DIY Flip Flops

These flip flops are great,  you can lace them up any way you like because you can attach the lace at any point on the woven shoe pad.

                                       

Supplies:
1.  One piece of woven fabric large enough to cover two shoe soles for the size flip flops you need. (I wove enough for one pair from old t-shirts and the other from a roll of purchased fabric t-shirt yarn).

2.  Enough sheets of fun foam to make several shoe soles the thickness you desire.  The yellow flip flop above has one piece of fun foam for each shoe sole and the orange, blue and white flip flop has 4 pieces of fun foam to make each sole.

3.  Glue ( I used Aleene’s Tacky Glue because it dries clear).

4. Cardboard (A large enough piece to trace one of your old shoe soles).

You will also use scissors and a needle with a large enough hole to thread the fabric t-shirt strips through and you will use your sewing machine with some durable thread.

Let’s get started:

1.  Weave your piece for your shoe pad very tight.  It will be one solid piece like this…
                                           

2.  Trace your favorite shoe sole on a piece of cardboard and cut out.  Using an old pair of flip flops find the points on the sole where the straps that cross over the foot attach to the shoe.  Mark your card board pattern as you see below.

3.  Trace two shoe soles on to the fun foam using the cardboard as your pattern.
                                          

4.  Cut out the fun foam soles, but don’t poke holes through the soles for the laces.

5.  Apply generous amounts of glue to one side of the two shoe soles and lay these on your woven piece, glue side down on the weaving.

   

6.  Lay parchment paper under the whole piece and over it, place heavy objects on top of the shoes and let dry for 24 hours or longer.  If the glue is not clear it is not dry.

7.  Once completely dry cut your woven piece with the soles glued to them out, leaving excess all the way around. (We will trim this off later, but I was just being safe).  
                     
  

8.  Using the edge of the fun foam sole as your guide place under the sewing machine and sew approximately 3/4” from its edge all the way around the sole.
                                     

9.  Layer the fun foam soles together with glue if you are going to put more than one sole on each shoe.  Put something heavy on the top of them and let the glue dry, about 24 hours or until the glue is clear.  Once they are dry glue them to the bottom of the sole sewn to the woven piece.  Here is the way I layered one pair……………


                                      

10.  When everything is good and dry you can trim it all nice and even, snip off excess glue and excess fabric.


                                    

11.  Using your card board pattern for the sole, mark the woven fabric where the shoe straps should attach.  Then attach the laces with a needle by slipping the needle underneath a strand in the weave like so…..remember not to sew it down.  

                          

12.  This step is optional.  If you want to extend the life of your flip flop take clear all purpose silicone sealer and coat the bottom of the sole.  This will protect the fun foam and give you a more durable sole.  I did this on the flip flop I only had one fun foam sole sewn onto the shoe pad.

Now get creative and design your own flip flop lacing and have a blast.  Hope you enjoy.

                   

                                                            
               


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DIY Jewelry: Washers and Colorful Thread

 

 

I’m not a jewelry maker, but when I found these washers they just screamed at me to do something with them.  I have just experimented so far and thought this idea would be one a jewelry maker/designer would really enjoy.

These washers come in different sizes.  I’ll be looking for some larger ones to play around with.

Take the washer and wrap it with your choice of embroidery thread.  I tied a knot in the end of the thread and ran the needle between the strands after looping around the washer.

Start at one spot on the washer and go directly down, then back up to the next spot on the washer till you have gone all the way around.

                                     

When you get to the last open spot on the washer don’t go down and loop over the washer again, go directly down and loop over the opening in the thread.

Next bring the needle back up through the area where all the thread crisscross.

Immediately start going over and under the threads catching the threads in the back.  Continue in a circular pattern until you have the coverage you are happy with.

When you go over the last strand you will cover, slip the needle through some of the threads on the back side and secure with a knot or two, cut thread as close as you can to design.  Since this will be being worn, a touch of glue might be beneficial.

I hope you can create some beautiful jewelry with this idea.  If you do, I’d love to see what you do.  Please join me on facebook and upload a picture of what you create.

Happy crafting!

DIY: Night Light Refrigerator Magnets

 

 

Had a blast coming up with this sweet little craft project.  It doesn’t cost much and doesn’t take much time.  You’ll like this one.

Supplies:

Paper mache’ box, one & a half inches deep (they have to be 1 & 1/2” deep, because the tea lights are 1” tall) My box is 3” x 3” x 1 1/2”.

One battery powered tea light (definitely not a candle!)

Glue

Brown paper bag

Butterfly stencil (optional, you can use a heart or a flower, whatever you prefer)

Screen wire (cheesecloth will also work for this and even lace would be beautiful) this is also optional if your design doesn’t have large open areas.

Two way tape

Magnets

Let’s make a refrigerator magnet night light!

Making the top:

1.  Cut a square of the brown paper bag where it will completely cover the top of the box.

 

2.  Trace your stencil on to the square brown paper.

3.  Using an xacto knife, cut the parts out of the drawn design that you want light to show through.

 

4.  Take the top of the box and cut out a square hole in it leaving just enough to glue the square brown paper cut out onto.

 

5.  Glue the brown paper onto what remains of the top of the box.  (I used a piece of two way tape to hold it in place while I glued to keep the paper in place, then glued right over the top of the tape to finish it off).

6.  When that is dry, turn the top upside down and glue the screen wire into the bottom.  (remember this is an optional step)

We are done with the top, unless you want to paint it.

 

Making the bottom:

1.  Turn the bottom of the box over and glue on the magnets.  I used two strips cut large to be sure it would hold the weight of the tea light and the box.  (I really wanted smaller boxes, but this is all I could find that the tea lights would fit in.

That’s it!  We are done.  When everything is dry, turn your tea light on, put it in the box, put the top on it and put it on the fridge!

I thought this was a sweet project.  I played around with my wood burner to see how it would look and I think I like it better.  If you try this method you won’t need the brown paper bag cut out.  I just burnt the top of the box.   Here’s a pic…

But I did almost catch it on fire!  So I really did light up my refrigerator magnet!

Have fun!

 

If you like this craft tune in to my face book page to see other stuff.  Thanks!