Recycled Paper Jewelry DIY

I've always been a fan of Cristian Lacroix.  Maybe it's because he invented the pouf skirt!  I mean, how could you not be a fan of that piece of fashion history?  I truly love his jewelry pieces.  They are a mixture of Baroque and a dash of Tony Duquette splattered with gems and stones.  What's not to love?  These pieces are made with magazine pages and some easy to find supplies.  Lately I've been having a love affair with cabochons but these pieces can easily be made with flat back gems.  Try them both and see what happens. In the mean time, make sure to subscribe to my blog because I'll be sending out some fun tidbits and very good news soon.  Happy DIY'ing!

Christian Lacroix inspired Recycled Paper Jewelry

Some vintage Christian Lacroix jewelry from the 1980's

Here's the Make Your Mark video

Good enough to eat!

You'll need:

2 1/2" wide magazine strips

White glue

E-6000

Gold Metallic Krylon spray paint

Needle nose pliers

Flat metal cuff

Clip on earring flats

Ring finding

Cabochons or flat back gems  

Roll your magazine stips (at an angle) into thin straws 

 Secure the end with a small dab of white glue

Make a TON of these! 

 Grab your needles nose pliers

 Starting from one end of a straw, roll it tightly around the tip of the pliers

 Secure the end with a dab of white glue

For larger rolls, connect 2 or 3 straws together 

See the difference? 

Grab your E-6000 

 Using a dab of E-6000 and then a dab of hot glue, add your beads

to the cuff in a pattern you like.  

The hot glue keeps it in place while the E-6000 dries

 Spray your pieces (outside) with a gold Krylon metallic 

 You could stop here.....OR......

    

Glue on cabochons and or flat back gems

Make earrings using only 4 beads and gluing them together with hot glue and E-6000 for 

the clip-on earring findings 

The earrings.....BTW, these look great on me. 

You're done!

For over 150 more jewelry ideas, grab a copy of

The Big Ass Book of Bling! 

Bejeweled Hand Mirror DIY

Every glamour girl I know needs a bejeweled hand mirror on her dresser.  This one was super easy to make and I got most of the supplies at the dollar store.  I was going to add some jewels to the handle, but I thought it might get in the way so I kept them on the upper part of the mirror.  I'll bet you have tons of broken jewelry pieces you could use for this project.  If not, head the the jewelry section of the dollar store and go nuts like I did.  I'm thinking this might be a perfect bridesmaid gift, too. 

My mom is going to love this! 

Here's the DIY video!

Dazzling!

You'll need

Hand mirror

Various jewelry pieces

Wire cutters

E-6000 glue (the best stuff) 

Gather your supplies 

Clip off any earring backs or pins with the wire cutters 

 Play with your arrangement until you're happy with it.

 Carefully glue on one piece at a time 

with a generous amount of E-6000 glue

 Make sure to only glue one piece on at a time!

Finish by adding pearls and gems in the open spots so that none of the 

back of the mirror is exposed.

 You're done!

CREATIVE OPTIONS for MOM!

Feel like mom needs a bit of organizing?  Are her craft supplies everywhere?  Why don't you enter to WIN mom a selection of CREATIVE OPTIONS organizers for Mother's Day! It's easy...

1. Just send Creative Options some love from me. Tell them they're awesome!

https://www.facebook.com/creativeoptionscrafts?fref=ts

2. Tell me here why your mom is the BEST! 

That's all! Oh, if you want to comment on my latest video with CREATIVE OPTIONS, you can do that, too. It's up to you! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0KMBvaxcv4

Make Your Mark comes to PBS this fall!

We're still doing our weekly DIY videos every Saturday, but today I wanted to

 share some very special news with you!

Make Your Mark is coming to PBS this fall in a 1/2 hour version with 5 projects per episode!

  I'll still be doing my weekly Youtube videos and the PBS show will be available on line at PBS.org so in case you miss it, you'll be able to view it there.  We're so excited to bring you this show, it's been a life long dream of mine to be able to share my creativity with all of you in a much bigger way.

I can't wait for you to see this show!

We have terrific guests, too.

Peter Marr.....excellent carpenter!  Peter makes the larger projects with me that

require power tools and jigsaws.  He's a great guy and you'll love him!

 Kelly Nishimoto from Something Borrowed Something New on TLC.

Kelly is my BFF and my former co-host on My Celebrity Home which aired on the Style Network. 

She's super fun to hang out with and she visited several times on set 

to help me make some beautiful fashion accessories.

 Kritsten Turner from GlitterNGlue.com stopped by, too!

This girl is nuts and we had a blast creating in the studio together.  

Meiko!

Meiko came in and sang a song from her new album, The Bright Side,  and

together we figured out how to make something really special.

 Rob and Corinne from Threadbanger!

Threadbanger stopped by to say hello on the hottest day of spring, and we worked on
some fun home decor projects together.

Kristen and I posing for the camera.  Snazzy!

Make sure to put Make Your Mark in your DVR and double check

to make sure your local PBS station is carrying us.

See you soon!

T-Shirt Recon! Two T-shirts to Hoodie DIY!

I'm constantly trying to come up with new ways to use all of the free t-shirts I get at every convention and event.  This stylish hoodie is an easy project to make because it only requires two stitches.  One on the hood and one around the neckline.  Use contrasting t-shirts for a funky look or matching tees for an understated look.  I used the green for the hood so that you could actually see what I'm doing here.  I tried making a video with an all black hoodie and it was a MESS!  Enjoy and have fun!

Here's the DIY video!

The hem of the 2nd t-shirt is our tunnel!

Zoolander!

You'll need:

Sewing machine

2 t-shirts

Measuring tape

Matching thread

Long shoestring

Straight pins

Fabric Chalk

Scissors 

 Lay your t-shirt flat

Draw a v-neck line in the front 

Carefully cut it out.  Don't cut the v in the back! 

Measure around your neckline 

Lay out your 2nd t-shirt.  You'll be working on the hem! 

Add 1" to your neckline measurement on the tape measure 

Fold the tape measure in half 

 Draw a line on the t-shirt as shown that exact folded length

 Draw out your hood like I did here

Cut it out 

Flip it inside out 

Stitch up the back

It's going to look like this.  A monk wearing green! 

 Pin the neckline of the hood to the neckline of the t-shirt starting at the center back and working your way to the front

Overlap the center front parts of the hood 1/2" 

Stitch around the neck 

On the INSIDE of the hem of the hoodie near the center front, draw two small dots.  These are your holes in which you will thread the drawstring (shoestring) 

The hem of the 2nd t-shirt is going to be your tunnel for the drawstring

Cut a very very tiny hole on the inside where you drew the dots.  You'll have to separate the fabrics so that you don't cut through both sides. 

Thread your drawstring and you're done!