DIY BFF Earrings

Best friends are forever, true blue and faithful to the end.  Why not show your BFF a little love with these super simple DIY BFF Earrings?  A little paper, some decoupage medium and twine turn craft store wooden hearts into two sided earrings that are sure to cheer your BFF up every time she wears them!  PLUS they're cute coming and going!  Avalon and I put our heads together here, she loves these muted colors and simple jewelry, I scaled back on my usual over the top size to make them easy and comfortable to wear every day.  These are perfect for a trend savvy teen.

Tie Dye Glitter Necklace

 This Tie Dye Glitter necklace was inspired by this fabulously over the top Dior runway design below.

Kanzashi Flower Frame Hack

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and this simple frame hack is the perfect gift!  Put a photo inside or print a sentiment like we did.  We've included the printable here.  We found the frame in a three pack at Target for a few dollars, added some ribbon and faux gems and turned some fabric into a fabulous Kanzashi Flower, Aleene's adhesives made quick work of throwing it all together in a flash.  Miss Avalon and I worked on this design together, she picked the quote, helped assemble the frame and took the step by step photos.  Crafting is so much more fun when you do it together!

Sparkling Sweatshirt DIY

 A few years back I was working on a new logo with my mother who is an amazing graphic designer.  One of the ideas we were exploring was using my brand name letters around a collar like a necklace. I loved the logo, but ended up going with something else.  Still, that idea of letters forming a collar stuck with me.  Flash forward to this week and a sweatshirt I scored at Target for under six bucks on clearance.  It's so soft and comfy and made of recycled plastic bottles, so it's eco friendly to boot!  I loved this sweatshirt hack from Crafty Chica, so I decided to work a little crafty magic using Tulip and Aleene's products, creating a virtual collar and bracelets.  I love how this turned out!

 

New Year's Eve Crown DIY

Christmas is here, which means New Year's Eve is just around the corner!  Feel fabulous in this Sparkling New Year's Eve Crown you can whip up with just a few inexpensive ingredients.  Make this in bright colors if that's more your style, I love the glam chic of this gold and maribou combination.

DIY Retro Christmas Tree Skirt

 We found this plain white mini Christmas tree skirt in the dollar bin at Target.  Score!  Avalon has a tinsel tree in her room and it needed something to dress up the not so pretty stand.  We put our heads together on a design featuring Tulip Shimmer Sheets and some sparkling trim.  Four steps later, we had an adorable sparkling tree skirt.  Fun...fast...and (retro)fabulous!

DIY Glittered Ornaments

 I love the look of glittered ornaments, but I wanted to do something a little different and create areas of glitter and areas of clear glass for a very modern take on a vintage look.  Painter's tape, Aleene's Super Thick Tacky Glue and Tulip Fabric Glitter made it easy to give inexpensive clear ornaments an upscale glam appeal.

Festive Christmas T-Shirt DIY

Tulip Fashion Glitter sheets open up a world of DIY possibilities.  They can be punched and cut into all sorts of wonderful shapes, layered up and ironed on to t-shirts, pillows, throws, jackets, curtains and more.  I was inspired again by my favorite vintage Christmas ornaments, this time playing with the iconic mid-century modern shapes.  Just cut some out of paper (you can find templates online if hand drawing isn't your thing,) trace and cut the sheets, punch and cut accents, layer it all up and iron it on.  UseTulip fabric markers to add a few hand drawn details and you've got a boutique chic one of a kind DIY t-shirt that teens will love!

Sparkling Ornaments DIY

 

I'm super excited about this simple sparkling ornaments DIY!  I've been playing around with Tulip's new flexible stencils lately, and it occurred to me that they might be really fun on Christmas ornaments.  I collect the old Shiny Brite ornaments, and what I love best about them is the glittered accents.  You can use the Tulip Body glitter and adhesive for this, it works beautifully!  Add a little maribou inside and you have a sparkling, glamorous accent for your tree in a few simple steps. I had some tinsel ribbon in the studio, and it tied everything together perfectly. (Pun intended.)  Here's how you can make some Sparkling Ornaments of your own.  

DIY Neon Puffy Paint Ornaments

Here's a super simple DIY holiday ornament that you can whip up in a flash that even the kids can have fun creating.  Neon puffy paint makes these bright and cheerful, but you can use holiday colors or glitter paint.  I am a big fan of low stress, high impact crafts, how about you?

DIY Witch Hat

 The Halloween decor isn't quite complete here at Casa de Potter, I've still got a few crafts up my sleeve.  This DIY Witch Hat was so fun and easy to create using an inexpensive paper mache form from a craft store, black Tulip Soft paint, black Tulip glitter and some ribbons, trims, feathers and bits I had in my studio.  

 

DIY Screen Printed Good Witch Tote Bag

 Are you a good witch or a bad witch? You'll definitely be a Chic Witch when you screen print and embellish your own faBOOlous DIY Good Witch Tote Bag!  The Tulip Screen-It Machine makes it super easy to custom create and burn your own screens that you can use to print on all sorts of surfaces.  Add a little Tulip Beads in a Bottle glitter accent, some seasonally apropos decorative trims and you'll be absolutely enchanting.

Fuzzy Monster Snap Bracelets

As soon as I spied these fun fur snap bracelets in the Halloween aisle at Target, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them.  They're only $1.00, so I scooped up three!  Using various sizes and colors of googly eyes, some craft felt scraps I had in the studio and three types of Aleene's adhesives I made an armful of fuzzy monster snap bracelets that are sure to scare up some fun!  These are so easy and inexpensive to create, they'd make a great craft project for kids or teens.  (Though I'm a fully grown woman and I would rock these in a hot second. 

Retro Halloween Tabletop Decor

 
Paper mache cones lend themselves to all manner of retrofabulous DIY projects, like these DIY Retro Tabletop Decor objets d'art.  That's a fancy pants way of saying, stuff you can use to decorate for Halloween.  I like these cones because they can be interpreted a lot of different ways, as Halloween party hats, Halloween trees or if you add black cardboard circles to the bottoms and take the felt balls off of the tops, fabulous witch's hats!  There are so many yummy trims out there that would be perfect for these, from rick-rack to rhinestones to lace ribbon.  If you want to take this further, make each hat slightly different but color coordinated.  Add black glitter to give them a little more sparkle.  These make delightful tabletop centerpieces for a party!  Tulip Soft fabric paint works like a dream on the paper mache and dries to a perfect matte finish.  Tacky Glue and a glue gun make quick work of adding trim.  This is a great girl's night in project too.  Have a glass of wine while the glue dries and then dive right in!

DIY Feather Painted Pumpkin

I have become obsessed with foam pumpkins over the past few years.   I'm not alone, as pumpkin crafts have taken off on the internet!  They're so much fun and so simple to DIY.  Every different technique and treatment lends a totally different appeal.  This feather painted pumpkin is the perfect companion to the Goth Glam projects I created last year.  You'll have a blast using feathers to paint these bold graphic strokes, a technique you can use for fabrics, shoes, furniture and get a very chic mid-century modern inspired effect.  Try using different sizes of feathers and different colors of paints.  You can use this technique to make faux marble as well with a little more squiggling of the feathers.  True Craft Confession: I initially planned to accent the ridges with only the black sparkly ribbon, but I ran out mid-pumpkin and the gold chains came to the rescue.  I think they work here nicely, but you can opt to use all black instead.

DIY Neon Colorblock Cosmetic Bag

 I found this nifty cotton cosmetic bag at Michaels recently and had to pick it up!  It's a perfect blank canvas. This would make a great little pencil case for Back to School, too.  A little painter's tape, Tulip fabric paints, some angled paint brushes and in under thirty minutes you can make a custom bag with just a few splashes of neon.  Neon works best as an accent for maximum visual impact.  The quilting on the bag made it easy to create a colorblock pattern, which is vaguely chevron inspired, but given a fresh, asymmetrical spin.  I love this so much, I want to make a matching purse!

DIY Rorschach Test Backpack

This is one of those absurdly simple, low stress, maximum impact kind of crafts.  Most DIY back to school projects lean in the feminine direction, but this one could work just as well for a guy as a gal.  Use a washable white backpack (this is 100% cotton) and some black fabric paint and let your kid or teen do this themselves.  This would look fabulous in neon colors too, but I love the bold simplicity of the black and white.  They key is keeping it neat so you get a nice clean impression.  I'd give your teen a black Tulip fabric marker to take to school and let their friends write what they see on the backpack.  So it's interactive, fun and a great conversation starter. 

How-to Make Fabric Bows

When Avalon started buying fabric bows last month, I chimed in with my mantra (insert eyeroll...here), "Why buy it, when we can make it ourselves?"  Yes, it's more fun than a barrel of glitter living with me.  Still, I persevered and Avalon agreed to humor me.  We grabbed some lovely fabric and proceeded to whip up a bevy of beautiful bows that could be used for all sorts of fun DIY projects.  Hair bows?  Check.  Shoe bows?  Check.  Bow ties?  Uh, check.  These are so easy to make and so adorable, you'll find it very addicting.  Plus, Aleene's Fabric Fusion Peel and Stick Tape means no waiting for glue to dry or burning your fingers on hot glue! What's not to love?

DIY Earring Organizer

If you are anything like me, you are constantly searching for a more efficient way to organize your jewelry.  It's sad to admit this, but my jewelry is mostly clumped into boxes and bags and I spend far too much time digging around to find both earrings from any pair. These small painted laser cut frames are the perfect (and pretty) solution to your earring storage needs. You can drill these with room for more earrings, hang some up and down and some sideways, add hooks to some for your necklaces and bracelets, arrange them on your dressing or bedroom wall and before you know it, you've got a lovely display for your closet or bedroom that helps you keep your baubles organized and untangled!  You can also opt to use two frames and sandwich some mesh screen in between, though I was pleasantly surprised at how many earrings these wires held.  I think you will be too!

 

DIY Candy Crush Sandals

 

True Craft Confession: I bought these plastic gems at Michaels a few weeks back with plans to use them for a mosaic inspired fashion DIY.  I've had these espadrilles for a while, but I never wear them because they're kind of boring.  It wasn't until I took the pics of the finished sandals that I realized they look just like Candy Crush Saga!  Too fun!  The colors here are vibrant, not quite neon, but very punched up.  You could use clear foil backed stones for a totally different effect. I tried a variety of adhesives, but the best by far was Aleene's 7800. It sets quickly and it's thick, so the stones don't slip around on the straps while they dry.  Take your time and work methodically.  I tried picking the stones up and dipping them in the glue, but I found that spreading the glue on with a crayon and placing them by hand worked best.  When you finish, just shave off the end and your crayon will be back in business!