Decorate your homes with smiles and vibrant colours - Felt sticks ☺

Hi all! I hope the past week was great.

Today’s DIY is in the home decor category - Make your own felt sticks. Stick them into a vase or an empty jar and you are good to go. So let’s get started and make some colourful and eye-catching felt sticks.

I am going to show three different designs for these felt sticks. However, you need not be limited to these; you can use your own imagination and create your own design. A wonderful place where you can draw some inspiration is a kid’s room or your favourite cartoon. For the stick itself, you can use any thin wooden stick. A thin bamboo stick is something I am using (the same that are used to make kites).

The first thing to do is to make sure that the sticks (on which your felt motifs will be pasted) are of the right size. This will depend on your choice of jar or vase. The sticks should be long enough to stand out of the jar. Drop some pebbles inside the jar to make sure that the sticks get a firm stand.

You can use self-adhesive green tape that is used for flower decoration, crepe paper streamers or half inch satin ribbon for covering the sticks. I have used all of the above for different sticks. You could also paint your sticks with your favourite colours. Follow the pictures below to see how to go about wrapping the sticks.

Pattern 1

This one is a smiley face pattern. I’ve used yellow and a little bit of red felt, black embroidery thread and paste-on googly eyes. Remember, you need two of each of these patterns, that need to be pasted together around the stick.

While pasting the two sides together, stuff some cotton in between to give the motif a 3D effect. Follow the pictures below to create the pattern.

This sure will bring a smile to your face.

Pattern 2

This is a simple sunflower motif, with yellow felt and black embroidery thread.  

This is a quick one, look at the pictures below to make this one in no time.

Pattern 3

This one is a pattern with some quilling designs on a round felt motif. For this, you require orange felt cloth, some quilling strips and yellow embroidery thread. All that you have to do is make some beautiful quilling patterns from the strips (follow this post to see how to create quilling patterns) and stick them on the felt cloth. Stitch the two faces with the embroidery thread.

Here’s how to do it :

I hope you liked the idea and this post. Make your own felt sticks and do share them here.

Happy crafting until next week.

Under 30 minute DIYs - headbands for the little girl within you ♡♡♡♡♡

All ladies out there - this is a shout out for adorning the little girl within you. 

My all time favourite DIY - headbands; make one and wear it this weekend.

Here are two types of headbands - a pink felt rose band and a quilled one.

The princess band is what I like to call this pretty pink band. It has everything a princess would wish for - pearls, roses, ribbons and loads of pink.

You would need felt roses, some pearls, a plain headband, pink polka-dot satin ribbon (1/4'' wide), glue and a bit of green thread.

Follow the pictures below to make felt roses and the princess headband.

What you need for the pink headband

How to make a swirl rose with felt cloth

Steps to make the headband - bottom-left to top-right

The second headband has a paper quilling pattern of hearts and stars. 

You would need a plain hairband, some quilling strips, quilling slotted tool and glue.

The pictures below depict the pattern to be quilled and how to assemble the pieces on the plain band.

What you need for the star headband

 To know how to quill paper for the pattern below follow my previous post on paper quilling. 

Quilling pattern for the headband

Star headband

Making these hairbands brings out the child in me. I hope you take a trip down the memory lane yourself making one of these.

Happy crafting folks ☺

How to make photo frames in under 30 minutes

Photo frames - a perfect gift for all occasions. But what to do when time is less or you are low on budget? After all they do cost a little something. 

The post today is a perfect answer to this question. Make your own photo frames in under 30 minutes and at negligible cost.

Essentials :

• Cardboard-use the carton boxes lying at home; recycling feels so good :) 
• Stencil cutter/knife
• Wire
• Paints and other decorative items (pearls, beads, flowers, ribbon etc)

Begin by making a stencil on some thick paper with your desired frame dimensions. I made a 2.5'' wide frame. Use this stencil and cut out frames from the cardboard boxes/sheets using the stencil cutter. Preferably use a rough surface for cutting the frames. Stencil knives are pretty sharp so just be extra careful while cutting.

I have used acrylic paints to paint these frames. You can paste some coloured/printed paper or wrap yarn around them. Give wings to your creative ideas and create your unique frames.

Below you can see the various painting methods that I used.

For the frames below I made a vegetable block with potato. Use a capsicum, onion or a ladyfinger for various patterns of vegetable painting.

For the green frame in the picture on the left, I used the back of my stencil knife for punching a round stamp and pasted a green stone in the centre. A cross design with two colours has been painted on the purple frame in the right hand picture. Pearl and coloured stones have been used for adorning the corners.

For some frames I have used ribbon. The ribbon has either been wrapped around the cardboard or pasted on it. Felt flowers or other decorative tidbits can be pasted above the ribbon wrapping too. For the pink frame below, I alternated the ribbon with a brighter shade of yarn.

A rough paint coating on the base will help hide blank spaces, if any, while wrapping the frames.

Make hooks with thin wire as shown below to hang these frames. Make a loop with the wire and twist one end around the other. Keep some length to insert into the cardboard.

You can now hang the frames on nails or on a rope with clothes pegs.

These gifts will go light on your pocket and definitely bring a smile on the face of the recipient. 

Create your own precious moments wall and relive your memories-choose your favourite pictures, get them printed and stick them at the back of these frames with glue or double-sided tape. 

Enjoy making these. I definitely did :)

Happy crafting until next week.

How to make a rangoli in under an hour

This week has been quite slow. Diwali fever is still on. The gala re-union back at home was so much fun. Holiday time is over but my hang-over is not. Sorry guys, could not assemble a new project this week but I do have some tips for making a rangoli in under an hour.

Finalize a design and enlarge it on a sheet of paper. Cut it out and make perforations along the outline. Place the design on the work surface/floor and make marks along the perforation with a sketch-pen.

Making rangoli/kolam is an everyday affair in South Indian homes. Women in the south are expert at making rangolis free-hand.

I for one am unable to drop colours free-hand on my rangoli design. It always ends in a mess. For all those with a similar problem, I have a quick solution which also gives neat results. Make cones out of plastic sheets. Fill them with colours. Cut a hole of the required size and drop the colours on the design. Use your finger to stop the flow and lift the cone off.

Be sure to start from the innermost section, even if you drop some colour it can always be covered by the next one. Use a blunt pencil to create lines and other patterns in between the colour filled areas.

Make sure to try out this trick the next time you are making a rangoli.

How to make your own Bandhanvaar/Toran/Door hanging this Diwali

In India a bandhanvaar/toran is considered auspicious at the entrance of our home. It is a way to welcome our guests and adorn the house. A mango-leaf toran, essentially a door-hanging, is mostly made on auspicious occasions. However they do not last long. Decorative hangings, on the other hand, last longer maybe even a few years.

Peacock design and hues are my new favourites. On this Diwali, the bandhanvaar, rangoli at home, even my saree is going to be inspired by this beautiful bird. I will try and upload the rangoli pictures depending on the internet connection I get, since I am travelling home :)

Bandhanvaar/toran/door hanging

I am sharing a bandhanvaar diy for the same today. You can use this design or alter it and make your own toran this Diwali.

Design planning and final look

SEGMENT-I

Peacock pattern cut-out & decoration

What you will need for the Peacock pattern

As you can see in the picture above, I have cut out the peacock design on a sheet of thick paper (use those old sturdy catalogues or cards), which is pasted on a buckram (a stiff cloth) and together this creates a firm base. On either side of this base, I have used two shades of felt cloth (colour can work just as well). Plan your design and use embellishments for the inlay work. I have used an assortment of golden beads, coloured stones, mirror and yarn pieces. For the planned design, we would need two of these cut-outs.

Inlay work on the peacock design

A peacock, as we all know is incomplete without it's crown and tail feathers.

For the crown, I used a wire to string the red and blue beads together. The wire helps make the structure strong and flexible. See the pictures below for detail. 

Peacock's crown

For the tail feathers, I have used different shades of blue and green pom-poms along with yellow and blue clay beads and kaudi (form of conch-see picture below)

Peacock's tail feathers

For the complete look, an eye is a must. I have painted one and stuck it to the cut-out. Black beads would work too.

Eye cut-out

Final look of the Peacock cut-outs

SEGMENT-II

Weaving beads for a chain

For the planned design, a chain structure will be required, from which the bead and pom-pom strands (segment-III) can be hanged. I have weaved a basic bead chain. It is very simple, just follow the video below to weave similar chains.

What you will need for weaving(left image)
final look of the right-angled weaving(right image)

SEGMENT-III

Preparing the hanging strands ('W' & 'semi-circle' patterns)

What you will need for the hanging segment
(various shades of beads and pom-poms, mirrors, wooden bird pieces, kaudi and bells)

First plan the pattern of the hanging. Like, for this toran, I have 4 sections of the 'W' structure and 3 of the semi-circle.

Begin sewing the pom-poms and beads on a sturdy string. I have tied kaudi and bells in the ends of 'W' and semi-circle patterns. To attach mirrors paste two of them together with the string in between. 

Follow the pictures below for details.

for 'Semi-circle' pattern

for 'W' pattern

  

Once all the segments are ready, we need to assemble them together. For that, tie the strings prepared above to the woven bead-chain to get the 'W' and semi-circle pattern. Start from the middle and keep the segments equidistant for a symmetrical look. Peacock cut-outs have to be stitched to the chain ends. 

The last bit is attaching rings or loops on the other end of the peacock cut-out. Stitch (not stick) the rings to provide strength to the entire structure (just a tip-attach multiple rings, this will help you adjust the length of the toran between the nails)

Assembling various segments together

Hope you enjoy working on this project. Share your own projects. Sharing and learning is what this blog is all about.

Happy Diwali guys. Have a safe one.