The Creativity Club

I'll be honest, I love craft. 

Not art, painting or drawing (because I'm rubbish at it), but cutting & pasting, making things out of clay, cooking, baking, sewing, making hats & jewellery, gardening & being all around crafty.

Sometimes I have such mental blanks I just lose all interest in doing anything remotely crafty, so my spare room (let's be truthful, it's an entire room devoted to craft) stays untouched and unloved.

Every now and then I have bursts of creativity, and come up with things like: 

Flower Crown

Frosted Windows

Home Made Jam

Outdoor Mood Lighting

So when I stumbled upon elsie marley one day, and she was talking about some kind of 2 word challenge, I thought to myself, what a great little idea! My words were shark + garland. I'll admit, my submission wasn't all that flash hot, but it was an interesting idea. 

Now Elsie has created The Creativity Club in an effort to help all of us push ourselves out of our comfort zones, and get creative.

So keep your eyes peeled for new and exciting crafty things! We are sent a challenge the 3rd Monday of each month, and we have a week to complete it. You can see everyone's submissions on Instagram (and sometimes Facebook and Twitter) using the hashtag #thecreativityclub

Wish me luck!

Lots of love,

J xx

Crafternoon - Cardigan Clips

Ahoy there folks!

Last Saturday, my darling boyfriend did my few odd jobs around the house, so that I could spend some time doing craft. I must say, I went a little crazy, but really why wouldn't I?

So, I was thinking of things I could make. I love to make little fashion accessories, like hair clips, lapel clips, cardigan clips (I'm noticing a theme here...). I decided to make a few different things, but this post is to show you how I made the simplest cardigan clips.

Don't know what I'm talking about? Well, cardigan clips are a pair of clips, joined by chain or ribbon. You pin one to either side of your cardigan, to hold it together. It's like buttoning it up, but cooler, and easier if you have a heaving boosom and can't actually button things up...

Here is Emma Pillsbury from Glee rocking some cute cardigan clips!

Let's get started!

First, we need our supplies. 

Pliers - Either needle nose or round nose

Chain - This will be what connects our broaches together

Jumprings

Broaches x 2

Now we can start putting our little goodies together!

Work out where on your cardigan/sweater you want the clips to sit. This will help us determine how long we make our chain. I chose to make mine about 8 inches apart, but you decide how far you want yours.

Once you've worked this out, we can measure out the chain. I chose to create a draped effect with mine, with 3 layers of chain. This is why they're all different lengths.

Connect your lenghts of chain to your jump rings, making sure the chains are sitting correctly and look right to you. When opening the jump rings, ensure you pull them forward and backward to create an opening, not left and right. Pulling them from the sides weakens the ring and distorts the shape. Remember there is no set rule for this, just whatever you like.

Okay, so now that we have our chains measured and cut (I simply pulled the links apart with my pliers), and the chain is all connected to the jumprings, we can connect the jumprings to the back of our broaches. Some broaches will have holes around the sides, or on the back. Connect them where you please, just make sure you sit them against your chest to make sure they look right. 

You can connect them to your cardigan how ever you please! Sadly, I forgot to take a 'finished' photo, but I will take one soon, and upload it. I promise!

Until then...

Love J xx

Crafternoon - Glitter Sunglasses

I seem to collect a hilarious amount of sunglasses, and most of the time, I stick to a certain style and shape. 

I decided to jazz up a couple of pairs I had in stock, with glitter, and another with spikes. Today my pretties, I'm going to show you how to go glitter glam!

First, supplies:
Pair of sunglasses
Glitter in your favourite colour/s
Small paintbrush
Mod Podge - Gloss (you can buy this from Spotlight)
Table Cover
Painters Tape

Now, to save us having to do a tedious clean up later, let's tape up all of the areas we don't want to cover in fabulous glitter!

Once you've taped everywhere you need to (don't forget the section where the glasses sit on your nose. Glitter here is terribly itchy and annoying), we can do our first layer of Mod Podge. It goes on white, but dries clear. Make sure you only do small sections at a time, to make sure it doesn't dry in between.

Now to glitter! Pour that beautiful sparkly stuff everywhere you need to. A nice thick layer to start. Wait a couple of minutes for it to dry, then tip off the excess. Make sure you're pouring the glitter over a piece of paper, so you can fold up the paper and puir the excess glitter back in it's container. 

Unfortunately, we need to wait while the MP dries. I'd say about 20 minutes.
Man, waiting is boring. I want to craft damn it!

Once you've done the first coat of glitter all over, and it's fully dried, it's time to do the second coat! Why a second coat you may ask, because we want to have a good solid coat of glitter, and make sure the old ugly colour doesn't show through.

Back to waiting... Is it dry yet?!?!

When everything is dry to the touch, we need to seal all of that lovely glitter in place, to make sure we don't malt glitter everywhere. It's exactly the same process as before, but no adding glitter. So just a nice thin coat over the glitter to seal it in, then more waiting till everything dries.

Then....

Oh yeah, that's right, they're awesome!

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial of sorts, and good luck with your crafternoons!

Much love

J xx