diy: wire ear cuffs

I saw these awesome clip-on earrings on High on DIY and I immediately wanted to make them. The wire that I have is a little too thick to make hearts like Rinchen did but I did want to try to make an ear cuff. So I made an ear cuff and some triangle ones too. I have my ears pierced so I was worried they may look a little strange with my holes showing but the triangles covered them up pretty nicely. You just need some wire and some jewelry tools. Or if your wire is thin enough, your fingers will do! Anyways, here is what you do for both.
1. Bend your wire in two places to create a squared edge.
2. Repeat about a half inch down the wire to create a rectangle.
3. Twist the end pieces together.
4. Wrap the rectangle around a small round object, I used a paint brush.
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You may need to clamp the cuff a little on your ear when you first wear it but then you should be able to slide it on and off very easily.
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And here is what you do for the triangle ones!
1. Make a triangle with the wire.
2. Twist the wires together at the bottom of the triangle.
3. Create another triangle on the other side of the twist.
4. Twist the end pieces together and trim the ends.
5. Fold the end into the triangle.
6. Fold the whole piece in half where the twist is.
7. Then make another for your other ear!
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I'm ready to buy some thinner wire and make some more in different shapes now!
xo, Savannah

tutorial: straightened braid waves


Some of you may have seen the original version of this tutorial that I did last year and although it has over 1 million pins on Pinterest, I wanted to redo it with a little better instruction.

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When I had originally tried this on my hair, it didn't work very well. I tried it in a variety of ways and shared what worked best. The other day I had the urge to try this again in a way I hadn't tried before. The results? It was easy aaaand my hair went from super straight to wavy in no time! Here is what you do...

1. Braid your hair into several braids. I have pretty thick hair and only needed 6 braids. If you have thin hair, maybe try 4 braids. I just used clear elastics to secure the braids at the end.

2. Loosen the braids A LOT. I made mine as flat as possible. It was like a thin sheet of braid.

3. Starting from the top of the braid, clamp your straightener down. Hold it in place for a second and then open it up, move it down and clamp again. Repeat until you reach the end of the braid and then repeat on all braids.

4. Once the braids have cooled, spray with hairspray if you have some that you like. Then unbraid all of your braids.

5. Run your fingers through the braids to loosen the waves and do a quick tease with your fingers at the root of your hair to create some more body.

And that's it! I really like the soft wave that this creates. They are like hippy-esque waves. Like I need to put a headband around my forehead. And it's simple. Enough. Said.

xo, Savannah

the diy: glitter bow pine cone garland

Well since it is now November, it's time to start decorating for the holidays. Today we are using  Martha Stewart Crafts Decoupage to make this cute garland. You can actually use the decoupage on anything, it's even dishwasher safe! You can pick some up at your local Michael's or in Plaid's online store. Anyway, I wanted this garland to be able to stay up all the way through Christmas but I wanted to use it now, so I needed it to be not-so-Christmasy yet still festive. You know what I mean? I've been dying to do something with these pine cones for about a month. Casey and I found them on the side of the road in our neighborhood! So to make this garland, you will need:
Fabric
Pinking Shears
Martha Stewart Decoupage
Fine Glitter
Paint Brush
Yarn
Pine Cones
Hot Glue Gun
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First, cut strips of your fabric with the pinking shears. You could actually just use scissors, I just like the edge created by pinking shears. And it's not going to fray as much although, fraying wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing here!
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Mix some fine glitter with the decoupage.
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Brush the glittered decoupage onto the fabric. I only did it on one side but you could do both if you'd like.
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Let your strips dry. I used clothespins to clip mine to a plant so they'd dry quickly.
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And now you have a shimmery fabric!
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Tie each strip into a knot onto the yarn.
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Hot glue each bow onto a pine cone.
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Then hang that baby up!
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This project is super super simple but it's so precious! Now, we need to work on the top of our fireplace. It's not really giving a holiday vibe.

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xo, Savannah

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