turn the tracing paper over and outline the design in pencil on the opposite side as well - this way you can use your design in any direction you wish.

For this project, I drew inspiration from an image I found on google, and traced parts of it while tweaking it a bit for my final design (see below).

​2. Transfer Your Image on Your Desired Surface
I simply wanted to make a print, so I found a piece of quality paper that I liked, and transferred the image from the tracing paper to the good paper by taping the tracing paper on top of my good paper, and following the lines of the image with your pencil while pressing firmly so that the 'lead' on the other side of the tracing paper is transferred onto your desired surface. Be sure not too hard or you will rip through the tracing paper.

Once you're done outlining the image, peek below the tracing paper while it is still taped down to ensure you didn't miss any lines while tracing your design, this is also a good time to go over any areas again to darken them as necessary. Once you are satisfied with the transferred image, carefully remove the taped tracing paper stencil and set it aside for later use.

​3. Darken Lines & Begin Shading
Ensure your lines are dark enough to work from, and begin to highlight and shade your work as desired.

​4. Add Color
Color/fill-in your image/design and desired.

​5. Add Outline & Details
For this image I wanted something that felt slightly faded but still left an impression, so I decided to outline my design with a nice dark pen to give it a bit more pizzaz- small final touches really make all the difference!

Sometimes I think, why buy something when I can just make it? Get your craft on! And while some things turn out better than others (let's be real), at least the experience is super fun :)

For this craft I decided I wanted to experiment with salt dough and try to figure out some of the different things I could do with it- and one day I made a BUNCH of different fun things, but one thing that I was particularly proud of was the leaf bowl that I made, so I thought I'd share the experience with you all :)

For this craft you will need:
-Salt (at least 1 cup)
-Flower (at least 1 cup)
-Water (at least 1/2 cup)
-Large Mixing Bowl
-Small Salad Bowl (use a ceramic bowl or something that can be baked in an oven for this- but do not use metal)
-Rolling Pin (a wine bottle or similar is a good alternative if you don't have one)
-Knife (a butter knife is fine)
-Assorted Paints
-Assorted Paint Brushes (small)

1. Make Salt Dough
The traditional recipe for salt dough is 1 cup flour + 1 cup salt + 1/2 water- stir together (add a splash more water as/if needed) and stir together in a big bowl until the consistency is nice and dough-like.

Roll out dough using rolling pin (or wine bottle/reasonable alternative) until it's your desired thickness, I did about a 1/8" thick for mine.

You may also want to pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees F at this point so it's ready to go when you're done.

2. Create Leaf Bowl Shape
Take a small salad bowl and lay your dough over it, then gently pat it down to form against the inside of the bowl, this is a very similar process to placing the crust dough on a pie. Once your dough is in place, take a knife (a butter knife works fine, but a meat/steak knife also works great- please note that a knife with a serated edge will not cut as cleanly through the dough, a flat edged blade works much better) and cut off the extra dough from around the top of the bowl.

Now that you have your basic "bowl mold" ready, embed/mark your leaf pattern into your dough (you can lightly use your knife or you can use a pencil if that's easier for you). I find that oak leaves are pretty easy to replicate because it's basically just wavy lines, so I simply free-styled my leaf shape and cut off the excess dough, leaving me with my basic leaf-bowl shape.

Below are some images that may be helpful to you to follow to create your own pattern:

5. Paint Your Bowl
The colors you choose to paint with are completely up to you. They could depend on season you want your leaf to be in, or if you want to use realistic colors/patterns, etc., so have your idea in mind and gather the paints and paint brushes you'll need to complete your bowl.

I wanted my leaf to be reminicient of the begining of Fall, and I wanted it to look pretty realistic, so I painted my bowl accordingly. I also wanted it to look fairly "natural" so I did not put on a protective layer, which would have made it a bit shiny. Regardless of whether you wanted to put on a protective coat layer or not, I would definately recommend doing two coates of paint for this project as the bowl will absorb a little bit of the paint as it dries.

6. Enjoy!
Yay! Now you have a custom bowl!  How cool is that?

Like most girly-girls, I'm a total magpie; I love everything that sparkles and must have it! Remember a few years ago when those rhinestone glasses were all the rage? Well, in true magpie fashion I loved them and needed them for myself! Now, at the time my budget didn't exactly agree with me because those glasses were thousands of dollars, so sometimes a girl has to get creative- and crafty.

I don't know about you, but I have a couple of cheap sunglasses lying around that I've somehow accumulated over the years, and I had a "futuristic" styled shoot scheduled a while back so I decided it was time to finally get my sparkly glasses even if it meant I had to get creative and make my own fabulous Gaga/Dita inspired rhinestone glasses of fabulousness (yes, that is the official name).

For this craft you will need:
-Sunglasses/Glasses
-Rhinestones/Gems (according to taste)
-Scotch Tape (or double sided tape) (optional)
-Hot Glue/E6000 Glue (For this craft, you can use any kind of glue, really. I prefer hot glue because it dries instantly and you don't have to worry about the rhinestones slipping or falling out of place as they dry, though they can leave 'strings' behind, which is a downer, so you do have some 'clean up' to do on your work afterwards, even if you are both experienced and careful. If you aren't experienced with working with hot glue or don't want to worry about the 'string' issue, you can use any liquid adhesive, such as E6000.)
-Tweezers (optional)
-Razor Blade/Exacto Knife (optional)
​-Acetone (optional)

1. First I gathered my inspirational images 
I mean, how can you not drool over these... they are just so FABULOUS! I knew I wanted to make something that was both light and dark as well as SUPER SPARKLY, so I found some good images to give me an idea of what my final product would look like, grabbed my giant bag of rhinestones and my spare sunglasses and went to work!

​2. Seperate out your preferred rhinestones/gems
For me, since I was using a strict black/white pattern, I simply grabbed a pile of white rhinestones in several sizes, and a pile of black rhinestones in several sizes.

3. Draft your Design on the Glasses
Cover glasses in tape and "draft" the look of your glasses (I didn't have double-sided tape so I rolled regular scotch-tape) to determine spacing and amount of rhinestones needed for your desired design. I used several sizes of rhinestones when I was placing them together to ensure there was as little empty space between the gems for a more interesting look that would ensure more facets for maximum sparkle potential (because go big or go home, right?). I even set aside some smaller ones to layer over some of the areas where there was a smaller "gap" to ensure the surface was as covered as possible with gems.

I love everything that sparkles- in that respect I'm a typical girly girl. Glitter and rhinestones- they make everything more fun, and since I had some extra sunglasses and rhinestones lying around, I decided to add some 'flare' to some sunglasses. 

For this craft, you will need:
-sunglasses
-rhinestones/gems (according to taste)
-scotch tape (or double sided tape)
-hot glue/E6000 glue (For this craft, you can use any kind of glue, really. I prefer hot glue because it dries instantly and you don't have to worry about the rhinestones slipping or falling out of place as they dry, though they can leave 'strings' behind so you do have some 'clean up' to do on your work afterwards, even if you are careful. If you aren't experienced with working with hot glue or don't want to worry about the 'string' issue, you can use any liquid adhesive, such as E6000.)
-tweezers (optional)
-razor blade/exacto knife (optional)
​-acetone (optional)

1. Pick your theme/rhinestones and/or gems
First you have to decide what kind of sunglasses you want to make. Do you want them to be all one color? A specific theme? Did you want to work within a specific color spectrum? Did you want them to be rainbow colored? Dark? Light? Before you can do anything you have to first decide what you want to create then dig through the rhinestones for what you want. I suggest spreading out your rhinestones/gems near the sunglasses you're embellishing to get a better idea of the colors/shapes/sizes that are available to you and how their size/shape/color correlates to what you're working on so it's easier to create your design.

Tip: If you want your sunglasses to be symmetrical, remember to only use matching rhinestones! When picking out your rhinestones be sure to  find 2 of each gem to ensure you have 1 for the right lens and 1 for the left lens. (Obviously, if you want your sunglasses to be asymmetrical or are following a specific pattern or design this doesn't matter.)

I wanted to make two different types of glasses, one with just rainbow colors and one that was mostly "white" sparkles with colored gems amongst them, so I put out my sunglasses and picked out what I wanted to use and arranged them to look a bit like how I wanted them to appear on the sunglasses themselves to ensure 1) I would have enough to complete the design I wanted once I started, and 2) to ensure I liked the aesthetic I was creating.

2.Draft your design 
Cover the are of the glasses where you want to add rhinestones with rolled-up pieces of tape to create a sticky non-permanent surface where you can "draft" the rhinestone design of your choice on your glasses. (You may also use double-sided tape, but I find rolled scotch-tape easier to remove than double-sided tape so that's what I used). This is helpful as it helps you to determine the spacing and the amount of rhinestones needed for your desired design.

For both of my glasses I used several sizes of stones for a more interesting look with more facets for maximum sparkle potential (because go big or go home, right?).

3. Prep surface
Remove the rhinestones from the tape and set them aside- but be sure to keep the design you will be making on the glasses in-tact so you can add them easily to your glasses. I suggest removing them from one corner to the other, setting your gems in the order they are removed so you can put them on again easily in the same pattern.

Clean the glasses you're about to decorate using glasses wipes or windex, but ensure they are dry before starting to decorate.

4. Decorate!
Use your desired glue to cover the glasses with your rhinestones or gems by putting a small dab of glue on the back of each rhinestone (too much and it overflows leaving you with a mess to clean up and possibly messing up your pattern, too little and your rhinestones fall off- you get an idea of a good balance after adding 1 or 2 gems and you see how the glue spreads on the surface of the glasses and they're added)  and then add each rhinestone individually and carefully to ensure 1) you maintain the integrity of the design you're creating, 2) the glue doesn't dry before the rhinestones are added, and 3) to keep the 'excess' glue and/or 'glue strings' down to a minimum for a cleaner more professional look to the project.

Tip: If you have shaky hands or big/clumsy fingers, it may be helpful to use tweezers when placing your stone on your glasses.

After the first layer of rhinestones was complete, I added in an additional layer of rhinestones on top of the first layer on one pair of sunglasses to 1) hide some of the more 'unattractive' spaces between stones and jagged edges that I wanted to hide, and 2) add more sparkle!

4. Fine-tune
If you have excess glue or glue strings hanging from your glasses when it's finished you can remove them in a few ways:
1) You can carefully use a razor blade or exacto knife to carefully cut off some of the excess glue (without cutting into or damaging the glasses and/or gemstones).
2) You can use acetone to remove extra strings or light traces or glue (or printed text you want to remove from the sunglasses as well)

Also, to make the glasses have a more polished look, on the rainbow glasses I used black puff paint as a sort of grout around the rhinestones that were on the outside of the glasses ONLY, I left the rhinestones on the lens side alone to allow more light/visibility in these glasses. I left the lighter glasses alone and did not add rhinestones to the sides of the glasses or add grout so I had two completely different styles to work with.

6. Decorate your broach 
Now it's time to decorate! I decided my broach needed a lot of flair, so I got out some assorted beads and used E6000 glue to attach the beads to the felt in the patters that I desired on the leaves and at the centers of the flowers. You may decorate your broach with anything from beads, sequins, stickers, feathers- anything! The sky's the limit! Once the E6000 glue base under the beads dried, I covered the beads in a layer of Mod Podge to help them stick (because is there anything more annoying than beads falling off your fashion?), and voila! I was all done! I attached it my sweater and went to the grocery store!