DIY's and such

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Now that I am home for a while, the crafts have begun. I decided to show you all what I am up to and where I gathered my inspiration.

My first project started as Christmas presents for my family: typography portraits. After my pixel-ege rose a little too high, I turned the photos into name tags for my Christmas presents.

The images took roughly 30 minutes to make in Photoshop. You can follow this tutorial to try it on your own.

This second project I stumbled upon while looking at crafty blogs. I have been working on projects for decorating my new house at school and I came across a fabric garland tutorial (found on this fantabulous site). I decided to make lots of flowers and turn some into headbands. I was pretty pleased with the results and ended up giving some headbands as gifts for Christmas! Here is how I did it:

*click photo to enlarge

1. Chose several colors of fabric (I suggest sticking to a jersey knit or spandex material for headbands. However, I used a very light cotton for the flowers so they don't look drab.) You will also need scissors, pencil, thread, and a needle.

2. Trace 6 small circles onto the fabric (8 for a fuller flower).

3. Cut out 15 inch strips for headbands (doesn't have to be straight)

4. Take a single circle and fold once

5. Fold the circle a second time and thread pointed edge through needle. Repeat with all 6 circles until they are on thread. I would sew through all points a couple more times and then knot off.

6. Sew as many flowers as you'd like. Forewarning: this craft is quite tedious and fingers may start cramping after about 4. If you are making garland, strand flowers through your thread and you are done!

7. For the headband you can follow this tutorial (you will need a machine for sewing on elastic if you choose to go this far).

One of my favorite Christmas presents this year was Final Cut Express (thanks mom and dad :). I haven't started teaching myself the program yet, but I am definitely looking forward to better video production *crosses fingers* This was my last video created in iMovie with my good pals Alli and Kate during our finals week.

Alright, that is enough for now.

Toodles