Remember way back when like two months ago I showed you how to make a fun nautical inspired knotted headband out of a T shirt? Well here is another fun one, that you can make out of the scraps of shirt you had left over. And even though it may be hard to imagine this one is easier, but just as fun.
1. Cut the bottom of the shirt into half inc to one inch strips (depending on how wide you want your braid to be. You will need four strips.
2. Once you have your strips cut, cut one side of them, so they are no longer a loop, and stretch them out. By giving them a good tug, the t shirt material will stretch out and make a nice t shirt yarn.
3. Take one end of the four pieces and tie them in a knot. Be careful not to make it too tight, as you will be taking it out later. Once knotted, braid the length of your “yarn.” You can use three and do a normal braid, but to make it wider and give it a bit more detail you can use a four strand braid.
4. After you have finished the braid, it’s time to finish it off. Undo the knot from the beginning and wrap the braid around your head. When you have it at the desired length and tightness tie it off into a tight knot. I personally like the look of the fringe pieces hanging off, so I trimmed them to an even length. But you can just as easily pull the knot very tight, and cut off all the extra yarn.
5. Another way to add fun variety is by mixing materials. In this braid I used two different shirts. Two strands in a neutral grey and two strands in a fluorescent yellow.
Category Archives: DIY
May
2013
DIY Four Strand Braid Headband
April
2013
Stamped Produce Bags – a belated Earth Day craft.
Very high on my list of things I hate are those bags that you put your produce in at the grocery store. By the way, my husband and I have an ongoing fight over whether or not to put bananas into one of those bags. Um, dude, bananas have peels. A year or so ago I went super Earth Mama and made some bags for produce out of an old pair of pants, but as many many many things in my home, they went missing. And so I returned to those icky bags.
But not for long! This week the busy bees and I did a little bit for the Earth and made ourselves some new produce bags, and made them even more awesome by using fruits and veggies to decorate them. It definitely was a fun (but slightly messy) project. I’m not gonna lie, fabric paint is not easy to get out of your favorite, perfectly worn in grey tee shirt. Boooo.
To make these bags, you will need
1. 1 – 2 yards of lightweight but sturdy fabric. I got mine at Joanns in the utility fabric section.
2. Fabric paint
3. Meat trays for the paint (yay recycling!)
4. Various fruit and veggies. We used apples, pears, oranges, broccoli, celery, cucumber and carrot.
For a little educational value, I labeled two pieces of fabric “fruit” and two “veggie” so we had a little conversation about sorting and categorizing, and even talked a little nutrition.
like the blue splatters? Heres a tip – put the lid on the paint BEFORE you shake it.
How awesome does that celery stamp look? That might have to make an appearance in a later project…
After drying overnight, I whipped up some drawstring bags (there are 400 bazillion tutorials online, so I will forgo the laborious instructions) that will be perfect for produce, and will spare me from those horrid grocery store bags! And my store gives me a $.05 discount for every bag I bring myself so cha ching! I figure these will pay for themselves in, like, a year or two. Ha ha.
What baby steps have you made to make the earth a little happier this month? It doesn’t take much! Every little bit helps.
Happy Earth, um, Month!
April
2013
DIY Yarn Bowl
Today I have a fun little project, that is great for making with the kiddos.
1. You will need yarn (cut into strips, I used 17 inch strips, but you can really use whatever length you want), glue, a bowl (or a can or a jar), and saran wrap.
2. Cover your bowl (or can or jar) with saran wrap. It doesn’t have to look pretty, but it does need to be completely covered. Then pour your glue into a second small bowl and dip your strips of yarn into the glue. Once your strips of yarn are drenched in glue place them on your saran wrapped bowl. There is really is no rhyme or reason to how you put them on, that is the fun of the project. You can create designs or just let the kiddos have fun.
3. Once the saran wrapped bowl is completely covered let it sit overnight and dry completely.
4. The next day lift the bowl off of the saran wrapped bowl, it should easily be removed, and you have a beautiful bowl!
April
2013
Positive Message Memo Board for Kids
I wanted to create asimple message memo board to keep in the girls playroom, and this did just the thing! I do mybest to write and say possitve messages to my two girls as often as possible. I love seeing their eyes shine when they see a new message on their board!
Items used:
White frames: Michael’s Craft Store
Small Black letters: Michael’s
Martha Stewart gold paint: Michael’s
Pink and white scrapbook paper (I just ran it through my printer with the positive prompt)
I hope to see you all at the market on April 27th!!
Karie J.
Pinterest: HERE
Instagram: @kariemjohnson
Linking up at:
House of Hepworths
The CSI Project
Crafty Scrappy Happy
Kitchen Fun with my 3 Sons
April
2013
Drafting Table turned Kitchen Island
Today I have a fun project for you. A while back I found this great oak drafting table. You may actually remember this crazy picture of me trying to get this table back to my house. The things we do for JUNK!
And here she is in all her glory. After a good cleaning it was time to get busy, and with 2 coats of paint it was time for some distressing.
I love a good distressed piece of furniture, so naturally I decided this piece would look best distressed. Now I am kind of old fashioned when it comes to distressing furniture, and I’ll be real honest, I’m cheap. I painted this whole piece from a sample size of paint (2 coats) from Lowes. Now I prefer to use a power sander, it makes this go so much faster. I lightly sanded the corners and edges and places where the piece would naturally show some wear. It doesn’t require heavy sanding, I used a 200 grit sand paper. Once your piece is good and sanded, grab a damp cloth and wipe it down good to remove any excess sand and dirt. Then grab your favorite stain, mine is Minwax’s Dark Walnut. I prefer to use a paint brush and brush on the stain. Now here’s the kind of tricky part, I only do a small section at a time. So on this table I painted up one side of the leg, then I grabbed a clean rag (or old tshirt you don’t want any more, or old burp cloths work great too) and wipe off the stain. As you will quickly learn, the stain is going to soak into the areas that were sanded down the most. If you do not get your desired color the first time you can brush on the stain a second time and wipe it off again. Now this process will darken up and give the paint a richer over all color. You can get a better idea of what I’m talking about as you see in the pictures below.
And now for the fun part, I bought this great butcher board top at Ikea to create the perfect island and then I brought my dad to town and used his expertise to put it on. And let me tell you, it was really so easy, I could have done it myself, but since my dad so kindly offered to help, why not just let him do it. And it freed me up to take some pictures to share with you all. So to get started I bought these corner braces or brackets, I used 6, 3 on each of the long sides of the table. Place the bracket where you want it, make sure it is a place where you will be able to fit the drill into. Also make sure that the bracket is level, we couldn’t find my level, so instead we used a piece of wood and placed it across the corner of the table to make sure that the top of the bracket did not exceed the top of the table. This is very important because it will ensure that the table top sits down onto the wood instead of leaving a gap between the table base and the butcher block top. (hopefully that makes sense, just leave a comment and let me know if you have any questions.) Then using a very small drill bit, drill a small hole into the 2 holes of the bracket. This will make it easier to then screw your screws into the base.
Now that the holes are prepped, grab your screws and screw them into the base. Then grab the butcher block top, measure and make sure that you have it placed evenly, then repeat the same process with the brackets, by prepping the holes and then screwing the screws this time into the table top.
And there you have it! A beautiful butcher block island! Once the top is all attached I would recommend wiping a mineral oil to treat the butcher block before using it.
Once a drafting table but now a beautiful island!
Lindsey
Linked up at Furniture Feature Friday w/ MMS
April
2013
Painted Pots!
Spring is in the air! Loving being outdoors this time of year. Trying to do it as much as we can! On that note, I wanted to freshen up some of our pots we had around the house. One was a terra cotta pot and the smaller one was from Ikea. They definitely were looking for a little oomph!
Items used:
old pots
Martha Stewart gold metallic paint and neutral paint
blue painters tape
Inspiration from: Liz Marie Blog
What spring projects are you working on?
I would love to hear it in the comments below!
Karie J.
Pinterest: HERE
Instagram: @kariemjohnson
Linking up at:
House of Hepworths
The CSI Project
Crafty Scrappy Happy
Kitchen Fun with my 3 Sons
March
2013
An Easter Dinner Table
Let me just say, you really lucked out today…you get three posts in one! I was going to title this Three Posts in One – Easy Cloth Napkins, Easter Eggs, Vintage China and my Children’s Shenanigans with the Garden Hose, but, um that was too long. So without further ado, here are three posts (+my childrens’ shenanigans with the garden hose) in one.
First of all – easy cloth napkins. These are…well…easy! I used a thrifted vintage pillowcase, which made four napkins. They turned out just a tad smaller than a regular napkins, so for Easter dinner, I will be giving these to the delicate ladies in my family, such as the lovely Auntie, and Cousin Anna Margaret. Uncle Bob and (ahem) my dad will be getting a roll of paper towels. Just kidding. That’s only when we are eating ribs. And ham. And burgers. And macaroni and cheese. But I digress.
It has been so beautiful here, so I decided to set my little workstation up outside. This was convenient, because it was close to the large patch of dirt in my back yard which can be easily turned into mud. Nothing entertains my beautiful little girls quite as well or as long as a good patch ‘o mud. More on that later. I used my rotary cutter to cut the hem off the pillowcase, then folded it in half, finger pressed it in the middle (this is the technical term for “push really hard with your finger to make a mark where you want to cut”) and then cut it in half.
Then I trimmed all the edges to make 4 rectangles. Really easy! Hem up the edges and you’re done. I used a 1/4 inch narrow hem. To get a narrow hem, use your seam gauge to measure a 1/2 inch hem, press/iron, then go back and fold the raw edge to the fold, and press again. Stitch as close to the folded or inner edge as you can. If you want that nice mitered corner, fold the point down into a triangle before making the final press.
These are so darn easy! Last time I made cloth napkins it was NOT a good experience, but these were so simple. Who is getting cloth napkins for Christmas? EV.RY.ONE.
Now on to Easter eggs! If you have read any of my kid posts, you know that I like to keep art projects fairly open ended – translate that Mommy doesn’t like to do all the work while the kiddos watch – and I felt like the Bees are still too little for “traditional” egg dying. I figured out a system that worked beautifully for us this year. We blew the eggs out of the shell, then put a chopstick through the holes and stuck the chopstick into a shoebox to paint. I could not believe how much time the Baby Bee spent painting these! She was concentrating so hard, her lil’ tongue was sticking out!
I was pleasantly surprised at how cute these turned out!
And last but not least, the vintage goodies! I host Easter at my house most years, and it’s so beautiful out this time of year that I usually set everything up outside. This year, I even talked my mom into loaning me her Grandmother’s china to serve dinner on!
Um, did anyone see that episode of friends where Chandler smashed all of Monica’s wedding china after he spent the whole day convincing her that it was okay to take it out of the box? Yeah, that was playing in my head all day long.
Anyway, I set it all up yesterday to see how it looked, and I took a few shots to show off how pretty it all looked together. I used the Resurrection Garden as a centerpiece, and the eggs the girls painted on the place settings, and I love how it all turned out! Of course, on Easter afternoon, it will be jammed with food, but I can still enjoy how pretty it all looks now.
My mom let me use her silver flatware too. When I opened the box, I got a sweet sentimental surprise – the little Christmas tag my Grandpa wrote to his parents was still in it. I feel so lucky to have this in my family!
All right, since I know you want it, here are the previously mentioned shenanigans. Since my kiddos got pretty dirty playing in the mud while I worked on the napkins, I let them turn the hose on – on each other apparently. Here is what happens when you spray a hose through a flyswatter at your little sister…
But then Mama gets these sweet snuggles…
I hope you all have a wonderful Easter, spending time celebrating the ultimate sacrifice the Christ made for us!
HE IS RISEN, INDEED!
March
2013
A Pinterest Inspired Easter, part one!
Happy Spring! Hard to believe Easter is just around the corner. We have been busy here in our household incorporating everything Easter that we possibly can. We love this time of year, especially the nice warm weather. Even though it’s getting a touch warm, at least it’s not snowing!
Super Sweet Easter Breakfast:
Peeps (straw idea from: The Frugal Girls)
Mason Jars
Powdered donuts (idea from: Tip junkie)
Scrapbook paper scraps for ears
Jelly Beans for eyes and nose
Fluffy Bunny Tails:
Mason Jar
Washi Tape
Marshmallow fluff (Walgreens)
Adorable printable from: Lil Luna
Bunny Bait:
Easter colored M & M’s
Treat bags
Adorable printable from: Eighteen 25
Peep gift:
Peeps!
Sandwich sized bags
Adorable printable from: Eighteen 25
Bunny Tail gift:
Marshmallow Fluff!
Sandwich sized bags
Adorable printable from:
Peep S’mores!
Peeps
Cinnamon graham crackers
Dark chocolate
Super Simple Easter Decorating:
Hard Boiled eggs (of course)
Sharpies
Your imagination!
Inspiration from: Mom.Me
What are you doing with your kids for Easter this year?
I would love to hear it in the comments below!
Karie J.
Pinterest: HERE
Instagram: @kariemjohnson
Linking up at:
House of Hepworths
The CSI Project
Crafty Scrappy Happy
Kitchen Fun with my 3 Sons
March
2013
a knotted headband
If you follow me on Instagram you got a sneak peak of this project. Over the weekend I worked on a few headband tutorials for you all. I was able to create these beauties with some shirts out of my goodwill pile. Today for you I have the how to for the knotted girl there in the middle. Pleasantly nautical right? I was also thinking it would look great made out of a thick rope or cording. Maybe someday I will try.
First you are going to start by cutting six half inch strips from your t shirt. After cutting them, give them a good tug, stretch them out – making it into T shirt yarn. Then you will divide them into two groups of three strands.
Pretty great right? Come back next week for the next headband tutorial. And if you make one up, let us see it #jittheadbands on instagram!!
March
2013
Paper Flowers!
Well over here at Junk in the Trunk we have been very busy preparing for the Vintage Market! It’s coming up really soon! April 27th, have you market your calendars! One of the things I have been working on is making lots of paper flowers! Now there are lots of different types and ways of making paper flowers, but today I’m just going to show you one. 
A book, string (I am hanging my flowers on a string, you will have to come to the market to see what we are doing with them, but you don’t have to hang them on a string), hot glue, paint (optional if you want to add a little color to the flowers) and that’s it. 1. Carefully tear the pages out of the book. 2. Fold one page in half (in elementary school our teachers used to call it hot dog style, long and narrow, as opposed to hamburger style). 3. Cut strips starting at the open end cutting 3/4 of the way toward the fol. Make sure to not cut through the fold.
4. Starting on one end of the fold put a small dot of hot glue. (If you are putting your flowers on a string, lay the string through the hot glue.) 5. Start rolling the paper along the fold. 6. As you are approaching the end of the paper put a line of hot glue along the fold. 7. Continue rolling your paper to the end.
8. Now for a little fluffing. Grab a pencil and starting at the ends of the paper strips roll the strips around the pencil, until you can’t roll anymore. Hold the rolled paper strips around the pencil for 10 seconds, this help them to hold a little curl. Once you remove the pencil, with your fingers gently seperate the layers of paper stips. Fluffing!
What have you guys been working on? Anything fun!?!
