ALT CHANNEL LOVE

I'm taking a short break from the regularly scheduled DIY posts around here to share with you how much I have enjoyed taking the Alt Summit online classes! I've taken a handful or more since returning home from the annual conference in January and am always left feeling inspired and more knowledgeable than before. These classes are just $15 each, and last about an hour. For a working girl like me, I'm grateful for the evening classes so I can participate!

Just last week I took Melanie's (You Are My Fave) class on how to "Bring Home the Bacon When Your Blog Isn't Huge." Melanie talked about the different ways to bring in some extra cash through blogging and it was so insightful. From selling side bar ads, to guest posting and more, bloggers can find several options to create an income for themselves. And there's more good news! Melanie is teaching the same class again on July 24th, so go sign up now!

A huge thanks to Bing (#thanksBing) for making more classes possible in July. There are two free classes, which I've already signed up for! You can find out more about them right here and to see the full schedule for July, it's right here. If you have any questions about the classes, leave them in the comments and I'd be happy to try to answer them!

DIY: CIRCLE BELT

It's that time again...my bi-weekly post is up on Design for Mankind on my column called MakeKind. This week I'm showing you how to make a belt using leather circles and sewing them onto a ribbon. It's so easy and versatile, go take a peek!

SERIES: girls DINNER, summer tapas party

Remember the pizza party I posted a couple months ago? Well, the girls (tobe, morgan & carrie) and I are back with the second installment. We're calling this one a summer tapas party complete with colorful finds and plenty of munchies!

Laid back, refreshing and easy are words I would use to describe this tapas dinner. We lounged, grazed on the assortment of tasty treats, and enjoyed sangria (one of my summertime favorites). Be sure to visit tobe, and morgan & carrie to see the entire dinner.

Right here I'm going to show you the DIY project I did for this dinner. I wanted to come up with a fun way to mark our drinks while staying with the casual feel of this dinner.

DIY BRAIDED DRINK MARKERS

MATERIALS NEEDED:

- double sided silk material (1/8 yard for each color)

-1/4" elastic

-pins (not shown)

-matching thread (not shown)

STEP 1: Cut three equal strips of fabric for each color being used. 

Mine measured about 1/2" wide by 12" long

STEP 2: Taking three strands of fabric of the same color and a piece of elastic, cut to about 2"sandwich them together and secure with a pin. 

STEP 3: Sew across the "bundle" to secure the elastic and strips of fabric, making sure the elastic is in between the strips of fabric. This makes for a cleaner finished product.

STEP 4: Braid the fabric, making sure to keep the colored side you want on the top as you braid. The fabric might have a tendency to twist, but just continue to flip it right side up as you braid and you should be fine. 

STEP 5: Continue braiding until you have about an inch of fabric left at the end. Bundle the strips together and sandwich the other end of the elastic and secure with a pin. Sew across the "bundle" just as you did before to make a complete circle. 

STEP 6: The fabric that I chose to work with tends to fray, which was one thing I loved about it, but I trimmed the edges so it wasn't too ragged looking. :)

There you have it! The double sided fabric works great for this project, because you can just flip each one over for a total of four different markers. 

GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

thanks to all who entered my giveaway!! we've got three winners. i'll be emailing each you for your address, so without further ado, here are the winners...

GIVEAWAY: LAVENDER ROOM SPRAY

i made some lavender room spray the other weekend after reading the recipe in a book full of tips for people with curly hair (i'm currently trying to embrace my naturally curly locks). this spray can be used to revitalize your hair, but it also works as a refreshing and relaxing room spray.

using bottles supplied by specialty bottle, i made a batch of the spray, poured the contents into a few bottles and designed simple labels. to finish them off, i used my favorite edge punch by martha stewart to create a more decorative label.

here's the fun part! i'm going to be giving away 3 bottles of lavender room spray to my readers! all you have to do is comment on this post telling me which DIY project i've done has been your favorite and why. posting will be open until midnight (EST) on thursday, june 21 and the winners will be announced this friday!

good luck!

DIY: KEEPSAKE COLLAGE

My biweekly post is up on Design for Mankind today. I created this collage inside a box lid I had leftover from another project. This collage is filled with trinkets and momentos from a recent trip I took to New York City and it's been so fun to have on the bookshelf as a little snapshot of the trip. 

DIY: PERSONALIZED LUNCH BAGS

Today I'm over on Ampersand sharing a DIY project for my monthly column, Getting Crafty. This week I'm showing you how to create custom lunch bags using a colorless blender marker. You'll be amazed at how simple and easy this is to do, you'll be customizing everything in sight! Head on over to the Ampersand Blog to see the full post with instructions.

FEATURE: THE GOODS, THE BLOG OF UNCOMMON GOODS

I have some exciting news to share today. I'm posting over on the goods, which is the blog of uncommon goods. I have shopped at uncommon goods for a long time now because they have some unique gifts for everyone on my list. I was asked to come up with a DIY project and with wedding season upon us, I came up with a little wedding day survival kit for the entire bridal party. Head on over to the post to check it out and thanks again to uncommon goods for having me!

TRADE & MADE: REVEAL

Today I'm happy to reveal the final project for the Trade & Made project with Erin of House of Earnest! If you're just joining in, look back to post one and two to get caught up on this project. In short, Erin and I have sent each other a box full of mystery craft supplies and have challenged each other to come up with some sort of project to share using only the contents found inside the box.

I had several ideas I could have made from the amazing supplies Erin sent my way, but I decided upon this really fun and useful stand.

MATERIALS: patterned contact paper, 12" square styrofoam board, four craft finials, colored bias tape, upholstery nails, seedling cup (optional) and paper baking cups (optional).

STEP 1: Using the grid printed on the reverse of the contact paper, cut a sheet a little larger than your piece of styrofoam. In my case, I used a piece that was roughly 13" by 13" so I had about a 1/2" overhang on all sides.

STEP 2: Peel the contact paper to reveal the adhesive side and place on your work surface, facing the sticky side up. Then gently center the styrofoam sheet over the contact paper and press down. With the portion that overhangs the sides, just crease and fold over and press firmly to adhere. If extra reinforcement is needed, feel free to use clear tape to secure the paper to the styrofoam. 

STEP 3: Taking the bias tape, start to lay out where you would like it to be on the edge. Use an upholstery nail to measure where you'd like it to be. Mark the bias tape and then poke the nail through the bias tape. This will take some force, so be careful when poking. 

STEP 4: Once you have the nail poked through the bias tape, push the nail into the styrofoam, securing it to the side. Continue this method on all four sides, securing each corner. I used a total of 8 upholstery nails, using 2 on each side. 

STEP 5: Once all sides are finished, mark where the finial should go. Mine are about 1" in from the sides, at each corner. I utilized the screw that was attached to each of them, and screwed each one into the styrofoam. 

And there you have it! A stand to elevate anything you wish. 

I used mine to hold toothpicks and small spoons at a party and even utilized a seedling cup and a couple of paper baking cups to hold some cocktail party essentials. It's the perfect height to add depth to a table display and can be customized by changing on the pattern of contact paper and the color of the bias tape. Really the possibilities are endless!

Thanks again to Erin for sending such wonderful supplies! I am now the happy and proud owner of this adorable stand! I want to know, given the supplies she sent me, shown here what would you have thought to make? I had a couple other ideas up my sleeve, but made the quick decision to construct this stand!