Headphone Jack Dust Plug

Want an adorable way to decorate your phone, mp3 player, or tablet? Try making one of these adorable  dust plugs that not only snazz up your device but also protect its headphone jack!

What you need:
- An old pair of headphones, pliers, scissors
-OR-
-Rubber headphone jack plugs (I found mine on etsy: try here)
-Polymer clay (neutral color) & an oven
-Clay working tools
-Optional clay molds (try Martha Stewart)
-Nailpolish -OR- Acrylic craft paint & a protective glaze
-Super glue (for use with rubber plugs only)

Step One:
-If you are using an old pair of headphones, use the pliers and scissors to cut out the headphone-jack. You want only the solid metal piece that goes into the jack. If you purchased plugs then you are already ready to go (I purchased my plugs because I wanted to make a lot)

Step Two:
-Make your clay topper. Clay can be kind of hard to work with at first. Warm up clay by rolling it in your hands for a few minutes. This will make it much more malleable and easy to work with.
-To make these bows I used a Martha Stuart mold. To use a mold press the clay firmly into the mold. Watch out for folds or bubbles in the clay. Remove excess clay around mold and make sure that the back is flat. Remove clay carefully from mold. Cut off any over-flow. If you're free-form sculpting just make sure the bottom of the object is flat so that it sits nicely on your phone.

Step Three:
-If you are using the metal plug from an old pair of headphones- gently push the plug into the center bottom of your clay object. Make sure the clay covers the plug until the part where the plug enters the phone. You want the charm to sit right on top of your phone. Feel free to test this out, just be gentle with the clay part. You may have to remold the clay a little bit after inserting the plug.

-If your are using rubber plugs- Follow the same steps as above but then you must remove the plug carefully(the rubber can't go into the oven). When touching up the charm, make sure not to change the hole made by the plug- you want the plug to fit it snugly.

Step Four:
-Bake the clay according to instructions. It's okay if they burn a little on the outside, we're gonna paint them!
-Try using tinfoil to prop the charms so they don't get any flat edges.
-Let clay cool completely

Step Five:
-Paint & Decorate! I used nail polish to paint mine and then there's no need for a glaze. If you're using acrylic paint you will need to seal the paint- clear nail polish makes an excellent cheap glaze!

Step Six:
-If you used the rubber plugs you will need to glue the plug into the hole. Super glue works great!
-Let glue dry completely before trying in phone- you don't want to accidentally glue the plug in permanently!!

Once the glue dries you can plug them into anything with an earphone jack!!

Package them up and give as a really sweet & unique gift!!

Check out the free-form dust plugs that I made:
- I used the same methods as listed above, but instead of using a mold I just free-handed the designs :)


Tabby Cat Plug:

Little Green Fox Dust Plug:

Calico Cat Dust Plug:

Golden Snitch Dust Plug: 

Various Cupcake Dustplugs:

Wee Purple Owl Dustplug: 

Hope you enjoyed them!

No Crease Hair Ties

These sweet little hair ties popped up a few years ago on places like Birchbox.com and in Sephora. Half way between an elastic band and a ribbon I obviously fell in love- practical AND adorable. The best part is they don't crease or pull your hair and they look cute stacked on your wrist! Now I'm seeing these little guys everywhere in all different colors and patterns but one thing is always the same- they're WAY overpriced. I was accustomed to paying upwards of 6$ for 3 ties.

these really awesome tie-dye ones are from Twistband  (www.thetwistband.com)

Anyone who knows me knows I get obsessive about collecting things (remember silly bands? that was bad) so a few of these ties wouldn't do- I wanted every color possible!! Easiest way to get tons of colors and styles for REALLY cheap? Make them yourself!

You Need:
-Soft 'Fold Over' Elastic- I ordered mine from www.sunshineshoppesupply.com for about 50 cents a yard (a yard makes 4-5 ties)

-scissors

-a ruler

Optional Gifting Supplies:

-Metal ball chain keychains (try etsy.com)
-Paper tags
-Decorative charms, bows, stamps, markers etc.

Step One:
-Measure your wrist around using the elastic and add 2" (ex: My wrist is 7" around so I cut my elastic at 9") You want the ties to fit comfortably on your wrist.
-If you're making the ties as gifts a safe measurement is about 10- 11" total.
-If you don't care that much about precision- just fold a yard long piece in half once and then in half again and cut at the folds- this will give you 4 ties per yard.

Step Two:
-Fold Piece in half (make sure the shiny side is facing outwards), grab the two ends, and tie a knot leaving two little end tails.
-Try the elastic on your wrist. If it is really tight and small, re-tie closer to the end (resulting in smaller tails)
-Trim tails to get rid of fraying edges

Voila! Tons of hair ties for a miniscule percent of the cost!

Step Three:
-To make an adorable gift, gather them in groups of themed colors, put them on a metal ball chain (try Etsy for really cheap ones in bulk), and make an adorable gift tag!


Here are some that I made to send out for the holidays & birthdays! Such a cute little "I'm thinking of you" gift for a friend or relative

Starry-Eyed Skull Bracelet

I fell in love with my first skull bracelet about a year ago after finding it in a weird little shop on vacation.. there's just something creepy-adorable about the little beads. Sadly, the elastic snapped to my skull bracelet and I lost half the beads. Instead of trying to find another one I decided to just make my own! On top of that, I wanted to make a more girly-glam version of the bracelet, thus the starry-eyed skull was born!

Supplies:
-Skull beads - They come in all different sizes, shapes, and colors. Try Etsy.com (just search skull beads and pick which you like best!) You can also find them at many craft stores.
-Jewelry elastic
-Glitter nail polish
-Ribbon (optional)
-Hot Glue Gun + Glue (optional)

Step One:
-String the skulls onto the Jewelry elastic. Measure to fit your wrist (with my size wrist/ beads I used 15 skulls)
-Tie string in a secure knot.

pink, red, and turquoise! 

Step Two:
-Lay bracelet flat. Face all skulls upwards
-Using glitter nail polish carefully dab each skull eye socket. The polish should fill the hollow socket. I found using a medium sized glitter gave me the look I wanted. You can see below the different between using a fine glitter and a medium. It's totally your preference!

 fine glitter vs. medium glitter

(tip: if you mess up or don't like the polish you've chosen use a cotton swab to remove the paint!)

for the pink skull bracelet I only painted every other skull

Step Three:
-Let polish dry completely (this could take a while)
-Optionally decorate with a ribbon bow. Use a little dab of hot glue to secure the bow so that it does not untie.

Voila! Spooky-Glam skull bracelets you can stack :)

I love chunky stacked bracelets

.. maybe a little too much :)

The Morning Doodle 3

for todays morning doodle (made possible by Instagram) we've got another cat (typical), a 'Voticorn' inspired by the recent election and a wholeeeee lot of Disney-inspired fluff. Ugh, how I love a good princess! Oh and lots of girls with tattoos too. Disney & tattoos.