Make it personal

We found this great idea for friendship necklaces at HonestlyWTF and just had to share. It may be a little time consuming but it's worth the effort.

You will need some piping cord and a selection of threads to make these lovely necklaces, it's best to keep the threads all the same thickness for an even finish. 

The technique is a basic Macrame stitch. Start by fixing the piping cord to a solid surface eg. the back of a chair or a cup hook or door handle you get the idea. By fixing the cord it enables you to keep the tension and makes knotting easier, the thicker the thread the chunkier the finished necklace will be. 

Follow the instructions below and make plenty they look great grouped together.

Lay the color that isn’t being used (shown here in purple) in your left hand, along with the rope, and hold them taut.  Take the active color (shown here in red) in your right hand, pass it over the rope, loop it under and back through the opening.  Pull up and to the right to tighten.  Repeat the knots until you are ready to switch colours.

To alternate colors, simply put the inactive color (red) in your left hand and the new active colour (purple) in your right.  Repeat the steps.

Once you’re done knotting, add a few nuts and/or washers to the necklace.  Undo the large starter knot and tie both open ends together, creating your very own friendship necklace!  Trim any extra rope and tread.

This tutorial can be found at http://honestlywtf.com/diy/friendship-necklace-diy/ so check it out, and see what other gorgeous handmade projects they have.

Another great idea.

We found this great tutorial on making wall art out of ordinary office supplies, stuff that you usually have lying around the house, or things you can pick up easily that don't cost the earth, which we thought looked like fun to try. The tutorial is from a blog called How About Orange.

The red painting above is made with 3/4" round Avery labels and 1/4" tape from Office Max.

This picture is made on a 10" blank canvas, but you could use a piece of wood and metal, painted up.

Arrange pieces of tape and stickers to form abstract plant shapes. Make sure each sticker is pressed down really well. Paint the surface (I used acrylic), remove the stickers and end up with your very own original piece of art.

This could also make a simple craft project to carry out with the kids.

Full details of this tutorial can be found at  MakeDIY wall art with office supplies

Have fun!

We're all about sharing ideas.

Studio 15 is not just a business for us it's a way of life, making, sharing, learning, inspiring each other with new ideas and possibilities. We know that all you crafters and artists are always on the lookout for new approaches and techniques so with that in mind here's a little sugar to sweeten your day!


DIY MOLESKIN NOTEBOOK.


We love Moleskin notebooks, a good old fashioned notebook in your pocket to scribble down those ideas that pop into your head so when we came across this idea from www.honestlywtf.com we thought we'd move the idea right along the line to you.


 You will need: a kraft brown moleskin notebook of any size, a piece of fabric, a glue stick and a pair of scissors.

Start by cutting down your fabric to a size that is small enough to fit on your notebook. We cut a 2.5″ x 5″ rectangle for the pocket sized book and 3″ x 8″ rectangle for the larger book. Glue your fabric to the front cover of your notebook. Start stitching along the edge of the fabric, leaving a small seam. Leaving your needle in the down position, turn your notebook 90 degrees and continue these steps until all four sides are stitched. Knot the ends and trim any excess threads.

It’s possible you won’t be able to stop yourself from sewing fabric to paper…it’s that addicting. The possibilities are endless and you really can’t go wrong with this project. We love the raw edges but of course, you can fold your edges under before sewing. You can also try experimenting with patchwork, using more than one fabric.

Have fun making these simple individual little books and while away a few hours exploring the fab blog at www.honestlywtf.com