Make it: Kate Spade Inspired Glitter Accessories

It is without doubt the time of year to add some sparkle to your accessories.  Today I have three simple DIY's that are inspired by one of my favourite designers Kate Spade.  Not only are they are so simple and look amazing but they are also budget friendly.  One A4 sheet of glitter fabric is more than enough to make all three accessories,  I am going to show you how to make simple shoe bows, earnings and a statement clutch bag.  I have used an old clutch bag but you could easily make a simple zip-topped pouch using our make-up bag tutorial. 

You will need: Glitter fabric, shoe clips, earring backs, pink ribbon 3mm and 15mm wide, a black clutch bag, glue, chalk pencil, a scrap of felt and scissors. 

For the shoe clips:

Step 1. Cut two strips of glitter fabric approximately 3.5cm wide by 25cm and fold the two short ends into the centre and glue them in place.

Step 2. Take a short length of 15mm pink ribbon and wrap it around the centre of the glitter bow. 

Step 3. Glue a shoe clip in place on the back, to the bow at the top.

Step 4. To make it more secure glue a small piece of felt over the top of the clip. 

These bows are so simple to make and they would make really cute brooches too, or you could attach them to gifts to make your Christmas wrapping look extra special.

For the bow earrings:

Step 1. As with the shoe clips you want to cut two strips of glitter fabric approx 4.5cm long by 1cm wide. Fold the edges to the middle and glue them in place. 

Step 2. Wrap a small length of 3mm ribbon twice around the centre of the glitter bow and glue the ends. 

Step 3. Glue a small earring post (or clip) to the centre back of each bow. 

For the statement clutch bag:

Step 1. Decide what word or phrase you want to have on your bag, then using a chalk pencil mark out the letters you need on the reverse of the fabric with a chalk pencil. Remember to flip the letters so they are the right way round when you turn the fabric back over. 

Step 2. Cut out each letter.

Step 3. Glue the letters to your clutch bag.

And that's it, a simple and fun way to sparkle up any outfit this holiday season especially if you are on a budget, as the supplies for all of these DIY's cost under £10. 

What holiday parties are you going to this year? Are you throwing a holiday party? If not don't worry because these would also make great gifts for your party animal friends! Don't forget to #livelovemake to show us your DIY's from our blog, 

Sammy xxx


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Make it:Christmas Crackers

I don't know about you but I am just a little disappointed by Christmas crackers. The gifts inside are always a little... meh. Last year I bought a kit to make my own and filled them with sweets and my own selection of small treats. They were such a hit that I thought I would go one step further this year and make my own from scratch. To put a little twist on them I have made them in a different shape as well and am planning on using them as place-cards for our Christmas day dinner table. These are so fun and quick to make they would be a great craft to do with the kiddos in the count down to the big day to keep them involved.

Live it: Paperchase SS15 Event

H and I have worshipped at the doors of Paperchase Tottenham Court Road for more than 15 years. Four floors of stationary, pens, paper and gifts who would not want to be a paper chaser? You can imagine our delight when an invite hit our inbox to head over to TCR and view their Spring/Summer 2015 line and have some Christmas crafting fun, we literally squealed.

Last Tuesday evening we made our way up to the crafting area at the top of the store and were met by the PR and some of the design team. after a welcome drink we headed over to have fun with glitter with the lovely Martine Arty. They have a bunch of workshops going on in the lead up to Christmas at the flagship store, head over to the #imadethis page on their website for more details.

We got to make Christmas decorations, basically we got to play with amazing paper, glue and glitter for an hour, it was awesome! 

Then they let us loose on the new collections. The lovely Puja took us around and talked us through some of the pieces. We are so excited to get our hands on some of these goodies. We don't want to spoil the surprise as we will be doing a post all about the collections when they are released so we have just given you a little teaser below...

Cockatoo tankard and it takes two to Mango! Yes!

A trip to the store would not be complete without a little shopping spree, so we headed down to check out the Christmas goodies and picked up more than a few supplies to keep us going until the next time we come and visit.

We would just like to say a massive THANK YOU to the guys at Paperchase for having us along, and for the awesome goodie bag!

Are you a Paperchase fan? What is your favourite piece of paperchasery? Or piece of stationary that you last bought?

Let us know, as usual in the comments below or on twitter @livelovemake

H and Sammy xxx


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Make it: Glitter Snowglobe

Another gift for Christmas today and it's a really simple Snowglobe.  You can really tailor this to whoever you are going to give it to as the scene inside is whatever you want it to be.  I choose a Barbie theme as I know it's just what the recipient of this little beauty would love.  This would be just as perfect for a child as an adult and so there are no limits to the theme you could choose.

As I said, it really is very simple to make.  You will need:  A Jar (I got mine from Tiger), waterproof glue, plastic glitter, Glycerin, Bottled water and your ornament for inside.

Using the waterproof glue, attach your ornament to the inside of the lid.  This may take a good 24 hours to completely dry and so you can do this way before you are ready to put it all together.  You could make up a whole scene or use a small ornament like mine to keep it simple.

Once your ornament is in place, you can get to the fun part!

Fill your jar up with bottled water, it needs to be distilled water and so this is why bottled water works best.

When you have filled your jar almost to the top, add a dash of Glycerin, probably about 2 tablespoons.  This will make your glitter fall down more slowly.

Then, add your glitter.  Add as much or as little as you like to make your snowglobe glitter happy.  Then stir your water, glycerin and glitter together so that it makes a nice mix.  You can now fill the jar totally to the top.

Now you can pop your lid on (make sure you keep it upside down) and seal it up using glue.  The jar I used has a great cork lid and so its easy to glue inside the lid first.  A little liquid might come out the top as it is overflowing from the ornament being added.  Just mop it up and when your ready turn it over.

You now have your glitter snowglobe.

What scene or ornament would you put in yours?  I am always on the look out for a really nice London snowglobe and so perhaps this should be my next make!

H


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Make it: Easter Bunny Ears DIY with Blooming Felt

Today we bring you a crafty classic DIY for your Easter weekend... Bunny Ears!

With the help of Blooming Felt we are going to show you how to whip up a pair for you to wear for lunch on Easter Sunday or Monday with your family. These would also be great if you are hosting an Easter egg hunt for your little family members like H and I are. Lets get to it!

You will need: Felt, Contrast fabric, a Sharpie or vanishing marker, glue, bondaweb, Wire, Scissors and a Hair band.

We started by bondawebing two sheets of felt together to make it stiffer, then we marked out our ear shapes on the felt.  Make sure you leave room for two tabs at the bottom of each ear shape to attach them to the band.  Cut out your ears. Next make two loops from your wire and glue them to the middle of your ears, this will mean you can bend them into cute expressions later.  Take your contrast fabric and draw around your felt ears.

Next, cut around the ear shapes you have drawn on the contrast fabric, cut a little inside the line so you will be able to see the felt around the edge, but make sure it will still cover the wire. Then glue the fabric down over the wire and leave it to dry.

Once your glue has dried, cut a slit into the tab you left at the bottom of each ear.  Pop a dab of glue onto one side and flap the other side over it at 90 degrees. Again wait for the glue to dry before the next step.

Take both ears and play around with the position. Once you like where they are going to sit on the band, glue them in place. 

There you have it, the perfect Easter accessory.

If you like my glitter ears they are in exactly the same way as H's blue ears using my fave glitter fabric as the contrast.

Hope you liked our version of this crafty classic? As always we would love to see if you have a go at these, if you do, take a quick pic and share it with us on Twitter @livelovemake or on Instagram @Sammytvr or @h_a_sketch don't forget the hashtag #livelovemake

Wishing you all a lovely Easter weekend, what are you up to, are you taking advantage of the long weekend by having a go at some crafts of your own??  Let us know in the comments what you are up to. We read every comment and reply to as many as we can. 

Sammy and H 

Make it: Glitter Heart DIY Phone Case

Lets face it sometimes you just want to make something cute to treat yourself on Valentines, this Phone case is the perfect little DIY and super easy to make. I picked up a cheap phone case from Amazon and I loved the colour but it was a little plain so I decided to DIY it as a gift to myself.

All you will need is a phone case, glitter (colour of your choice) and strong glue.

It is as easy as pie, pop your glue onto the case in the shape of a heart. Sprinkle the glitter over the glue and wait for it to dry a little before tapping off the excess. Whenever I work with glitter I always work over a sheet of paper so I can salvage any of the glitter left over. You can use a dry paint brush to dust away any glitter from around the edge of your design if it doesn't fall away when your glue is dry.  There you have it, a cute glittery heart case for your phone.

The obvious use for it is to take some dorky mirror selfies to send to your beau, I am printing these out for the inside My Hubby's Valentines card, as he says that my phone and I are inseparable. Hopefully it will make him laugh.

What are you making for Valentines? Are you making or buying treats for yourself, like I do?
If you missed it, head back and check out the Gamertag hoodie I made for Steve and see more ideas for DIY phone cases in this post from last year.

Sammy xxx

We would love to see if you have a go at this. Like with all our DIY's if you do, take a pic and share it with us on Twitter or instagram with the hashtag #livelovemake

Make it: DIY Phone cases

I love changing up my phone case don't you, it's a fun way to make your tech you own, to personalise it without damaging it. There are so many diy versions out there that you could make a different cse for every day of the week!  Here is a round up of some of my favourites.

Glitter case DIY  /  Phone case DIY and two more  /  Starry phone case  /  Washi phone case /  Stud phone case  /  Rainbow phone case  /  Sharpie phone case

Some really cool ideas don't you think? I am off to find my Sharpies!

Have a great weekend 

Sammy xxx

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Make it: Gold and Neon Pink

We did a big spring clean at home this weekend, and  I found some bits I had forgotten about to do some DIY's, I am looking forward to having a go at a few of them over the next few weeks. I will share the results here when I'm done. In the meantime here are some great DIY ideas to bring a little sparkle and neon in to your life this week. I am Loving Gold and Neon pink together at the moment!

1.Jazz up your jam jars

2. Funk up your old white crockery

3. Dried pasta decorations have never looked so cute

4. Sequin elbow patches

5. Paint the inside of gift boxes with a splash of neon

6. Neon stickers on kraft paper as wrap

Can't wait to talk all things Oscars tomorrow!

Sammy xxx