Making girls happy

If you want to know some tricks to make nice sparkling boxes as a party favor, go ahead reading. These 'L 7' boxes we made as a treat for L's birthday and are a mix of this and this. Here and here you can read more on my blog about these boxes. In my case the pattern paper was made using these books. I did some photoshopping to achieve the desired colors, printed the paper and cut it into squares of 17 and 18 cm. But of course you could use any paper you want or even buy these kind of little boxes.

Because I wanted L (of 7) to be able to make her own treat, the tutorial can be used as a kids craft as well. We first made the bottoms of the boxes following this tutorial, using the 17 cm paper squares.

Mix & match

As you can read here, I came to these leather sample bags because I wanted to have a new bag matching my dress in no time. This bag is made of four leather samples, that were laying around in the office. The only things I bought were a leather lace and eyelets. When you want to try this bag as well, please don't bother about sizes. Exact sizes don't matter. You can choose to make a landscape or a portrait model. The tutorial will do in both cases. Just avoid cutting the leather when possible to save time. Here and here you can see reversible examples. The bag pictured above measures 16 x 26 cm.
When you don't know where to get the leather, maybe these links (that I didn't try myself) work out for you: Dawanda nl and en.

This is what you need:

1. 4 (preferably very different) leather samples. If you want to know: mine are 20 x 25 cm and are a good quality of Moore & Giles. Or cut 4 rectangles out of leather if you don't get your hands on samples. You might even use some thicker quality felt instead of leather.
2. 4 eyelets, inner diameter about 5 mm, to hammer through the leather to finish the holes for the strap. When you want to make a non-reversible bag, 2 eyelets are sufficient.
3. normal but good quality thread
4. double sided foam tape (like Tesa, often used to mount mirrors)
5. 3 m of flat leather lace. Note that the double lace should fit through the rings. Mine is 5 mm wide.

Just giveaway m&m treats!

Please take notice of this (earlier mentioned) great idea of Peppermint Plum. I like to share with you how to make a slightly different version: this stamped m&m treat necklace. If you like to read some more about this m&m treat, just go here, here and here.

This is what you need to make about 40 or less :) pieces:

1. a big bag flat (without nuts) m&m's
2. small letter stamps
3. a decorative stamp like in this nice stamp box of Djeco
4. an ink pad
5. colorful threads
6. colorful ribbon, 3 mm wide

And 4 large paper sheets of traditional Canson Mi-teintes. I used two pieces of light yellow for the backs, one green and one magenta colored sheet for the fronts.

Good-looking

Wannahave-beads are best found in a not-being-internet shop. I think you should feel beads in your hand to make the right choice. And nosing around in beads shops is a feast to the eye! This tutorial brings you to a necklace to show the beauties you've bought.
If you like to read more about pictured necklace, just go here. And if you like to read about different possibilities, just go here, here, here and here.

This is what you need to make a single wired necklace.

1. a handful of beads you have fallen in love with
2. wire. Length, thickness and color fully depend on your personal preferences. The wire I used was 3 meter long, estimated 0,5 mm thick and green colored. You could even lengthen the wire during the process by connecting one wire to another, using a tiny squeezable metal ring. You can get the tiny ring out of sight by positioning it inside one of the beads.
3. a small lock
4. 2 tiny open rings
5. 2 foldable end pieces.

In case the length of the necklace is that long that you can put it over your head, you don't need the tiny pieces mentioned at 3, 4 and 5. All you need then is one tiny squeezable metal ring to attach both ends of the wire.

Let's diy!

On special request I made you a stick horse tutorial. If you like to read more about these horses, just go here, here and here.

This is what you need to make one of them:

1. (old) sock, big mensize  
2. 2 buttons in a bright color
3. 2 small (black) buttons
4. quite a lot polyether stuffing
5. strong white thread
6. strong dark thread
7. extra long needle
8. normal needle
9. thick woolen yarn for the manes
10. leftover wool to embroider
11. cotton rope to secure the sock to the stick
12. piece of (imitation) leather or about 1 meter of leather strip 2,5 cm wide
13. about 1 meter of thick natural or polyester rope for the rein
14. felt for the ears
15. punch to make holes in the leather strip
16. 2 key rings diameter 3,5 cm
17. 2 bells
18. (old) broomstick (not pictured).

Out of fashion?

Before I told you we had a Christmas dinner in style in the office. To be able to wear a sleeveless dress I was looking for a bolero in town. But, I was told, they're out of fashion and no more available... Mmm, what to do? I remembered this post and decided to knit one. Due to a lack of time I wasn't able to search for a pattern, so I just started to knit once I had bought the wool. Luckily the fit appeared to be fine, so it's no shame to share a tutorial. The bolero is made of exactly 3 balls of yarn of 100 gram each. I used this yarn, needle 8.
Here comes my very-first-can't-be-more-simple tutorial:

Addition: to see the kids version, click here.