How To: Make Spiral Paper Flower Clips

I made another video tutorial! This time, about how to make little spiral paper flowers! You can put them on paper clips like I did, magnets, pins for bulletin boards, or just leave them as is for paper embellishing.

I am so happy with how these came out! I will admit, however, to film this, it took the better half of an entire day. I messed up a few times, had several false starts, and then filmed the whole thing, to find that it stopped only 13 minutes in. Let us not even mention the battery in the camera had died as well. So, yes, the enamel dot fell off in this tutorial, and I was able to put it back on. I was so exhausted from spending all day working on this video, that I just let it go. Hah. That being said, please pretend that the video is perfect, and the enamel dot did not fall off on me.

I hope you enjoy the tutorial! As always, If you have any questions or comments about the video, let me know and I will try to answer them as best I can. Also, if you would like to see more videos from me, be sure to subscribe to my channel on YouTube!

How To: Make DIY Enamel Dots

With my paper clip tutorial videos I have been doing lately, I seem to get quite a few questions on one thing: how do I make my enamel dots. I love my enamel dots, I use them on everything I can. They hide joins, hot glue messes, and they even just look adorable sitting on paper. I can't get enough of them. Unfortunately, with how many I use (and making paper clip art in bulk), buying them name brand would cost me a small fortune. My husband already makes fun of me about how much money goes into my crafting hobby, so if I can make them for cheap at home, no doubt I will be trying it!

I came across several videos of how to make enamel dots online, and made a ton of them! I bought a small tub of them from our local Walmart, and spent the weekend melting them down a few months ago. So, because I had been questions about how I made them, I created my own how to video, in case it helps someone out there!

As usual, If you have any questions, or comments about the video, let me know, I will try to answer them as best I can. Also, if you would like to see more videos from me, be sure to subscribe to my channel on YouTube!

How To: Make Paper Bow Paper Clips

A quick post today, and another video tutorial! I am really making an attempt to get better with talking on my camera, trying to gain confidence, and make better video. I am also trying to work on getting more familiar with Adobe Premiere, and trying to learn how to edit videos properly. That being said, I have been making quite a few short tutorials on how I made small objects (like paper clips). I think I am getting better!

So, the other night, I was making little matching paper bows with my envelope punch board to go into my latest Pocket Letters. I had a bunch of shorter scrap paper, that was just too short to make a second bow. I had the idea to make a smaller bow, and put it on a paper clip!

They were such a success and I absolutely adore them. I wanted to share the measurements that I used on the bows, so I made a little tutorial on how to create them.

Lately, I have found that I have so many tools given to me to be as creative as I can be. Luckily, I have family who is just as into crafts as I am, and many of my tools are gifted to me. I feel so lucky to have many blessings (for lack of a better word), in my life. A husband who supports my crafting in whatever I want to do, a family who will gift me with whatever they do not want, and wonderful crafty booths in my local thrift stores. With all these things that I have now, I finally feel like I can have a successful creative outlet. So, many more tutorials from me will be happening!

As usual, If you have any questions, or comments about the video, let me know, I will try to answer them as best I can. Also, if you would like to see more videos from me, be sure to subscribe to my channel on YouTube!

How To: Make Pinwheel Paper Clips

A couple nights ago, I was making some embellishments for my pocket letters. I had scrap paper, and had decided to make little pinwheels. Once I finished, something just didn't look right with them. They did not pop off of the background like I intended, and to me - they just looked kind of bland. They blended in, and I wanted them to pop.

I resorted to the one thing in my craft stash that always makes any embellishment 150% more awesome: fun fur! Seriously, I love this stuff and I find some way to use it with everything that needs a little something extra. I have it in a variety of colors, and the best thing is that it lasts forever! It was perfect for this project.

I made a bunch of them that night. I am working on six similar pocket letters at a time, and needed them all to match the pockets. I used scraps from the paper I used for the letter, and you do not need much of it! Just an inch square to make this size!

Gah, I love them so much! It's not all the time that I do something genuinely creative, but when I do... I am pleased with myself for weeks afterward. Haha!

In fact, I was so pleased with them and happy that they turned out successfully, I made a little tutorial on how I made them.

As usual, If you have any questions, or comments about the video, let me know, I will try to answer them as best I can. Also, if you would like to see more videos from me, be sure to subscribe to my channel on YouTube!

How To: Make Layered Lace Flowers

As those who read my blog know, I am huge on the thrift store shopping. A lot of my crafting supplies are either given to me, or bought from thrift stores. I am particularly fond of vintage sheet music and lace trims. That being said, I have accumulated quite a bit, that I have not even used. My husband was beginning to call me a hoarder, and I can't have that! I sat out to make use of some of my crafting products.

I made a bunch of what I call Layered Lace Flowers! They all turned absolutely gorgeous, I am floored at how awesome each one turned out. Usually, things look better in my head than they do in real life, so the fact that these turned out the way they did is incredible. However, when I think about how I made them, I realize that each one took quite a bit of time. I ended up making these over a course of several days, really. I measured, cut and sewn up each one while leisurely sitting on the couch, watching television. Next was coloring all of them, which required time to dry again. Then all the hot gluing. But it was all worth it!

I simply ADORE how this one came out. I made them in all shapes, sizes, and colors, but some reason, this one is my absolute favorite. I love the way the pink looks, the tulle, size. Pretty much everything.

I was surprised at how much I found I like this one, too. The other one I could justify, because it is pink, and I love the tulle look. But this one, I did not think it would be my style. But no! It looks like a little circle of happy!

I actually did a tutorial on how I made them! The camera kept focusing every time I moved, though, so you might not like the tutorial if that bothers you. (I learned to take pictures with it, not video - so I am trying to learn video now). If you enjoyed the video, please subscribe to my channel!

Enjoy, and I hope the video inspires you to make your own in some form!

Monogramming with the Silhouette

For Christmas, I received a fabulous gift - a Silhouette Portrait! It is just like the Cameo, just a couple inches smaller. I have been playing with cutting paper over the past few weeks, and finally received some vinyl to experiment with. However, recently, I have really taken a liking to monogramming. I purchased an app called Monogram It! for my Android phone (apparently, it's also for iPhone, too), and I started off monogramming my phone wallpaper, but that was not good enough. I wanted to do more! So what was my first vinyl project? A monogrammed ring dish!

The dish is a small porcelain "dip bowl" that was only $2 from Target. I used the app to create a monogram, emailed the image to myself, then traced it into the Silhouette Studio software to cut my vinyl. Once cut, It took me a few tries to get it just right into the dish, and even now it doesn't seem perfectly centered. But, after several attempts, I got frustrated and just decided it was good enough. Haha! It is just for us, so I figure it doesn't need to be perfect.

My husband takes his wedding ring off when he washes his hands, or showers, so I thought the ring dish would be a really cute place for him (and me!) to put our rings when we need to take them off. (Let us not mention the fact that he lost his ring twice over the last 2 weeks. First time, he fell in the snow, and it flew off - we had to wait until the snow melted outside to find it. And more recently, he lost it at the dog park while throwing a frisbee - we had to go back to find it. We were VERY lucky to have found it, both times.)

Anyway, next, I wanted to monogram my phone! This turned out much better, I think. I am totally pleased with how the back of my phone turned out. I keep a clear case over my phone, and this will be completely visible, even with the case on.


I love my Silhouette Portrait, I feel like I can do so much with it! Pretty much anything I can think of to make with it will make fabulous gifts and fun trinkets, not to mention make my smash booking and junk journaling so much better!

Thrift Store Finds

Recently, my love for Smash Booking has turned into something called junk journaling. Junk journaling is all about taking stuff normal people would throw away, such as cereal boxes, old magazines, scraps of fabric, and turning them into a journal. Junk journals usually have pockets, envelopes, and literally anything else you can bind into one. I love the idea, because to be completely honest: we never have any spare money, so crafting without a budget for it is really hard! The fact that I can do my crafts, which is just made from things we normally throw away is awesome.

I don't normally carry cash (perhaps it is the Californian in me who grew up in bad neighborhoods, I prefer to carry cards), so we don't normally go to thrift stores, or anything of the like. Since, the majority of them do not like to allow debit cards on small purchases.

We had a couple extra dollars one day, and I talked my husband into taking me thrifting. We headed out to one of the biggest thrift stores that I know. Well, actually, its a large consignment store, but they have a huge variety of things there! I was after two things: lace ribbon and piano sheet music. Tyler was such a trooper, he was looking through practically every box and every book in each booth. We were there for about 2 hours, looking through everything. But we didn't come out empty handed!

My first find was this lace. Very beautiful scrap pieces of lace, which I love. I am on a huge lace kick right now, I love it!

However, my biggest score was these. Little individual pamphlet things, of sheet music. They were the more expensive purchase, but I absolutely love them! They are very old, I have no clue what songs they are, but they literally took my breath away when I saw them on the shelf. They were everything I was looking for. I just know I am going to have a hard time in parting with these beauties.