Then several coats of glitter paint.

Then it was just a matter of piling on a lot of cute paper clay food I’d made several years ago.

I did so by layering it all and hot gluing as I went.

You can never have too much whipped cream on a project like this.

Gaps filled with beads, pearls, diamantes and cabochons.

DONE!

A good way to get out the pink glitter that’s been building up in my brain and make a gift for someone I know will love it, now I just need to get the rest of her package together :D

Arrange them together how you’d like, I prefer to have one main piece of interest, a couple of  smaller things and then ribbon and lace dangling down.

So this is going to be the main part…

And then dangling ribbons and lace behind it…

Glue the pieces together one by one.

Then the ribbons on the back.

Add a little metal link to the back so you can attach it to a strap later and cover all of the back with a piece of felt.

And that’s all there is to it!

Pretty phone/bag/whatever strap for a girl who likes pretty things and it look all of around 10 minutes to make.

This is a fantastic way to use up old things from your craft stash too so it’s win/win!

• Lace
• Thin ribbon
• Thin wire

First thing’s first, decide how long you want the usamimi to be and cut the lace to that length.

Lay it flat on a table and place the ribbon over the top in the center like this. If you prefer you can pin it in place.

Stitch down either side of the ribbon so it forms a tube with the lace. You want to get as close to the edge of the ribbon as possible so it looks neat and tidy. Sew one of the ends shut too but leave the other open as we’ll need to shove the wire in it.

You should have something like this…

Now cut a length of wire which is a few inches longer than the lace.

Fold the end of it over and twist so it forms a loop like the photo below. This loop will stop it poking out of the ends between the stitches.

Poke it into the tube between the lace and ribbon.

Thread it through all the way until you reach the other end of the lace.

Twist the other end of the wire into a loop as well.

Poke the wire in so it’s completely inside the tube and stitch it shut with some thread.

Taadaa! you have a very pretty and versatile usamimi which you can use in the traditional way or in so many other ways because it’s basically a bendable piece of lace.

I’m very tempted to make a bunch of these in different colours because they’re a really good way to top off an outfit :D

It should form a thin side and a thicker rounded edge which will end up being the round part of the petal.

Repeat with all of the petals so they are ready to work with. If you want you can dip your finger in water and smooth down any cracks in the edges but I prefer to leave them or even exaggerate them as it creates a really interesting effect.

To for the rose, start with a small petal and roll it between your fingers like this:

Roll the bottom of the petal together a little harder so it forms a stem:

Now add a slightly bigger petal and roll it around the other side so it encases the edge of the first petal.

Add another petal so it’s edge is in the middle of the second petal. As you go, roll the petals with a little bit more force at the bottom so the clay squishes together between your fingers to form a stem. Be careful not to disturb the petals when you do it though.

Continue adding petals this way going around the flower in a circular pattern starting the edge of each petal 1/3rd of the way across the previous petal.

Just keep going until you think you’ve got a good size and let it all dry!

If you want you can clean up the stem and roll it a bit more evenly, I generally cut it of so the flower sits flat in whatever craft I’m doing.

Do you guys have something you automatically make? I seem to just make these on auto pilot whenever I get clay in my hands XD

What you need:

• Fabric
• Needle and thread or sewing machine
• Wire

First thing you need to do is work out how long you want the usamimi to be and cut a rectangle of fabric to that size. Fold it in half on the long side (so it’s very thin and long) and cut the ends into slightly curved points. The photo below shows what the points should look like unfolded.

This is what you should end up with, two points on each end.

Fold it so the good side of the fabric is on the inside and start stitching at the crease. Go up to the point:

And back down the other side.

Continue stitching all the way down the side until you reach the end of the other point.

Tie off the thread and leave the other end of the point open.

Turn the whole thing inside out through the hole at the point.

If you need to, use something pointy like a pen to help push it all through.

You should have something along these lines:

Cut a length of wire a few inches longer than the fabric is point to point. Fold one end of the over and twist so it forms a loop. This will prevent it from poking through the stitching on the other side.  Push the piece of wire into the usamimi through the hole and all the way to the other point.

In the other tutorial I wrote the wire was stitched around the outside of the fabric, that works best if you have very thin wire, this technique works best if you have thicker wire.

Once the wire is all the way in, twist the other end in a loop too.

Fold the edges of the hole under and hand stitch it completely shut.

Test it out by twisting it together and you’re good to go :D

Very simple to do and super quick if you do them on the sewing machine too. If your fabric is very puffy you might like to topstitch the sides to flatten it a bit but I actually prefer the puffiness.

Hope you guys enjoyed, there’s a video version of this coming soon too!

• Black felt
• Thick velcro
• Other felt for the letters (I’m using grey)
• Needle/thread
• Ribbon or elastic to attach it
• Lace or more ribbon for edging
• Matching thick ribbon or more felt to match.

Now we need something to cover the edges and the rest of the backing. I had some pretty matching ribbon but you could also use some more felt. So cut a piece to go above and below the velcro like this:

The velcro makes it a bit harder to work with than regular fabric so pin it all in place.

And then cut it to shape.

To hold it all together you will need to edge it, I hand stitched some lace around all of the sides. If you didn’t want to use lace you could use matching ribbon or bias binding tape. Make sure you encase all of the raw edges in the lace so nothing can come undone later.

At this point you probably want to stop and have a bit of a giggle that you’ve inadvertently created a Kanye West style shutter glasses sleep mask XD If you’re into that kind of thing you could always just stop here haha!

Now you need a way of attaching it to your head, I sewed a piece of lace on each side to form ties but you could also use elastic.

Now cut out the words you want to spell from matching felt. If you want you could also cut out several options to use depending on your mood.

Press them firmly to the velcro and you’ve got a descriptive sleep mask!

Now if the mask actually said what my brain thought when people wake me up from naps it wouldn’t be suitable for the internet ;)