Sunday Funday - DIY: Wood Bead Necklace

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend!

I'm back with another DIY.

This time I was inspired by this Kate Spade New York Rosewood Dot Necklace.

It could be yours for $90.99 on piperlime.com, but I'll show you how to make a cuter (at least I think so), way cheaper one.

I started by hitting up Michael's for some wood beads, paint, and a chain.

I wanted bright, neon colors so I went with Martha Stewart acrylic paint in Party Streamer, Marmelade, Meadowlark, Granny Smith, Beach Glass, and Indigo. The paints were on sale for $1.39, but I had a coupon for an additional 15% off.

To put the necklaces together, I used Bead Landing jump rings and lobster clasps, Beadalon chain, and what I call fishing line. Any clear type of string will work.

String the beads onto the fishing line, and tie the ends to the chain. Attach the clasp to the jump ring, then the jump ring to the chain, and TA-DA! You have yourself a pretty, wood bead necklace.

I couldn't just leave you with the necklaces sitting on my coffee table, so I wore one out to dinner tonight.

Hope you like it!

Until next time.. happy crafting!

XO Christina

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Sunday Funday - DIY: Dip Dye Continued

First off, thanks Christina! What a great post! I'm so excited you'll be posting here and there on great DIY projects!

Anyway, my Twofer Tuesday post really inspired me for the entire week. It reminded me how much I love dyeing and playing with color! I got a few shirts and played.

Rit dye has always been good to me, so I bought a bunch of dyes for playing. I've used both the powder and the liquid, and I don't notice much of a difference. Either works fine!

I work from 2-10pm during the week, so I would spend my mornings running around and then making dye baths in my kitchen sink!

The first shirt I wanted to try different colors, so I started with a lighter teal color for the middle. I left the shirt in the bath for around 20-25 minutes (stirring in between). Once that was done, I cleaned the bath, and made a new one with a royal blue for the bottom. I followed the same steps as above, but left the shirt for a bit longer, so it would really take the color in. The results can be seen below!

The second shirt, I wanted more of an ombre effect. I also wanted the dye to be higher on the shirt. I used a black dye (which smells very weird and like you're inhaling cancer...) because I had never played with it before. For the lighter gray, I dipped the shirt in the dye for less than a minute, and pulled it out quickly. Then I put a little less of the shirt in, let it sit (and stir a bit) for about 5-10 minutes. Finally, I pulled out more of the shirt, and left the bottom in for about 30 minutes so it would take in a lot of dye. It worked out great! I love that shirt!

Remember to wash your clothes separately so they don't ruin the load! I hand washed both of these afterward until the water ran clear.

Anyway, these quick examples show you how easy it is to dip dye and play with your clothes to make them something more special! Dye is super cheap and super easy to use! Go play and show us your results!

A.Carmen

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Sunday Funday - DIY: Dip Dyed Shorts

Happy Sunday Funday, everyone!

Let me start off by introducing myself.

I'm Christina, and I have been friends with Anthony & Elle for many years.

So I was super excited when they asked me to be a guest blogger.

I love clothes, fashion, and accessories, but I really love crafting and making pretty things.

Pinterest is one of my biggest addictions, and that is where I found this beauty.

As lovely as they are, my first thought was, "I would never spend $161 on those."

My second thought was, "OMG! I can make those myself!"

So, that is exactly what I did and here is how:

I started by searching my closet for some jeans that I no longer wanted, which was really easy for me.

Then, I cut them down to shorts. I took a pair of shorts that I liked the length of and used a piece of chalk to draw where I was going to cut. Once I was done, I pulled at the frays, cut some holes, and used the edge of a pair of scissors to distress the shorts.

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of those steps. Sorry!

This is where my pictures do start, though. Both pairs of jeans were a really dark wash, so I had to bleach them.

Finally, it is time for the fun part: dyeing.

I used Rit dye in golden yellow, fuschia, and royal blue.

I mixed my baths and did my dyeing in my kitchen sink.

I decided on one pair being pink and yellow, so I get a nice orange in the middle.

The other pair would be pink and blue, so there would be some purple in there too.

After my baths were mixed, I dipped half of my shorts into the bowl.

I let them sit for 30 minutes and then rinsed out some of the dye.

I flipped them over and dipped the other half into the other color.

After another 30 minutes, and a quick wash and dry...

VOILA!

I absolutely love how they turned out!

I even added some embellishment to one pair!

So, next time you think about dishing out money for dip-dyed clothes, remember that you can always do it yourself.

Hope you love them as much as I do!

And if you try this at home, don't forget to show us your dip-dyed shorts too.

--Christina

http://www.runwaydreamz.com/

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