hair – A Smith of All Trades

Christmas, Craft Projects, Holiday, Quick and Easy Crafts

Mistletoe Headband

December 18, 2012December 18, 2012 Jessica Smith

On Saturday we went to an ugly sweater party to bring in the holiday season (and celebrate Dana’s birthday) the right way. Emily and I sat down to make some fun outfits – she made a sweatshirt with Animal from The Muppets on it and I made a T-shirt inspired by Mean Girls. Check us out.

Her sweatshirt in the works…

And my tee ready to go…

Only one thing left to make for the party, and that was the Mistletoe Headband. I made this headband in ten minutes or less. Here’s what you need: 1 headband, green felt, red felt, 3 silver pipe cleaners, and rhinestones.

To start the headband, I cut out three mistletoe leaves from the green felt.

Then I cut out red berries, until I realized that was holly. Oops.

I braided the three pipe cleaners together, leaving about two inches unbraided at the very end. Then, I glued the green leaves to the green backing (pictured above), sandwiching the finished end of the pipe cleaner braid in between.

Once that dried, I glued the third leaf behind so it dangled in the middle.

With all of the leaves dried in place, I embellished with rhinestones and a red ribbon, hot glueing each piece onto the existing felt leaves.

Next, I wrapped the three strands of unbraided pipe cleaners around the headband and secured with hot glue. As a final step, I took a piece of red felt and cut it into a long strip, then hot glued it around the base of the deally bopper so the pipe cleaners wouldn’t stab me in the head. Good choice for sure!

Depending on how long your pipe cleaners are, you might need to spiral or bend your stem so your mistletoe doesn’t hit you straight in the eye. That would probably hurt.

Check out this masterpiece.

I love this headband so much. I should add that it was inspired by a store-bought headband a coworker wore to our holiday party last week. So awesome. Like I said, this took ten minutes tops and was a great addition to my festive tee.

Aren’t we the cutest sisters!? We are practically twins.

And I of course had to try it on Remmy….

… Who promptly took it off.

If you are going to a holiday party you should definitely make one. This headband is pretty much essential to any holiday shindig. I might even wear it on Christmas 🙂

Craft Projects

Feather headbands

November 5, 2012November 6, 2012 Jessica Smith

The Trash to Treasure Fair is this upcoming weekend and I am making a few final goodies to bring with me. I had a few feathers left over from my pin and barrette project, so I decided to make feather headbands. They turned out really well and I’m pretty excited about them. They will be a big seller for sure — too bad I only had supplies to make four!

To start out, I grabbed a headband I had sitting around in my craft room, some felt and some cardboard. I trimmed the cardboard and felt down to the same size.

To start, I glued my cardboard onto the headband, holding it at the ends so the hot glue would dry and the cardboard would hold its rounded shape.

When the cardboard was set in place, I hot glued the felt onto to opposite side (the side that touches your hair).

With everything dry and ready to go, I trimmed any excess cardboard and felt. Then, I added the feathers (the best part, duh!). To add the feathers, I put lots of hot glue onto the cardboard and added feathers in rows. I started at the top part of the headband and worked my way down.

Then, I added buttons!

Tah dahhhhh! So pretty!

Here the others I made:

Craft Projects

Flower pins and barrettes

October 22, 2012October 22, 2012 Jessica Smith

I was a crafting machine this weekend! Unfortunately for the blog, I was making oodles and oodles of the same things, all of which I’ve shared with you already. My weekend was consumed with Mod Podged candles and feather pins and barrettes. I did get a chance to try something new that I think will be a big hit at my fair in November — flower barrettes! If I had a daughter, she’d be wearing these things every day. They are so flippin’ cute!

Since I was making these for the Trash to Treasure fair, I was using materials that others my otherwise think of as garbage. So, I pulled out a scrap of blue fabric about 4 inches x 6 inches and some cardboard that came in a package at work this week.

The first thing I did was cut out five petals from my fabric. I cut these petals with a pointy tip, but I think I like the rounded edges a little bit more.

Next, I sewed the petals together. To do so, I started on the bottom edge of the petal and stitched it down through the top, then back and forth three times. This puts a nice little crease in each petal.

Once you do the first, add the rest in the same manner. With all five threaded, put a stitch back through the first petal, then tie the thread in a knot.

Now it’s time to add the backing. I cut out a square of cardboard and a piece of felt and glued them to one another. Then, I glued the cardboard side to the back of the flower.