Mini Tutorial: Valentine's Nails

Happy February and Happy Valentine's Day!

Today, I'm sharing a quick and simple tutorial for a cute Valentine's nail accent. The effect is a wavy chevron texture that adds an eye-catching detail to your basic pink and red manicure. This design literally takes 5 minutes, so it's perfect for adding that last detail to your Valentine's date outfit or making the best Galentine's day party ever! All you need is some polish, a toothpick, and a glass of Rosé ;)

Keep scrolling for the full tutorial!

Paint the base coat on your nails. Let it dry completely.

Paint white stripes on your nail, making sure to leave enough space for some stripes in-between.

Disclaimer: I used nail pens to draw the stripes but you can just as easily dip a toothpick in some polish and drag it across your nail.

Paint in red stripes.

Quickly while the polish is still wet, drag a toothpick through the stripes in an upward direction.

Then in a downward direction.

When the polish is all dry, add a layer of top coat. This also helps make the design look smoother.

You made it!

Voilà! Now you have a set of pretty painted nails that you can show off to the sweetheart in your life!

I love painting my nails because it's always so much fun to look down at my hands and have a cute, bright design beaming up at me (which is much needed in these winter months)! Plus, I always feel like it's a fun and unexpected way to showcase your holiday spirit for a couple of weeks.

How did your nails turn out? Want more easy nail tutorials in the future?

Stay crafty! xx

DIY Thick Choker Necklace

Happy holidays everyone!

Remember my DIY Velvet Choker Necklace I posted back in the spring? Now I'm presenting the new and improved thick velvet choker necklace tutorial! Think of it as a thank-you holiday gift from me to you, my loyal readers!

I've noticed that one of the fastest growing jewelry trends this season is thick choker necklaces. They are such a huge step-up from the simple, skinny ones! They're bold, daring, mature and they can literally dress up anything! So why wouldn't you want one of these on your Christmas list?

Lucky for you, I have a SUPER easy tutorial on how to make one of these beauties for yourself! Think of it as a reward for all the hard-core crafting you did this year. Or make an extra to give to your trendy friend as a Christmas present. You'll both look like bombshells when you wear this choker to your Christmas and New Years parties!

Now a heads-up before you start- I have two separate tutorials for this necklace. You can follow the first few steps and make this choker the easy way. Or you can keep going for the advanced way. I definitely suggest the advanced tutorial (it's really not hard at all!) because you're going to get a more comfortable, quality necklace.

Materials

Black Velvet | Pliers | Scissors | Ruler | Bracelet Crimp Ends | Necklace Chain | Jump Rings | Necklace Clasp | Silver Sharpie | Thread and Needle

Step 1

EASY: Flip the velvet on the backside and measure as 1 1/4 in. X 11 1/2 in. Mark your measurements with a silver Sharpie so you know where to cut. Cut out your strip of material.

ADVANCED: Double the measurements from the easy tutorial above^. The idea is that you're going to fold the material in half and sew it. So, make sure when you fold the strip in half it's the thickness you want the necklace.

Note: The reason why I suggest the advanced version is because it looks better, feels better, and holds up better. If you just use a simple strip of fabric (specifically velvet), it'll roll up on itself and the raw ends will scratch your neck. So I highly suggest following the advanced version if you want to wear this choker to more than one event!

Step 2

EASY: Take the strip and using your pliers, attach the bracelet crimp ends and necklace clasp to the ends of the material. If you want your necklace to be adjustable, attach a short length of necklace chain as well.

Done!

ADVANCED: Move on to the next step!

Step 3

Fold the material in half inside-out and hand-sew it. You'll create a tube-like shape. Carefully curl the tube inside out so now the nice-velvety side of the material is on the outside. Flatten the material so the seam runs along the center of the choker as shown above. Sew both ends of the tube. Finally, attach the bracelet crimp ends and the jump rings. 

You made it!

Look at how pretty your new choker turned out- taking the advanced steps is definitely worth it! Now you have the perfect last-minute Christmas gift or holiday dress accessory that's ready to go in minutes!

Let me know how your chokers turned out! Do you fancy your thick choker or are you definitely a skinny choker kind of girl? Did you find a hack to the easy tutorial to make the choker hold up better?

Have a Merry Christmas and see you in the new year! 2017 is going to be a whole new year of DIYs! 

Stay crafty xx

DIY Marble Earrings

Happy November!

It's been a while since I've posted anything... all autumn as a matter of fact! Today, I decided to end the drought and pulled this DIY out of the archives! I compiled this post back in August, so it's a bit summery. But who doesn't want a little summer sun when we move into the dark winter season?

So here it is- a simple jewelry project to keep you busy in the colder months. Plus, these earrings will definitely step up your fall & winter wardrobe game! I mean, what doesn't white marble go with??

P.S. Sorry if the clay is a little hard to see! Apparently white does not photograph nicely on white.  

Materials

Black and White Polymer Clay | Exacto Knife | Earring Posts | Bead Glaze/Clear Nail Polish | Super Glue

Cut a small piece of your white clay. Warm the clay and roll into a ball.

Smush the white clay flat. Cut up some black clay into little chips and sprinkle onto the white clay.

It'll look like yummy cookies n' creme chocolate!

Fold the clay in half and pull. This technique will give you a better marble effect than simply rolling and mashing the clay. Continue to fold and pull the clay until you get the marble effect you desire.

Once the clay is marbled, cut the clay in half roll and gently roll into two small, similarly sized balls. If you need more marbled clay, simply go back and repeat the steps up until this point.

Press the balls flat into little pancakes, taking care to make the surfaces smooth, flat, and equal in thickness.

Now take your exacto knife and cut each pancake into triangles (or whatever shape you want).

Note: you may stack the pancakes on top of each other and cut them together- that's what I did. Just be careful about the layers getting stuck together!

I found it's easiest to start cutting a triangle as large as possible then making the triangle smaller and smaller as I evened out each side.

Cut down the triangles until you get them at the size you want for your earrings.

When you're ready, bake your triangles according to the clay's instructions.

Once your clay is baked and cool, super glue the earring posts to your earrings. You can also add a coat of bead glaze/clear nail polish for a subtle shimmer.

You made it!

If you have extra clay (or are simply obsessed with white marble), you can use the same steps to create pretty necklaces. The only step you'll need to add is twisting a piece of wire into a tiny loop and pressing it into the side of the clay before you bake it. This will create a loop where you can attach jump rings and string the necklace.

How is your white marble jewelry collection looking? I'm definitely a fan of my new jewelry! It's super easy to make and it's extremely versatile. I easily included them in my outfits as my wardrobe changed from summer to fall.

Have a happy turkey season and stay on the lookout for Christmas present DIYs!

Keep it crafty! xx

Easy Wall Gallery Tutorial

Wall galleries seem to be all the rage right now in interior design. They easily fill an empty wall while giving the room a tastefully themed focal point. They're also very convenient if you have a lot of little pictures and art pieces you have to display while keeping your space looking fresh and trendy.

It took me a while to build up enough courage to even consider creating a wall gallery! We have all browsed through the many Pinterest pins and Instagram posts of wall gallery inspiration and tutorials and wondered how anyone could ever create a gallery anywhere as amazing as those professionally made masterpieces! The endless array of options for prints and hangings and decorations is overwhelming! Settling on a single theme and making sure every part of the gallery works together is extremely intimidating. Not to mention the large budget you have to have to buy everything! For me, purchasing custom-made prints and specially-fitted frames was completely out of the question.

I was on the verge of giving up the idea when the DIY voice in my head encouraged me to find a way to make a gallery all by myself. It really couldn't be that hard right? All I needed was a couple of frames, some art supplies, and a bit of creativity. So, after a couple days of planning and painting, I accomplished my very own, simply-made, Pinterest-worthy, wall gallery!

Now I'm going to share with you lucky readers how to make a beautiful, wallet-friendly, and EASY wall gallery for your own space! Keep scrolling for the full tutorial!

Materials

Picture frames | Paper | Pencil | Scissors | Paint | Hammer & Nails | Tape

Before you begin anything, think of how you want your gallery to look. You don't need to do anything excessive- just have an idea of what color scheme/subject matter/theme you want of your gallery to help guide you through the rest of the process. Remember, the largest component of a wall gallery is it's strategic compilation. Make sure whatever you have in mind is going to look good together and match with the aesthetic of the room that it's going to be in.

Once you have your theme in mind, begin by rounding up some picture frames. I didn't have any old ones lying around so I bought some at the dollar store. The size of the frames is totally up to you. It mostly depends on how large your wall space is and how large you want your gallery to be. I had a smaller space so I chose smaller frames. Be conscientious of the color and style of the frames too. Make sure they'll match well with whatever pictures you choose and your overall gallery theme.

I only bought three frames but I found they each had a paper border insert inside, which I used as a freestanding frame. So for $3 I really got six frames! I told you this would be wallet-friendly! :)

Now, take out the sample pictures from each frame, trace it onto a piece of blank paper, and cut it out. We're going to design/decorate these blank pieces of paper to make the pretty pictures you're going to hang up! That's right- forget about those fancy, custom-made pictures...we're DIY-ing everything!

Next, we're going to plan out what we want inside of the frames! This may be the first step you take before anything else but I was too eager to get started so I saved this part for later (haha). I searched the oh-so-inspirational Pinterest for some ideas concerning subject matter and I did study up a bit on those annoyingly perfect professional galleries. I settled on a light and airy, pastel-hued and flowery gallery theme with a hint of tropical and a touch of inspirational quotes. This is my go-to theme with everything- plus it matched well with the rest of my bedroom.

Finding your theme/subject matter can be very frustrating especially when you see so many amazing ideas and collaborations! The best advice I have is to stay true to yourself and your style, or else you're going to be living with a gallery that you don't really care for and get bored of quickly. Narrow down your options by looking at different gallery compilations that you're naturally drawn to, then choose one or two pieces within the gallery that you LOVE and reflect you (and can easily DIY)! It may take some time, but stay focused on the end goal and your gallery will soon begin to come together!

The above picture shows some of the planning I did for my gallery. I first jotted down some things that I like in general and would possibly like to have in my gallery. Then I did some thumbnail sketches of the pictures I wanted.

Finally, once everything was planned out, I sketched the designs on those pieces of paper we traced and cut out earlier.

This is one of the most fun parts- to craft, create, and see everything slowly come to life! I used watercolor and a bit of acrylic for my pictures, but use whatever medium you like!

If you're reading this post and thinking, "How is this easy?! I'm not artistically inclined!" then stop worrying because I have an alternate option for you! Simply find a color printer and print out your pictures! Go on Google and Pinterest and search "free printables", "hd wallpaper", and "wall gallery printables" to get you started. See that anchor picture I framed below? I totally printed that and it totally looks good!

Once all your pictures are ready, put them inside of your frames or tape them to those paper inserts. Now we're ready to hang everything up!

I found this next part a bit challenging because no matter how many sketches you draw and times you arrange the frames on the floor, you won't know how everything is going to look and fit on the wall until you actually hang it up. My strategy was to hang up one picture that I knew exactly where I wanted it and took turns holding up one or two other pictures around it until I found an arrangement I liked. The nice thing with the paper frames is that I simply taped them on the wall so I could leave them up while finding spots for the more permanent frames. 

After some fussing and hammering, you made it! 

A bonus is that this gallery is customized for you, by you, so you can keep adding onto it whenever you want! I added my own DIY-ed wall hangings, dollar section Target calendar, and bulletin board and I'll keep making additions as the summer progresses! 

So, let me know how easy this easy wall tutorial actually was! Maybe you even found a way to make this tutorial even easier! Is that even possible?! 

I'm also very interested to see the results of your DIY wall gallery! Let me know what your theme is and if you found an amazing website for free printables!

Keep cool and stay crafty! xx

DIY Pearl Bar Necklace

Hip hip hooray! July has finally arrived!

Bar necklaces are popping up everywhere as the cute, trendy, summer accessory. I decided this is the perfect type of necklace to compliment the many silky whites and creme palettes in my summer wardrobe. No breezy summer outfit can argue with the simplicity of pearls and gold. So, I whipped up a quick and easy DIY project for a pearl bar necklace! Prepare to be bombarded with compliments at your next summer barbecue! ;)

This necklace uses just 5 materials and only takes 5 minutes to make. Keep scrolling for the full tutorial!

Materials

Pliers | Gold Necklace Chain | Small Jump Rings | Eye Pin | Pearl Beads 

First, string the beads onto the eye pin.

(Also, sorry the beads are difficult to see! I guess pearl on white doesn't photograph too well!)

Next, use your pliers to bend a loop on the open end of the eye pin.

Now, figure out how long you want the necklace and adjust the length of the necklace chain accordingly. Keep in mind that adding the bar will add a bit length to the necklace so measure the chain a bit smaller than how you want it.

Once you have the length you want, find the center of the chain and split the chain in half (I simply used the wire cutter area on my pliers to snip the chain).

Attach the small jump rings on the exposed chain ends as well as the ends of the beaded pin. Also, if your chain doesn't already have it, attach a necklace clasp.

You made it!

Easy, breezy, right?

This necklace is so simple to make yet it does wonders to freshen up your summer look! I even made a matching bracelet to create the perfect minimalist, yet sophisticated, ensemble for my white silk tank. I've also seen beautiful turquoise beaded bar necklaces that give a striking pop of blue. Perhaps my new necklace will soon have a new friend...

Let me know what colors/beads you used for your bar necklace(s) and stay on the lookout for more jewelry tutorials!

Stay cool and keep it crafty! xx