I've recently rejoined the drudgery of the work-a-day, cubicle monkey world.
In actuality, I have a very nice private office and a predecessor who has graciously stayed on to train me as well as tidy the place before she throws me to the deep end. There's a full-sized fridge in my small department's kitchen and nobody has taken my food by mistake so far. Win, win, win on all fronts.
But I have never had an office so organized, so sterile and
so in need of personalization. All
others had files and folders stacked to the ceiling, probably to hold up the walls up (non-profit charm). So while I still have clean office smell on my brain, I will be devoting the coming week to preparing myself and my office to co-habitate in style with a few simple office related projects.
Today's tutorial: ID Badge Holder that isn't gross! No, really! Not even a lanyard.
Materials:
Old "pearl" necklace or a few pearl beads- anything you have a dozen of
A bit of scrap ribbon, suede cord or necklace chain
A fabric flower-one you've prepared from chiffon scraps, purchased or re-purposed
Needle, thread, some basic jewelry findings.
Step 1). Grab your supplies
Step 2). String pearls, attach to ribbon, attach flower and pin your ID badge to the side.
Booyah! ID badge necklace for $0 in scrap material and no trips to the mall (priceless).
May not be much of a tutorial (sorry) but it's a heck of a lot better than the constant holes and snags in clothing from forgetting about the ubiquitous ID and its nasty little alligator clip.
There will be more office crafting, believe you me.
*Notice left out my actual ID photo? I even had a chance to look it over and instead told the ID person that I was sure she knew what she was doing. Big mistake, trust no one to take a good picture of you.
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I pulled this photo of a possible necklace remake a mere month ago from the Anthropologie online catalog but it has already been overpriced, marked down, clearanced and pushed aside. Time to make my own.
This is Anthropologie's in white
This is mine in black
I'm a little tired of grosgrain ribbon so I reversed the translucent beads and grosgrain for sheer ribbon and iridescent beads. However, I had to wait for a day trip to Jerusalem to find the right materials to bring you...
Anthropologie's Connecting Worlds Necklace Remake Tutorial
Materials: Needle, thread, beads and 1 meter of ribbon in similar width to bead size
Step 1). Tuck end of your ribbon and begin stitching in 1/2 inch intervals.
Step 2). Begin bunching the ribbon to your liking (I like the loose ribbon ruffle)
Step 3). String beads between ruffles, continue sewing through ribbon and beads.
*Tip: To keep your beads close to one another you may want knot between beads, holding each one in place.
Step 4). When you've finished with your desired length of beads, finish sewing through your ribbon in 1/2 inch intervals as you did in the first step. Knot to secure and finish with closure at either end.
Voila!
In short, this is a super simple project (maybe a 1/2 hour of work) and it's a project that is just more fun to make than to buy.
Estimated Cost for DIY version: $5 if you buy expensive beads and ribbon (I did not).
Estimated Cost for authentic Anthro Necklace: Too much, I don't remember an actual price but you and I both know it costs too much if it can be crafted up by you instead.
Think of it as Anthro-Couture!
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I am not the mother who bribes her children (
normally).
Really. My kids aren't looking at the candy at the check-out line to take home with us, they know it won't happen. But if they behave very nicely for the entire time in the market, they are allowed to reorganize the misplaced packs of gum.
So why is it that this week, a week with no birthdays or holidays, I'm trying to craft little gifts to get them through the days?
One has a mysterious returning (but otherwise symptom-free) fever and the other a spastic cough with an asthma diagnosis trailing behind. With MD visits, x-rays, blood tests and long inhaler sessions, my 4 year old's child-sized patience is waning (the penguin is our nebulizer friend, he's sort of a frienemy).
So what can I do to make the littles in my home feel better?
Ten minutes of playing with scrap organza and some shredded black chintz turn very unhappy child above into super happy child bellow.
So my question is this; Is it still buying your child's affection if it's handmade and doesn't involve breaking the bank to create? What do you think?
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One of my new favorite places to look for tutorials happens to have a love of remaking jewelry found in a fancy store called Anthropologie.
Despite my second college major*, I have had to admit that
I have no idea what Anthropologie is. I've got a fancy shopping bag with the store's logo somewhere around my home, but I've certainly never been in the store. I know there was one in a neighborhood I used to pass through on my way to work in my young-er single-er life, but I wouldn't be able to tell you what they sell.
Curiosity has definitely killed this cat. I loved the tutorial found
here and am proud to report that not only have I now created my own lovely (albeit flawed) version, but I've also looked up this online retail mega-boutique.
I have to say it seems pricey, hence all the skillful remakes I keep seeing around the web. but as I've said before I'm just not that fancy... I probably won't be going on any online spending spree but will be on the lookout for jewelry which I will spend hours making only to never wear.
Mine needs some work
The original is clearly better, but not $40 better.
Learn from my Mistakes: Flamingotoes suggests using glass beads, large wood beads and four cuts of wide ribbon. Next time I will believe the expert as I used the tiny seed beads I had lying around with 2 cuts of ribbon I folded in half and the plastic beads I found in my daughter's craft bin. Needless to say, I had to use more strands of seed beads to obtain the fullness of the original, the plastic beads had jagged edges that put runs in the ribbon and the ribbon itself was just barely wide enough to finish this project. Why oh why is there not a Michael's where I live?
*I was part of a program that combined medical anthropology and the anthropology of genocide. It wasn't as cheerful as it sounds, I assure you.
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