03-23-2013

Make-up Brush Holder Tutorial

So I have had this little project on my to-do list for quite a while and I finally got to it. It took under 45 minutes to complete and was super easy. I am thinking this is going to have to be one of my go-to gifts for people. Now, I didn’t set out to make this a tutorial so I apologize for the lack of pictures. I am pretty sure my mom is wanting me to make her one, so I will probably be able to have a better tutorial pretty soon when I make her one. :) So I am going to use a lot of text, probably more than I need to

Now here is a list of the supplies I used and the sizes. You can make these different depending upon the brushes that you are going to be putting in but it should be pretty uniform unless you have something crazy.

Supplies:

a front piece of fabric (the one you will see when rolled up, mine was 10.5″ wide & 12″ high)

a back piece of fabric (the one on the inside that the brushes will be against, same size as front)

interface for between the two sides

a piece for your pocket that the brushes will go in (make sure to seam the end out because it will be showing. Mine was 4.5″ high)

piece of elastic to wrap around it (or you could use ribbon to tie it, around 10″)

bias tape for the sides (around 45″)

Now to actually figure out the sizes, I laid my brushes down and then folded the top over to cover the brushes. You are going to have it fold over so that the brushes are not falling out if it is getting thrown around in your bag or luggage.

You are now going to take your interface piece, your inside piece and your pocket piece (already seamed). I took my brushes and laid them in and then pinned in between them. You need to do this because it will give the pockets a few different sizes. This is why you are also going to have the pocket piece longer than the back two pieces to leave room for the larger areas. Now take out all the brushes and go sew in a line from the top of the pocket down to the bottom.

Now it is time to sew your bias tape on. I have a confession to make, I used to absolutely hate bias tape and saw no purpose in it but now it is one of my favorite things to use. It is much easier than having to sew everything together inside out and then turn it back around, especially on smaller projects.

Make sure that you pin in your elastic as you are pinning your bias tape down. You don’t want to have to go back and add your elastic as that is not going to be the easiest thing (or look the prettiest). Sew on all your bias tape.

Then you are done. Seriously, it is THAT easy.

Completed make-up brush holder open

Here it is with the piece folded down. This will cover your brushes and keep them in your roll.

All rolled up and ready to go. The size is very convenient for travel and your purse.

I put my most used brushes in here as well as an eyeliner pencil and mascara and still had another spot left over. Give it a try and let me know how it comes out!

Filed Under: Accessories, Crafts Tagged With: crafts, i made, makeup brush, tutorial

03-06-2013

Want a font in your own handwriting? There is an app for that!

The graphic above is actually written in my own handwriting font! One of my favorite apps (and one that I actually spent money on!) is iFontMaker that lets you make an app using your (or someone else’s) handwriting. It is $6.99 on the iPad. (I am not getting paid for reviewing this, I really like this app! Promise!). Anyway, it is super easy to get started. They do have a tutorial on their website but I thought I would give some screen shots on how to use the app.

First, I would get a stylus. You could do it with your finger but not sure how well it would turn out.

To start a new font you are going to click the + in the left lower corner.

You can either duplicate the current one you have on the screen (if you have one on there) or create a new document. If you want to create a new font, make sure to click create a new document.

Make sure to change the title to whatever you want to call it. I forgot to do this the first time and ended up with an ‘untitled’ font. I tried to rename it but it is still called ‘untitled.’ oops!

If you click the T on the bottom menu you can change the font that you have in the background. This is good to have in the background because it gives you guidelines when you are writing your letters but you don’t want to copy them exactly because then it wouldn’t be your handwriting. :)

It is also possible to not have any letters to guide you in the background. Just make sure to select (none) at the top.

Now it is time for the fun part! You can change the size of your brush stroke by clicking the brush head on the menu bar. This allows you to also change the type.

Now it is time to get writing. I use the letters in the background as a guide for what lines I am supposed to use. Write one letter and then just click on the next one and write that one. Go through all of them.

Make sure to click the arrow at the side to move onto the next screen. There are the rest of the numbers and characters.

All of the letters/numbers/characters are written under the Glyphs tab. Click the compose tab to use your font. You can write different phrases and such.

Now to save your font click the button at the top right. Make sure to choose Build Font via 2TTF.com. This will turn your font into a font file.

It doesn’t take very long at all.

Now go ahead and email your font to yourself. Then you can open it up and install it on your computer. I had a blast doing this and made some cursive ones, skinny ones, fat ones etc. It would even be cute to capture your child’s handwriting.

Additional Notes:

The File Folder image on the bottom menu bar shows you fonts you have already created. It loads them again and you can edit them or re-send them to yourself.

The Square/Grid graphic on the bottom menu changes the background that you are writing your letter on.

The Arrows on the menu bar allows you to edit individual strokes you have made. You can X it out or make it larger or smaller.

Filed Under: Crafts, Tutorials Tagged With: fonts, ipad, tutorial

10-21-2012

Want to easily print your instagram photos?

I sure did! I had been uploading them all into Shutterfly but was worried about printing them since they are not 4″x6″ and I had no idea how I could crop them. Much easier than you thought! I made a youtube instructional video on how to do it. I apologize that I say “ummm” way too much and I probably should have reshot the video! haha. I also forgot to mention that when you are done cropping you just place them in your cart. Very, very simple!

Filed Under: Crafts, Tutorials Tagged With: printing pictures, tutorial

04-08-2011

Guest Post from Sarah @ The Bird’s Papaya

Hi Friends!

I’m Sarah from The Birds Papaya. I’m so happy to be guest-blogging here today at Kristen’s fabulous Ladybug Blessings! I love her fantastic ideas & link up parties, don’t you?!

So, you may want to know a bit about me (or not…but whatevs…scroll down otherwise). I’m a Canadian, Jesus-loving, Diet Coke drinking, Mom of 3 (4 & under) and blogger. Phew. Yep. That’s me!

My blog consists of the following: crafts, home decor, recipes, family life & a little bit of random…oh…and lots of giveaways & reviews from great little shops online.

Come by and visit me at The Birds Papaya and see some of my other projects like the Scrabble Tile Pillow or the Book Sling or come and hear about how I re-did our Master Bedroom using things we had sitting in storage (did I mention I’m all about being frugal too?).

Thanks to Kristen for letting me stop by today and share a little something-something with you all. I hope you enjoy

Much Love!
Sarah

I’m a sucker for apothecaries and hurricane vases because there are so versatile! Fill em up with different things as the seasons change and on you go.

Easy peasy decorating!

I had seen some apothecaries over at Dollar Store Crafts. See theirs HERE.

I bought all my supplies, by driving 45 mins to the states bc I wasn’t having any luck here! Dollar Tree is amazing. You lucky Americans.

We have a rockin’ Dollarama, but they didn’t have the stuff I needed.

Before I got going, I saw this post by Two Twenty One and laughed because we were both on the same crafting track this week.

I LOVE her use of split peas as a vase filler! LOVE!! Check it out.

She was inspired by this post over at My Blessed Life.

It’s really just a domino effect of copy cat crafts.
love it.

But hey, we all do crafts for ourselves, and blog to inspire.

So please…COPY CAT this!

Here’s my tutorial.

Because mine are just slightly different from the rest.

My supplies:

3 vases, 2 tall candlesticks, 2 short ones

The Steps:

Remove stickers.

I don’t know WHY stores put stickers on glass that leave goop. When you don’t have Goo Gone, go to another source…I tried orange. It worked to a degree, still scraped away for a good 15 mins!