Red, White and Blue Headband

I had the idea to make myself flag bows, glue them on a barrette back, and clip them to my flip flops for the Fourth of July. So I went to the craft store and got all the supplies - along with bunches of other things cuz there's no way I can go to the craft store and only get what's on my list! - and set about making them.

Sounded easy enough...but...all went ok until I tried to actually clip them on my shoe - the metal part was against my foot and it hurt! The solution would have been to just hot glue them to my $3 Old Navy flip flops but I don't like that much commitment and want to wear them without the flag bows the rest of the time. I also tried to attach them to a pin back but that hurt even worse digging into the top of my foot. I sat there trying to figure out a way to attach them that wasn't painful and that led to my thinking I should just wear them as a barrette, and that led to the idea of gluing bows to a white plastic headband that I bought today (3/$1 - I didn't have a plan for them in mind, just bought them to have them for the future) instead and scraping the whole idea of putting them on my shoes!

Now that I've spent an hour on a 5 minute craft I'll share a very simple fun patriotic headband idea with you :). I've saved you all that time!

25" red and white striped ribbon
9"  blue ribbon, cut the ends on a diagonal
6" thin wire
1 white plastic headband
hot glue


Starting with the red and white ribbon I made a bow by folding under 3" then making loops back and forth that are 4" total across. I hot glued the ends down so they wouldn't slip out of the bow. Twist the wire around the middle (so there are 2" of bow on either side) to hold the bow in place, then tie the blue ribbon around the wire - I put the blue knot on the top of the bow, so the underside of the bow is flatter for glueing it down. I made three bows total and hot glued them to the headband.

You can turn these bows into barrettes or pins if you prefer - I just recommend not putting attaching them to your flip flop unless you can figure a way that isn't painful!

Oh, and yes I like quirky cutesy stuff - if this headband isn't your speed then you could either make it for a little girl you know or tailor this for yourself toning it down a bit so it's not quite so silly!

loop the ribbon back and forth totaling 4" across

glue the ends down to hold in place

twist a short piece of wire around the middle to form the bow

my first idea was to attach it to a barrette back

then my idea changed into a headband

first I put it on my model but she's just kinda creepy so then I selfie'd it on me...;)

Ribbon Bracelet

There are some beautiful ribbons out there that catch my eye and I want to buy, but there's only so many ribbons a person needs...then I started buying just a small amount of the ones that I love and would be pretty to wear and now I make bracelets out of them. My favorites to wear are from ribbons that are soft to touch and very detailed, like this flowered one:

I wanted to make a St. Patrick's Day ribbon bracelet but didn't find any ribbon that was perfect - but I do like this green/black/white striped ribbon enough and they are pretty easy to make so even though it isn't my favorite ribbon ever I still made it and really like how it turned out. Now I'll have something green to wear on St. Patty's Day!

materials needed:

• 8" ribbon
• 20 seed beads
• 1 small button for closure
• stretchy cord
• needle and thread

cut a length of stretchy cord to make the closure loop, I cut a piece probably 10" long. thread it onto a needle, tie a knot in one end of the stretchy cord and pull it thru from the backside of the ribbon.

turn the ribbon over and add 20 seed beads to the cord, the needle probably won't go thru the tiny hole in the beads but the stretchy cord is stiff enough that you can just thread them right onto the end of the cord.

thread the cord back onto the needle and poke it back thru the front side of the ribbon right next to where the cord came up to start. this creates a bead loop for the closure.

this is what the back of it will look like after you make the bead loop and tie it off close to the ribbon.

fold the end of the ribbon over twice making sure the loop is at the edge of ribbon. sew the hem in place.

measure how long you want the bracelet to be for your wrist, add about an inch so you can fold the other end of ribbon over twice and sew it in place. sew on the button on the right side.

here's the front of the finished bracelet...

...and the back...

...and how it looks on!