Use your scraps: DIY Lacey Stones

I am always looking for unique ways to use all the scraps of lace, yarn and ribbons I collect after my major projects.  As I was cleaning out some bins in my craft room last night, I found a collection of river rocks that I had gathered a while back in hope to do something crafty with them.  With a little glue (or gel medium if you've got it) and a pair of scissors, I cut little bits of lacey lovely things and just adhered them to the surface of the rocks, then tied on bits of ribbon, yarn, or thread.  It was super easy and so fast, and they turned out so cute. 

They could sit on a shelf or have a sweet little message tied to them and be given to a friend in need of some artsy love. 

These three will be sent with lovely little messages to to the next three people that join in on my Made With Love art mail project.  What could be more fun!?  

In fact anyone who sends me art in the next two weeks will get a lovely little stone gift from me.  Speaking of gifts, the holiday season is coming fast, and I have lots and lots of new things to list in my Etsy Shop.   First up will be these sweet little necklaces made from antique lace and linen. 

I have listed this one here, and there will be lots more joining her throughout the day.  Thanks for stopping by!

XO, HARMONY

The Evolution of an Idea...handpainted canvas flowers

Hello lovelies!  After countless hours of work, I now have 65 incredible handmade art journals complete for the craft show.  Whew, my back is killing me from all the static sitting.  I wanted to take a sec and show you one of the new embellishments I've been adding to them to make them really special.  Remember the fabric flower necklace DIY  I did on Mano Metal's blog?  Well, I started using the same technique with hand painted fabric to make flowers for my large sized journals and have been ecstatic by the result!  Here are a few fun pics from the process...

  Isnt it so sweet? The colors faded beautifully when I washed the fabric and the flowers were so easy to make.  I love it when an idea works out.  There are so many times that I get some crazy idea for making something better and in the end I just waste time and end up scrapping the whole thing.  I do hope you had a lovely weekend.  I am starting to see light at the end of my show prep tunnel.  I will be so happy when I can finally just pack it all in the trailer and start the fun!  Keep checking back for more updates!

XO, HARMONY

DIY Saturday!! Fabulous Fabric Flower Necklace

Hello Hello, good Saturday to you all.  I am in an especially good mood today because for the first time the Florida humidity and heat that normally greets me first thing in the morning has been replaced by the most glorious 70 deg breezy sunshine.  It is amazing to me how much weather can affect our moods and energy levels.  We instantly opened every window in the house, shut off the A/C, and had a sweet little family breakfast on the porch.  Now with the little guy playing happily with his sand toys and daddy mowing the lawn, I get to spend my entire Saturday CREATING! YES!!  I absolutely adore Saturday projects.  I am kind of locked down with craft show preparations; however, I have a guest post DIY up on Mano Metal's blog that I'd love for you to try. 

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ENTIRE DIY

This was a seriously easy and super cute project.  I am planning on making these for several friends for Christmas.   Also, my first Gigundo Sponsor Group Giveaway has ended! Thank you all so much for participating.  I will announce the winner tomorrow.  Have a wonderful Saturday everyone! Leave me a note and let me know what fun things you are getting your hands into today.

XO, HARMONY

Crafty Saturday Fun: Make a Yarn Bouquet!

Most of my DIY ideas come from the necessities in my own life.  Today's project is no exception.  I have several special birthdays coming up and also have a ridiculous amount of old yarn skeins from past projects (when I thought I was going to be a serious crocheter and turned out it was too hot in Florida to wear anything I made).  So what could I make as a birthday gift that involved yarn?... super cute Yarn Flower Bouquet that's what!

This project was so simple and fast, it seems silly to lay out the steps but for the sake of clarity, here is what I did.  (I do want to apologize for the inconsistency in photo quality, I was having some serious issues with clouds coming and going and constantly changing my light source, but you'll get the idea).

Step 1: Go on a stick hunting adventure in your backyard or local park. (this was my son's favorite part, except he kept finding borderline logs instead of sticks and insisted on lugging them back with us as well.  So you are prewarned, you may need a wagon for this adventure if you are bringing a small friend.)

Step 2: Pick out some fun yarn colors from your stash.

Step 3: Break your sticks down to the sizes you want for the flower stems and wrap with yarn. (you may need to clean them off a bit before you do this).  The wrap technique is simple, tie an overhand knot at the end and start wrapping tightly up, covering the knot tail as you go.  When you get to the top, just tie another overhand knot and cut the yarn.  It doesnt matter if you see a little bit of the stick since it will be covered with the flower.

Step 4: Make Pom-Poms for your flowers.  You can either use the old fashion method of cutting cardboard donuts or use a pom-pom maker, like I did (Previous DIY on how to do this HERE).

Step 5: Grab your trusty Hot glue gun and put a glob of glue on the end that you want the flower to sit, separate the yarn ends with your finger to make a spot for the stick to go as close to the center as possible, and then press the flower on.  At this point, I also added some fun ribbon ties to create a leaf look (felt leaves would also be cute)

Step 6: Arrange however you please.  I had a little glass vase on hand which I filled with scrap yarn and arranged my bouquet in, but they could also be tied together with a cute ribbon for the birthday girl to put in her own style of vase.

There you have it, a simple cheap way to give a gift from the heart that will last so much longer than real flowers.  Plus it's a wonderful way to decorate your home with bright cheeriness when the cold winter months come around.

Dont they make you want to create a whole garden of yarn-tastic flowers!  I kind of want to yarn-bomb people's yards with them, mostly because I love the whole concept of yarn bombing and for some reason the pairing of brightly colored fiber art against the natural world makes me really really happy.   If you have no idea what I am talking about, click HERE for some fun.  

*FYI: I have a few more of the hand painted vintage art journals almost ready and will be listing them later today, if you missed out on the one that sold yesterday.  Dont forget, everything is Free Shipping through Monday in my Etsy Shop.   Have a happy and crafty Saturday!

XO, HARMONY

How To Make Art Journal Pages With Your Fingers VIDEO

Its only 11:30am and already I am covered in paint.  What an amazing way to start the day! (and a tricky issue when baby boy wakes up and wants a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast.  "Sure honey, would you like that with or without acrylic paint?"  I am finally starting to break out the Art Journal making supplies, and trying to psych myself up for all this craft show prep that needs to happen in 6 weeks time.  I've been wanting to make a few smaller journals that features hand painted pages ready to inspire their new owner, so I decided to start there today.

I have also been hearing from a lot of you that art journaling is something that you've always wanted to do, but just havn't jumped in that ocean of creativity yet.  So I thought I'd show you how I made 12 double sided creatively prepped pages in just 20 minutes.  I only used a few materials, pastels, pencil, white paint, and ink mostly with tools of roller stamps, and my finger (no brush needed!).

It was incredibly fun and fast, and I hope it encourages you that any one can do this with very little tools and very little art technique. 

Here's the video of me creating the pages! Enjoy the colorful messy fun!

Just wait, and I'll reveal the final completed art journal tomorrow!

XO, HARMONY

Even A Three Year Old Can Do It: Painted Fabric Video

The weekend has begun! I hope that you are safe and sound and enjoying your favorite morning cup of whatever getting lots of creative inspiration for your days off.  I wanted to offer you a bit of fun, energy, and lots and lots of color today! (oh and a bit of rock and roll)  So for your viewing pleasure, here's my latest episode of Creative Play with my 3 year old son.

I needed to design some fabric for a project I will be showing you later next week, and it seemed like a perfect mommy and son art-tivity.  We taped a piece of white muslin to a plastic table, grabbed a couple of sharpies (BTW: Under 5yrs + permanent markers typically demands being outside to avoid the "accidental" inspiration on your walls).

Then when our fabric was entirely covered in our creations, we watered down cheap-o craft paint and did a watercolor play over the design.  The effect was gorgeous, lots of pretty mixing of color.  There was seriously no way to screw it up, which made it PERFECT for little helping hands.  When it was finished we hung it up to dry and Voila, ready to use fabric for lots of projects.

 There it is drying with the sunshine coming through, so pretty.  While it was drying, I started gathering up laundry to start a wash since we were already playing outside, and my son starts yelling "Mommy!" "MOMMY!" like something was wrong (but honestly right now, every bit of information he has to share is urgent to him, regardless of the reality).  I poked my head out and asked what he needed.  "Mommy! (still yelling like it's very serious) It's PRETTY! I LIKE IT!" pointing at our creation.  Sometimes he totally kills me with cuteness.

(FYI: This fabric is NOT washable, so you cant use it in wearable art.  To make it washable use fabric markers and watered fabric paint and then heat set).  I hope I've inspired you to try to try this project by yourself or with a little helper the next time you need interesting fabric for a project.

BTW: If you didnt see my post yesterday, right now I am on the hunt for some artsy/crafty/creative bloggin people that I can team up with, more information HERE.  Have a wonderful Saturday!

XO, HARMONY

Make This! Your Own Artsy Tape

If you are anything like me, you drool over all the gorgeous new lines of colored and patterned japanese (washi) tapes that are blowing up the crafting scene these days.  I would love to own tons of them in every sort that is sold, but I just cant bring myself to spend the $5-10 per small roll that they cost.  There are so many different fun uses for them, and I knew there just had to be a way to make my own for such projects.  Here is my version of making artsy tape, and in my opinion, they turned out so much more interesting and fun than the manufactured version. 

 Gather these materials: Freezer Paper (regular wax paper will also work, but is harder to peel off), Paint (no need for expensive stuff, get the cheap craft stuff), Paint Brush, Scissors, Masking Tape (of whatever width you like.  I had the wide roll on hand but you may want to try the thinner version as well), lots of other fun art making supplies (whatever you have on hand that you like working with.  I chose a sharpie, hand carved stamps with stamping ink, water color pencils, roller, distress ink, and vintage papers.

Tape down a sheet of freezer paper, waxy side up, and start adding strips of masking tape to it.

Add some pretty paint colors and paint a thin layer over each.

A cute helper is always better :)

When the paint is dry, start adding your decorations.  This batch I did with my 3 year old so it's a bit messy, but when they were all done, they actually looked really cool!  So dont worry about it turning out messy looking.

Here are a few other ones I did without my overly exuberant helper.  From left to right, the techniques I used were: bubble wrap stamped, handcarved stamp, stencil overlay, another handcarved stamp, oil stick drawing, and the last two are collaged with vintage papers using regular craft glue.

Then carefully remove your tape strips from the original paper and move to a clean sheet of freezer paper.

You can just roll up the sheets like that to store away for another project day, or you can cut them down like I did so that they are ready to use.  Dont forget to leave yourself a bit of paper tab on the ends to help you get started when peeling off for use.

There are so many fun ways you can use tape like this.  I used mine today to decorate some mailers to send to a friend.  How fun are they!? Who wouldnt love to receive a happy package that looks like this?

What other sorts of ways can you think of to use artsy tape?  I saw this blog post recently that was full of creative DIY Washi Tape Projects, and it's definitely worth checking out.  Also, you can come back tomorrow for my Art Journal Post, and see how I used them in my latest page creations.  I do hope that this inspires you to try it yourself, and that all your tape using is colorful from now on!

XO, HARMONY

DIY: Embroidery Hoop Messages and GIVEAWAY!!!

Want to give someone a note of encouragement?  Forget the paper card, here's a super cute idea for sending messages to loved ones that they will want to hang on the wall and keep for a very long time.  

The material list is simple and you probably have most of this in your craft stash already.  

Needed: 3 Inch Wooden Hoop, Cotton Thread in various colors, scraps of material (apx 6 inch diameter), scissors, hot glue, epoxy glue, pen or pencil, ribbon.

Cut your material down to fit your hoop, leaving 1 inch of excess around so you can mount it on the hoop.

Next, pick a color to wrap your frame with.  Pull off about 3 arm lengths of cotton thread of your choice and tie an overhand knot on one end onto one side of the hoop, as close to the edge as you can get.

Then start wrapping around the frame, and be sure to tuck in the tail of your knot under your wraps as you go.  Keep the wraps straight and tight as you work your way around the hoop.

Once you get to the other end, tie another knot and then affix tail with a dot of epoxy glue on the underneath.

Next stretch your fabric square on your hoop, and use a pen to sketch out the words you want to embroider on.  Then load your needle and start stitching away.  You dont have to know anything about fancy stitches to do this, just stick with simple back stitch (google it if you are unsure).

Once I finished I decided to make it look a little more aged/vintagey, and used a bit of distress ink to color the edges of the fabric (this is optional).

Then, cut down your excess material until there is only 3/4 inch hanging and fasten to the undersides of the hoop with hot glue.  And finally, cut a 3 inch circle out of a heavy weight paper (I used Kraft paper) to add a more personal note on the inside.  You can also add a pretty ribbon on top, just tie around the metal screw.  

VOILA! Simple and quick and will make someone feel so special to receive in the mail and hang on their wall. 

Here's the fun part! A GIVEAWAY!!  I have these two 3 inch hoops ready to be inscribed with personal messages and sent to surprise someone and make them feel loved.  Just leave a comment on this post with whom you would send them to and why, or what message you would want on your wall, or something else happy and fun you would like to share, and you will be entered to win both hoops along with specially decorated envelopes to mail them in, but that's not all! Since you will be sending these to someone else, I have a very special one just for you!  I will also send you this third 3 inch hoop message I made, for you to put on your wall and remind you to keep reaching for your dreams. 

RULES TO ENTER GIVEAWAY

Leave a Comment on this post by next Saturday 8/20.

More Entries can be added by spreading the word about the giveaway (one entry for every different way you promoted this giveaway, please include a link to your post, tweet, etc)

Make sure that I have a way to get in touch with you, in case you win!

Happy Saturday!

XO, HARMONY

Falling Feathers

So as promised, here is the drawing turned painting that I worked on yesterday based on the design element of feathers.  Here's what I did: I started with a basic sketch with graphite and then did several water color washes over it.  Then I mixed a light brown acrylic for the background and back painted the 5x7 piece.  Once it had dried I went back over the drawing, adding lines back in that got painted out and then affixed the paper to an 8X10 sturdy backing paper painted white (to give it texture).  But I craved even more color and so smeared the pink onto the frame straight from the tube.  Once everything was dried, I embroidered the white thread around the center image and Voila! Easy Peasy.  Try this with any iconic design element that you adore.  The key is to use repetition with just a bit of variation in your drawing and keep it simple (something I constantly struggle with).  If you missed the original post from yesterday.  You can see it HERE and get inspired by lots of feathery goodness.  Happy Creating!

XO, HARMONY

DIY Pom Pom Madness

If you are anything like me, you have a ridiculous amount of random craft supplies piled up waiting for that "perfect" project.  I recently realized how many bins of colored yarns, ribbons, and cotton thread I have amassed, and thought it was time to start looking for something to do with them.  I had gone through a short phase of crocheting accessories, but as it turns out, there is very little use for anything wool in Florida no matter how cute it looks on you (hence all the unused yarn).

Then I discovered the magic of pom poms.  Simple little things that can adorn and brighten up almost anything.  The obsession began when I ordered these pom pom makers.  It shouldnt be so easy to make these fuzzy little balls, but the people at Clover have done it.  (if you dont want to buy a gadget to make them, there is a super simple way to make them with a fork found HERE).

I can make a tight symmetrical pom pom in about 45 seconds with one of these guys and it is so much fun to mix the colors and textures by adding all sorts of interesting wrap-able materials.

...Like handspun art yarn

or hand dyed silk ribbon...

or embroidery thread...

I even made a few using strips of ripped fabric...

Here are some fun textured ones with lots of different materials used.

So much fun, I dont want to stop and now I need unique ideas for what I can make with them (garlands, while super precious and I will probably make several as house warming gifts for friends, are old news, I'm looking for something truly unusual.  Perhaps an entire structural art piece using them...hmm, I'll have to get back to you on that one.)

I did try making a little necklace out of a cotton thread pom pom.  I thought it turned out quite cute.

 So here's to pom poms.  Try it yourself, if you dare.  You may just find yourself swimming in them before you know it.

XO, HARMONY