DIY Locker Magnets

Hello Everyone!

Recently I told my son some bad news, I told him that school is starting soon…haha.  He is not too excited, but when I was his age I was excited for back to school. Not necessary for school to start, but mostly for the school supplies. I do love school supplies. I still do, I am always buying pencils, pens, notebooks, and other supplies. You can never have too many pens, haha.

Anyway, with back to school nearly here there are lockers that will need to be decorated. So when my sister and her family were visiting last week  my niece and I decided to make some locker magnets because she going into middle school in the fall and she will have a locker for the first time! Her locker will be all kinds of awesomeness! .

Together we made magnets for her locker using stickers and flowers! This is an easy craft that kids can do to personalize their space.

Materials:

~Stickers and flowers

~Powder (I used foot powder, but baby powder would work)

~magnets

~Glue

 

Instructions

First take the sticker you want to use and put powder on the back. (I have a ton of stickers that I have collected through out the years, I seem to always pick up stickers when ever I am at the store. I just love stickers) Using powder is the trick to keeping the sticker from sticking to everything. I used foot powder because this is all I had, but baby powder works too. The powder sticks to the sticky part then you can put a magnet on.

 

We glued the magnet on (the magnets are sticky on the back, but I didn’t trust it so we glued it on) We used a magnetic sheet that we cut into smaller pieces.

We made a ton of sticker magnets and then we put magnets on some flowers I had. These all turned out super cute!

Also, I had these super cute Wall stickers that I got from the dollar store that look like frames. These are so cute so we made one of the stickers into a magnet frame. This will be perfect for her to show off her friends in her locker.

Here are the finished magnets. Isn’t she a cutie! I can’t believe that she is old enough to go to middle school. Time flies so fast!

 

Bonus Craft!

While she was in town we decided to make a magnetic board. We just took a dollar store frame and put a magnetic sheet in the frame. Then she decorated it will rhinestone (she is a girl after my own heart, you can never have too many rhinestones!)

 

I think it turned out awesome. (sorry the photo is backlit, but you can still see how cute she is.) It was so much fun to have a crafting buddy, I can’t wait until she comes back to town so we can do more projects together!

A Rhinestone Cast! Guest Blog by Kathy Sigda

Kathy is my good friend and over Thanksgiving she fractured her arm Not a good way to start the holidays, but she found a way to make her cast fabulous!

 

        

Here we are at Disneyland this summer! Best trip ever, and if you look in the background you can see the awesome face my son is making.  

 

Here is how she went about blinging out her cast

 

A plain cast on my left arm just was not working for me, it was really cramping my style, even though I got to pick out the color and it was purple. Why the cast? Well, here’s the real story, although people keep telling me to just say that I was fighting off a bunch of ninjas. I was shoveling our driveway the day after Thanksgiving, in preparation to move the car so I could get to the attic to bring down the Christmas decorations. There was only about an inch of snow, but it was a little slick so I went inside to put my boots on so that I wouldn’t slip! Well that didn’t work out very well, I slid on the ice, caught myself with my left arm, and broke my wrist! A trip to the ER instead of a trip to the attic, and the Christmas decorations would have to wait another week.

Staring at my purple cast, I thought to myself, “This cast is pretty ugly. How can I make it better? What Would Linda Do?” (Linda being a dear friend of mine and the owner of this blog). Then a mutual friend of Linda’s and mine suggested rhinestones! What a great idea!

Here is a picture of the purple cast, plain and boring.

Although Linda has a lifetime supply of rhinestones, I don’t have quite that many. I decided to go shopping! Found a nice set of designs at Hobby Lobby (in the scrapbook aisle), and it was on sale! Jackpot! I paid $3.50 for this.

It was a simple process to peel and stick one of the rhinestone designs onto the cast. It adhered quite nicely to the cast material. I’m sure my friend Linda would take the time to glue each rhinestone on with E-6000 glue, but I decided to try this and see if it will stay. If not, there are still three more designs in the pack!

      

 

 

I am a little concerned about what will happen while I sleep, so I thought I would cover it up with some Glad Press-n-Seal. I have learned this stuff is amazing for cast care, you can cover the cast with it and take a shower! It sticks to just about everything, I am hoping it will not stick to the rhinestones but will just protect them and then will peel off easily in the morning. We’ll see.

 

The blinged-out cast, covered with a layer of press-n-seal

Update: The next morning, it still looks great!

 

 

I am so glad that it worked and that Kathy has her bling on as she is healing. BTW love the giraffe cell phone case! Get better soon!

DIY Cinderella draw string bag

Last weekend while I was at the dollar store I saw these magic towels. I had seen them before and I thought they looked neat, but I don’t like using them as actual towels. They are thin and scratchy so I have never purchased them. When I saw them this weekend my crafty, creative juices started flowing. So I bought a few or 15. Whatever. I am sure I will find uses for them.

Here are some of the awesome magic towels I picked up. So many choices! I can’t wait to get my crafting on!

For this project I thought I would decorate a plain drawstring bag. I have to say that everything is better with sparkles and Cinderella!

My son is so patient and tolerant modeling my new bag. He didn’t even protest when I asked him to model my bag. He makes my heart sing

This is pretty easy to do and you can use any magic towel to customize it to  you heart’s content.

Materials:

~ magic towel (prewashed and ironed. You want to make sure it is flat and ready to use)

~ Wonder under or any iron on fusible web. ( I just used what I had on hand)

~ Fabric Paint

~ Scissors

~ rhinestones

~ Rhinestone glue. ( I used Aleene’s Jewel it)

 

Instructions:

1. Wash and dry and iron your magic towel. That gets it ready for its transformation.

2. Iron your drawstring bag. I got my bag at JoAnns, but I am sure you can find them just about anywhere.

3. Iron your fusible web on to the back of the towel.

4. Carefully cut out Cinderella.

5. Peel the backing off. You can see the Cinderella wording and shoe, but I decided not to use them.

6. Iron Cinderella to the bag.

7. When Cinderella is cool start going around the edge with fabric paint. I found that I had to make a thicker line than I usually do because of how thick the towel is. I wanted to make sure the towel won’t unravel and that Cinderella stayed in place.

     

 

Once that was done I had Cole try on the bag and I decided that it didn’t have enough sparkle. I am sure you surprised that I didn’t think it had enough sparkles, right?

8. I had these packets of rhinestones that I found at the dollar store that I thought would work perfectly. They are connected together in strips, which worked perfectly.

9. I laid the strips out in a pattern that I liked

10. Once I got it how I liked I glued the rhinestones down. This is to make sure the rhinestones stay on the bag.

11. let dry over night and then you are ready to rock an awesome Cinderella bag. Doesn’t Cole look great rocking the bag? He is a great sport.

 

Most Popular Pin From Blog and and easy DIY for your calculator

 

Most Popular Pin

You get a two for one today!

I wanted to share with you on Throw Back Thursday one my most popular pins on Pinterest from my blog. I love seeing what is popular. But this is a fun one that I still love.

Drumroll please……

 

 

The most popular pin is the

No Soliciting sign!

   

Just a simple print out framed in a cute frame I got from Hobby Lobby and that is it.

It always amuses me when the pizza guy wants to take a picture of the sign. It usually works and it has held up well over the years. Keep on pinning, I love to see what you guys pin. If you want to follow me or any of my boards on Pinterest you can follow me at https://www.pinterest.com/linsam/

Now I can’t just leave you with that throw back, I need to show you a DIY as well

 

DIY Rhinestone Calculator

I was wandering around Hobby Lobby the other day and I saw a very cute pink rhinestone calculator. I loved it, but I thought to myself that “Hey! you have a calculator and rhinestones, why don’t you make it yourself instead of buying a new one?” So that is what I did.

It was easy to do and the side benefit is that no one takes it off my desk anymore and if they do take it, it is easy to find and for me to take it back.

Materials:

~ calculator (mine was an old one that I have had forever. ) Since my calculator is tan I went with tan colored rhinestones that I had at my house. I wanted this to be a cheap DIY with materials that I had on hand. Maybe not as cute as the pink one I saw, but cute anyway.

~ Rhinestones (I got my package from the dollar store.)

~ E-6000 (of course, I think I am a little obsessed with this glue….)

~ Something to clean the calculator

~ sandpaper or something to rough up the surface.

Instructions:

This is a very straight forward project.  Just sand, clean, and glue. So here we go:

1. I sanded my calculator because I thought it would be easier with a sight rougher surface. Just a light sanding will do.

2. Clean. I used a wipe and cleaned every crook and nanny, I don’t think my calculator had been this clean since I bought it.

3. Start gluing. I used these awesome syringes that I bought from Amazon (here is the link) You don’t to use the syringe, but I find it makes it easier and more precise to apply the glue. This is especially important when you are trying to glue tiny rhinestones.

I know you can still see the blue Texas Instruments logo and model number, but that is ok for me, it really doesn’t bother me. But if it bothers you then I would use smaller rhinestones and try and fill it in more. Or you could paint over the blue part to match the rest of the calculator before you added the rhinestones, then it wouldn’t be as noticeable. Lots of options for what ever look you are going for.

  

 

4. Let dry before using.

That is it. I am well on my way to blinging up my entire desk. I wonder what should be next on my list. Suggestions?

   

What office supplies have you enhanced?

DIY Mickey Messenger Bag

When we went to Disneyland I decided that I “needed”  a new bag to hold my wallet and essentials. I didn’t want it too big, just big enough to carry what I needed for the day. Of course I decided that I needed this bag the day before we left. And of course I wanted to use a product that I have never used before. Nothing can go wrong with this scenario, right?? wrong! All kinds of things happened and and few tries later I ended up with a new bag. It only took me 3 times as long, but it did get done  

 

I will give you the instructions on how you should do it  and I will even tell you what not to do, haha!

Materials:

~ messenger bag

~ stencil of what you want to create

~ Graphite paper

~ rhinestones

~ fabric paint

~ E-6000 glue

~ Silver Sharpie

 

Instructions:

1. Pick out the messenger bag you want to decorate. I found this black on at Hobby Lobby, and I used a coupon so it wasn’t too expensive. Much cheaper than anything I would find at Disney in their stores . It worked very well, except with all the decoration the flap was a little heavy and when I snapped it the flap would fold weird. So I just never snapped the flap and let it hang, and that worked out just fine.

 

    

2. Print out what you what to put on your bag, I found a Mickey head silhouette and the quote. I downloaded a free Disney font and typed the quote in a word processing program and printed it at home. (here is the first problem I had. Instead of the stencil I cut out the Mickey shaped with  glitter iron on transfer paper. then I tried to iron it onto the bag.  It didn’t iron on well and was pealing up. I decided to try again, so I picked off the first one and made a new Mickey head and ironed it on again. Once again it did not work. So I picked off what I could and went on to plan B.  I am going to have to figure out what I did wrong. Do you guys have any thought or suggestions?)

3. Place your stencil and quote on the bag.

 

4. Cut out some graphite, big enough to put under the quote. Trace the quote onto the bag and the graphite paper will transfer the quote onto the bag. The graphite paper I had was hard to read, but manageable

    

5. Trace the words with a silver Sharpie. I traced it about 3 times. A fabric marker would work as well.

6. I used Stickles in 2 colors to fill in the stencil. This is another example of a project not working as well as I thought. Stickles are not really good for fabric. We all know this, but if you remember I was doing this the night before we left so I had to use what I had on hand and that was Stickles. I put 2 coats of Stickles on then put a coat of E-6000 glue over the top to seal it in. It worked ok and held up for the week, but I think it would have been better with fabric paint.

7. Once your Mickey is on and your quote is good to go then add Rhinestones all over. Originally I planned on the bag with no rhinestones, but it was a little too plain for my tastes and I added the sparkle.

 

That is it. It held up all week with only a few rhinestones falling off, but that is not bad considering all the problems I had along the way.

What ideas do you have for a bag?

What problems have you had with your crafting projects and how did you fix them?

Turn a plain cadet hat into something that will turn heads

As you all know by now I can’t leave well enough alone. I had these two cadet hats that were fine plain, but not I knew that I could make them better with just a few items.

    

 

Materials:

~ Hat, almost any hat will do

~ Bling, whatever you want to decorate your hat with

~ E-6000 glue

~ scissors

 

Instructions:

Black Hat:

1. Plan out your design. This is important so you can make sure you have room for your wonderful design

~ The black hat I used pieces from Hobby Lobby. The big flower is a Fashion Tid Bit and the swirls are from the scrapbook section. I forgot to take pictures while I was working so I went back to Hobby Lobby and took pictures after the fact. That is why you can still see the price tag in the picture.

~ I just cut the swirls out and shaped them to get the look I was going for. I didn’t use the whole package, which is good because that means there is more for me use on a different project!

2. Glue the design down with E-6000. Even though the swirls have adhesive on them I sill glued them so they would stick really good.

3. Wait 24 hours before wearing to make sure the glue is nice and dry.

 

Tan hat:

1. Plan the design

2. Glue the row of rhinestones on near the brim of the hat. I had to cut one of the rhinestone rows to make sure it fit.

3. Glue the patch on the center of the hat.

 

4. Wait 24 hours before wearing to make sure the glue is nice and dry.

 

Here I am wearing the black hat before I went to Disneyland for the day (so please excuse the lighting ). It held up great, the glue held perfectly and nothing has fallen off yet!

 

And here I am wearing it at the Hoover Dam with my son.

It is always a lot more fun to wear things you make, do you think? What are your ideas for a new hat?

 

Turn an ugly statement necklace into a new beautiful pendant

What do you do when you see such an unfortunate necklace on deep clearance at Walmart? Well, you buy 2 of them and take it home with the hopes that you can find something  to do with them when you get home.

So that is exactly what I did.

Now, you make like this necklace as is and I apologize if I hurt your feeling by saying it is ugly. But it is rather ugly. All of the colors are different and they are all on this weird vinyl that will surely turn yellow with age.

 

This project is so easy it was well worth the embarrassment of buying such and ugly necklace.

Materials:

~ Necklace

~ Glue (I used E6000)

~ Jump rings

~ needle nose pliers

~ Chain

 

Instructions:

This is easy as 1, 2, 3

1. Cut the jewel off that you want to turn into a pendant. I cut the vinyl around the pendant, but I left it in the middle. This was just incase I needed more area to glue on the jump ring.

2. Glue the jump ring on the back with E6000. Let it dry over night before you add the other jump ring.

3. Once dry add the other jump ring (open it with the pliers) and chain.

 

 

That is it. Then rock your new pendant that is now beautiful instead of gaudy.

I just have 4 more clusters that I can make into something fabulous. Any suggestions?

Fair warning, I did purchase a bunch of these statement necklaces that are all different shapes and sizes, so you will be seeing them a lot as I get busy transforming them.  

 

 

 

DIY Rhinestone Mickey Shirt

If you follow my instagram you know all about my trip to Disneyland. It was beyond awesome! We had a wonderful time.

As you probably guessed, I will be showing you all the things I made for the trip. I have almost as much fun crafting for my Disney trips as I do at Disney!

This time I made a Mickey with flower rhinestones. I used the same technique that I made this other Disney shirt.

 

The process is the same, just a different design. I have washed these shirts when I got back in cold water and line dried. Everything stayed on! Whoo Hoo! I don’t know how many washings it will take, but for now it is ok.

Materials;

~ t-shirt (I found mine at Hobby Lobby), pre wash

~ Rhinestones (I found the flower ones at the dollar store about a year ago, but just about anything will work)

~ Mickey stencil (I just googled online for one that I liked)

~ tape to hold the stencil in place

~ E-6000 glue

~ Cardboard

 

Instructions:

1. Put cardboard under your shirt where you are going to glue

 

2. Place the stencil where you want it and tape it down

3. Start laying our your design. I used the flowers and added other rhinestones to fill in the blank spaces. This is where your creativity can really take off.

4. Once you have your design in place, start gluing.

5. Once everything is glued on let it dry overnight and there you have it, a new shirt to where to Disney, or wherever you want to show your Disney pride! Or this technique can work with any stencil. What ideas do you have for a rhinestone shirt?

Disneyland Bling T-shirt DIY

Ok I am going to be honest with you, I did not come up with this idea on my own. I follow the blog InspiredbyDis.com and I love everything she posts, including instructions on how to do this t-shirt! I saw her post on how to do a Disneyland “D” t-shirt for the Disneyland 60th anniversary, and I just knew I had to do one as well.  So my friend came over and we worked on our shirts together, awesome way to spend the afternoon.

I followed Mindy’s instructions and it worked perfectly!

Materials:

1. Pre washed t-shirt

2. stencil from her blog (link to blog here)

3. rhinestones (I found mine at Hobby Lobby, and to be honest the little crowns on the collar are actually confetti found at the dollar store, so anything goes)

3. E6000

Instructions

1. print and cut out stencil

2. position it on your shirt, with cardboard under it so the glue doesn’t leak to the back

3. Start laying out your design. It took me a few tries, but I found one that worked for me. InspiredbyDis did hers in blue for Disneyland’s 60 Anniversary, but I decided on a pink and purple design.

4.  Start gluing with your E6000.

5. Because I love adding bling, I decided to add some more rhinestones along my collar. It added the right amount of sparkle to make my shirt complete.

6. That is it, wait until it is completely dry to wear and wash. I would wash on cold and line dry.

7. Go to Disney and show off your awesome shirt!

Here is my friend’s shirt, I love the blue! She didn’t add any to the collar, but she did add an iron on Tinkerbell that she printed off her computer onto iron on transfer paper (sorry the pic is fuzzy). I love the detail, it finishes out her shirt perfectly.

 

if imitation is the highest form of flattery, what have  you copied in your crafting journey?

Super Sparkly Rhinestone DIY Beats Headphones

I am a firm believer that you can never have too much glitter and rhinestones! That being said, I thought I would fix my boring Beats headphones by adding rhinestones. Now they are acceptable to wear out in public 🙂 (You can see that even my sunglasses have rhinestones on them.)

A few weekends ago I went to Estes Park, CO with a few of my girlfriends. If you have never been there, you are missing out, it is one of the most beautiful towns in Colorado. During our girls weekend in between laughing, taking naps, visiting, watching movies, and catching up we spend our time doing crafts. Some scrapbook, some crochet and other just do general crafts. this year I decided to make my headphones sparkle. This is very easy to do, you just have to have patience.

All you need for materials are:

1. Rhinestones. I used 5mm rhinestones purchased from Amazon
2. E6000 (any glue that stick to plastic will work)
3. headphones
4. Sandpaper
5. Syringe to help apply the glue. I purchased mine from Amazon
6. Styrofoam head to help hold the headphone. This is not necessary, but I finds that is helps.
7. Wax stick for picking up the rhinestones. I purchased mine from Amazon

Steps:

1. Lightly sand the headphone. This is just to rough up the surface do that the glue will adhere better
2. Clean the headphones. This is get all the dust off and get them ready for gluing.
3. Lay out your pattern. I decided on a ombre look, but do what makes you happy. You can’t see it too well in the photos, but I promise is ombre and it looks pretty cool, if I do say so 😉
   

   My ombre pattern

   4. Put your headphones on the Styrofoam head and get ready for gluing!

5. Start gluing! I found these terrific syringes that really help with the application of the glue. All you do is put some glue in the syringe and then you put a few dots of glue on the headphones.Take your wax applicator to pick up the rhinestone and place it in the glue. Easy as that.

6. Keep going until you are done. Let it dry over night then you are ready to rock out to your new headphones!