I can make flip flops "fancy".

How many pairs of these do you have?  I love $1 flip flop day at Old Navy.  I go every year and buy a few pair-- usually black, white, navy blue and brown (to replace the ones that I wore out last year).  I pretty much live in them all summer long.  I know they are not the most fashionable accessory, but they sure are comfy!

source

At my "new" job, we have a very relaxed dress code for summer (since our campus is pretty empty during the summer) and we are allowed to wear flip flops.   There's nothing better than cool comfortable footwear during the summer so I've embraced this.  But... I felt kinda funny wearing $1 shoes to work so... I decided to upgrade mine.

please try to look past my fugly feet and focus on the shoes.

Using a technique that I've become pretty familiar with from past projects like this:

 and this:

I created some fabric rosettes using an old black t-shirt and a fabric remnant that I had on hand.  Add a couple of beads and voila!

I promise you that in real life the hot glue isn't quite this noticeable-- especially from the distance that people look at your shoes from.   These photos just seem to really be magnifying it for some reason.

BUT, because sometimes you just want plain 'ole $1 flip flops (like for the beach or the pool), I made these removable by hot gluing the rosettes onto a piece of felt and adding some safety pins to pin them to the straps of the shoes.  kinda hard to see below, but you get the idea...

and no-- it's surprisingly NOT uncomfortable

Had I thought of this idea sooner, I would've bought a couple of black pairs and made these permanent by hot gluing right to the straps, but this is the next best alternative.

And FYI-- my new favorite nail polish color is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in 'Grey Area'.  You may remember seeing it first in this post.

There you have it-- a FREE upgrade to $1 shoes (I had all supplies on hand).  My kinda deal!  And I love them!  (obviously-- check out all the exclamation points)

What are your thoughts on flip flops in the office?

I finally cleaned off my dresser.

And I'm revealing my secret project from a while ago.  Remember this:

I finally had time to get back to it after the "my spray adhesive bottle doesn't have a spray nozzle on it" debacle.

Anyway...

The top of my dresser had been really messy for a while -- like REALLY messy  -- like so messy I was too embarrassed to take a before picture of it messy.   I FINALLY got all of  my jewelry organized which was most of the mess and got rid of TONS of receipts too (why do I hold on to this stuff ??-- grocery store receipts-- not even big purchase receipts-- I'm like a receipt hoarder).

LOTS of jewelry that I don't wear or haven't worn in a long time went straight to Goodwill.  I was able to consolidate most of the rest into 1 jewelry box (that I'd like to make over someday soon) BUT I still had a bunch of big, chunky necklaces that didn't really work in a "dainty" jewelry box.

I knew exactly what I wanted to make to hold these, but I couldn't find all the right materials until a few weeks ago.  So I finally made myself a place to store my necklaces and get them off the top of my dresser!

Here's what I did:

First I gathered all my materials--

• a small cork board (this was the hardest piece to find-- big ones a plenty-- small ones not so much)
• a fabric remnant
• coordinating ribbon
• matte white spray paint
• spray adhesive
• hot glue/hot glue gun (not pictured)
• embellishments (as desired)

I watched Goodwill for weeks for a small cork board to refinish, but it just wasn't showing up for me so I had to buy one new.  All the big stores-- Target, Walmart etc.  only had large ones though.  Luckily I happened to find a small one (11" x 17") at JoAnn's Fabrics for $9.99 plus I had a 50% off coupon-- score!

I would've preferred real wood, but... this will do.

I covered the cork part to avoid overspray, but in hindsight I totally could have skipped this step.  I wasn't sure just how permanent the fabric would be, but it's pretty darn permanent so it really doesn't matter what the cork underneath it looks like.

 I'm a cheapo (obviously) so I bought the $1.97 spray paint at Walmart-- I didn't even spring for the $3.74 can -- and so far it seems that I DIDN'T need to spring for a more expensive can.  I'll let you know if anything changes though.

Cut your fabric to fit.  I cut mine just a tiny bit smaller because I knew when it was wet it would stretch a bit but you could also cut it a bit larger and trim it down with an Exacto blade if you prefer.

Make sure before you do the spray adhesive step that you cover the newly painted frame part-- otherwise you will forever have a sticky frame.

I used Elmer's Craft Bond-- #1. because it was the cheapest one I could find and #2 because it was the smallest can I could find and I wasn't sure how much I'd be using it for the future.  It was pretty fun to use though so ...

I  followed the instructions on the can- it took just a few minutes.  Then I added a ribbon accent around the edges with hot glue.  I've still got a thing or two to learn about hot glue as mine got a little thick in places-- if you look closely (note-- DON'T look too closely :)  ) you'll see small sections that are not as flat as I'd like them to be.

Then I just added a length of ribbon to the back with hot glue and a couple of fabric flower embellishments that I made and... there you have it!

ugh-- that corner... that's where I had the most trouble with the hot glue getting all gloppy on me. 

 One custom jewelry holder.  With some awesome fabric!  I'm kind of in love with it.

I Can't Stop Cutting Up Old T-shirts!

Well... to be honest, these were the first projects I made with old t-shirts so this post is very overdue.  And if you're my friend of facebook, you've already seen these (sorry), but I'm going to link to a 'How To' if you want to make your own.

Here are two necklaces I made using my husband's old t-shirts that he was looking to give away.  (please disregard the poor nature of these photos-- they were taken at the beginning of my "learning to take photos for my blog" adventure-- sorry-- but you get the idea)

The beauty of these is that they were totally FREE to make.  I already had the t-shirts, the chains that I used were old necklaces that I no longer wore, the beads in the white necklace were from an old bracelet that had broken and the felt that you need (see tutorial) I had left over from a craft that I did years ago.  It was bright yellow, so I had to do a bit more "disguise" work with it in the end, but... it totally worked.

 
I then went on to make a TON of black , white and grey little pom-pom pins for family for Christmas-- they were great , cute little gifts for all the women in the family.  With my husband's 6 sisters, 4 sister-in-laws,  (he's 1 of 11 children-- crazy?--I know! Awesome?--Absolutely!!), and his step-mother, PLUS my sister, my mother, my Aunt and Grandmother, I made a LOT of these pins.  Once the cutting is done (which is total brainless work), they really go quite quickly-- I did 20 (I think) in a couple of hours (cutting time included).

AND because I wasn't quite sure how the project would go (and it was my first real crafting project in quite a while), I didn't create my own tutorial so.... I'll share the love.  I followed this tutorial from Little Miss Momma-- the cutest blogger out there- seriously check her out-- she's adorable!

And if you make one of these necklaces, let me know-- I'd love to see it!

March Madness (cheapskate style)

Did you know that the S.U. Orange mascot is named "Otto" ?

In our house we’re Syracuse University basketball fans!  Especially since we’re not in Syracuse anymore, I feel like I need a way to show my school support during the NCAA tournament, without being TOO obvious.

Enter this cool idea that I found for making necklaces out of my new favorite medium—t-shirts.  It wasn’t my plan all along to make an SU necklace—it just sort of happened.  I was in the dollar store, looking for a couple of glass vases to make another pair of hurricanes for my sister, when I walked by a bin of t-shirts, and right on top—the prefect orange t-shirt.  And in the other corner of the bin—the prefect blue t-shirt.  It was like it was fate, so I bought them knowing I’d find a fun craft to do with them to show my SU pride.

I was slightly worried that this particular project wouldn’t work because the t-shirts were different sizes, but…. I was wrong—it worked just fine!

Here is my new SU necklace.

And here’s how I did it.

Lay the t-shirt out flat on a flat surface.  You need to make sure it’s pretty straight and that the edges line up together.  If you were smart, you’d probably iron the shirt flat, but… well… I don’t iron unless I absolutely HAVE to.

First you have to cut off the bottom hem of the t-shirt(s).

Then cut 1 to 1 ½ “ strips straight across the body of the shirt (cut through both layers at once)—these will create large loops (that is what you want).

They don’t have to be perfect (thank goodness) because when you stretch them they will roll up and you’ll never know.

Try not to pull at the material too hard as you’re cutting/working with it because before the next step you want to have flat (not rolled) strips of fabric.

FYI:  I cut 6 or 7 strips to make one necklace.  You can experiment with number of strips for a thinner or fuller necklace.  As you can see-- it leaves a lot of extra fabric for more projects!!

Once you’ve cut all your strips, gather them together and put your hands trough each end of the loop.  Do all strips together at the same time.  Then you’ll stretch them out and the fabric will roll under itself- creating these little “tubes”.  (Note:  the following photos are for show only)

Also of note, the t-shirt tubes roll "inside out", so if you have an old t-shirt with a pen mark or small stain on it, you might still be able to use it for this type of project because it's actually the wrong side that you see. (and why it probably wouldn't work well with a patterned t-shirt)

 The reason you want to stretch all of your strips at the same time is so that they all end up the same length.  This is especially important if you’re using t-shirts of different sizes.

Aaannnndddd….. that’s it.  It literally takes 5 minutes to make this necklace.

And you can experiment with different ways to wear the necklace.

Wear it long.

Wear it doubled up for a shorter/fuller look.

You can also try various knots etc.  I’m tempted at some point to try braiding the fabric tubes (cutting one end so that it becomes 1 long straight tube) to see if that’s at all interesting.  If I do it, I’ll be sure to let you all see the finished product.

And sometimes you just have to be a little more ‘in your face’ with your support of your team….

Go Orange!

edit:  SU just lost.  (and this post was supposed to happen yesterday when the game was on, but my internet was all wonky yesterday) Guess I'll have to put away my new necklace until next year....