Tomorrow is the last day to sign up for our Valentine’s Day Craft Swap! Sign up here and read this for all of the details. Happy crafting!
valentine swap deadline
valentine’s craft swap!!!
We had lots of requests for a Valentine Swap, so here it is! Sign up, I’ll match you with a partner, you make your partner a Valentine gift, they make you one, and you both have a happy Valentine’s Day.
Sign up here.
Sign up is open for one week only, so spread the news to fellow crafty friends so we can get as many people involved in the week. Get your creative juices flowing and I’ll send you your partner’s info next week, and of course the craft will be “due” on (around) February 14th.
Here are some past Vday swap flickr groups for some ideas. Here and here.
another clever how-to from Carbon Couture
I am just falling in love with Carbon Couture, especially with her crafty ways of creating fashion accessories! Shown above are some cool tassel earrings from the Marc Jacobs Spring 2009 collection, and below are the earrings she made to look just like them! I love it! See here on her blog to create your own with her easy instructions!
Also, a while ago, she made a how-to for this Dries Van Noten bracelet that is really great if you’re in the mood!
Yay Carbon Couture!
Learning to knit with Jasmine! Episode 3
Jasmine of our sweater design team continues our knitting lessons in this third installment of Learning to Knit with Jasmine! This time, Jasmine shows us how to make a popcorn stitch, also known as baubles, for a more festive and interesting look! And if you missed episode 1 or episode 2, be sure to check them out! They’ll get you all caught up and ready to make baubles! Yay!
belt diy
I really love this idea for updating a plain old leather belt. This particular belt looks cool with the eyelet details. I like the way it looks when the leather splits.
Head over to Bleach Black for the details! (I also recommend reading the first comment on her entry:)
using extra fabric scraps
Barbara of Bobbi Clothes teaches you how to make a simple loom and a beautiful hand woven scarf or belt from scraps of fabric. I love how she connects the pieces of fabric and how hand touched the finished piece looks. It’s also cool way to recycle your extra bits instead of trashing them.
And how inspiring does her studio look?
Check out Threadbanger for more crafty tutorials
brother’s intense new sewing machine
Can you believe Brother’s snazzy new sewing machine? The QuattroT 6000D features a HD screen where a bird’s eye, zoomed-in view of the needle and its surroundings are displayed. It also has a LED light for the sewing platform. They haven’t announced the price yet, (I bet it’s crazy!) but you can check out a little more about the machine here on Brother’s website. I never thought I’d see a personal sewing machine with a screen!
december catalog hair how-to
Remember the super pretty hair wraps our stylist Monica did for the December catalog? Well we recently made a little video in which Monica shows us how we can make the hair wraps too!
To my delight, I got to have my hair be the example, so I had awesome wraps in my hair for a while! It was so fun! You guys should definitely try it! Find the tutorial below – enjoy!
patchwork label pillow
Lately I have been working on making a quilt, (I’ll be sure and post when it’s finished!) and so when I saw this pillow on Familyman5k’s photostream, it really caught my eye! It never would have occurred to me to collect and use labels to make a patchwork anything! Clever!
Here’s the blurb that Familyman5k wrote to go with the picture: My mother made this patchwork quilt pillow from labels I saved for years from old clothes, mostly from me, some from my kids. I really love how it turned out and wanted to share this as it’s such a creative and beautiful idea!
Remember to save those interesting labels from clothes before you throw them away. I feel that once people see something like this, many will want to save their labels and someday have one.
So true! I know I’ll be saving my labels now!
reuse your old calendar
The new year is quickly approaching, and if you are like me, you are going to have a couple of defunct calendars on your hands soon! I’m always at a loss of what to do with them, since I usually like the pictures so much! This year however, I am looking forward to turning my old calendars into envelopes and notecards! Both Mara Rivet at Thrifty Fun and Kelli on There is No Place Like Home have really cute and easy tutorials on how to do it! Definitely check them out if you are looking for a fun way to reuse your calendars! You could use magazine tears too!
The cute old calendar picture above was found at this interesting site.
beaded trees
A lot of you have a little break next week, and maybe you want a fun holiday craft to do? I posted these a couple years ago and everyone loved them, so I thought I’d share again!
Our display team made these beaded trees with those styrofoam cones you can buy at the craft store, a bunch of beads, and straight pins. They are SO easy to make and look so pretty and festive. Dump out that bead box and start pinning!
I can see these looking really pretty in more specific colors too, like if you did one all white and sparkly, or used just a few colors instead of the rainbow.
a quick make-up how-to
A few days ago, our customer service representatives received this little note:
Dear Free People,
I receive your catalogs in the mail…thank you. I have a question in regards to your November 2008 catalog.
On pages 25 and 35, is it possible for you to tell me what lipstick color/brand they are?
Thank you.
We asked our make-up artist, Deanna, to help us out with this question, and she told us exactly how she made-up the model’s lips! I thought I’d share her answer with you:
Prepare the lip with a little Eucerin ointment- just enough to moisten the lip.
Then press Make Up For Ever Star powder (loose) in iridescent fuschia into lip, concentrating color more on the center of lips, then build to desired intensity.
Most Make Up For Ever products can be purchased at Sephora!
Thanks Deanna!