[Review] Fangirl; Rainbow Rowell

Halloween Inspiration 2013

I know. It’s still September. I understand. BUT HALLOWEEN IS MY FAVORITE, guys. I’m the Buddy the Elf of Halloween. I’m so ready for costumes and decorations and candy and costumes… Wait. Yeah.

I decided I had waited long enough, so I sat down and came up with my first few bits of Halloween décor for the year. Yeah, I’ll probably add some more stuff as we get closer to the actual holiday, but these are the first few things I’ve done.

This isn’t really a how-to post, but more of just some inspiration for you. I am going to talk a bit about how I did them, but I’m not showing step by steps. (To see a bit more step by step though, you can check out a video here.) I’m going to start with the easiest and work my way down to the hardest.

[Treasury Tuesday] 9.24: Doctor Who!

Hey guys! It's been a while since I've done one of these, but I've been Treasury happy again lately, so I thought I'd share this one with you!

This one is inspired by both my newest Doctor Who pencil bags (which you can see here) & also by the fact that the 50th Anniversary episode is coming up soon. Here are some of the best Doctor Who inspired crafts that I could find this week.

[Review] The Beginning of Everything; Robyn Schneider

Rainbow Rowell's 'Fangirl' Inspired Book Earrings

Hey guys! Today I have a craft project for you that is partially inspired by Karen Kavett’s DIY Book Necklace video on the Wonderly Channel, and also partially by my desire to do something to show my love for Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl. Fangirl was just SO GOOD that when I finished it, all I could think about was doing a craft inspired by it so other people would know they could talk to me about it.

I played around with a few ideas, but kept coming back to Karen’s adorable necklace. So I decided to try her technique for a pair of earrings. Karen's original necklace was much more involved- actually binding together pages and so on, which turned out BEAUTIFUL, but this is a much simpler version.

For the majority of the book, I used old business cards because I just ordered new ones and am trying to work through my old ones. If you don’t have any business cards to use, I’d recommend cardstock or any other heavyweight paper, but not as heavy as cardboard.

Other than that, you’re going to need earring wire, jump rings, some basic craft tools (pliers, ruler, X-acto knife, glue stick & hot glue gun) and a printed out, scale copy of the book cover you want to use.

My first step was to cut my pages out of business cards. I measured my mini book cover and came up with 1.75 cm x 2.25 cm, but yours may vary, so double check before you start cutting. I cut out 10 for each earring- again, based on the size of the spine on my cover, so play around with it.

Step two is to put the cover together. Cut out a tiny scale replica of the full dust jacket, including the inside flaps. I actually had to scan and piece together my cover, but there are tons online if you are doing a different book. Using your regular glue stick, glue the cover to another business card and cut it out.

(Don’t forget you’re going to need two of these if you’re making earrings)

Flip that over, and score on the back where your folds should be to make it easier to construct. Then, press your folds and use the side of a pencil or a spoon to really make the folds crisp.


Once your cover is all folded up and looks how you want it to, you can put that aside and turn your attention back to the pages.

Since my book is going to be so small, I wasn’t concerned about it being open and being able to see pages. I took my glue stick and just made a stack of my little cut out pages.  This was probably the most time consuming part of the whole project, but it didn’t take me more than 10 minutes to glue together two tiny stacks of pages. Set those aside to dry thoroughly.

While you’re waiting, use the tip of an X-acto knife to poke a hole near the top of the spine where you want your earrings to dangle from, and then use pliers to insert a jump ring. By the time both are done, your pages should be dry.

To insert the pages into the book, start by hot gluing the little stack directly to the inside spine/middle of the cover. Hold the pages upright for a few seconds to let them set. Then do the front and back, one at a time pressing and holding before moving on. Let that dry completely cool before adding the earring wire to the jump rings.

Once you’ve got the earring wire on, you’re done! You could, instead of the earring wire, also just slip it onto a necklace chain, put it on a keyring, make a ton of them and hang them from a bookshelf… Oh man, so many ideas for this project!



I wanna know- what book would you be most likely to wear as an accessory? Let me know here, or on twitter @techni_moments! And, as always, if you do this project, I wanna see it!  

Good luck, &stay crafty :)

PS: Video tutorial is here, if you’d prefer!

How to Make a DIY Memo Board

Hey guys! This week I’m going to show you a quick & easy DIY that will help you dress up your room or dorm & also keep you organized with all of this back to school newness going on. Like I mentioned in a video you may have seen if you’re subscribed to my channel, organization is the most important part of getting back to school, and this is another way to do that.

I love these memo boards because you can stick anything on them; they can be decorative, or useful or a mixture of both depending on what you put on them. Plus, you can change it out easily, so you don’t have to commit to anything long term.
 
You’re going to need a piece of cardboard cut to the size that you want your finished project to be. I cut a piece out of a box that I got in the mail recently. You’ll also need the fabric you want to use, some fleece or batting, ribbon, buttons and a hot glue gun & glue sticks.





The first thing that you’ll need to do is lay the cardboard on the fleece and wrap the sides up. Glue them down using the hot glue gun. Make sure that you’re pulling tightly so that the fabric in the front isn’t loose or sagging.

You’ll want to work quickly and in small bits, putting down glue and then putting down fabric. Hot glue dries really quickly & is also REALLY HOT, so please be careful.


Once that’s done, you’re going to do the exact same thing with the fabric. I highly recommend using a fun or funky fabric in this project, because then it can be a conversation piece, or show off your personal style. For my craft room memo board, I picked a fabric with crafty pieces all over it.

Again, when you’re doing this you want to be sure you keep the fabric pulled tight! To get the corners to lay flat, after you’ve done all the sides, open the corners up and flatten them open before gluing them down.




You now have a fabric covered piece of cardboard. Good job. Time to make this usable.

I did this by measuring out all of the ribbons before gluing any of them down. I used four in each direction but you can do more or less than that. It really depends on the size of your finished board.

You could flip this all over and glue them down, attempting to keep them all straight, or you can hot glue buttons over every time ribbon crosses. Not only will this make gluing the ribbons easier, but it will also hold all of your memos and things in place when you’re using it. You could substitute other things for buttons, or even just glue the crosses down, but I think the buttons add a nice touch.


Then, go ahead and glue the ends of the ribbons down to the back side. Also, glue ribbon to the back so you can hang this up.

Once that’s finished, you can fill it up with all of your goodies & memorabilia.

You can see how I did mine with a bit more detail right here, and if you make one of these, you should let me see it! Tag me on twitter or instagram @techni_moments.

PS: I also posted a review of the nineteen books I read in August, which you can also check out if you're interested!