Christmas Gift Tags DIY

I always have some cardboard off-cuts lying around from a previous project that are ideal for this purpose! A wide variety of decoration can be used; here I have used washi tape (decorative, adhesive paper tape), making this a very quick project.

One of the advantages of making your own gift tags, is that you can make them any size (or shape) that you like.

For these tags I used a decorative hole punch in the shape of a raindrop, but any shaped hole punch of a suitable size can be used.

 

These tags were simply decorated by applying a strip of washi tape across the bottom edge. I continued the tape around onto the back of each tag too, so that both sides are decorated.

As you can see, washi tape lends a stylish edge to a very basic craft project, resulting in some smart-looking gift tags!

These tags were quickly made in the middle of a present-wrapping session when I needed them to finish the wrapping (yes, if I was organised I would have realised I needed more tags before I started the wrapping!).

This project needn’t be limited to Christmas either, a change of decoration/design makes them suitable for other gift-giving occasions too (see previous post here).

Getting in the Mood for Christmas: Wrapping and Decorations

I have made a few simple Christmas decorations lately, that can also be used to embellish wrapped presents. These tissue paper flowers are quick and easy to make, and look lovely on top of a gift. Using larger pieces of tissue paper (and more layers) this technique can also be used to make big paper pompoms.

The only materials required are a pair of scissors, some thread and a sheet of tissue paper. The flowers shown here are approximately 8cm across, and I made each one from a piece of paper that measured 50cm x 9cm.

First cut your strip of tissue paper into four equally-sized pieces.

Lay the pieces on top of each other and fold them (together) into a concertina. The folds for my flowers were each approximately 0.7 cm wide.

    

When the paper has been folded all the way across, tie a piece of thread tightly around the centre of the folded strip.

Next, round off each end of the folded paper- this will create the flower’s appearance of individual petals.

Open up one end of the concertina into a ‘fan’, and then gently start to tease apart the separate layers of paper. Begin with the top layer, and then separate each of the other layers in turn. Take care with this stage, as the tissue paper can easily tear.

    

Repeat with the other end of the concertina and you have one finished flower, ready to adorn a stylish gift or to be hung from a Christmas tree!

The flowers are so easy to make that it takes no time to whip up a few!

DIY Decorative Hair Clips

I have made a few decorative hair clips this year, and really like using feathers mixed with something sparkly. The ones shown here are rather dressy- the two mainly blue ones were made to wear to weddings. It isn’t very clear in these pictures but the clip with the peacock feather is backed by a fluffy white marabou feather, adding some width to the clip.

The brown, gold and black clip in the centre (in the picture above) is a more subtle design, and I made it to wear to work on bad hair days! It consists of a row of diamontes sewn onto a piece of black patent leather, with feathers glued to the back of the leather. To the back of this was then glued a second piece of leather, onto which had been sewn a metal hair clip.

Decorative hair clips are a definite stash-busting project, and they are so quick and easy to make. Vintage brooches or earrings can be up-cycled to provide a sparkly base for a decorative hair clip, and all sorts of haberdashery bits and pieces can be added. I plan on making a couple of clips to give away as Christmas presents…!

DIY Ribbon Key Ring

I needed a bright and easily-spotted (i.e. hard to loose!) key ring for keys for a cabinet, hence this quick and easy project!

MATERIALS:

Wide embellished ribbon

Leather hole punch

Coloured leather

Fabric scissors

Rivet pliers

Brass rivet

Key ring

Glue

Awl

Cut a length of ribbon twice the desired finished length of the key ring tab. If applicable, remove any beads/sequins at either end of the ribbon (where the leather will be glued on top of the ribbon).

Next, fold the ribbon in half length-wise, and glue the ends together (extending the glue approximately one centimetre down the ribbon). Cut a piece of leather to cover the ends of the ribbon (it will be folded in half over the ribbon ends).

Cut two holes in the piece of leather, making sure that the holes line up when the leather is folded in half.

Next fold the piece of leather in half, and glue in place over the ends of the ribbon. Make sure that the two holes in the leather line up, and fix a rivet in place in the hole.

Trim the sides of the leather if necessary, and add the metal key ring.

This quick and easy idea could also be used to decorate a bag, to make a Christmas decoration, embellish a wrapped gift etc…

Leather and Crystal Cuff

A few weeks ago I posted a leather bracelet DIY project: I recently found a small scrap of lovely salmon pink leather, and this seemed the ideal purpose for it.

Weaving

I stumbled across a second-hand loom at a jumble sale recently, so have been experimenting with weaving. The loom is a small table-top one, so I have started by weaving a couple of scarves.

The loom was really easy to get to grips with, and I enjoyed the weaving process. It was definitely quicker to weave a scarf than to knit one, although I think I still find knitting a more engaging process. The woven scarves felt finer and more ‘fluid’ than a knitted scarf, with a nice, smooth finish.

The blue and white scarf is a slightly looser weave than the green and purple one, and is woven using cotton and wool yarns. The green and purple scarf is woven from wool yarns.

The ease with which you can change colours (and neatly too) means that this is a great way of using up leftover lengths of yarn. I am now thinking of other potential weaving projects..!

Leather Tassels DIY

After making the leather flowers I featured in a post a couple of weeks ago, here is another DIY project to use up even smaller scraps of leather- tassels! The tassels can be made to any size, from teeny-tiny to big and chunky, and you can use any type or texture of leather and/or suede, making it an excellent stash-busting, thrifty project.

MATERIALS- You only need:

• Sharp scissors
• Leather/suede
• Glue

Choose your leather, and cut strips of the length and width that you fancy. The more strips, the thicker the finished tassel will be. To save time when glueing, several strips may be left joined together (like a short length of fringe)- if you are making a single-coloured tassel, then you can leave the strips joined at the top (like one long strip of fringe), and just roll it up to form the body of the tassel.

As I was using scraps of suede (and in different colours), I wasn’t able to cut my strips as one long fringe: this does, however, enable you to mix the colours up how you want when assembling the tassel.

You also need one long strip of leather to form a loop, so that you can hang up your finished tassel (all the better to admire it of course!).

The loop forms the centre of the tassel, around which you start to glue the strips or fringing. If making a multi-coloured tassel, then this is where you get to choose which colours go where.

Working from the centre outwards, keep adding strips/fringe until either you have run out of pieces of leather/suede, or the tassel has reached the size that you want.

To create a neat finish, cut out a small rectangle of leather and glue it around the top of the tassel. At this point you may want to trim the bottom of the tassel so that the fringing is all the same length (or you can leave it a bit uneven if you fancy a softer look).

And there you have it, one finished tassel! Depending on the size, these tassels can be used to make jewellery, to embelish clothing, as an interior decoration, or even to decorate a present for a friend.

I quite fancy making a huge chunky one now…

Leather Flowers DIY

 

I have been inspired by all of the lovely summer flowers blooming at the moment; these little flowers can be made from leather, suede or felt, and are a great way of using up small leather scraps. The flowers can be uniform in colour, or you can go wild and create a multi-coloured bloom!

Soft, relatively thin leather and/or suede works best, as it allows the petals to fold open rather than appearing stiff and upright. The flowers can be made to any size, and can be attached to brooches, hair clips/bands, bags, hats etc.

MATERIALS:

• Optional: brooch back, hair clip etc as desired.
• Leather scraps (not too thick)
• Sharp scissors
• Glue

First of all cut out the flower petals, plus some narrow strips to form the flower stamens. The petals don’t have to be perfectly shaped, as long as the edges are cut neatly and they have a straight bottom edge: different sized-petals work best.  For the red and purple flower I used 18 petals and nine stamens (six short blue ones, and three longer green ones).

First of all glue the stamens together in a bunch to form the centre of the flower:

Next, start gluing petals in place: start with the smaller petals, and attach them a little way up from the base of the stamens.

Keep adding petals, using larger and larger ones, with the final few being attached level with the bottom of the stamens.

Et voila, one finished flower!

Decorated Clothes Pegs DIY

With the (mostly) summery weather in England at this time of year, it is nice to hang the laundry in the garden to dry. The humble clothes peg comes in to its own in the summer, a very simple tool that does the job perfectly! I decided to make some old wooden pegs look a little more interesting with this VERY easy and quick DIY project.

MATERIALS:

Woven cotton fabric- a non-stretchy fabric is easier to use than a stretchy one

Wooden clothes pegs- they are easier to glue fabric to than plastic pegs

A ruler- if you arent using helpfully geometric-patterned fabric!

Glue- I used Bostik All Purpose Glue, which dries quickly

Sharp scissors

Measure the top and bottom surfaces of the clothes pegs, and cut out two fabric rectangles for each peg.

  

 Next, glue the strips into place on each clothes peg, and leave the glue to dry. And that’s it. Really, it is that quick and simple!

I apologise for no lovely pictures of the clothes pegs at work, securing washing on the line in a summer breeze, with pretty garden flowers and buzzing bees… I made the pegs yesterday evening, and today it is raining for the first time in several weeks. I think I tempted fate…

This is a great ‘make do and mend’ or upcycling project, as you can smarten up tired-looking old wooden pegs using scraps of fabric left over from other projects.

Leather and Diamonte Cuff DIY

I was looking through some scraps of brightly coloured leather and came up with this easy DIY project. As only two small strips of leather are required, this is a good way to upcycle part of a damaged vintage leather article such as a glove or leather jacket.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

• Two leather pieces long enough to reach around your wrist
• Two rectangular end caps/crimps with integral loops
• Diamontes/crystals (either individual or a strand)
• A jewellery clasp (I used a lobster clasp)
• Snips/wire cutters
• Flat-nosed pliers
• A leather punch
• Scissors
• Glue

First cut two strips of leather the same width as the end caps. When deciding on the length you need to take into account the extra length added by the clasp, jump rings and end caps.

Two strips of leather are used to hold the diamontes securely, and to make sure that the bracelet is comfortable to wear. At this stage leave the bottom strip of leather a little wider than the top piece, it can be trimmed after the diamontes have been set into the leather.

(yes, I have to label my nice sharp fabric scissors so that I don’t absent mindedly blunt another pair by cutting paper, wire etc!)

On the back of the top piece of leather mark where you want the diamontes to sit (you can see the blue dots that I marked on the back of my piece of leather below). For my design I found it easier to start in the middle of the strip and work outwards.

Next, cut the holes using a leather punch. Piercing round holes for the square diamontes helps them to be held securely, but the outer edge of the holes must be no wider than the outer edges of the diamontes and their settings (slightly too small holes are better than too large).

For my bracelet I used individually set diamontes/crystals that came as a strip, and I cut off each one that I needed using wire cutters. To set the diamontes into the bracelet, push them through the holes from the back of the leather, and then glue the top strip of leather to the bottom strip.

For the design that I used it was easier to only set one or two diamontes at a time, glue that section of leather to the bottom strip, and then set the next diamonte, and so on from one end to the other.

Now trim the bottom piece of leather so that it is in line with the top strip.

Next place a small amount of glue on the short edge on one end of the bracelet, and using flat nosed pliers squeeze an end cap closed around the end of the leather. Repeat with the other end of the bracelet.

The final step is to attach one jump ring to one of the end caps, and use the other jump ring to attach the clasp to the other end cap.

     

Et voila, one finished leather and diamonte bracelet/cuff!