I might be a cobbler

So friends, I have a date tomorrow.  I love first dates, you never know what to expect!  I went to Anthropologie tonight to get outfit inspired and left empty handed but full of awesome ideas!  I'm still not sure what clothes I'm going to wear; I do, however, know what shoes I'll be wearing.

Years ago, when I still lived in Cleveland, my friends and I went to this fun part of town called Coventry.  Full of indie shops and restaurants we shopped and ate and had a great time.  We wandered into some crazy little shoe store and ended up buying cloth ballet flats for about $10 each.  I bought a pink pair and and a blue pair.

I have a severe ballet flat addiction

 Since I look best in turquoise, I decided that I'd update the turquoise shoes to match my outfit for tomorrow (no, it's not impractical to build an outfit around my shoes.)  I decided to add a strap and button to create a mary jane style flat.

Mary Janes

Supplies:
Flats
Coordinating fabric
Rounded elastic
Thread and needle
2 buttons

I started by finding a coordinating fabric, I chose a lime green cotton with a white lattice print.  I put the shoes on and measured across the top of my foot, where the strap would sit.  I figured a 6 in. strap would work well.  I cut two rectangles 6.5" x 3" and ironed them flat.  I then folded them in half lengthwise and ironed a crease.  I unfolded the fabric and folded each side up to the crease, so the right sides were showing and the crease was in the middle.  I ironed a crease on each side and then folded the shorter sides in about 1/4".  I then folded the fabric in half again, sandwiching the two folds I had made in the middle and ironed and pinned.  At this point I cut small pieces of rounded elastic to serve as loops and pinned those into the shorter ends as well.

You'll end up with 6" by 1" straps

At this point I top stitched around the entire strap, securing the ends.  In order to ensure the elastic was secure I stitched over it several times.

Now it was time to attach it to my shoe.  I put the shoe on and decided where the strap should sit.  I pinned the strap to the outside of the shoe.  I then took coordinating thread and hand stitched the strap to the outside.  I didn't sew very well, but I've decided it makes it look more charming!

Now all I had to do was stitch a button on to the other side and voila!  I have a new pair of shoes!

The hard part is figuring out the rest of the outfit...

DIY Boot Inserts

I finally decided to clean out my closet over the weekend and was trying to organize my immense shoe collection.  I have several pairs of boots that I store on the floor of my closet, but, they fall over and just get jumbled.  I was about to go out and purchase some boot inserts that would hold their shape and make them stand up straight when I had a brilliant idea!

I have tons of metal pants hangers with the cardboard tube over the hanger part.  The ones like this:

I get these free every time I take my pants to the dry cleaners

All I did was pull the middle (the cardboard covered part) down while holding on to the hook part so it bent in the middle.  This made the hanger bend at a 90 degree angle away from the middle, like this:

It should be an "L" shape

All I did was insert the cardboard part into the foot of the boot and the metal part came up the calf part of the boot with the hook sticking out the top.  The hanger spread out in the ankle section of the boot and made the boots stiff and able to stand on their own.

I happened to have 6 hangers and 3 pairs of boots that needed my hanger boot inserts.  I'm impressed with my ingenuity!

Heart Headband

I have really short, pixie style hair.  There are very few things I can do to change up my look.  I've come to love headbands and found a fabulous way to make a Valentine heart headband that I will be rocking this February 14th.

Valentine Heart Headband:

1/4" thick elastic, enough to wrap around your head
Puffy paint in what every color you want
Wax or parchment paper
needle and thread
Amazing Goop or other strong glue that can bond fabric and other materials

I love puffy paint!  I was playing around with it when I came up with this project.  It's simple, using puffy paint draw a heart on wax paper and fill it in completely. I mixed colors and made mine red and silver glitter.  Make it decently thick, about 1/4" thick of paint and about 2"x3" in size.



I made two hearts to see which I liked the best


These need to dry for several days.  I believe mine took 3 days to fully dry.  The top will dry first, but if you lift the wax paper you will see that it is still wet underneath.  It's best to let these dry for longer than you think, just in case!

To make the headband part, wrap the elastic around your head, in the spot you are going to wear your headband.  Measure enough elastic to wrap around your head, minus 1 inch (so the elastic can stretch and hold!)  Sew the elastic together, over lapping one inch.  I chose to use a sewing machine for this, but you'll do fine with a needle and thread too.

Once your puffy paint is 100% dry, apply some Amazing Goop (or your glue of choice) on the outside of the elastic, over the stitches you made.  Apply the same amount of glue to the back of the the center of your heart, let these set for 1 min.  Attach the heart to the headband and clamp it with a clothespin.  Let the headband dry for at least 24 hrs.  You don't want to get glue in your hair!

I'm so awkward in photos

A little less conversation (hearts) a little more fashion...

I've been trying to find a cute way to make some Valentine earrings.  While at Walgreens the other day I found a box of those chalky, stale conversation heart candies.  You know, those ones that tasted terrible yet you still gave them to your friends every Valentine's Day?

Well, I was inspired.  How cute would little conversation heart earrings be?  These were as easy as pie!

Conversation Heart Earrings

supplies:

Conversation heart candies
Mod Podge
Jewelry glue
post earring blanks
paint brush

I started out by sorting my conversation hearts by color.  I didn't care if the sayings matched, but I prefer if the colors of both earrings matched.  I then dipped my paint brush in Mod Podge and brushed a thin layer on the top and sides of each heart.  I let it dry for 15 min. then turned them over and coated the bottom.  I recommend brushing a thin layer and only going over the top of the heart once for each coat, as it makes the ink a little smeary.  I coated these earrings 3 times with Mod Podge, letting the coats dry for 15 min. in between.

Once they were done, I let them dry for about 1 hr to make sure they were really hard.  I then took my jewelry glue, my trusty Amazing Goop, and glued earring posts to the backs.  I let these dry for at least 24 hours before wearing.



I put my posts in the center top of the heart



I attached mine to decorated index cards to give as Valentine favors

Now, these are coated but it's probably wise not to get them wet.  I put this disclaimer on the back of my note cards....with a little note telling the recipient not to eat them either!

Speaking of conversation hearts, I found this post while browsing for pics of the candies.  Clearly I'm not the only one inspired to make sweet baubles!  Mod Podge Rocks  Her blog is fabulous and will be my new fave!

I've got tights in my sights!

As I stated before I love Valentine's Day.  I also love tights.  I've recently fallen in love with wearing tights, they are the perfect winter accessory to turn any spring or fall outfit into a winter ready ensemble (I don't believe in dressing seasonally, I wear what I want...just make sure I'm warm enough!) 

I remember wearing really cute tights with hearts on them for Valentine's Day as a kid, but, unfortunately I haven't been able to find any adult sized ones.  I found a really cute pair of inexpensive purple tights at Target recently and was inspired to make my own.

Heart Tights

Supplies:

Colored tights
Clorox Bleach Pen
White hand towel or washcloth
20 oz. soda or water bottle

I have recently discovered how cool the Clorox Bleach Pen is for crafting.  I might be making a lot more things with it in the future.  I had the brilliant idea to use it for these tights.  Initially,I couldn't figure out how to draw on the tights without it bleeding through and how to stretch the tights out so the design would be similar to how it would look on my legs.  A soda bottle seemed to do the trick.

Wrap your hand towel around the soda bottle and secure with a little masking tape.  Bunch up the tights as though you're putting them on and stretch the toe over the tip of the bottle and down to the bottom. 

This seemed like the best way to tackle this project

Next, I used the fine tip of the Clorox Bleach Pen to draw hearts.  Now, the bleach is very liquid so it will bleed, I found this out the hard way.  The best way to draw hearts was to make two small dots about 1 centimeter apart and then draw a short, vertical line from the center of the bottom of both circles and down about 1/4 in. It doesn't look like a heart initially, but as the bleach bleeds through the tights it creates a heart-like shape.

Press lightly, it comes out fast!

Let the tights dry for about an hour and then wash them.  I filled my bathroom sink with cold water and about a tablespoon of shampoo and hand washed them.  Then I blotted them with a towel and let them dry over night.

This is what they look like just hanging

This is what they look like on

I wore these to work today and everyone loved them.  They made me feel a little giddy because they were so darn cute!