Simple Tree, Fun Photo

In my last post, I told you about the "Ho Ho Ho" holiday craft swap on Craftster.  In addition to the tree-themed centerpiece I made for my partner, I also made two small items, and one of them is a Christmas tree ornament, made from wool felt, inspired by one that was on my partner's Pinterest.

The tree is simply a stack of felt circles, with a roll of brown felt at the bottom for the trunk, and a gold star at the top.

All the circles started out the same size, and I trimmed them individually to they would form a nice tree shape. (That part took a long time!) Then, using heavy thread and a loooong needle designed for sewing dolls, I stacked the circles.  To give the tree more stability, I also added a little glue between the layers.

Then I took this picture, below.

It's boring.

So I went to a picture editing site I just heard about, pixlr-o-matic...

...and I turned it into this!  Now THAT'S what I call a fun picture!

Pixlr-o-matic is really easy to use--I love things that are uncomplicated and intuitive (because I HATE to read directions!)--and I highly recommend it. You upload a picture, choose your lighting, special effect, and boarder, and you are done!  I had a blast trying out all the different options, so I can see that many of my photos will be more interesting in the future. You should try it!

Beaded Hair Pins Mini Tutorial

While looking online for some sort of hair ornament I could make, I came upon this cute little idea at annekata--pretty beaded bobby pins that would be appropriate for all ages.  I love these, because they look great but they aren't too big, and they are really useful too--I frequently use a bobby pin to hold back stray hair, but these will really boost my style quotient!

I tried making them with thread, like she did, but the beads didn't feel secure to me, so I tried again with 34 gauge beading wire (it is as thin as thread so it wasn't too bulky, and it was strong and easy to work with).  I bought my beads at Joann's; I just used two different types, a faceted glass bead alternating with an irregular polished stone.  If you look at Annekata's post, you will see that she used all different types of beads, which looks really great!  I had some beading pliers (I guess that's what they're called!) that I used to pull the wire tight, but they weren't really necessary.  Scissors are necessary to cut the wire. (Obviously, don't use your best pair!)

I used seven beads per pin.

Start by cutting a 20" piece of wire.  Wrap it around the end of the bobby pin, positioning it so that one strand of wire is longer than the other (the short one should be about 6").  Thread the first bead onto both wires, then wrap the longer wire around both the pin and the short wire, 2 times, right in front of the bead.  Continue on this way until you reach the end of the pin.

At the end of the pin, you will need to hide the wire ends, so feed them back through the hole in the last bead, and cut them off close to the bead.

Wrapping the bobby pins with wire had an unforseen bonus:  the pins stayed in my hair much better than unwrapped pins ever have.  A pair or two of these would make a nice little gift, even for someone with short hair.

SHINY!!  PRETTY!!