Make Your Own Nature Tapestry!

If you follow me, or anybody, on Pinterest, you'll know that wall hangings are huge right now. Weaving is such a cool and technological art and can be done super inexpensively, like here. I made this tapestry last weekend when we were out camping for Joel's birthday, and I was even able to bring it and hang it on the wall at home, and the best part- I didn't have to buy an expensive loom, I used just nails and the ground to create the framework for this wall hanging.

SUPPLIES:

For this project, all you need is a couple common camping supplies, and a bunch of random stuff you find in nature. I went on a hike to gather supplies, it's basically a crafting workout when you mix exercise in. Bring on the bikinis!

• Nails, or spikes
• String (I used rainbow hemp that my awesome friend brought)
• Random materials from nature- Bark, moss, marking tape (that I found on the ground), sticks, etc.
• Two strong sticks that are around the same length, but longer than the finished width of your tapestry.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Create a rectangle in the ground the size you want your finished tapestry to be.

2. Put an even number of nails along the top and the bottom.

3. Starting at the top left edge, wrap the string around the nail a couple times, and then down to the mirrored nail at the bottom, and up to the second nail, all the way to the last nail. Wrap around the last nail a couple times to stabilize.

4. Weave the two strong sticks into the string, one at the top of the tapestry, and one at the bottom. Over the first string, under the second, over the third, etc.

5. Fill out all the strings with the random materials you found on your hike. Make sure you are weaving your materials in on opposite strings. If your first item started on top of the first string, then your second item must under the first string, and then your third has to start on top again, and repeat.

6. When it's all filled in and you're satisfied with how it looks, take the two ends of your string that you wrapped around the nails, and tie them around the top strong stick.

7. Tie a hanger string to the top strong stick.

8. Carefully slide all the strings off of the nails.

9. Adjust the strings until it all fills out naturally, and voila! You're very own super personalized and unique memoir, nature wall hanging tapestry!

Any cool camping crafts you've tried and loved? I'm all about painting rocks and Joel loves finding the perfect stick and carving it and embellishing it until it's perfect. I'm also thinking I wanna master a nature wind chime before the summer is over! 

Hope you try this out, and hey, if random nature isn't your thing, feel free to use fabric or yarn or wool roving instead. Weaving is one of those crafts that make people really impressed, it's a good trick ;)

XO_BITS

PS
This is BITS' 100th post! Thanks for reading along and keeping me inspired! Can't wait to see where the next 100 posts take me! 

It's Spring! DIY Journal

Journalling more was on my new years resolution list (are we still allowed to talk about our resolutions? ha). Although I haven't journaled as much as I hoped, the year is young and some is better than none.

For my journaling goals, I decided to split my year into 4 sections based on the seasons. I feel like I organize my brain better seasonally rather than monthly, or even yearly. The first journal I made was my winter journal. It was black leather and had an envelope style and I printed out pages to create different sections to the journal. I liked it, it was functional, but there were certain things I didn't like so much. The string closure was sort of annoying, if I was to recreate that journal I would for sure use an elastic to create a stretchable closure. I liked the sections, but I felt pressure to build on all sections at once to keep balance in the journal (OCD much?) and that made me avoid writing at all, which is not at all what I want.

For this journal I kept the pages blank, freestyle. I am sometimes better with freestyle and I find springtime so invigorating and inspiring that I think I will like this freestyle method, although I may create some dividers just to give a bit more organization to the book (I can plan and journal in different sections.. but I will try to let them each grow independently and naturally this time).

SUPPLIES:

-Cereal Box (or other cardboard of that thickness)

-Contact Cement (and an old paintbrush to spread it around)

-Fabric (I used three different fabrics, grey wool for the outside, Patterned cotton for the spine and yellow cotton for the lining)

-Paper 

Optional:   -Strap of leather (or other strong fabric) for closure 

                 -Paint (to paint said closure)

                 -Button or snap (or both, also for said closure)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Prepare all your pieces. Cut your regular sized papers in half so they are 8.5"x5.5", cut your cereal box into two pieces 9"x6"+1/2" past their natural fold for the spine. Lining fabric: 9"x12.5", Outer fabric: 11"x14.5", Contrast spine: 5.5"x11". If you are using a closure, I made mine 9" x 1" and painted it gold. Before the gold paint dried I stamped the letters S P R I N G out of the paint with ordinary rubber stamps.

2. Glue the Cardboard together at the spine. And let it dry.

3. Cover the inside of the cardboard cover in glue and apply the lining fabric by starting at one side and rolling the fabric out to cover the inside. Fold the book and unfold it while it's drying to make sure it fits into the crease properly. Let it dry.

4. Cover the outside of the book in glue and cover with outer fabric, one side at a time, folding the book shut in between the two sides so that the fabric wraps nicely around the spine of the book. Allow it to dry.

5. Glue the seam allowance of the contrast fabric over to give it a clean finish. Let it dry.

6. Glue the contrast fabric onto the outer fabric, again one side at a time to wrap around the closed spine. If you are using a closure, you may insert this into the contrast fabric and glue it in place.

7. Glue around the perimeter of the outer fabric from the inside of the book and fold the fabric over 1/2". Let it dry and repeat again to clean finish the book cover. Let it dry too.

8. Fill the spine with glue and also cover one edge of all your pages with glue. Allow to become slightly tacky and then place the pages into the book.

9. If you used a closure and want a snap or button, stitch those into place. And Voila! The perfect spring journal!

I didn't put the glue on totally thin enough so there is a little spot on the back that is discoloured, still love it

I love how it turned out and I can't wait get my spring journal on! The sun has passed the equator and the creative juices are flowing.

Happy Spring Y'all!

XO_BITS

DIY: Floral Letters

All this spring cleaning really got me focusing on the spaces in my home that are too filled with stuff, and also the spaces in my home that are lacking- my bedroom in particular. It's alright, it has a good window and we painted the walls a nice gray last year, but it is definitely still lacking character, it's lacking us!

I've really wanted to add some letters next to our bed. I was originally hooked on sting art and had these visions of awesome rainbow string art letters, but lately I've had a bad case of spring fever (in case you haven't noticed, hah!) and decided upon some floral letters, inspired by this picture. The flowers I used are actually almost a year old, if you look back at this post you can see them in their full glory, but I've never really been one to throw away a beautiful flower, even after it's long dead (some people call this hoarding..). So this is how I did it: 

SUPPLIES:
-Dried or fake flowers
-Cardboard (I used an old scrapbook hardcover I had laying around)
-Hot glue gun
-String
-Utility knife

DIRECTIONS:

1. Create your letters on cardboard and cut them out with a utility knife or scissors. If you are making more than one letter, ensure that they are the same size- use a ruler if you feel inclined. 

 2. Once all of your letters are cut out, use a hot glue gun to attach a hanger loop to the back of the letters. I used jute twine at 14cm long. If you have a lopsided letter (like my J) you may want to offset the hanger loop to make up for the unequal weight distribution.

3. When your loops are attached begin planning out where you want your flowers. It's a good idea to snip off the stems of the flower so that you can get the glue close to the base when you start glueing.

4. Start hot gluing your flowers to the letters, starting with the big flowers. Once you have all the big flowers in place, go back and fill in all the empty spaces.

And that's it! Such an easy and awesome way to bring some "us" into the bedroom without spending a penny. I really love how they turned out and I can't wait to show you how they look in my bedroom- although not yet, it still has lots of work to be done before I can show the whole internet.  

It's for Bitty and Joel... ya sickos ;)

Hope you liked this super easy and cheap tutorial for making floral letters. If you give it a shot let me know. Now I just have to figure out an excuse to do some string art, perhaps a welcome sign, or a giant heart, I've always loved giant hearts.

Thanks for reading!

XO_BITS

How to Use Trapillo

After making that trapillo yarn yesterday I got really inspired to start making something with all this new yarn. I scoured the web and found all of these super inspiring pictures to get my gears in motion. The best thing about this yarn is that you can make trapillo yarn out of old t shirts. I can already tell I'll be hitting the thrift stores soon to stock up on more.

How cute is this bag?! I could also imagine making the holes larger and making reusable produce bags to bring shopping.

Adorable mini catch-all on my desk? Yes please! And you could make it bigger! Or colourful! (Told you I was getting over excited.)

Trapillo can help you throw a mad dinner party too. You can make some cozy throws and pillows for comfort. A dope colourful choker for good hostess luck. Some amazing handmade placemats. And extra comfortable poufs for after dinner when everyone is stuffed. Add a little moscato and it sounds like a party I wanna go to. (Trapillo party.. told you it's cool!)

Can't keep real plants alive- make some trapillo cacti out of old shirts! Too frugal to invest on a rug (I feel ya) make one out of trapillo! You can even customize it to match your decor. 

I also found this super cool Thai bag. I love Thailand and I love this super unique bag too. I could imagine making it bigger for a laundry hamper or a beach bag. And with Stripes!

I warn you that most of those links are in Spanish or French. Just gotta use the pictures to guide you. I always liked puzzles ;). But seriously though, the possibilities are endless. You could organize all your hair stuff, make light fixtures, giant crochet doily rugs, awesome braided necklaces, weird hippie head pieces. Man, the list really goes on. All I can say is I'm glad I discovered this magical yarn, and that it's changed my life. hahaha.

Here's to trapillo! 

Cheers!

XO_BITS

DIY: Make Your Own Trapillo (or T-shirt) Yarn

Trapillo yarn is the next cool thing, trust me, I know (also, it's all over Pinterest...). It's super comfortable and bulky, you can make everything from housewares, to baby clothes to cool hats out of it. And the best part about trapillo yarn? You can repurpose old t-shirts and leggings to make your own! 

I've been on a big house purge lately. Maybe it's Spring in the air, (or maybe it's the fact that I've been making stuff all winter and not really been cleaning up after myself..) but I just feel like I have so much stuff everywhere. I wrote a post  a couple of weeks ago about how I yearn for a quality closet full of items that I really want to wear, rather than just a bunch of stuff that I constantly have to search through to find something to wear. I'm happy to say that I finally started that purge (finally) and boy does it feel good. Actually, right now I'm at the stage where everything is sort of a bigger mess, but you can feel the change in the air, the trapillo is sort of (definitely) a procrastination. 

Making trapillo is super easy, all you need to get started is: 

-An old t-shirt (I find the thin stretchy ones work really well- you could also use leggings)
-Fabric scissors (While we're at it, check out this meme- almost died of happiness)
-A ruler (This is optional... I started without one and realised that it would probably turn out better if I used one, so I changed my mind half way into the project- I guess I should say ruler recommended)

Directions:

1. Lay your shirt flat, aligning the side seams and hem so that the front and back of the shirt lay flat on top of one another without too many wrinkles or bubbles. I found that steaming (or ironing) the shirt before I started made a big difference in ease. 

2. Cut the hem off of your shirt, or unpick and press flat.

3. Draw horizontal lines across your shirt about 1 inch apart. (I tried freestyling this, it's actually easier to just draw the lines. A couple minutes here saves a bunch of confusion and frustration later)

4. Cut the lines through both layers leaving about 2-3 inches of uncut space along one side of the shirt.

5. Now you have to connect all the lines you just cut so that you have one continuous pieces that spirals up the shirt. I did this by going inside to the back layer and cutting all the lines up to the sideseam. Then I went back to the top layer and finished all the top cuts at an upwards diagonal so that they line up with the back cuts a level up from their own. The picture explains it a little better:

6. Keep going until it's all one long piece.

7. Now you'll have to stretch it out a bit. Because it's a knit it will curl under at the edges. This makes it look all nice and perfect no matter how haggard your cutting was ;)

8. And that's it. Roll it up into a ball and dig out those knitting needles. I already know what I'm going to make, one of those awesome EEK hats that Wool and the Gang made for the GILES FW2014 show. 

Enjoy! I gotta go take all the stuff off of my bed that inevitably piles up every time I "clean".

Thanks for reading!

XO_BITS